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【转贴】《绿洲》——Collected English Reviews

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发表于 2004-7-22 02:16 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
review by Joon Soh
# v6 ~+ k, U2 r" p7 [# hSeptember 22, 20021 ?$ J- p7 e5 ]
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Director Lee Chang-dong won the Special Director's Award and actress Mun So-ri was selected as the Best Young Actor for their work in the unusual romance movie Oasis Sunday at the 59th Venice Film Festival. $ F+ V) l- s0 f" e" U
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``I always thought, `What does it matter if a film wins awards at an international film festival if the domestic audience doesn't understand it?''' said Lee, 48, who is the first Korean director to win the award. ``But now that I have won the award, I am happy just to think that people understand and appreciate the work's content.'' , A7 [" k3 m, J0 g& r
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At the closing ceremony of the festival Sunday, Lee kept his acceptance speech short, saying only that he thanks ``everyone who helped.'' 4 a7 L6 @. k; L1 {
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Besides the awards for best director and best young actor, ``Oasis'' received three other noncompetition awards _ the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Cinematography Journalists) Award for best film, the SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication) Award and a special award selected by the younger movie critics. At the press conference after the ceremony, Lee joked, ``If I go home carrying all these awards, my wife will probably tell me to bring home some money instead of trophies.'' ( t9 Y9 g6 B2 r! _3 H+ v

: E- u4 g; l' vThe awards follow the best director award garnered by Im Gweon-taek at the 55th Cannes International Film Festival in May, and are seen as part of the growing respect and recognition accorded Korean cinema in the international arena. & [& H" h8 ?! U0 u8 \" {
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``Oasis'' portrays a surprising and at times disturbing romance between a man convicted of vehicular homicide and a woman with cerebral palsy. It is the first domestic film to win a major award at the Venice festival in 15 years, since Kang Su-yon won best actress for Im Gweon-taek's ``Ssibaji'' (The Surrogate Womb) in 1987. Since ``Ssibaji,'' many domestic films, such as Lies by Jang Seon-Wu and The Isle by Kim Gi-Deok(b), have been screened at the competition section of the festival, but were not given any awards. " e5 g6 S( B. C, z5 s
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Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Lee was an aspiring writer. He graduated with a degree in Korean literature from Kyungpook National University in 1980, and for a while worked as a Korean literature teacher in a high school. Lee published his first novel, ``Chonri'' in 1983, and followed it up with numerous novels written in a realistic style. Lee moved into film in 1993 as screenwriter and lighting director for the movie ``Ku Som-e Kago Sipta'' (``I Want to Go to That Island''). In 1997, Lee directed his first movie, Green Fish, which starred Han Suk-gyu as a young man who becomes tragically involved with the mafia. While the film gained him critical attention, it was his next film, Peppermint Candy, in 1999 that pushed him into the spotlight of the Korean film world. An innovative and highly stylized film about one man's demise, the cast of ``Peppermint Candy'' included Seol Gyeong-Gu and Moon, who again paired up for ``Oasis.''
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For her role in ``Oasis,'' Moon received the festival's Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress, which was founded in honor of the late Italian actor in 1998. Her demanding performance, in which she phased in and out of physical disability, was all the more impressive given that it was only her second feature film after ``Peppermint Candy.'' Between those two movies she appeared in six short films, including ``Plan 19 From Outer Space,'' ``Black Cut'' and ``Spring Mountain.'' ) z0 A9 w5 }; R8 O# ~

+ ~! r3 @- l" a, o5 T``Oasis'' opened domestically on Aug. 15 and took over the top spot at the box office last week.
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(courtesy of KoreaTimes)
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:16 | 显示全部楼层
review by asiandb) x4 U, m3 z. D: V4 J, C
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  f% T& h$ }0 Q; O6 [! GOasis, a movie directed by Lee Chang-dong that opened yesterday at local cinemas, has been invited to several renowned international film festivals. 2 c# b/ f# h% C& S7 m& Q) G
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The film has been invited to the competition division at the 59th Venice International Film Festival, which will be held from Aug. 29 to Sept. 8 in Italy. This is the fourth consecutive time that a Korean film will take part in the prestigious film festival. ' ?+ g5 S' _$ B& K* o' Y
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The movie will be officially screened in the national cinema section at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival, which will open on Aug. 29 and will continue through Sept. 8 in Canada. / w$ f; Z2 F3 k* f
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Lee has also been invited to compete for the Dragons and Tigers Award, given to Asian directors at the Vancouver film festival, scheduled to open on Sept. 29. Lee has won the award with his film, Green Fish, in 1997. 4 w: r7 I( X9 H: t

' A3 ^* p/ R4 O7 x2 t7 K3 J``Oasis’’ will also be included in the world cinema section of the London International Film Festival, slated to open on Nov. 6.
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$ t9 ~* x& `) X' `In addition, Lee has also been invited to take part in the New York International Film Festival with the film.
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; C* t3 S8 G9 o4 K  n2 P9 w5 }(courtesy of KoreaTimes)
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:19 | 显示全部楼层
review by David Rooney (Variety); t4 n* R4 w/ P/ O8 t
September 09, 20024 {# E' C  C# ]7 ]. E
A mesmerizing story of outcast lovers on the margins of a cruelly unaccommodating world, "Oasis" is an eloquent expression of both unorthodox romance and bitter disillusionment with the hypocritical institutions of family and society. Radically different from Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong's accomplished earlier works "Green Fish" and "Peppermint Candy," this uncompromising drama -- driven by two powerfully focused performances -- won both the Special Director's Award and international critics prize in Venice. Commercially, this is a tough prospect, but awards attention could help overcome its difficult subject matter and open arthouse avenues.
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Shivering in summer clothes in the middle of a Seoul winter, Jong-Du (Sol Kyung-gu) is hauled in by cops on the day he's released from prison when he's unable to pay a restaurant bill. His younger brother (Ryoo Seung-wan) bails him out and reunites him with the rest of the family. But, they make it clear they've been getting along fine without Jong-Du, who suffers from a slight mental handicap and has always been a source of trouble. Nonetheless, his older brother (Ahn Nae-sang) sets him up with a job and a bed in his car repair shop.
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, z$ ]) f9 L( E9 }  [4 @Jong-Du begins to secretly call on the family of the man he was convicted of killing in a drunk driving accident. They angrily dismiss him, but he remains fascinated by the dead man's severely disabled daughter Gong-Ju (Moon So-ri), who has cerebral palsy. Her family is no more caring than Jong-Du's; her brother and his wife (Sohn Byung-ho, Yoon Ga-hyun) have moved into the government-subsidized disability housing provided for her, leaving the young woman alone in a shabby apartment to be tended by indifferent neighbors. 1 d; ^# e  v7 ^# s5 c2 P3 V3 T
A novelist as well as screenwriter, Lee sharply conveys the hollowness of this environment of unfeeling, exploitative figures around the central couple. He creates a touching sense of their relationship as an island of purity amid an emotional and communicative void.
4 h& E# G5 a; \3 S3 p3 lThat relationship develops gradually from a shocking starting point. Jong-Du enters Gong-Ju's apartment when she's alone, and her panicked response to his affections leads him to become violent. She loses consciousness during his confused attempt to rape her, and he soothes and revives her, leaving his number at the repair shop so she can find him. To Jong-Du's surprise, she calls, and the two begin a clandestine friendship. ( I9 p: N5 Q0 X; w, V
Responding to the first person to treat her as a human being and a woman, Gong-Ju manages basic communication with Jong-Du. He gives her a respite from her closed existence, taking her out in cars he borrows from the repair shop. When Jong-Du exposes her to his family at a birthday dinner, the foolish experiment proves disastrous and humiliating for both of them.
' a* M+ m8 n* ^+ p) C" m  LThat night, Gong-Ju asks him to stay with her, but when her horrified brother and his wife show up unexpectedly and find the couple making love, they call police and have Jong-Du charged with rape. During tense scenes at the police station, Gong-Ju is unable to articulate her feelings and defend Jong-Du, driving her to violent, physically convulsive behavior. Jong-Du escapes and heads back to her apartment, climbing a tree outside her window and literally hacking away at the girl's demons in a sorrowfully affecting final act.
" k" _1 f/ n7 |Quietly scathing in its view of a materialistic, self-serving society and its ease in sweeping misfits aside, Lee's drama also makes provocative points about the legitimacy of desire, the right to love and the conflict that arises when love crosses socially acceptable boundaries. Despite the potential to shock, handling of intimate scenes between the couple is matter-of-fact and detached, often incorporating moments of gentle humor, in contrast to the eager exploration of sexual extremes in many recent Korean films. - X# @9 |( s6 i) z5 y" X
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While the film feels overlong and arguably could lose 15 minutes, the director's control of the material never falters. A loose, documentary shooting style and complete absence of technical frills are used to concentrate attention on the lovers and further isolate them from their surroundings. Music is sourced largely to the radio that keeps Gong-Ju company.
" z! k% d( h1 L. ?4 v: g1 FOne notable exception is a lovely, whimsical fantasy scene -- which comes to life from a tapestry on Gong-Du's wall -- in which the couple dances with a baby elephant to exotic music. In this and a handful of other sequences, Jong-Du's willingness to see past Gong-Ju's disability causes her to appear as a physically normal woman. , K2 t" |+ R6 ~+ n% L: M
Reteaming his "Peppermint Candy" leads, Lee extracts remarkable, galvanizing performances. The physical contortions and Herculean effort required for Gong-Ju to negotiate even a simple act like dialing a telephone are tough to watch at times. But Moon shows subtle skill at uncovering the dignity, humor and tenderness hidden within Gong-Ju's twisted frame, earning her the Marcello Mastroianni award for best young actor or actress in Venice.
" E/ ?7 A& E7 x& [1 F+ {9 jEqually impressive, however, is Sol. All wiry edginess and twitchy unpredictability at first, sniffling constantly and shifting uneasily from one foot to another, he gradually exposes the man's wounded soul, reaching out to perhaps the first person not to judge him.
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:19 | 显示全部楼层
review by Lee Marshall (Screen International). ?$ j2 E6 p$ r% [1 {: o: n
September 09, 2002& h: M) ?3 A) Z& N
His 2000 festival-pleaser Peppermint Candy made Korean writer/director Lee Chang-dong one of Asia’s hot new arthouse properties. With Oasis, his third feature, he puts his talent for unusual stories and finely-nuanced characters (he is also a novelist) to good use to further that reputation. A memorable film about the love between two misfits - one socially, the other physically disabled - it sticks in the mind well beyond the final credits. But it’s not always an easy ride for the audience, and in commercial terms, is unlikely to be Lee’s breakout movie, although it should extend the arthouse market already carved out by Candy. The film was internationally recognised with a Special Director’s Prize at Venice, and will play Vancouver and London after its Toronto engagement. In South Korea it heads the box office, having taken $1.58m from 20 screens after three weeks.On the surface, a love affair between a drifter fresh out of jail and a girl with cerebral palsy sounds perfect for the Hollywood schmaltz treatment. Lee, though, laces the tender emotion with high farce. Other moments make his audience squirm in their seats, including one attempted rape scene, where warm indulgence turns to shock and disbelief in a few seconds. In the end, though, these rough edges, and audience reluctance to be too charmed by the likeable but unstable male protagonist, give the story a gritty reality that is driven home by Choi Young-taek’s unsentimental Steadicam photography.The best thing about this film, though, is Hong Jong-du: a fine comic-dramatic creation brought to life by Candy lead Sol Kyung-gu. He’s a universally-recognised congenital chancer, in and out of jail, always sniffing back a cold, jigging his legs and looking elsewhere when people tell him what a good-for-nothing he is.
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' q' m" i. _$ @% I: l! tHe is first seen freezing in the Korean winter, just released from prison and only wearing the summer clothes he had when he went in. Oblivious to social conventions, he is constantly putting his foot in it, as when he takes flowers round to the family of the man he was imprisoned for killing in a road accident. It is here that he meets Han Gong-ju, the dead man’s daughter, a cerebral palsy victim who has been abandoned by her brother and left with neighbours.Although their first tete a tete is a disaster, (Jong-du loses control and tries to rape Gong-ju), subsequent meetings are more promising, and a love affair blossoms between the two outcasts. Moon So-ri, who won the Marcello Mastroianni Prize for new talent at Venice, puts in a fine performance as the young, bright woman trapped in a body that bears no relation to her self image. Her desperate desire to be normal boils over into dream sequences that are spliced unobtrusively into the action, including one where figures on a woven "Oasis" rug come to life and dance around the room. The tragi-comic ending would ooze sentiment in the hands of a less able director; but Lee gives it a surprising depth.Prod co: East Film Prods, UniKorea, Dream Venture CapitalKor dist: CJ EntertainmentInt’l sales: Cineclick AsiaProd: Myung KaynamCo-prods: Cho Min-choul, Jay JeonScr: Lee Chang-dongCinematography: Choi Young-taekProd des: Shin Jum-huiEd: Kim HyunMusic: Lee Jae-jinMain cast: Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Ahn Nae-sang, Ryoo Seung-wan, Chu Gui-jeong, Kim jin-jin
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:20 | 显示全部楼层
review by John Powers (LA Weekly)
& q, L# l$ ^. h$ k- f6 _- M' OSeptember 15, 2003
; U- P: a& I9 R" C! Q* V0 DNOW THAT THE WEEKLY'S PARENT COMPANY HAS settled with the Department of Justice, all that remains of the story is our collective amusement at how it was handled by the Los Angeles Times. Tim Rutten's Regarding Media columns on the subject were not simply inflammatory (loose talk of prison terms and multimillion-dollar fines) but as bumbling as Homer Simpson. While it is only human to misspell the name of the Weekly's ex-publisher, Mike Sigman (in two separate stories), it is comically maladroit to write about this paper's supposed editorial policy (how it's being shaped out of New York, how it's deliberately cutting back on news) if one is going to quote a couple of disgruntled ex-employees but not talk to the editors themselves or, for that matter, ever seem to have read the paper. Doh!
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Last weekend, Rutten's coverage reached its unwitting climax. His Saturday column was the usual pudding of weird irrelevancies -- letting D.A. Steve Cooley free-associate about his impressions of the L.A. Weekly ("a valuable news organ") -- and factual mistakes, such as referring to Harold Meyerson as the Weekly's "executive editor." As the Boston Phoenix was quick to point out, Meyerson stopped being executive editor almost 18 months ago, becoming the paper's political editor when he moved to Washington, D.C. The masthead, dude, the masthead. % y1 e( `; c. S4 h

( @3 @$ A8 I9 U! t+ z5 O: pStill, Rutten's story had a happy ending -- for us anyway. On Monday, I opened The New York Times to see that it, not the L.A. Times, had broken the story about the consent decree between DOJ and the alternative-paper chains. Which means that at the very moment Rutten's Saturday column was amping the story up with Cooley's tough-guy maunderings -- the D.A. referred to the two media companies as "suspects" -- the case itself was actually being settled. And New York based reporter David Carr was busy scooping Rutten on his prize hometown story in the N.Y. Times, the very publication that his bosses crave to be.
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) N0 _! e. i& P( Q  h( l4 PTo my surprise, I actually found myself feeling sorry for the poor bastard.   J! x. z+ p$ b) z8 G; R! m4 t: l/ U7 m
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/ v1 M/ }( k6 C/ y# e' TOver the years, the mainstream press has stolen many things from the alternative press -- writers, formats, attitudes, opinions. But there's one thing it always leaves behind -- belief in writers' freedom to express themselves.
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3 o8 ]' I2 d! c6 Q" }Consider the case of L.A. Times art critic Christopher Knight. On January 15, Knight began a review of Track 16 Gallery's "The Anti-War Show: The Price of Intervention From Korea to Iraq" by calling plans for war with Iraq "imbecilic" and adding that President Bush has made no "coherent argument" for an invasion. Two weeks later on the 28th -- State of the Union day -- the paper took it all back. An Editor's Note in the Times' Page 2 For the Record section disavowed Knight's piece and its attack on Bush policy:
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"It was, in our view, a gratuitous political statement and, as such, a distraction from the legitimate substance of the review. It should not have been published [my emphasis]." 6 L( \$ n0 ]# D
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Now, I'm not surprised that Knight's editors were unnerved by his review. His comments on the war were polemical, provocatively so, and I don't doubt that they elicited countless complaints. I can easily see why the Times might have seen fit to run a full page of letters to the editor. But that's far different from saying his words shouldn't have been published, the kind of claim that must put the chill in every Times critic who might venture to connect his or her work to the larger world.
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Why would the editors sell out a writer in this way? For starters, nearly all daily papers in this country feel the precariousness of their existence and live in fear of alienating any significant part of their readership -- in this case, Bush supporters who favor invading Iraq. This timidity finds its ideological justification in time-honored bromides about "objective" journalism -- even if this presumed objectivity concerns the arts, which by definition grow from subjective experience and produce subjective response. Indeed, underwriting the claim that Knight's words are "gratuitous" is the sorry belief that full human engagement with paintings or movies or music or books is somehow inappropriate -- we're supposed to consume the stuff, not let it change us. By such a standard, a critic should finally act as a neutral observer whose passionate engagement with the arts should stop short of actually endorsing what they might be saying about the world. Unless, of course, the art is saying something safe and socially acceptable, in which case nobody will notice. Would the Times' editors now refuse to publish a review that begins with a flag-waving tribute to our brave soldiers and our heroic policy in Afghanistan?
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2 @0 V3 Y/ G, `+ c5 P  rThis benighted vision of what's going too far offers yet one more example of why mainstream arts coverage has become so hopelessly dull. Insisting that there's really nothing at stake, today's editors and producers are willing, indeed eager, to silence those who try to shatter the aura of polite irrelevance that makes our cultural commissars feel safe: Thank God, art doesn't actually mean anything! # t/ {8 d7 F5 `' Y4 L7 p1 n
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Beyond journalism, the Times' disavowal of Knight's words is another symptom of a political climate that keeps getting spookier. We already lived in a world in which the Super Bowl broadcast -- complete with zooming jets and Marines guarding a magic trick by Penn and Teller -- could serve as the militaristic prequel to Bush's State of the Union address. Now, our art critics have been put on a state of alert.
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  ]( V% R* H) K' LIt has long been an article of faith that Sundance is the home of independent filmmaking. Indeed, during its televised awards show last Saturday night, the festival never stopped praising itself for precisely this virtue, reaching its peak when Tilda Swinton (rather charmingly, I thought) took a swipe at Late Capitalism. 5 M' x* n, m; o# H. [6 k8 [
To find the true independent spirit these days, you might do better to look to South Korea, one of the handful of countries that, as Jack Valenti would unhappily tell you, uses quotas to protect its homegrown cinema from being overrun by Hollywood "product" (to borrow the unseemly term Redford used the other night on the Sundance Channel). The Koreans are famously nationalistic -- they even have their own tiny version of Disneyland, Lotte World -- and they take as much pride in their own culture as do the French. As I discovered when I attended the Pusan Film Festival a couple of years ago, the country is creating one of the most exciting movie cultures anywhere -- everything from pop blockbusters like the action-picture Shiri to the graceful art films of the aging master Im Kwon-Taek.
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Of course, American audiences -- even here in L.A. with our huge Korean-American population -- have yet to catch on to this South Korean boom, with such rising stars as the uncommonly gifted Hong Sang-Soo. So it comes as little surprise that virtually no one here has ever heard of one of its finest writer-directors, Lee Chang-Dong, a novelist-turned-filmmaker whose work straddles the multiplex and the art house in his home country. His latest film, Oasis, won five separate prizes at the Venice Film Festival (somehow, it wasn't at Sundance) and is the South Korean entry for the Best-Foreign-Film Oscar. 0 j8 d6 s) u) I& [2 g. Q

( [- e, h4 G. v% Q) ]In a just world, the movie would certainly be one of the five nominees, but I fear Academy voters may find its subject matter too tough: It tells the story of the love affair between a feckless ex-con and a young woman with cerebral palsy who spends virtually the entire film having spastic convulsions, even during a startling, genuinely passionate sex scene. I know the premise sounds like the kind of phony pairing that artists often cook up, but Lee avoids the pitfalls of nastiness or easy sentimentality. Even as he evokes the lovers' dreamy romanticism amid all their adversity (in this, his directing recalls Hollywood legend Frank Borzage), he creates a wider sense of life that's novelistic in its richness. Oasis is at once a moving love story, a sharp social comedy and a fierce political commentary on how Korean society cruelly represses outsiders. It's also a triumph of artistic indirection: Not a single scene plays out the way you expect it to. This is the kind of film that gives humanism back its good name, and it speaks volumes about so-called independence that many minor Sundance pictures will get picked up, while Lee's internationally acclaimed film has found no American distributor.
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Speaking of which, the screening I attended was held at CAA, and the place was eerily deserted -- apparently, all the hustling young agents were on the slopes in Park City. Certainly, none bothered to watch Lee's film. In fact, if you're ever trying to hide from an agent, there's no safer place on the planet than the CAA screening room when they're showing a really good foreign movie.
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:22 | 显示全部楼层
guido keller8 F3 L! V& Y4 m# |; T
Frankfurt, Germany
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Date: 8 November 20020 L1 G# c" S. C! L$ r
Summary: Destruction of love
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At the beginning of the "L'Abri"-screening (which I discuss somewhere else) at the film market MIFED in Milano, CJ Entertainment's young sales responsible asked me: "Which Korean films have you bought?" - "All of them", I answered, to make a point: Korean's movies were just unbeatable in 2002. Then I confessed that I was actually a journalist, not a buyer. The young man surprised me with another question: "Did you cry at the end of 'The Way Home'?" - "No", I said, thinking of my grandmother, "actually I cried at the end of OASIS."0 a7 X: q- V) y$ M) o
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Movies should move viewers. No hight tech genre film can beat what goes straight to your heart. The love of a naive, warmhearted fool (Sol Kyung-gu as Jong-du) to a spasmic beauty (Moon So-ri as Gong-ju) that is unable to walk and clearly articulate herself is attacked by both of their families. It could be considered a love between handicapped and thus underline the demand for a change of law which seems to have its flaws in Korea as well as here in Germany. Prohibited is the unthinkable, i.e. the sexual demands of those who are stigmatised to not have them. The sad outcome of the events is lightened by the unchangeable affection of the male protagonist. Feminists might argue against the easy way in which the attempt to rape the spasmic woman turns into mutual love. The real challenge for the excellent actress Moon So-ri was indeed to transmit whether we see joy or pain in her wincing mimic. Have you ever asked yourself how a person suffering from cerebral palsy would look during orgasm? See for yourself. The elegant camera moves from the common theme of the movie to dreamlike scenes where all of Gong-jus illness is gone. Her dancing with a young elephant had the same non-intellectual humor as the tree-cutting of Jong-du. When the lights go on in your theatre, you might ask yourself how deeply YOU are able to love.
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:24 | 显示全部楼层
Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) % c5 X" ~# V# y, s( l5 x! s
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Date: 3 July 2004' j9 N) P/ d' \6 m' n. o- b$ ^/ I* A
Summary: An amazing human story - insightfully illustrating how 'wrong' our points of view can be as we take things for granted, going about our daily lives, assuming we are (always) right. Truly an eye-opening film with much human warmth and lovingness at its heart. ! B) j, g4 s& W( V/ {# k

" F, a( t8 q) D% sI rated "Oasis" as a MUST SEE. Yes, it may be difficult to watch all those cerebral palsy twitching scenes, but focusing on the heart of the story, you shall appreciate as the story unfolds. It's an intriguing human drama needed to be told - to rouse the malaise and complacency of society. We are so prone to being judgmental of others, taking things for granted - we are actually quite full of it ourselves, thinking we are 'normal' while others - those who seem to us acting not to the 'norm' we see or feel, are labeled as 'queers' or 'misfits'. We can be so callous and literally 'blind' - not taking the time to pause, step back and see beyond the faces or empathize the possible feelings or needs liken to ourselves. - }' r3 D! a3 \. U- u
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Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong's insightful film "Oasis" (2002), sensitively and sensibly gave us a chance to see the true state of being and what's possible between two persons that are socially shunned and dismissed as 'non-entity' to the everyday world we live in. Yet to Sol Kyung-gu's Jong-du (the "General") and Moon So-ri's Gong-ju (the "Princess" Your Highness), they created a world that they mutually shared - alone and together, unbeknownst to the community outside of their energized circle. The two of them are self-sufficient, contented within, appreciating every minute of being alive, gently nurturing and genuinely enjoying each other's company.
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The two main actors delivered poignant performances of their characters. The writing by director Lee essentially facilitated the core drama. Actress Moon's portrayal of her character is astounding - brings to mind Daniel Day-Lewis' gut-wrenching performance in Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot" (1989). Director Lee cleverly introduced segments where we see Moon's Gong-ju standing up, dancing around, singing and smiling in a non-spastic state. Such imagination is at once endearing and poetic, allowing us relief and pauses to entertain such thoughts along with her. Sol is just as amazing - beguilingly effortless in his portrayal of a simple-minded man (childlike if you will) yet entangled complexity reveals as family 'secrets' are picked up through the translations (thanks to subtitles by Tony Rayns - certainly provided clues to verbal interactions and plot progression). One wonders if Jong-du's three prior charges were somehow family 'endowed', conveniently using him since he doesn't care much one way or the other. Simple-minded he may be, uncomplicated by guilt, he is basically a kind-hearted and caring person. Subtle and simplistic, it takes talent and restraint to deliver this character, and Sol brilliantly complements Moon's Gong-ju. An unnerving powerful pairing. & V4 R" v! o" f; K

) ]6 U+ p; @' u3 @6 V7 {There are sprinkled humor and we would smile and be just as delighted as the two of them. We get to see more clearly than the other people in the story: family members, neighbors, restaurant owners/customers, policemen/detectives. We feel the frustration when Gong-ju tried to express her side of the story - conveniently dismissed as part of her twitching agony. We worry for Jong-du when he doesn't speak up - then again who in the society's mind would believe a 'misfit'. We felt the helplessness - yet Lee ingeniously provided a logical and satisfying plot turn, even if it takes yielding to imagination - but why ever not (it could very well be providential). Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from the two lovebirds: they are simple and content with themselves (without 'guilt' complex), gutsy and confident in their own way of communicating to each other (with exclusive personal word references) and clarity of purpose in the deeds they do (be it turning up the radio or being high up on a tree). They are happy in spite of what happens - knowing each would continue on with bright hopes and tender loving for each other in their hearts.
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, K! @6 P) r- h% P0 xThis is a worthwhile film embracing humanity. Life's too short to expend energy on being angry at others. It's human to make mistakes. If we gripe less and focus on the positive, reciprocate respect and kindness to each other, take the time to appreciate this world we live in - 'oases' we'd be in.   ?0 @4 a! v) R
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Howard Schumann
0 [, E  I7 \9 T3 M& YVancouver, B.C./ j. M  Q9 `/ b$ v) h7 Q

9 f2 s+ _4 S4 K! H4 m* [1 m+ M9 j7 FDate: 10 May 2004
/ L, I: Z  T6 n" ~" d: \8 F( ~Summary: What love truly means
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  b1 P; I& k( h& J( dWe talk a lot about love in our society but often love is only acceptable to us if it fits our pictures. For example, the love of an older person for a younger, love between members of the same sex or between disabled individuals may make us uncomfortable and rejecting. Winner of five awards at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, Oasis, a film by Lee Chang-dong, stretches our comfort zone to the limit with a boldly unconventional portrait of the love of a mentally retarded young man for a woman suffering with cerebral palsy. The film is both emotionally honest and powerfully realized and will keep you pondering its implications for a long time. Moon So-ri's performance as Gong-ju is nothing short of astonishing. She goes through contortions to make us aware of the agony of her illness, but is never inappropriate or over-the-top. Her movements are spasmodic and uncoordinated and she appears to be in constant pain but there is a kindness in her face that allows us to see the person behind the pain.
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As the film opens, Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu) has just been released from prison and is freezing in his short sleeve shirt in the middle of winter. Jong-du is a sociopath who flaunts society's rules, unaware of or unconcerned with the consequences of his actions. Unable to hold a job and always on the edge, he has been in jail three times: for attempted rape, causing an accident while drunk (he took the rap for his elder brother), and armed robbery. On the spur of the moment, he decides to visit the family of the man killed by his brother and apologize. When he arrives, he finds a husband and wife moving out of their apartment, leaving the husband's seriously disabled sister, Han Gong-ju (Moon So-ri) for the neighbors to look after.8 \, m7 Y+ H5 l/ ]4 |2 S: w0 u

: p$ p& U6 h: R+ H6 m9 T- i% iJong-du is attracted to the disabled woman who seems barely in control of her own body. He returns for another visit but it sadly ends up in a disturbing sequence that is very difficult to watch. Surprisingly, Gong-ju invites him back once more and the two slowly begin a friendship based on their mutual feelings of isolation. He provides her with the closeness she desperately needs and she finds someone to care for, maybe for the first time in her life. As their relationship becomes known, both families are scandalized and, aided by the prejudices of society, transform the innocence of their love into something sick and twisted. : o/ H4 C0 y% P+ R

; L  S% D. ?; f5 o  EOasis is a thought provoking film that does not stack the deck towards one point of view. It depicts the joy that the relationship brings to the lovers but also shows the understandable unease of the families about the fitness of a man who has demonstrated his emotional instability. The film shows the thin line between the desires of the individual and the needs of society and forces us to look at the disparity between the reality we see and that seen by others. While his ultimate message may be ambiguous, Lee makes us brutally aware that for many people life is a party to which they haven't been invited. Out of a willingness to have his characters confront the truth of a world that will be forever hostile, he offers a compelling vision of what love truly means and allows us to experience the oneness that defies reason and logic.
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蔷花嬖人,桔梗同人,慕昭狂人

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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:25 | 显示全部楼层
gamutoflove
- o  Q$ `/ n# c* N" lTokyo, Japan6 B% r9 t7 S) w6 n& o, t
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Date: 27 February 2004
6 w; Z0 H5 T7 S8 c- MSummary: It's not sweet, but beautiful
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( X& f1 D: y) nBefore watching this film, I thought of Korean movies as sweet, tear-dripping melodoramas. And I was waiting for a movie to totally change my stereo type. So, here comes this movie. Yes, it is about a physically challenged person. Yes, it is about prejudice and sexual violence. This might not be a movie that many Korean movie (Last Presents or Love letter...) lovers like. This movie is not sweet, but very bitter. The people around the two protagonists seems terribly selfish. But most of us are on that side, not the two outsided protagonists. Watching them treated badly by the world full of prejudice which we might commit in real life,is really painful. But still, the live the protagonists lead are very beautiful, sometimes even laughable. / i% x+ W7 \/ m' R5 C  V& P
   
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mitsounob & k, E6 H( n; K6 d8 J2 j4 A
Yokohama, Japan
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1 `" }2 Q  D4 l( `Date: 21 February 2004; K# i# g1 H; a
Summary: Another masterpiece by Lee Chang-Dong+ ]* L; ]  I; i( w# S; N

+ U8 h; w) V) y  s' v. lThe director had been known in Korea as a novelist before he started to make films. That must be the reason why his films give us always the impression that they are deeply literary much more than cinematic.  G" X/ g- M( l+ {
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"Oasis" is a very literary film like his other films, but it also gives us the specific pleasure to watch movies by the imaginary scenes dreamed by a handicapped woman named Gong-ju, for instance. These scenes are sentimental, but they are incredibly beautiful and delicate (these pigeons and butterflies flying in her room, for example). And the scene where Gong-ju sings a song to another protagonist Jong-du must be one of the most beautiful scenes of "confession of love" ever depicted by a film. That is the moment, I am sure, when this film takes suddenly on the features of something sacred.
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! G8 e+ m  k0 Y( u: XThe director says this is a film about "border" as well as "communication." And in order to show the difficulty of communication and/or of going across the border, he tried to make Jong-du an abominable and disgusting person, especially at the beginning of the film. If you feel uncomfortable when you start to watch this film, you should consider that such discomfort was intentional even though the behaviors by Jong-du seem to be extremely violent and selfish. And you should also be patient until the "miraculous" moment of the "mutation" (from vulgarity to holiness) comes. You will certainly forget about the discomfort you had felt.
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And this is naturally a film about Love. It shows us just "one of" the forms of love, should I probably say, since the one shown in this film is too special and peculiar, but still I am tempted to say: "This is the Love."
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I though of "The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator" by Gustave Flaubert, but I do not know if I should expect that the protagonists would be called under the name of the "saints" or so. And I also remembered the heroine Sarah of "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene. Sarah writes in her diary, thinking of her lover named Maurice, with whom she had decided not to meet again because of the promise with God: "I'm not at peace any more. I just want him like I used to in the old days. I want to be eating sandwiches with him. I want to be drinking with him in a bar. I'm tired and I don't want any more pain. I want Maurice. I want ordinary corrupt human love."
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% M5 u( e! ?' W0 EOnce swore to God to separate from his lover, Sarah wants him always, being full of desires and wanting "corrupt human love" even just before her death. She stayed secular and even vulgar until the end, even though the author must have wished to lead her to the path toward God. And that is just why Sarah, that miserable mortal, stays always in my mind.  ]" u. i7 m" V0 E. k1 s0 R: X
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Same thing for Gong-ju and Jong-du. Their happiness may exist in this real world full of prejudice and discrimination, where ugly desire or ordinary cheapness of human life smears them. But it may also give them pleasure to love, to help each other, and/or to share something precious between them. They do not need God, but they just need each other.! D/ X4 q* K3 ^0 _" n# k

4 C, u' x0 G/ @# j1 g6 UNobody knows whether or not the future will congratulate them in the end, but probably, as did the director, should I leave them in the room of Gong-ju, where many dusts floating in the air are shimmering with the sunlight, and Gong-ju seems to be smiling, reading the letter from Jong-du. We don't know if they will be able to finish their story, but anyway, they have started it. Everything is now up to them.: W1 e' ?$ Y3 r  b3 C

8 D6 P4 E. r* H# |( j, _$ Z10/10.
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kleaner
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! y' ]: _3 N& K5 s9 d4 _5 _' ^Date: 5 October 2003
/ Y. C* C. Y# w1 `Summary: so... this is love.' P8 e& P7 P: X5 q* ?

8 W6 l. ]  a0 h, ?; ]; Y! ~% x2 ?Oasis is a very powerful film about love. Usually, romance movies have such good looking main characters with perfect soul that audience can think only decent people deserve to love. But in reality, not many people have lives like in "Pretty Woman".
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Oasis completely reverses this cliche. Two main characters are hated by everyone. Jong-Doo is a three time ex-prisoner, and Gong-Ju is cebral palsy. Sol Kyoung Gu and Moon So Ri give such brilliant performances that at first I was annoyed by Jong-Doo and felt uncomfortable watching Gong-Ju's twisted body.+ \: F9 U, r& K
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The scenes that Gong-Ju sometimes turns into normal and sings and plays coquetish show her wish very well. And the scene that Jong-Doo cuts off the branch which Gong-Ju scares is so powerful and emotional. $ ?* R9 J0 D: H% H" }% [4 }
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Some audience say the last scene is passimistic but I see that someday their love will blossom., J$ [7 l) M+ o3 P/ Y

3 d: L4 f7 W1 P2 L: P5 r/ EDirector tells the audience that they are the ones who have prejudice to minor people and they should see them as warmly as others. + m4 g7 _  `: `: v) Z% p% P
   
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vvanpo (vvanpo@attbi.com)
3 [# K5 x5 a% G: D; N' k& s4 vRenton, WA USA
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" l: p- f0 {. W5 M& ^Date: 12 June 2003
9 h. W: I8 h* m( i$ S1 MSummary: Masterwork from Lee Chang-Dong6 y7 g2 v1 N5 ]# |0 V

/ T. C* x+ f8 S, V"Oasis" is the story of the relationship of a man imprisoned by his mind with a woman imprisoned by her body. That they establish a relationship comes as much because of their handicaps as in spite of them.+ c' K  i3 u" K

: t* j7 Y: _+ n: AI knew before seeing the film that Moon So-ri was an able-bodied actress. As a result, at first I wasn't convinced she was playing someone with cerebral palsy. But Lee Chang-dong does a brilliant thing. He films several scenes that become the imaginings and fantasies of Gong-ju, Moon's character, as an able-bodied woman. This had the effect on me of seeing Gong-ju as disabled. And it spells out clearly that cerebral palsy is a physical condition not a mental one.) T' X3 e$ f7 O1 _& k" ?% n
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Sol Kyung-gu as Jong-du is perfect. I've been describing Jong-du as "simple-minded" to others but that doesn't pinpoint his mental condition. I might say he is carefree but it's not just an attitude; he is carefree to the point of mental illness. His condition makes him act both bad (he's been in prison three times) and good (he absolutely sees right through Gong-ju's handicap and truly comes to care for her). While Gong-ju is frustrated over her condition and how others use her it, Jong-du appears so utterly accepting of his fate that he doesn't even defend himself. I can't stop thinking about how Mr. Sol has played this interesting character.8 W9 u: Q, S6 Y/ L: y! Q0 x
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Both Gong-ju's and Jong-du's families scorn and pity their conditions. But watch how they also come to exploit them as well.
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I highly recommend this film.
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fruko
3 V9 p* Q+ s2 iRome, Italy  j) `% o. _6 v4 T
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Date: 3 May 2003$ g' d5 {7 }+ u  R& A4 }
Summary: they had the power of love in them but noone understood it.# |( h, ~8 _! @: b

% t+ J# `: w4 q, wThis is one of the most beautiful and sensible films you can ever see. So-ri Moon's performance is incredibly real that until a dream-like sequence I thought that she really had had cerebral palsy. Kyung-gu Sol was transmitting perfectly the behaviours and the glances of a 10 yeas old boy in the body of a 29 year old men.
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$ s) }5 H8 M* K7 C& m! b0 ^" yThe visual effects were applied brilliantly: white dove and the passing from reflection of light to white butterflies... Gong-ju's favorite color.
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* w& N: z4 V+ X: C) dThis is a film which can make you believe the purity of an man who committed 3 crimes and who tempted to rape a disabled young woman. This is film makes you believe in love, makes you sad, angry, happy. Shortly; this film gives you all that cinema should.
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cdvoice415 (cdvoice415@sohu.com)
: p1 `3 ]" f5 L1 n0 R3 u) e9 CGuangzhou,China
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Date: 30 April 2003' I& }+ Y1 @$ F: i& t; _. j
Summary: So wonderful* W) r7 d4 k/ _8 t4 Y1 x) f0 R7 w$ X

; W6 e/ v" l% n  |% o% i3 j! gI think this film is the most powerful one in the films I have seen so far this year.
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Before I saw the movie,I did not imagine how good the film would be but after that ,in fact,during seeing it,I can not stop feeling that is the best,so moving ,so convulsing. The girl is not so pretty,but her performance is so wonderful# a* `2 C' _& v" Y/ k
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I love this film!!
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, k! L. c: _  f6 n5 e: B$ uscifinerdgrl
$ m) k( y" a# K( `% RWashington, DC
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Date: 28 April 2003& W4 o  S/ t+ Z1 N& J5 Y
Summary: Fabulous Acting by Two Tremendous Leads
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2 X0 [7 \6 j: k+ l, c$ l1 N* oThe premise of this story challenges both of its romantic leads to use their bodies to convey the characters' emotions. Jong-du, played by Sol Kyung-gu, is an awkward ex-con whose older brother calls him immature but he seems a little crazy, or maybe mentally deficient. His family reluctantly helps him out, but he is an embarrassment and a nuisance to them.; l& k8 N+ m; v  @) o

0 ]5 v5 r& U5 }! s6 u2 NGong-ju (Moon So-ri) is a woman with cerebral palsy whose family is just as bad as Jong-du's. When Jong-du begins to visit her an odd relationship develops, with each bringing the other an acceptance and appreciation neither has felt before.% t$ v( t! P$ P! Z  ]' g5 M0 P
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Moon So-ri's performance is so convincing I actually thought she had c.p. until a fantasy sequence showed what Gong-ju imagined herself doing if she were not disabled. But it's not just the contortions of c.p. that she portrays. She manages to show every possible emotion within the confines of c.p. spasms and she brings the character to life with a fully developed range of emotions and intellect.6 ?  E$ |1 c- y& R6 C  j
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Sol Kyung-gu's body language is just as effective, though his performance is easily overshadowed by Moon So-ri's. He is by turns menacing, sweet, dim-witted, shy, playful, inconsiderate and contrite, and most of this comes out through his body language.# x3 F  ]9 r3 g2 {6 t

  W. w( Y( B* D7 ]8 ~$ B: OI saw this movie with English subtitles, but the acting is so effective that you almost don't need to read them.8 u, V& D+ n0 @" w0 Y

" e  J& F! R- d8 i, a  Hp.s. keep three hankies handy 6 u' N8 q; h8 G0 M; E& b2 Y
   
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& X) b6 I. ]& |3 ~Dante_Incarnate441
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: \4 p+ j8 T/ Z$ p0 X$ C4 t3 K5 ]Date: 27 March 2003
* w! t! C# k% o1 a3 o9 ^Summary: Wonderful movie( g" N5 |  _3 n/ }- ?: o# Y

5 l$ }& ^# W' O* j6 \5 UI get to see a Korean Movie now and then, and, even though i didnt understand a word of dialogue in this film, it was easy to tell what was going on. Oasis is the tale of a mentally disabled man who has recently been released from prison. Shortly after leaving, he attempts to rape a young physically disabled woman in her apartment. He comes to his senses, and apologizes later, and forms a powerful bond of understanding. while to most americans, Gong- Ju's fantasies might seem a little...odd (the dancing woman and the elephant is a perfect example,) it just goes to show that our cinema has lost most (if not all) heart. I would strongly urge anyone who is into Korean cinema to watch this film, it is a truly touching experience. 0 F* N# `7 s* `- p9 U! C0 g& I2 o
   
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/ A! N, j8 B" L1 e; qguido keller ; n6 v9 Y# W- J6 g! [$ \# }7 v0 v
Frankfurt, Germany
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: ]/ T' V+ T; C7 L7 Q, sDate: 8 November 2002& @8 h& z1 _" ]) M  ~7 ^
Summary: Destruction of love
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" E; a! R; D' ]* K( O9 r) `" }9 s+ zAt the beginning of the "L'Abri"-screening (which I discuss somewhere else) at the film market MIFED in Milano, CJ Entertainment's young sales responsible asked me: "Which Korean films have you bought?" - "All of them", I answered, to make a point: Korean's movies were just unbeatable in 2002. Then I confessed that I was actually a journalist, not a buyer. The young man surprised me with another question: "Did you cry at the end of 'The Way Home'?" - "No", I said, thinking of my grandmother, "actually I cried at the end of OASIS."
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( Q; G% `! y( h. `; A" h5 nMovies should move viewers. No hight tech genre film can beat what goes straight to your heart. The love of a naive, warmhearted fool (Sol Kyung-gu as Jong-du) to a spasmic beauty (Moon So-ri as Gong-ju) that is unable to walk and clearly articulate herself is attacked by both of their families. It could be considered a love between handicapped and thus underline the demand for a change of law which seems to have its flaws in Korea as well as here in Germany. Prohibited is the unthinkable, i.e. the sexual demands of those who are stigmatised to not have them. The sad outcome of the events is lightened by the unchangeable affection of the male protagonist. Feminists might argue against the easy way in which the attempt to rape the spasmic woman turns into mutual love. The real challenge for the excellent actress Moon So-ri was indeed to transmit whether we see joy or pain in her wincing mimic. Have you ever asked yourself how a person suffering from cerebral palsy would look during orgasm? See for yourself. The elegant camera moves from the common theme of the movie to dreamlike scenes where all of Gong-jus illness is gone. Her dancing with a young elephant had the same non-intellectual humor as the tree-cutting of Jong-du. When the lights go on in your theatre, you might ask yourself how deeply YOU are able to love. 0 Q, d5 t9 C. Y5 u
   
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1 g, P$ q. I* K0 @lee jong heon (leecp78) % z0 o) c3 t; x) G; ]0 }
Seoul,Korea
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Date: 26 August 2002
4 y* L+ X* y: z. f  R3 j7 zSummary: A love story of odd couple...
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4 C8 t' k$ y5 H* E) ^  D6 `+ zLove is the sweetest thing of all but real world is not at all. A ex-prisoner and handicapped are falling in love. But society don't understand their noble love. Society only try to see their surface, without efforts that understand their true emotion. After all their love couldn't make it.
9 c) X$ y/ E9 D. nhttp://us.imdb.com/title/tt0320193/usercomments
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蔷花嬖人,桔梗同人,慕昭狂人

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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:26 | 显示全部楼层
For better or for worse, the historical development of Korean cinema has been linked to the genre of melodrama, in much the same way that people think of martial-arts films in relation to Hong Kong. It's not just that there have been a large number of popular or influential melodramas produced throughout Korean film history; the genre has influenced directors in other ways as well. Green Fish and Peppermint Candy, the first two films by novelist-turned-director Lee Chang-dong, both contain highly emotional scenes, but the films strive to avoid melodramatic influences so much that you could consider them to be 'anti-melodramas'.! \8 I8 ]0 O  y  z% g" A
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For his third film Oasis, Lee seemingly changed course and decided to make a love story: a melodrama rooted in the relationship between a social misfit just released from prison and a woman with cerebral palsy. What seems on the surface to be a depressing tale of squalor is actually one of the most amazing films Korea has produced in years, a triumph for Lee and his cast.
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$ Y5 l5 M5 }: _+ lOasis begins in mid-winter when a man named Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu) is released from prison wearing summer clothes. He served time for a drunk driving accident in which another man is killed, but his decreased mental capacities seem to leave him unable to understand how the incident has impacted others. After a half-hearted reunion with his family, he takes a visit to the home of the man he killed.. q, j- q! `% c: n
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There he meets a woman named Gong-ju (Moon So-ri), whose name means "princess" in Korean. Afflicted with a severe case of cerebral palsy, Gong-ju is more or less confined to her room, talked at occasionally but otherwise ignored. Jong-du takes an interest in her immediately, and despite being thrown out, resolves to return later when he knows she will be alone...
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It's hard to write about this film without commenting on the acting by the two leads, reunited after their turn in Peppermint Candy. Many will be struck by the challenge met by Moon So-ri in portraying a severely handicapped woman, but Sol Kyung-gu has also given tremendous life to his character, and the two of them together are brilliant. Much of the film's appeal comes in watching the two of them interact. ; Z4 A( Q- I8 O/ F/ u. W* n) A' w8 E

) o* |. K3 Q" g0 s8 C; n, |. y, p) BBut more than anything else this film comes across as an anguished appeal by director and writer Lee Chang-dong, who has made such tremendous strides in his first three films that he has to be considered one of Korea's very best filmmakers. Oasis makes you look at the assumptions and prejudices of the society around us in a completely new light, and it may be looked back on one day as the pinnacle of Korean filmmaking from this era.      (Darcy Paquet)
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:34 | 显示全部楼层
Director Lee Chang-dong is rapidly emerging as one of the most important directors in South Korea. Formerly a novelist, he successfully turned film-maker and made a real impact with his second film Peppermint Candy (2000), a powerful piece of realist cinema. His third film Oasis, has been an even greater success, winning five awards at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, including Best Director. Last December he was named Minister of Culture, an unprecedented appointment in Korea.
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( j1 k' }# p$ yHong Jong-du has just been released from prison where he has just done time for a hit and run driving incident where a man was killed. It is the middle of winter, but all he has to wear is the summer shirt he went in with. He finds that his family has moved and immediately gets himself into trouble with the police again when he eats at a restaurant without being able to pay. He visits the family of the man killed in the car accident, bringing a basket of fruit with him. Understandably, the man’s son and wife are less than happy to see him. While he is there, he meets the man’s daughter, Gong-ju, who suffers from cerebral palsy. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with the girl, much to the horror of his own and the girl’s family. Jong-du recognises instinctively (he is too dumb to rationalise it), that Gong-ju is someone as isolated from the world as he is himself – an outsider with no ability or means to interact with the real-world. Together they both create their own way of getting on, but it is a relationship that cannot be understood or tolerated by their respective families. With a previous conviction for attempted rape, Hong Jong-du’s motives are suspect.
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* X% O. N4 R. K! [7 H4 QWhat makes Oasis so remarkable and raises it above other similar “issue” films is the unsentimental manner in which it is handled. The director, who also wrote the script, doesn’t side-step any potentially controversial issues – political correctness, moral judgements, social attitudes to the disabled, disabled sexuality – all these topics are not only taken-on, but deftly handled in an intelligent, thought provoking and realistic way. The hazard of such an approach is that it is all to easy to preach and paint issues in a simplified black and white manner, lapsing, the way so many films on a similar subject do, into heavy-handed melodrama. Lee Chang-dong not only avoids these pit-falls, he deliberately raises and skilfully navigates through them, blurring the morality of the actions that are traditional in such roles.
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5 @2 d9 l3 d$ t8 e8 {1 Z9 N" ^7 K! bIt would be all to easy, for example, to depict Gong-ju as a special case, but in Oasis she is not a gifted savant – she is a disabled woman with an ordinary woman’s needs and desires that she unable to satisfy both through her disability and also through the attitudes of family and society towards her. She want to dress-up, wear make-up, fall in love, dine out - the everyday things everyone else takes for granted. The film successfully puts us into her mind, showing us without any sentimentality, how she sees herself, how she copes and how her mind processes a world that she is unable to be fully a part of. Moon So-Ri’s performance is remarkable - a sensitive, brave and nuanced performance. . }  N) v8 O: S* v# a

" x9 T4 E% ]" T2 X; V1 z$ `+ ENo less nuanced is the character and the performance of Sol Kyung-gu as Hong Jong-du. How much easier it would be for Gong-ju to be looked after by a sensitive, understanding person, able to see the real person behind her disability. Hong Jong-du defies every preconception you would have about such a character. His intentions are well-meaning, but he is uneducated and ill-mannered and expresses himself badly. He doesn’t make a good impression on anyone. His first encounter with the girl alone is really quite disturbing. Yet, he displays far more compassion and understanding than anyone else close to the girl. Once again however, the director doesn’t make things easy for the viewer. Deliberately blurring the issues, not only does he make his lead character something of an anti-hero, but the families cannot be easily dismissed as the traditional bad-guys. How sympathetic would you be if you had a disabled relative being courted by a man who not only killed her father through drunken driving, but also has a conviction for attempted rape? 5 A$ n( \, a' U; e

9 r# U( N/ \& t2 i: }* PWith such challenging characters and situations, the aim of the film is not, as is so often the case, to give the audience a chance to feel superior and good about themselves, nor is it a cynically manipulative tear-jerker. Lee Chang-dong asks the viewer to examine their own prejudices and preconceptions and along the way he offers some truly astonishing insights as well as some little moments of pure cinematic magic and Dancer In The Dark-style flights from reality.
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" ~8 |9 R! H7 v6 Y- B. v/ U# C8 AThe DVD6 e3 F! i1 B7 \1 g/ A" {$ }
The DVD is currently available as a 2-disc Special Edition, housed, as Korean Special Editions usually are, in an amaray case within a box. English subtitles are presented for the feature, but there are no subtitles on the second disc which contains an abundance of extras. It is rumoured that a box set of Special Edition of all three of the director’s films is to be released later in the year.
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+ l9 F6 G( Z0 \' O- d2 qPicture
& ~) D- o. T( e" X3 b* w5 n3 u8 E2 Y+ hThe picture quality is very good. It is a little bit soft at times, but this would be more to do with the low-lighting and natural-look photography. There are occasionally signs of discolouration in the grain, particularly on faces under low-light, but you'd need to look really close to see anything. There are one or two minor marks on the print, but otherwise, this is a fine image, presented anamorphically at 1.85:1. ; Z( I2 n0 n0 U3 ]

3 {* \5 n6 ]9 NSound
, j) E6 G3 E0 J" c/ t$ l" sThere is little of exception to note about the soundtrack. As well as standard Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 soundtracks, we also have a DTS soundtrack, but to be honest, the film doesn’t make great use of it – the sound is principally thought the centre speaker, although there is an ambient openness that is conveyed through the other speakers. There are no problems to speak of here. / j# I5 O0 A% X* L0 |& j; ~
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Subtitles
* e8 i- u+ O0 l, _  C0 \* N8 NEnglish subtitles are provided, are removable and read very well without any obvious errors. 8 {. a- D& [! z" m2 h
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; h9 h7 w) y, JDisc 1 Extras
( J/ ~4 ]% r: v7 `+ T3 a% lCommentary
% K7 E, S8 `7 w& RThe only extra on the Disc 1 is the commentary track featuring the director, the assistant director and producer. This is in Korean only with no English subtitles.
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Disc 2 Extras2 |& i. |2 S0 _
The extras on Disc 2 are very well laid-out, but unfortunately, there will be little here to interest anyone who doesn’t speak Korean, as there are no subtitles of any kind. You can find more detail on the actual content of the extra material from the review of Oasis on V. "x" Naldi’s Korean Film Weekly. 7 y2 c: C! E6 C+ Y9 t- U+ b

/ R7 d* P! x7 j5 K- o01. Director Lee Chang Dong
! k. @, v9 A, Y( `. x/ {( N8 s- W' wUnder the director section of the extras we have a director’s Profile, an Interview (12.35), a Making of (14.15) showing behind the scenes, rehearsals and the shooting of a number of scenes, with a Korean voice-over narration. The remainder of the features in this section – a Synopsis and Production Notes are in Korean text only. & ~# N! v6 f. x) s- M

! c: v5 Q9 h1 Y* B02. Director of Photography
6 a% W, _% E( Y2 h- I/ dThis features an Interview (8.44) with the director of photography, Choi Young-taek and also with Lee Chang-dong and a Profile.
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This is a substantial section, containing a Profile, Interview (6.34), and a Making (9.17) for Moon So-ri, as well as a Profile, Interview (5.18), and a Making (9.51) for Sol Kyung-gu. The making of’s give you some idea of the difficulties the actors had playing such characters. All in Korean only with no subtitles. ) I- Y2 v4 n! f+ A
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04. Music
% A7 \  N2 X; i% |& ]( @. s$ PA Profile and an Interview (9.59) with Lee Jae-jin the composer.
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/ }% [$ p* r6 }7 p% ~! v05. Art Director
0 @& w" r- ]6 f" L2 m- m! n& HA Profile and an Interview (13.29) with Shin Jum-hui, the production designer. / v9 A* M8 n4 C/ l& f0 I7 M& I

/ _; T, d9 a8 z. U; [# R" N( T06. Producer
; u5 A( }( C# b9 D$ |) HA Profile and an Interview (8.38) with producer, Cho Min-cheol % {7 R+ l( B, [# R& x. {
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07. Oasis Computer graphic (3.00)
, L- Y+ {7 J# U% UAt last, something that may be of interest for the non-Korean speaker, this feature shows the clever use of CG effects that fit seamlessly into the film. ; _. P- b/ o. c1 [

8 G9 w5 ]5 B+ t3 Z! N8 c/ m08. Venice Film Festival (4.40)
2 F0 @7 [4 j: ?8 j: s) pStills and footage of the cast and crew at the 2002 Venice Film Festival, receiving awards.
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- u- ?' \  l" p  Y. W09. Preview of Oasis by Special Guest (2.37)
6 V# c" _/ a9 W" cShowing the film’s special premiere in Korea. 4 ?$ m" j4 ~7 t$ r2 d3 H
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10. Exclusive message(4.34)/(3.33)6 A& R& |; {! v
Comments on the film. This is in Korean only with no subtitles.
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+ c6 l1 L2 F7 [# X2 h11. Trailer (1.54)& D" y. L, ~3 N: P9 X% X, v6 x( H
Terrific trailer – you don’t need to speak Korean to enjoy this. Rather like the trailer for On The Occasion of Remembering The Turning Gate, this presents a song (‘Sad Movies’ by Sue Thompson) that gives an entirely different impression of what the film is actually about. It is still very effective, composed of still photos from the film. 6 _; X6 W; l7 G( d
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Behind the scenes and original stills photography accompanied by music from the film. 9 ?4 U) B0 I7 `" \7 E

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Conclusion
! _% c- o* q6 Y, k' f1 Q  EOasis is a marvellous film, featuring probably the unlikeliest couple ever in a romantic drama. This could so easily have been manipulative, exploitative and sentimental, instead it is one of the most profoundly moving and intelligent films of recent years. I don’t think you’ll see a better film or DVD package this year.
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The Korean Region 3 DVD can be purchased from DVDAsian - and from YeonDVD. It can also be purchased from YesAsia on the link below, but be warned that the link contains spoilers in an inaccurate summary of the film. A full guide of Korean suppliers can be found here.
7 x, E, J9 {/ Y! N' xhttp://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=3709
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 楼主| 发表于 2004-7-22 02:52 | 显示全部楼层
This remarkable if overlong Korean film strips away much of the sentimentality and goody-two-shoes attitudes that the movies traditionally attach to disabled people. At the same time, it coolly indicts an indifferent world that treats its misfits as inconvenient, half-witted children who are easily exploited and abused. Shortly after Hong Jong-Du (Sol Kyung-gu), the learning-disabled middle brother of three sons in a bourgeois Korean family, returns home after serving three years in prison, he meets the more seriously disabled Han Gong-Ju (Moon So-ri), who suffers from cerebral palsy so severe she can't make herself understood. The passionate bond that develops between them brings them joy but leads to personal disaster. The film's extraordinary lead performances refuse to soft-pedal the severity of their afflictions. By not turning away, softening or adopting a saccharine tone, the film breaks through the couple's isolation (and through our own prejudice and frustration) so that the sweethearts emerge as full, achingly human characters.
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) R  K- W5 F+ W, b4 H — Stephen Holden,
8 d4 _5 C: `/ h; s0 MThe New York Times
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