Showing posts with label 2003. Show all posts
[Thailand Movie] Rahtree: Flower of the Night (2003)
Director: Yuthlert Sippapak
Writer: Yuthlert Sippapak (screenplay)
Stars: Laila Boonyasak, Krit Sripoomseth and Chompunoot Piyapane
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Horror | Thriller
Summary:
Buppah Rahtree is an isolated, self contained girl. She’s at the top of her class in medical school but has no friends and carries a secret, tragic past with her. She does, however, have an admirer in Ake, a wealthy young man who was drawn to her when she turned down the advances of his best friend and who has followed her from a distance for a month. Rahtree eventually opens up to Ake but what should have been a happy ending for her turns progressively more tragic. Ake turns out to be an entirely amoral cad and Rahtree, pregnant from their lone weekend together, is pressured into an abortion and abandoned in her run down apartment where things turn septic, she dies and is undiscovered for at least a month. And this is just the set up which, I’m sure you will agree, is rather unusually tragic for a film most commonly billed as a horror comedy.
Things really get rolling after Rahtree’s corpse is discovered. The police arrive and she is shrouded according to local custom but when they try to remove the corpse it simply refuses to go, twitching wildly until the police drop it and run screaming from the room. Rahtree’s body may be dead but her spirit is very much alive, very angry, and it will not leave without a fight. The film then tracks a succession of unsuccessful exorcists run through the building at the behest of the apartment manager desperate to stop her remaining tenants from fleeing the obviously haunted building, that succession further complicated by the return of the guilt stricken Ake who turns up on the scene desperate to make amends and completely unaware that Rahtree has died.
[Korean Movie] My Tutor Friend (2003)
Hangul: 동갑내기 과외하기 (Donggabnaegi gwawoehagi)
Director: Kyeong-hyeong Kim
Writers: Choi Soo-Wan, Soo-Wan Choi
Stars: Ha-Neul Kim, Sang-woo Kwone and Il-seob Baek
Producer: Jang Yeong-Kwon
Cinematographer: Ji Kil-Yong
Genre: Comedy | Romance
Summary:
A man from a wealthy family who should be in his second year of college, is still finishing his highschool requirements. His family hire a tutor for him who is his own age but she comes from a poor background.
[J - Movie] Hunter X Hunter Greed Island OVA 2 (2003)
Title: Hunter X Hunter Greed Island OVA 2
Genres: Action, Adventure
Year Published: 2003
Summary:
After the conflict with the spiders, Gon and Killua return to the York Shin auction to try their luck with Greed Island. Once inside, Gon and Killua meet up with Biscuit, Wing's old teacher, who helps them train to defeat the monsters and player killers found inside the game.
[K - Movie] A Good Lawyers Wife (2003)
Director: Sang-soo Im
Writer: Sang-soo Im
Stars: So-ri Moon, In-mun Kim and Yeo-Jong Yun
Plot:
A family one day discovers that they’ve fallen into a web of indiscretion. A sixty-year-old grandmother finally discovers meaning in her life through an affair with her elementary school sweetheart. But instead of condemnation, the daughter-in-law silently applauds her mother-in-law’s confessions of “folly.” The husband presents himself as a model citizen-attorney, but in fact he’s a born playboy who untiringly focuses his energy on wooing women despite his love and devotion to his family. The wife meanwhile observes her spouse’s hypocrisy with disdain rather than anguish. Eventually, she too decides to bring little change to her life by giving the next door neighbor’s teenage son who had been spying on her, a lesson or two on sex.
[Thai Movie] Fan Chan (2003)
Directors: Vitcha Gojiew, Songyos Sugmakanan
Stars: Charlie Trairat, Focus Jirakul and Charwin Jitsomboon
Jeab hears that his childhood sweetheart Noi-Naa is to be married, so he makes the trip back home to his provincial village. As he does so, the memories come flooding back to his childhood in 1980s Thailand. He remembers always being late to school, so his father would have to give him a ride on the back of the motorcycle. After school, he would always play with Noi-Naa and her girlfriends while the neighborhood boys rode their bicycles and played football and Chinese fantasy characters.
[K - Movie] Reversal of Fortune (2003)
Director: Yong-woon Park
Stars: Seung-woo Kim, Ji-won Ha and Seong-jin Kang
Summary:
His life in shambles after youthful dreams of becoming a golf champion yield disappointing results, bored stock exchange worker Seungwan receives a second chance at success after a freak accident puts his life back on track. Severely beaten after inexplicably angering local mob boss Ma Gangseong, Seungwan passes out after
meeting a man who appears to be his clone. Upon regaining consciousness, Seungwan learns that the life he knew is no more; he is no longer a miserable failure, but a famous golf champion. Though his marriage had been heading down a rocky road for some time, his newfound success and passion finds him and his wife Jiyeong falling back in love. Though everything suddenly seems to be falling into place for Seungwan, an upcoming golf championship threatens to unravel his ideal world unless he is able to pull it all together for one shot at a life of happiness.
meeting a man who appears to be his clone. Upon regaining consciousness, Seungwan learns that the life he knew is no more; he is no longer a miserable failure, but a famous golf champion. Though his marriage had been heading down a rocky road for some time, his newfound success and passion finds him and his wife Jiyeong falling back in love. Though everything suddenly seems to be falling into place for Seungwan, an upcoming golf championship threatens to unravel his ideal world unless he is able to pull it all together for one shot at a life of happiness.
[Korean Movie] Crazy First Love (2003)
Director: Jong-rok Oh
Writer: Jong-rok Oh (screenplay)
Stars: Tae-hyun Cha, Ye-jin Son and Dong-geun Yun
Summary:
ON Tae-il is a super problem child of Kang High. He has an incredible IQ of 148, but, unfortunately, he’s only interested in marrying his first love Il-mae. When Tae-il demands marriage with Il-mae and strays farther away from school, Young-dal and Il-mae come up with a proposal to ‘bring Tae-il back to the right track.’ He openly declares that he would allow Tae-il to marry his daughter Il-mae if he could raise his rank up to top 3, 000 nationwide from his current status of 300,000.
Tae-il accepts the ridiculous proposal without a second thought. And 2 years later, he does pull up his rank up top 3,000 nationwide and is admitted to the Law School of Seoul National University. However, fooled by Young-dal’s skillfully touching(?) performance, incorporating tears and snots, Tae-il gets softhearted and promises Young-dal that he’ll keep Il-mae ‘pure’ until he passes the judicial examination. A man’s words weigh and worth as much as thousand gold! From then on, Tae-il’s ultimate mission is to protect Il-mae from all the sleazeballs who approach her~!
Tae-il’s new job as Il-mae’s personal bodyguard has begun. However, his double-duty of studying for the judicial examination and monitoring Il-mae’s whereabouts is keeping him awake 24-7. On the other hand, Il-mae, who wants to enjoy her college life and date boys, gets frustrated watching Tae-il, who only focuses on his study and even rejects Il-mae’s approach to kiss him. What she doesn’t realize is that he’s doing all this to be with her.
After countless night of no sleep and nosebleed, Tae-il finally passes the 1st level judicial examination. However, at his congratulatory party, Il-mae drops the bomb by confessing her love for another man. Tae-il can’t believe his ears. Can this be really happening? Will Tae-il be able to regain and keep his first love?
[Singapore Movie] Ongbak (2003)
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Writers: Prachya Pinkaew (story), Panna Rittikrai (story)
Stars: Tony Jaa, Petchtai Wongkamlao and Pumwaree YodkamolSynopsis:
Booting lives in a small and peaceful village. One day a sacred Buddha statuette called Ong Bak is stolen from the village by a immoral businessman who sells it for exorbitant profits. It soon becomes the task of a young man, Boonting (Phanom Yeeram), to track the thief down to Bangkok voluntarily and reclaim the religious treasure. Along the way, Boonting uses his astonishing athleticism and traditional Muay Thai skills to combat his adversaries.
[Korean Movie] A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Directed by: Kim Ji-woon
Produced by: Jeong-wan Oh Ki-min Oh
Written by: Kim Ji-woon
Starring: Im Soo Jung Moon Geun-young Yeom Jeong-ah Kim Kap-su
Music by: Lee Byung-woo
Cinematography: Lee Mo-Gae
Editing by: Go Im-pyo
Studio B.O.M. Film Productions Co.
Distributed by: Cineclick Asia Big Blue Film
Release date(s): June 13, 2003
Two sisters, Su-Mi and Su-Yeong, return home after a stay in a mental institution. They are happy to be home, at first, and wander around the countryside surrounding their home in an summer idyll before entering the house to face their stepmother. Thing inside the house aren’t so rosy. Their relations with their stepmother are strained at best. At night, the girls are tormented by terrifying visions of spectral visitors. Things are not right with their stepmother, either, whose facade begins to crack during a particularly awkward dinner party, a party that is demolished when one of their guests has a seizure, then sees a phantom of her own under the kitchen sink. Meanwhile, Su-Mi begins to suspect her stepmother of abusing her younger sister, Su-Yeong. A confrontation seems inevitable…
[J-Movie] AZUMI(2003)
Director: Ryûhei Kitamura
Writers: Yu Koyama (comic), Mataichirô Yamamoto (screenplay)
Stars:Aya Ueto, Kenji Kohashi and Hiroki Narimiya
Synopsis:
After the Battle of Sekigahara, a samurai is tasked by the Ieyasu shogunate to raise a band of assassins to finish off Toyotomi's allies and other ambitious warlords, to prevent another civil war. Azumi, played by Aya Ueto, is discovered as a 7-8 year old girl weeping next to the body of her dead mother by the samurai master Gessai, played by Yoshio Harada, and his entourage of young students. Azumi is raised in the martial skills of samurai and shinobi sword fighting, and the art of assassination. Azumi and her fellow classmates, now at young adult age, are constantly being told about a "mission" they must accomplish, though they have no idea what this mission is yet. Prior to setting out on their mission, their master orders his students to "pair up" with each others' best friend and proceed to kill each other, thus out of 10 students only five will remain to proceed with the mission. Questions and internal conflicts begin to arise amongst Azumi and her comrades as it seems their mission even prevents them from saving a village of mostly women and children from being masacred at the hands of a group of bandits, as their primary mission is to kill the warlords Asano Nagamasa, Masayuki Sanada and Kiyomasa Kato. Aside from the warlords, Azumi must also deal with a narcissistic mercenary, "swordsman in white", whose sword has no handguards as he claims to never have had to defend against attacks.
