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Issue #133 HOME E-mail: mail@dighkmovies.com BACK ISSUES November 11th, 2002

Humanist
(2001; Bear Entertainment)

RATING 10
A Masterpiece
9
Excellent
8
Highly Recommended
7
Very Good
6
Recommended
5
Marginal Recommendation
4
Not Recommended
3
Poor
2
Definitely Not Recommended
1
Dreadful

Korean: Hyu meo ni seu teu


Ma Tae-ho (MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER's Ahn Jae-mo; click here for a still) is the layabout son of an affluent retired general (ATTACK THE GAS STATION!'s Park Young-kyu), a staunch Catholic who actually pays Tae-ho to attend church with him every Sunday. His only "friends" (who are more like paid hangers-on and have been since they met as children) are Euglena (ATTACK THE GAS STATION!'s Kang Seong-jin), a sadistic nutcase who lost his testicles when a ravenous wolf attacked him as a child, and Amoeba (THE FOUL KING's Park Sang-myeon), a brain-damaged manchild. While driving under the influence, Tae-ho accidentally kills a traffic cop who was trying to arrest him. Instead of hauling Tae-ho in, the dead man's partner decides to blackmail him for $300 million won (US$244,000). Tae-ho is unable to get the cash out of his father and concocts a plan to kidnap him, with the help of Euglena and Amoeba. Things immediately go awry, resulting in an additional hostage, a mutilated body, and murderous betrayals in the making.


This South Korean black comedy revels in the kind of excess that has become a regular feature of Takashi Miike's work but, ultimately, never approaches the same heights of deranged inventiveness. Co-writer/director Lee Moo-young (who also appears in the movie as a reporter) occasionally finds the right note but the parade of bad taste (a foul-smelling beggar with a rotting, maggot-filled leg, Amoeba drinking "Shit Water" to cure himself after a beating, characters graphically puking, a nun with a hick accent everyone makes fun of, etc) evokes few genuine laughs and the jabs at Korean society are either too obscure for a Western viewer or too obvious for the satire to really work.


ZOOM
Cover art courtesy Bear.

ZOOM
Park Sang-myeon (left) and Kang Seong-jin. Image courtesy Bear.
DVD SPECS
SRE/Bear (No Catalog #) (South Korea label)

Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0

Sync Sound Korean Language

Optional English Subtitles

24 Chapters Illustrated in the Menu With Stills

Letterboxed (1.70:1)

Coded for ALL Regions

NTSC Format

100 Minutes

Contains brutal violence, brief nudity, mild sexual content, coarse language, and crude content


DVD menu courtesy Bear.


FILM BOARD RATINGS AND CONSUMER ADVICE
South Korea: 18


PRESENTATION
The dual layer disc looks sharp and colorful and the stereo mix is strong, with excellent separations. Some mild distortion is evident in spots but is not a major distraction. Plenty of untranslated extras here: a trailer and two TV spots, cast and crew profiles, a music video, the 17 minute electronic press kit (which is just a few scenes from the movie strung together), and a 9 minute "Making Of..." featurette (consisting entirely of behind-the-scenes video footage). There are also trailers for KANZO SENSEI (aka DR. AKAGI), PONETTE, THREE WISHES (actually just an American TV spot), and A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.


HUMANIST
is available at Poker Industries.


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Copyright © John Charles 2000 - 2002. All Rights Reserved.
E-mail: mail@dighkmovies.com