52 MOVIES FROM 52 COUNTRIES - #8 INDONESIA

This is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every week. 

RUNNING TIME: 101 Minutes.

DIRECTOR: Gareth Evans (as Gareth Huw Evans)

WRITTEN BY: Gareth Evans (as Gareth Huw Evans)

STARING:
Iko Uwais
Joe Taslim
Ray Sahetapy
Yayan Ruhian 

WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT? Netflix DVD. It is available on Amazon Video to rent ($3.99) or buy ($12.99).


 PLOT: A S.W.A.T. team is trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers. (That pretty much sums it up.)

MEMORABLE MOMENT: The crime lord (Ray Sahetapy) discovers that that a S.W.A.T. team has breached his building. He gets on a PA system and tells the dozens (possibly hundreds) of killers residing in the apartments that they will receive great reward if they help kill the intruders. The officers look to one another, knowing that within seconds they will be overwhelmed by a force they are not equipped to handle.

This is an unbearably tense scene, a final moment of calm before all chaos breaks loose. I would compare it to the opening moments of the prison riot sequence in Natural Born Killers and the end of the first act of Jurassic Park.

 IMDB TRIVIA:

• Every actor who played a member of the SWAT team went through a rigorous training program with KOPASKA (essentially the Indonesian equivalent of the Navy SEALs). They studied several techniques including weapons and hand signals.  

• The original title Serbuan Maut means Death Raid in English. (Personally, I prefer this title to The Raid: Redemption, which is kind of vanilla by comparison.)

• The movie's tagline mentions "30 floors of chaos" but the apartment building in the movie only features 14 floors, 15 if you count the ground floor.  (The poster I used above features a building with about twenty floors.)

The Raid: Redemption might be the simplest movie I have ever seen in terms of plot (including Die Hard and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The film tells the story of cops trapped in a building who need to fight their way through an army of killers to survive. And that’s pretty much it. Not much else to say.  

Most people (including myself) didn’t walk into this movie for the story. They came to it for the chaotic ballet of marital arts and the “Did they actually just do that?” stunts. However, as simple (and possibly irrelevant) as the story might be, The Raid still follows a very familiar template found in countless books, movie, graphic novels and even ancient legends. This template is often known as the Hero’s journey and was made popular by world renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell.  

These steps are often used to outline epic stories such as The Odyssey, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. However the plot of this seemingly simple movie fits in with the same pattern.  
 


1. ORDINARY WORLD: The Raid begins with our hero, Rama (Iko Uwais), praying and exercising in his home. He kisses his pregnant wife goodbye before leaving the house. This is a very domestic scene, similar to countless moments that take place around the world every day.

In LOTR's this step would be Frodo's life in the Shire. In Star Wars it's Luke's life as a whiny farm boy on Tatooine.


2. CALL TO ADVENTURE: Rama joins the rest of his team in the back of a police truck and their Sergeant (Joe Taslim) describes their mission: eliminate crime lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy), who owns a tenement house and allows criminals around the city to rent rooms under his protection.

In this movie the call to adventure comes from a police Sergeant. In other stories it often comes from old men with beards or god-like figures.


3 REFUSAL OF THE CALL: Most stories don't include every single step, much less in this order and The Raid isn't an exception. It nearly skips over this portion of the hero's journey.

Unlike Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins or Tony Stark, Rama doesn't refuse his "adventure." However, he does appear apprehensive in the back of the van. When an audience member first watches the film they assume he is worried about leaving his family for a potentially suicidal mission, but later in the movie we realize there's another reason for his reluctance.
  

 4 MEETING THE MENTOR (part 1): The Raid splits this step in two. As Rama and the rest of the team breach the building they encounter Gofar (Iang Darmawan). At the time they think of him as nothing more than an impoverished man caring for his sick wife.


5 CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: Sometimes this is a physical threshold (Luke Skywalker entering the Death Star) or a psychological one (Tony Stark deciding he has to destroy the weapons his company created).

In the case of The Raid it is both. Crossing the threshold is the "memorable moment" I described above: The S.W.A.T. team is discovered, and the crime lord calls upon his tenants to kill them. Most of the team is slaughtered. Rama and only a few other survivors are now trapped in a building surrounded by snipers. They need to fight their way out.

Tons of spoilers after this point!

4. MEETING THE MENTOR (pt 2): This is where Gofar truly becomes helpful. He hides Rama and his injured team member, Bowo (Teger Satrya) and gives advice on how to escape.

6. TESTS, ALLIES, ENEMIES (AKA: Balrogs, Ron/Hermione, Storm Troopers): Rama is confronted again and again by dozens of thugs armed with guns and machetes. They fight through hallways, rooms and fire escapes. It's a lot like watching someone else play a very realistic video game. He's very short on allies, save for Gofar and the injured Bowo.

7. APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE: Obviously, this is a symbolic cave. In this step Frodo is overcome by the ring. Skywalker and Co. fight their way through the Death Star.

In The Raid, Rama is confronted by Andi (Donny Alamsyah), one of the crime lord's two lieutenants. The audience now learns that Rama and Andi are brothers. Rama volunteered for the mission to save his family. Andi refuses to leave his life of crime and they reluctantly part ways.


8. ORDEAL: This is the step in which the hero decides to face his/her greatest challenge. Simba leaves his relaxing life to fight his uncle. Neo decides to rescue Morpheus. Harry and the others decide to save the Philosopher's stone.

In this case, Rama has a way out of the building but decides to remain to save any other surviving team members.

 9. REWARD (SEIZING THE SWORD): This one speaks for itself. It's Harry retrieving the philosopher's stone or Luke finding purpose among the rebels returning to destroy the Death Star.

In the case of The Raid, Rama rescues his brother from the crime lord's other lieutenant, Mad Dog, who is beating him to death. They team up to defeat the psychopath and have a more meaningful (if brief) reunion.


10. THE ROAD BACK: This is more or less the beginning of the end. Luke returns to the Death Star or Frodo and Sam finally arrive at their destination.

As the brothers attempt to leave the building together, Rama learns that Lt. Wahyu (Pierre Gruno), the man who organized the raid, is a corrupt cop and was sent to kill Tama, the crime lord, in an attempt to destroy a competitor. In this scene Tama is killed and Wahyu is taken into custody.


11. RESURRECTION: This is generally considered the climax of the story. Luke destroys the Death Star (yay!) or Neo realizes he is the one (duh).

The two brothers survive the slaughter in the tenement building and leave together with Wahyu in custody. Rama tries to convince Andi to come with him but Andi refuses. He is determined to remain in the world of crime.

 12 RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR: The hero gains his/her reward. Frodo leaves Middle Earth to live with the elves. Simba takes his place as king of pride rock.

Rama and Bowo leave the tenement building alive and the film ends. In this case the "elixir" is the imprisoned Wahyu. The corrupt cop who instigated the massacre has been captured and there is hope for justice (in the sequel).



The fact that The Raid follows the hero's journey does not automatically put it on the same level as classic epics or pop culture sagas (although it is a very fun/adrenaline pumping movie). However, it does support the concept that no matter how irrelevant the plot may seem, most stories follow similar patterns.

The twelve steps of the Hero's Journey aren't only relevant to action movies or fantasy adventures, either. You can find the same template in many romance stories or family dramas. Perhaps I will make a similar post next time I watch a quiet, down to earth movie.

52 MOVIES FROM 52 COUNTRIES - # 7 SWEDEN

This is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every week. 

RUNNING TIME: 142 Minutes.

DIRECTOR: Ruben Östlund

WRITTEN BY: Ruben Östlund

STARING:
Claes Bang
Elisabeth Moss
Dominic West
Christopher Læssø

WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT: I got it on DVD from Netflix. It is also available to rent ($4.99) or buy ($14.99) on Amazon Video.



PLOT: A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.

  

MEMORABLE MOMENT: The scene displayed in the most in North American promotional materials (posters/trailers) is the one in which a performance artist (Terry Notary) impersonates an ape during a fancy dinner party, accosting several of the guests.

However, the scene that stuck with me the most is the video promoting the eponymous work of art in which we see a sobbing girl holding a kitten get blown up by a bomb.  Even though this is clearly staged to advertise an art exhibit I actually had to stop the DVD for a moment to pet one of my cats. 

TRIVIA:

• The scene with Terry Notary (described above and portrayed in the film's poster) was inspired by the Russian artist Oleg Kulik who was invited to the international group exhibition "Interpol" at Färgfabriken, Stockholm. At the opening, Kulik impersonated a dog. He growled, jumped up, rolled and bit one of the guests. He said he acted as a representative of the browbeaten Russian people, who now bite back. 

• In the beginning of the film, a young woman confronts Christian (Claes Bang) screaming that a man is going to kill her and begging for his help. A man runs up to them, there is a brief altercation and both the man and woman depart. A moment later Christian realizes his wallet and cell phone are missing. This scene was based on a real life incident.  One of the director's friends was robbed a similar way. 

If someone asked me, "What is The Square about?" I would honestly have trouble giving them a two sentence plot summary. In fact the plot I provided above is copied from IMDB (with a few edits to help the flow).

In a way The Square is more of a series of scenes with the same characters following a loose plot thread involving a controversial (but also not controversial enough) art exhibit. There is less of a central plot so much as three or four mini-plots accompanied by several scenes that don't feel entirely related.

These scenes and plot threads share similar themes involving art, class structure and how the wealthy treat the homeless. Nearly all of these scenes are very well acted, directed, filmed and scripted (at least the subtitles were well written). Several scenes would make fantastic short films on their own.

I have nothing against a film abandoning the basic story template. Not every movie needs the three-act structure or all the steps of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. That being said, when the end credits rolled, I was left feeling as though something was missing. The Square is better than countless other films that follow a clearly-defined plot, but at the end of the day the film felt more like a jumble of weird and unfortunate events that happened to occur on the same week.

But why is this a bad thing?

One could argue that I was thrown off because I was raised on movies like Star Wars,  Raiders of the Lost Ark and Die Hard, which all have extremely well-defined plot structures.  Even my favorite "intellectual films" The Bicycle Thieves, 8 1/2 and Dr. Strangelove have a very sharp focus on where the story is headed. Most of these movies have subplots, but these smaller stories all revolve around the central story and the direction our heroes are headed. For the majority of its run-time, The Square doesn't have this. 
  
So one could argue that my sense of something being missing has a cultural base. Perhaps if I had grown up in a society where Die Hard and Star Wars were a jumble of events rather than a focused story, I would have felt different.

But there might be a deeper reason as well. Humans use stories to view the world, even for purposes that don't involve entertainment. If someone is rude to us at the grocery store, we come home and automatically share the experience in the form of a story.  Like the typical movie, we will have a hero, a villain, a plot and possibly even themes ("Why are people jerks?") and subplots ("I never even found the right peanut butter.")

We don't turn life events into stories to create mega-blockbusters or fine art. We do it because we are following a natural pattern that helps us make sense of the world. That may be why I felt something was missing when I got to the end of The Square. The movie has plenty of small story-lines that lead to the character (possibly?) changing, but a central story line is missing.  None of the stories involved rise above the rest to become the single backbone of the movie. There isn't a single goal that brings all the characters and events together.

Once again, I'm not even certain this is necessarily a bad thing, but it did leave me with a sense that the movie was all subplot. To me, The Square was less of a single story and more like a bunch of stuff that happened to the same people. While this makes for a very unusual movie, I suppose one could argue it does create a work that is more similar to real life.  

52 MOVIES FROM 52 COUNTRIES - #6 SOUTH KOREA

This is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every week. 

RUNNING TIME: 156 Minutes (Don't let the length discourage you, this movie is totally worth it.)

 DIRECTOR: Hong-jin Na

 WRITTEN BY: Hong-jin Na

STARING:
Do-won Kwak
Jung-min Hwang
Woo-hee Chun
Hwan-hee Kim




WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT? I watched it on Netflix Instant. It's also available on Amazon Video to rent for $3.99 or to buy for $7.99.

PLOT:  A stranger arrives in a small South Korean village. Soon afterward, a mysterious sickness spreads through the community. The plague begins with a rash, but the infected are soon driven to insanity and commit sickening acts of violence. When a policeman (Do-won Kwak) discovers a rash on his daughter's skin, he turns to a materialistic shaman for help.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: The Shaman's ritual has to take the cake. It involves dancing, animal sacrifice, hammering nails into a totem and spitting blood onto a sword. The sequence is intercut with images of the mysterious stranger performing insidious rituals in his remote cabin.

FROM IMDB:

• For the exorcism (described above), actor Jung-min Hwang filmed the entire scene in one fifteen minute take.
• According to director Hong-jin Na, this movie's themes and rituals are based on folk religions from Korea and Nepal, as well as the Catholic faith.  
• Hwan-hee Kim who played Hyo-jin (Jong-goo's daughter) practiced modern dance for six months to perform scenes of her being possessed. 

Because The Wailing is such a long movie and because I have such a busy schedule (don't we all) I watched the first third of the film and then turned it off for dinner. From what I saw, I'd come to the conclusion I was watching a comedic horror film, something along the lines of Evil Dead 2 or a less self-aware Cabin in the Woods.  Jong-goo (Do-won Kwak) plays a painfully inept overweight cop who panics under the slightest provocation.  Sure there were bloody deaths and an ominous tone of foreboding but I returned to The Wailing expecting more horror/comedy hijinx.

Only to discover that that there is NOTHING funny about that final 2/3's of the movie.

I won't give away any spoilers here (last week was an exception) but let's just say things get dark and then darker and then super dark and then we reach the final half hour of the movie.  The inept police officer is no longer the man he was during the first forty-five minutes. By the climax I didn't feel like I was watching the same film anymore. 

Had this been your typical comedic horror movie the two genres would have played off one another for most of the running time.  The violence and gore would build the tension until the bumbling cop did something ridiculous, giving the audience a temporary comedic release. Then the tension would build again and this pattern would continue until the climax. We enjoy these movies because not only do we "survive" the fear, we get to laugh at it.

But the final hour and forty-five minutes of The Wailing barely has a speck of comedy. All lighter moments are nearly buried under dark elements. So why even give us the over-the-top comedy at all in the beginning? Why not just make Jong-goo a typical police officer? The filmmakers wouldn't have had too change much to make The Wailing a 100% straight horror film.

In a way, I already answered my question. Had Jong-goo been a "typical" police officer he wouldn't have been nearly as memorable.  Many cops in horror films may be corrupt, but they at least know how to act at a crime scene. Jon-goo falls in the mud when attacked by an elderly woman, a moment that sticks with the audience.

Even more importantly, his humble beginnings enhance the character's journey. By the end of the first hour his actions are not the actions of the clumsy goof we started out with. Had we met him as a serious character his dark journey would not have been nearly as significant.    

But there are even deeper reasons for the early comedic moments. The Wailing possesses a strong sense of loss. Not only do several people die but the family and community also come undone (not really a spoiler, this is a horror movie after all). It's not as though Jong-goo's family is straight out of a 1950's sitcom, but the first forty-five minutes has light moments that are dashed away later in the film, amplifying this sense of loss. The audience spends the first portion of the film with the bumbling police officer and his inquisitive daughter only to see them (very close to literally) dragged through hell.  The sense of loss we feel after the laughs end would not have been there had Jong-goo started off as an effective officer of the law.  

52 MOVIES FROM 52 COUNTRIES - #5 GERMANY

This is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every week.

RUNNING TIME: 121 Minutes

DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Becker

WRITTEN BY:
Bernd Lichtenberg
Wolfgang Becker
Achim von Borries
Henk Handloegten (Hendrik Handleoegten)
Chris Silber (Christoph Silber)

STARING:
Daniel Brühl
Katrin Saß
Chulpan Khamatova


WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT: The usual suspects...Netflix DVD. Amazon Video. YouTube. iTunes. 

PLOT: In 1989, Christiane Kerner has lost her husband and is completely devoted to the Socialist East German state. A heart attack leaves her in a coma for eight months. When she awakens, the Berlin Wall has fallen and it's a whole new world.  Christiane's doctors warn her son, Alex, that a shock could kill her. Therefore, he must do everything within his power to prevent her from learning that capitalism has reached East Germany.

  

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Alex goes to tremendous lengths to prevent his mother from learning that the Berlin Wall has fallen. He puts new food in old East German packages and films fake news broadcasts.  Therefore one of the film's funniest moments is when an enormous Coca-Cola advertisement goes up right outside her window.    

• There is a scene in which Alex's friend, Denis (Florian Lukas), appears to be wearing a Matrix T-shirt. Many audience members assumed this was a goof because the scene was set in 1990 when The Matrix didn't come out until 1999. However, the similarities are just a coincidence. The shirt really was around in the late 80's / early 90's. 

• One of the film's major themes is Ostalgie, nostalgia for aspects of life in old East Germany. 

• The film was mostly shot in East Berlin. CGI was used extensively to "de-westernize" the setting. Ads for Western products were removed and the colors of many buildings had to be lightened or darkened. 

So far I've avoided giving away spoilers on this blog, but Good Bye Lenin!'s ending stuck with me so much I had to write about it. Just be warned MAJOR spoilers ahead.

If Good Bye Lenin! had been made in Hollywood, Alex's mother would have discovered the truth at the film's climax. She would be upset, but she would be more "disappointed" that her son lied to her. Alex and his friends/family would help her accept the changes, though, and the film would end with everyone sitting around a table at Burger King enjoying a meal.*

And honestly, that wouldn't have been so horrible.  This movie would have still been a fun dramatic comedy with a quirky premise. However, Good Bye Lenin's! actual ending caught me completely off guard in what it had to say about truth and young people's relationship with their elders.

Just before the film's climax it is strongly implied that Alex's girlfriend, Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), tell's Alex's mother (Katrin Saß) the truth, although the audience doesn't know if she believes her. Later, Alex creates yet another fake news broadcast claiming that East Germany has a new leader and he has opened the borders to the west. Alex's mother, Christiane, seems to happily accept this news. However, the audience doesn't know if she really believes it or if she is just playing along. Later, despite Alex's best efforts, Christiane passes away and Alex scatters her ashes thinking she died believing that her beloved socialist state was still a major world power. 

So two things might be happening here. Both imply that lies might be healthier than the truth. 

 1) Christiane doesn't believe Lara, but she believes the fake news broadcast. In this scenario, Alex managed to share a part of the truth with her. His mother now knows that the West has reached East Germany, but she thinks it's under East Germany's own terms. Therefore in the end, Alex's plan worked. His mother may have passed away but she died believing her world was still a whole.

I should note we do this sort of thing with the elderly all the time. How many times do we avoid "unpleasant" topics with our elders or change the channel when a distressing news program comes on. In fact, while watching this movie I had to wonder how many families in the United States lied to their dying relatives and told them that Hillary won the 2016 presidential election. I'm certainly not saying that such actions are immoral. The motivation is often out of love. However it is still an obstruction of the truth. What Alex does in Good Bye Lenin! is similar, but blown to a comical proportion.

 2) Christiane believes Lara and knows the broadcast is fake. In this scenario Christiane is weaving her own lies. She knows that East Germany is gone, but plays along because she loves her son and appreciates everything he has done for her. She doesn't want him to worry about her. This is also something that happens in real life. The elderly often lie or hide the truth from their younger relatives, allowing them to believe that they are healthier or happier than they really are.

Alex clearly hates the socialist state but goes to great lengths to create a miniature version of East Germany for his mother. Perhaps on some level he is really doing this for himself, to hold onto a part of the world he grew up in. Therefore, if Christiane really is just playing along at the end, she is the one protecting her son. Good Bye Lenin!'s ending is open to interpretation but however you read it, a lot is being said about the lies relatives tell one another out of love. One also has to wonder if something is being said about the lies we tell ourselves.


*I should note that I don't make these comparisons to Hollywood movies to say they're all trash. There are a lot of mega blockbusters I love. However, with a few exceptions, these movies mostly fall into a relatively strict formula.