Favorite movies of the decade 00-09

Don't read anything prior watching this. No reviews or friend opinnions, nothing, just go straight for it. It will keep pissing off lots of people over the years, and for all the right reasons that is. An exploration of human emotions done in the most straight no-bullshit way i have seen to this day in a movie.

One of the best serial killer flicks ever made, showing another side of a crime investigation, when they simply don't go anywhere. There's no fancy CSI uber-tecnologic tools for the characters to use, just their instinct to follow. Considering Korean goverment at that time was more busy containing protests in the streets, the cops trying to resolve this sort of cases truly had a hard time investigating this type of stuff.

Korean cinema this past years have show that it dares to go into their not-so-glorious stages of the past. This, along with films like The President's Last Bang, show a social and political awareness that i hope other cinematic industries of the world would dare to follow more often.

Must see in every way, that last shot of Kang Ho Song's face, staring helpless, has to be one of the most enduring images i have seen in a while. Excellent performances by all the cast needless to say.

I can see why many people would dismiss a film like a Bittersweet Life so easilly in a first view. Claiming is nothing but a recopilation of cliches from everything to John Woo to Tarantino to Scarface and back. A Pure "style over substance" in the worst possibly way, etc etc. After all, there are dozens of crime/gangster films that are made every year that follow that path in the laziest way possibly.

Thankfully, A Bittersweet Life is the exact opposite of cheap knock off in the crime/gangster genre. The film that mostly resambles in terms of mood and character would be Jean Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai". Just like Alain Deloin's silent killer, Kim Sun-Woo is a hard faced-cold-as-ice tough guy that seems to be devoid of any emotion. He works as a hotel manager, but at the same time, as the right hand of an important mobster.

His boss gives him a task, to watch over a young mistress he jealously treasures. If Sun Woo happens to catch her with another guy he must kill both in the act. Sun Woo starts following the girl, but something starts to happen. Little by little he begins to feel something, is not love, after all he has never experienced that. What he starts to experiment is a feeling of comfort, of inner peace. The girl lives a normal and simple life. She likes to go to discos, to decorate her house with colorfull stuff. She enjoys life in a way Sun Woo has never enjoyed his own, even while having plenty of luxuries.

Sun Woo decides to hide from his boss that the girl was having an affair with another guy, and that he spared her life. After all, in his mind, he did the right thing, like his boss told him earlier, she was different from men like them. Neverless, this decision proofs to be fatal for Sun Woo, but for his boss as well.

Another user here, Jundaman, say it well, of course ABL touches familiar film-territory, but is the "how" and not the "what" that makes the whole difference here. The way the movie truly dedicates time to develop the main character, how we see a transformation in him, sets ABL way apart from other entries in the genre. When the action occurs it actually has a meaning, it feels like a consequence of the acts of the characters and not just like mindless thrill fillers to distract the audience.

ABL deserves every bit of praise it can get. This is the type of films that define genres and create tendencies, it might be too soon to see that, but the sooner you know, there will be other crime films trying to emulate the mood of this film.

Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man is a lot more than just a simple compilation of images of some guy talking to bears, in the hands of the german filmaker this becomes a fantasy-shattering look at the coldness and indiference of nature. It's also a look at the life of a lonely man (Treadwell) that, leaving aside all his more than clear mental issues, was above anything else loyal to his goal, as insane as said goal could have been.

Herzog is no stranger to stories about people dedicating their lives to wild dreams, the man himself shares this trait with Treadwell (not in the same way certainly) and it makes perfect sense that Herzog got attracted to this story. In the hands of any other director this would have been nothing but a freak show easily mocking Treadwell, which indeed is just a very easy target.
But in the hands of Mr Herzog the whole story adquires different layers of complexity. Oh sure, Treadwell was a nutcase, no doubt there, but a very interesting nutcase to watch. Herzog presents the crude cold facts, nothing more.

Miike shows how skillfull and inventive he can be with Gozu, a bizarre hybrid of horror and yakuza flicks. This is not a "japanese lynch flick" it's a very unique beast that deserves it's own adjectives.

One of my favorite movies of all time, and i'm dead serious. Loved every minute of it, only someone bitter with life could dismiss this movie so easily.