Three... Extremes

Last night, as part of our 1-year anniversary celebrations (more on that later), Kalei and I went to a Seattle Film Festival screening of the Asian Horror Trilogy "Three... Extremes," with short films by Chan-wook Park, Takashi Miike, and Fruit Chan. It was a midnight screening at the Egyptian, with plenty of Seattle technogeeks at hand. In front of us sat That Guy Who Dyes His Hair And His Clothes Bright Orange, and to our right sat a pair of large perepetually unimpressed ladies wielding SIFF uber-passes slung on Sundance neckstraps.

Fruit Chan's "Dumplings" is an entertaining and severely disturbing story of a Hong Kong lady searching for eternal youth in potstickers - and going beyond the bounds of humanity in the process. Stunning imagery, if you can stomach it. "Cut" is everything "Saw" should be - smart, creative, and weirdly funny. Chan-wook Park must have laughed as he filmed it. "Box" reminded me of all the other Japanese horror films I've seen (think Ring), with far more creative characters and much less dialogue.

"Three... Extremes" did sneak a couple bad dreams into my sleep last night, so it deserves credit as a film-that-will-creep-the-shit-out-of-you. If you are even mildly sensitive about babies, fingers, or fire: be warned. You may not sleep as well as I did.