Film Shrapnel

The title of Ichi the Killer appears to you from jizz overflowing from a flowerpot after our protagonist ejaculates while watching a pimp savagely beat and rape his girlfriend. That pretty much sets the tone of this film.
 
What makes Ichi the Killer stand out over the waves of other violent films (from Japan and elsewhere in the world) is its focus on sado-masochism. One character is a highly violent yakuza operative obsessed with receiving pain; the other is a simpleton who’s been manipulated into assassinating yakuza members—oh, and he’s also obsessed with rape!
 
Women are treated horrendously badly in this film; there are plenty of highly unusual moments, and it is clearly designed to shock you. So, buckle up!
 
Enjoy!
 
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Lady Vengeance is Park Chan-wook’s final exploration into the theme of revenge, and yet again, he finds new territory to explore. It follows a woman hell bent on revenge after being released from prison. Known to most as a kind-hearted woman, her dedication to revenge knows no bounds.
 
The ending is grim and phenomenal, pushing the theme of revenge even further to ‘organised revenge’ or ‘democratic revenge’.
 
Lady Vengeance clearly attempts to link to the other two films in several ways (the theme of kidnapping is again explored), and as a result, it sometimes feels a bit forced. Nevertheless, it’s essential viewing for lovers of Oldboy.
 
Enjoy!
 
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Oldboy gets so many things right—excellent plot, superb acting, an amazing opening, a filthy twist, and entertaining throughout. It put Chan-wook on the world stage, and it was only a matter of time before we covered this masterpiece on the podcast.
 
Oldboy is also one of Tobias’s top films ever and includes one of Craig’s favourite fight scenes. It’s a film that any respectable cinephile probably has on DVD locked away for safekeeping (as we do, of course).
 
And, Craig—for some strange reason—also put himself through the misery of watching Spike Lee’s remake and provides some commentary on how disappointing it is in comparison to the original. Essentially, it was a remake no one asked for, and it’s littered with poor decisions—almost none of it is redeemable.
 
We’re both super happy to discuss Oldboy along with the rest of the Vengeance Trilogy, to understand the film in the context of Chan-wook’s broader work. Many people likely don’t know that there are other films associated with Oldboy. In our next episode, we’ll complete the trilogy with Lady Vengeance.
 
Enjoy!
 
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What’s really great about Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is that it captures how revenge never ends well. It creates a cycle that cannot be stopped and has unintended consequences that can backfire on the ones you love the most. By the end of the film, you find yourself asking, ‘Who actually is Mr. Vengeance?’
 
To be honest, we weren’t expecting much from this film, but it’s excellent and criminally underrated. In short, it follows a deaf-mute who, with his anti-fascist girlfriend, decides to kidnap his ex-boss’s daughter for ransom to pay for his sister’s kidney transplant (and that’s all we’ll say for now).
 
Tobias and Craig made the excellent decision to watch the entirety of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy—Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance. In the next two episodes, we’ll cover parts 2 and 3—the critically acclaimed Oldboy and Lady Vengeance.

Apologies again for Tobias’s poor audio! At points, his laptop sounds like a roaring F1 car. We’ll buy him a new one one day.
 
Enjoy!
 
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In this short episode, the Film Shrapnel lads discuss IMDb ratings and their accuracy. There’s a lot to talk about and Craig has prepared some talking points.
Who primarily uses IMDb, and does that skew ratings for certain genres and prevent international cinema from getting as much attention as Western films? What about the top-rated films on IMDb? Does The Shawshank Redemption belong at the top? Are other measurements more effective? What about Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic?
This episode is a redo of an episode we recorded last year for season 2, but unfortunately, we had mega bad audio issues, so we had to axe it. (It all started when Tobias and Craig disagreed on whether the 1999 version of The Mummy was a good film.)
 
Enjoy!
 
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