Three Extremes (2004)

Three…Extremes (2004)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Three Asian directors were brought together for this horror anthology, which makes recent American films look like the work of Ed Wood and Jerry Warren. The first story is Box from director Takashi Miike, which is the story of an adult woman who's haunted b her dead sister. The second film, Dumplings, from director Fruit Chan, centers on an aging movie star who starts to eat secret dumplings so that she can regain her youth. I won't mention what these magical dumplings are made of. The final film, Cut, from director Chan Wook Parks, has a crazed extra kidnapping a horror director and making him choose between killing a child or having his own wife tortured. The weakest film for me was the first one from Miike, not because it's a bad movie but because the last two are simply brilliant works that are damn near masterpieces. The Miike story has some very creepy moments and his direction is right on the mark by building up some wonderful atmosphere. The film dealing with the dumplings was just downright disturbing, gross and in some ways very shocking. I wonder how many people have stopped or walked out of the film at the point when the secret is revealed? The third film is one people should compare to the similar Saw. Everything wrong with that film and its sequel are fixed in Cut. I viewed the Asian cut of this film from a Hong Kong DVD, which features the stories in the order I mentioned. I believe the American cut is in a different order.