Three . . . Extremes (original title: Saam gaang yi) is a 2004 Hong Kong film that showcases shorts by three East Asian horror directors: Fruit Chan (Hong Kong), Chan-wook Park (South Korea), and Takashi Miike (Japan). As this compilation predates later major releases by all three directors, it is an excellent introduction to their work. All three shorts are visually stunning and replete with terror and gore. 

 

 Chan’s “Dumplings” (written by Pik Wah Lillian Lee) tells the story of Mrs. Li (Chin Wah Miriam Yeung), a retired Hong Kong television actress whose desperate quest to reclaim the beauty of her youth leads her to Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), a mainlander who claims that her special dumplings will do just that.The horrific twist to this story is the particular type of meat that Aunt Mei uses to make the dumplings. Initially repelled by this ingredient, Mrs. Li’s need to recapture the attentions of her philandering husband (Ka Fai Tony Leung), a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, trumps her moral scruples. After several visits to Aunt Mei’s housing project flat, she regains her beauty, but also undergoes an unexpectedly demonic transformation in the process. This film is a social satire aimed at the HK entertainment industry. 

 

 Park’s “Cut” (which he also wrote) also takes aim at his own stomping grounds, the Seoul film-making community. One of the top two directors in South Korea (Byung-hun Lee) arrives home from a shoot only to be taken captive by an angry, unhinged extra (Won-hie Lim) and transported to a set from his latest move (which looks exactly like his own living room). There the Extra has tied the director’s wife (Hye-jeong Kang), a concert pianist, to a grand piano. He tells the Director that he hates him because he is not only successful, but also a good man. He proceeds to cut off one of her fingers every five minutes and will not stop unless the director can prove that he is not a good man by strangling a child (Dae-yeon Lee) whom the extra has kidnapped. The transformation of the director under the stress of this scenario turns out to be horrifying than the extra had intended.  

 

  Miike’s “Box” (screenplay by Haruko Fukushima) is the most surrealistic of the three directors’ shorts. Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa) is a twenty-five year-old Tokyo author who has a recurring nightmare of being buried alive in a box in a snow-covered field. Scenes from her present life are interwoven with dream sequences as more of each story is revealed. As a ten-year-old child, she and her twin sister Shoko (Yuu Suzuki) performed in a kind of traveling Japanese performance art circus under the direction of Higata (Atsuro Watabe). Jealous because she believes that Higata favors Shoko, she locks her in a box that is a stage prop for their performance. Confronted in the act by Higata, she attacks him, inadvertently causing a fire that kills both Higata and Shoko. Thereafter she is haunted by Shoko’s spirit. Then she meets a man, Yoshii (also played by Watabe), who looks exactly like Higata. Will she pay for her childhood jealousy? What is real and what is not? 

 

This film collection’s dialogue is in Cantonese/Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese, with English subtitles available. Its trailer is available on YouTube.

 

THE FRISCO KID