Ok so I finally watched all the Marvel Animated Movies in the end I watched up to 5 in one day and now have a head full of marvel goodness. I am a big fan of animation not just Japanese Anime and have followed nearly all the animations that were based on comic books. I am also a Marvel fan especially X-men cartoons and I collect the Wolverine origins comic series as well as New Avengers and Gotham City Sirens. So I would natural have gotten a hold on any Marvel film and these animation are generally better than the live action films that have been made over the last few years, with the exception of Iron Man, Thor and the Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton one) the Marvel live actions haven’t been great some entertain but lack any of the qualities that made the comics great or are basically cash cows, made for idiots and children and favour spectacle and special effects rather than true story telling or the gritty world these characters actually inhabit. The one thing the animated movie do is actually feel a lot more like the comic, I mean Hulk vs. Wolverine was a hundred times better than Wolverine: Origins, which was so wrong!!! So let me introduce you to the films in the order I enjoyed them.

Hulk vs. Thor/Wolverine – The plot for Vs. Thor is that for ages, Odin has protected his kingdom of Asgard. But every winter, the All-Father must rest and regain his strength for one week. During this time, all of Asgard’s foes (including trolls, giants, dark elves, and demons) try to claim the realm for their own, but they are always stopped by Odin’s son, the mighty Thor, albeit with the loss of many brave Asgardian warriors. Loki, god of mischief, has kidnapped Dr. Bruce Banner and brought him to Asgard with the help of Amora, once Thor’s lover, now the super villain known as the Enchantress. Loki makes Banner angry and he changes into the Hulk. The Enchantress then casts a spell over the Hulk which separates Banner from his monstrous alter-ego and grants Loki control over the Hulk’s body.
The plot for Vs. Wolverine starts with a prologue, Wolverine states that “I’m the best at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice.” Wolverine wakes up dazed and confused in a crater in the mountains, as he asks, “What the hell happened?” he hears a roar in the distance. Just then the Hulk jumps over a cliff and lands in front of him, roaring in his face. Wolverine simply replies “Oh yeah…” The story then rewinds back to the events prior to this. Department H had sent in Wolverine to track down a mysterious beast known by the US Military as the Hulk, who is rampaging across the Canadian wilderness.

Planet Hulk - The Hulk awakes on board a shuttle which crashes on the planet Sakaar. Imperial guards appear and attach an obedience disk to the Hulk, and is able to communicate. From here the Hulk later wakes up on an imperial transport en-route to a coliseum, weakened after coming through the portal and imprisoned with Hiroim, Korg, Miek, Elloe Kaifi, Lavin Skee, an Android and a few hived natives. The slaves are forced to fight for their freedom in a succession of 3 fights. Lavin Skee takes charge, making battle plans for when they reach the coliseum for which Hulk shows no interest. Their first opponents are Korg’s brothers. Despite Korg’s refusal to fight, the Kronans attack his team. The fight leaves Lavin Skee impaled and the natives dead before Korg decides to destroy them, and sees Hulk trying to escape. But, when he realises the leader is the Red King he tries to attack him after killing the Great Devil Corker, and ends up fighting the Emperor’s lieutenant, Caiera. Red King shoots the Hulk, but doesn’t kill him due to the displeasure of the crowd. The Red King secretly plans Hulk’s death. The events that follow lead to hulks escape along with his co prisoners and their journey to survive and get revenge against the Red King.

Ultimate Avengers – The plot is In the last days of World War II in the European Theatre, Steve Rogers, a U.S. soldier, known as Captain America due to being enhanced with the “Super-Soldier Serum”, prevents a missile launch by Nazis, which are soon revealed to be shape-shifting extra-terrestrials led by one taking the form of SS officer Herr Kleiser. The missile explosion, however, sends Rogers into a catatonic state, and he falls into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, presumed dead. In the present day, Captain America is found and revived by a S.H.I.E.L.D. team led by General Nick Fury. Bruce Banner and his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross lead a team of government scientists working to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum in order to try and stop the real power that backed the Nazis – the alien Chitauri. Banner thinks the Super-Soldier Serum is the key to him controlling the Hulk, and he secretly uses his blood to try to create a cure, instead of using candidates that had been selected for the rebirth procedure. As excepted things don’t go as planned especially with the added threat of an alien invasion.

Doctor Strange – the plot is Dr. Stephen Strange is one of the most gifted surgeons in medicine; however, he is also highly arrogant and dismissive of his colleagues. While driving home from the hospital one night, he notices Baron Mordo and his allies slaying a monster – notable because they are hidden from view by one of Wong’s spells. An unbelieving Strange dismisses it as stress-related hallucination. The next day, he is visited by the hospital’s administrator Oliver who states that Dr. Gina Atwater has problems with him. He then speaks with Dr. Atwater and discusses her case of a child — one of many — who is suffering from dangerous nightmares. Seeing the children causes Stephen to flashback to when his sister April had a headache similar to the ones the children have been having. The conversation also reveals that the two doctors have had a romantic relationship in the past. When touching one child, he sees an image of a demonic skull-face laughing while engulfed in flames and promptly leaves, telling Gina that there is nothing he can do for the children. While driving home, Stephen again sees the vision of flames with a burning face in them and swerves his car to avoid ghostly children in the road, careening off the cliffside. As a result of the crash, his hands are left shattered and useless. Spending all of his fortune and life savings in pursuit of a way to fix his fractured hands, the dejected doctor believes all is lost until his suicide attempt is thwarted by Wong who recommends the Ancient One to offer him hope and healing in Tibet.

Ultimate Avengers 2 – the plot is that of T’Challa, the Prince of Wakanda, returns from the outside world to learn the kingdom is being attacked by the alien Chitauri. Herr Kleiser, the alien shape-shifter who battled Captain America during World War II, kills T’ Challa’s father in combat and seeks Wakanda’s store of vibranium, the metal the Chitauri use to manufacture their ships and weapons. After becoming King and assuming the alias of the Black Panther, T’ Challa seeks the aid of Captain America. General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. orders the Ultimate Avengers to assemble, with the exception of Thor (who is unavailable) and the Hulk (his alter ego Bruce Banner is being kept under surveillance).

Next Avengers: Tomorrows heroes – A battle with Ultron leaves the Avengers defeated, with six of the heroes killed during the fight, and the world at the mercy of Ultron’s machine army. Tony Stark / Iron Man decides to take the hero’s children to an underground fortified refuge hidden above the Arctic Circle. The children are James Rogers (son of Black Widow and Captain America), Henry Pym Jr. (son of Giant-Man and Wasp), Azari (son of Black Panther and Storm), and Torunn (daughter of Thor and Sif). Stark secretly raises and trains the children for 12 years, keeping their true origins secret from them. One day the Vision arrives at the refuge after hiding for over a decade from Ultron. He has come to warn Stark that Francis Barton, son of Hawkeye, is also alive. While the curious children are eavesdropping on Stark and the Vision, James accidentally activates a series of Iron Man style robots that mimic the look and abilities Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Thor, Black Widow and Giant Man. After they take off and crash through the refuge’s dome, Stark’s base is no longer invisible to Ultron’s worldwide sensors. Stark, now dressed as Iron Man, is able to stall Ultron long enough for the children to escape, but he is eventually subdued and captured. Ultron is also able to reprogram the Iron Avenger robots to follow his commands. The children now have to battle to recuse Stark and help save mankind from Ultron’s oppression.

Thor: Tales of Asgard – Before he ever lifted his mighty hammer Mjolnir, there was the sword. Fantastic journeys beckon from the mysterious nine realms. Places of dark mists and fiery voids. Of winged creatures and giants in the ice. And the most alluring quest of all – the search for the legendary Lost Sword of Surtur. Hungry for adventure, Thor secretly embarks on the journey of a lifetime, joined by his loyal brother Loki, whose budding sorcery equips him with just enough magic to conjure up trouble, along with the Warriors Three – a band of boastful travellers reluctant to set sail on any adventure that might actually be dangerous. But what starts out as a harmless treasure hunt quickly turns deadly, and Thor must now prove himself worthy of the destiny he covets by saving Asgard itself.

The Invincible Iron Man – Attempting to raise an ancient Chinese city using his company’s resources – while also diverting money into a project that he swears will bring Stark Enterprises big money without revealing the nature of the research – Tony Stark’s ambitions go up in smoke when the Jade Dragons attack the excavation site, killing most of the men there and kidnapping his friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes. Traveling to China to investigate, he is captured and badly injured by the Jade Dragons, his life only saved thanks to a Chinese shaman and Rhodes’ skills as an army medic after a piece of shrapnel damages his heart. Tony talks to the Shaman, who reveals that the Dragons seek to prevent the return of the Mandarin, an evil ruler of great power who ruled China three thousand years ago, and who the city commemorates. Should four rings created by the Mandarin – their purpose being to grant him power over death – be brought together after the city rises, the Mandarin will awaken and the world will be in great peril. The Dragons force Tony to construct a weapon to sink the city within a week or face execution and to show they are serious they kill the shaman. Befriending Li Mei, a member of the group, Tony learns that she has a great duty that has been passed down her family from father to son – she had no brothers – but she will not reveal what it is. Meanwhile, four elemental spirits are released by the raising of the city, the spirits subsequently acquiring two of the Mandarin’s four rings. Tony now as Iron man must find these 4 rings first and stop an ancient evil from taking over the world.

Ok so why these films are great, they are grittier than their live action counter parts for one thing most of them are 12’s and therefor are more violent for cartoons. I was shocked by some of the bloodshed and the harshness of these films as I was not expecting that from cartoons made in America. Hulk Vs. Wolverine does not shy away from showing Wolverine’s more violent character and doesn’t water him down like the live films do, instead he uses those claws to their full effect and we see him really slash people apart. Also it’s a great way to see him in his older days before the X-men when he was a harsher and more aggressive man, you get to meet the other members of the weapon X program such as Sabertooth, Omega Red and the wonderful Deadpool. Deadpool has always been a genius character you just can’t dislike a grey area villain like him, he’s the merc with a mouth and absolutely crazy. He is genius in the films delivering some amazing one liners and comic timing to the action and intensity. You get to see Wolverines best enemies and see him do what he is best at, plus the show down with Hulk is awesome, a brutal fight between two aggressive and anger driven protagonists.

As a fan of the Avengers I’m also enjoying how much is out there dealing with their genesis as a team as well as individuals. I have to admit that the only one I didn’t really like was Invincible Iron man it lacked something the others had and I didn’t like its take on Iron-man’s genesis and giving him a different love interest. I adore the new Iron-man films but the animated film fell flat for me even the Next Avengers was better and that was about children. The first Ultimate Avenger movie was also pure brilliance showing how desperate Bruce Banner has become and how the team work together giving us great insight into how these big characters can work as a team (I can’t wait for the live action film) the second one wasn’t as good but that’s more to do with the fact that I’m just not into the Black panther and kinda glaze over when the storyline is too focused on him.
I’m glad he won’t be in the new movie he just isn’t a character I find very interesting I prefer my characters a little more arrogant and wise cracking, I love the sarcastic nature of characters such as Iron-Man, Ant-Man and Hawkeye, I love the harsh and aggressiveness that plagues heroes so they are not cookie cutter good guys like Wolverine and The Hulk and duel nature of being a monster but also just a man and a haunted one at that like Bruce Banner. I love Thor because of his other worldliness, I love seeing someone from another world or time try and fit into our current reality especially with his old ways speech patterns and use of Norse lore. I also love the villains like Loki, who I always feel bad for cause I kinda understand why he does what he does he’s been completely taken over by his own rage and pain and its Odin’s fault really for that. I love the relationship between Thor and Loki, close brother to enemies but it’s not as simple as good versus bad as both are to blame for the way they are now. I even don’t mind Captain America, I shouldn’t as he is rather cookie cutter good guy but at least he isn’t the giant wet blanket Boy Scout that Superman is (I really hate superman), Captain America after all used to hang out with Wolverine and at least he fights Nazi’s and was humble enough to take orders from Iron-man.
So as you can tell I enjoy the characters that inhabit the Avenger universe nearly as much as the ones that inhabit the X-men verse. These films do justice to them giving each enough time to development; they are equally fleshed out and given plenty of characterisation. The Hulk has been given so much more than just smashing and bashing especially with Planet Hulk, which really is amazing. To see Hulk find a life for himself rather than as Bruce Banner is great and to see him not as an uncontrollable monster that just embodies anger and destruction was a great direction for his character. He found a world and a purpose a place he was accepted and could be part of and not hunted as a monster. Planet Hulk is great because it shows the duel nature of The Hulk himself, when you get passed the rage and give him the chance to truly live. It’s also rather brutal and harsh, you get character deaths and intense fights so not really one for the kids. Also not really for the kids is Doctor Strange a character I hadn’t ever really followed but has an interesting genesis. I like the mystical arts so a super hero that uses eastern magic’s as his weapon is great. I was taken by surprise by how creepy and a little scary this film was, as a child I would have had nightmares after this but luckily I’m an adult that watches a lot of horror. I mean there’s a scene where killer demon bat things are flying around stripping the flesh off people leaving only there skeletons, not very child friendly. But much respect for marvel going there and showing that super heroes inhabit a world that is more gritty and dangerous than is normally portrayed in cartoons. These films are defiantly for the comic fans themselves and not the average cinema going audience, these are for us that want a more realistic portrayal of our characters and a more honest adaptation of our comics.

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Now I’m not really a fan of American horror’s as well their never really that scary, normally a remake of a film that was much better to start with or just a bunch of teenagers being stupid. Now I do like the slasher genre I was of the Scream generation and loved those films back in the day but the slasher has lost its appeal and are really just the same over again now and the teenagers are getting more stupid. There have been American gems over the years to prove me wrong like Paranormal Activity, the Last Exorcist and I do love a good B movie like Piranha 3D. But alas back to the point, insidious looked good, looked like a decent haunting movie. I love haunting movies; a good haunted house story is a big draw for me so I gave it the benefit of the doubt since the trailer was so promising. Though watching it was another story all together, best way to explain is that they took a really good movie and half way through lost the plot and stuck a different movie on the end. The first half and the second just didn’t match, they would have made two different films but together they’ll didn’t blend well and it fell into the American trap of showing too much and completely nullifying the scare factor.
Let’s talk about the good, the film starts using classic horror scoring even the font for the title is old styled. It’s like watching the horror films of the 1930’s imagine the font and music of Nosferatu. This older scoring makes for a classic eerie atmosphere, it’s an unnatural music with sharp sounds great for creating an unfamiliar and unsettled environment. It really works in the films favour as it does make this house feel haunted and creepy; you don’t trust it and you already feel like something bad is in the house. Now the first half sets up the haunting and some of the things you need for a horror film. We have an imposing house that already feels ominous; the camera angles also make the house seem unfriendly giving us unusual views of the staircase and shoots of locked doors. Add to the mix the young family, new home 3 young children one still an infant in the crib, a new job, the pressure of motherhood and working from home, an unfamiliar area and the isolation you get as an adult when you move to a new area and only have each other. This all leads to added anxiety for the characters and us as the audience who begin to emphasize with their growing concern and apprehension about their new life. So everything is set up nicely for a good horror film as the characters are already under a lot of pressure which makes for a nice tense atmosphere to add a haunting. And this they do well with a subtle build-up of books moving but no one see’s how or when, a strange voice on the baby monitor and some really good jumps. I was well on my way to feeling truly unsettle and had given myself a heart attack at the jumps. I soon started hiding behind my hand and decided that this film was a bad idea because I was freaked out.
This is a great example of a haunted house film coupled with the growing anxiety of these parents. Before long one of the sons is lured into the attic another source of fear and has a fall, next day he is in a coma. We don’t know the reasons and soon its 3 months later, mother is getting more and more freaked out in her home and father is spending more time away from home unable to help his wife. Things begin to come to a head as it becomes apparent that something in the house wants our comatose youth and its getting closer so our mother finally convinces her husband to move house. Now Paranormal Activity used this plot device but Insidious shows it, very much like Ju-On (Japanese Grudge film) sometimes it’s not the house that is haunted and sometimes it’s something worse than a ghost to blame. As soon as we get into the new house the wife starts seeing ghosts which are a little too real looking for me. This is where the great atmosphere of the first half is ruined and the film takes things too far.
Here’s where the film goes bad and wrong. They call in the Ghostfacers (if you’ve seen the show Supernatural you’ll know what I mean) they act like the comedy double act of the ghost hunting world and while its works for a little while, you are lulled into a false sense of security by the comedy and then something jumps out at you, it goes too far and then they call in the exorcist. Now it all goes wrong, ok the exorcist seeing that it’s a demon haunting the son trying to steal his body that’s fine but it just didn’t work. We get all the back story and a stupid plot about astro-projection and our little boy lost in a place called the Farther, his soul is lost and now ghosts are trying to take his body and worse than that this demon. It turns out that good old dad was an astro-projector and when he was young a creepy old women stalked him getting closer (as revealed in a selection of secret photo’s his mum kept). Somehow creepy woman didn’t run off with his body, dad has forgotten this and now it’s up to him to remember his power and project into this nightmare world to save his son and escape the demon. It just gets plan silly now, old woman exorcist puts on a gas mask with a weird trunk and does some odd séance that looks ridicules. And then Darth Maul appears, I’m not even joking you see his face once in the normal world and I jumped like crazy but then we meet him in crazy ghost world he’s fully revealed and just not scary if you’ve seen the recent Star Wars movies. The astro Farther scene just plays out too much we explore all these ghosts that we know nothing about, they’re not needed it just bulks out a storyline that is running away with itself. Then we enter an area that looks like the VIP area of a night club mixed with the Phantom of the Opera’s lair. Just to make things weird we see that Darth Maul is a bit of a carnival fan, loves an old record spinning on a classic turn table does Darth Maul. By now we’ve seen the big bad in all its glory the film is pretty much over for me as its way to obvious and just not scary watching this CGI demon chase our characters around the place trying to get back to their bodies.

The film does try to have a quirky twist, one that they flash back to about 5mins after we saw it, but it’s just not enough to save a failed second half. So much promise this film had but they got too excited about the different plot ideas, they tried to do too much and ended up butchering what could have been a much simpler and affective film.

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Pontypool is an independent film that doesn’t rely on a big budget or high production values or even that many actors and just one set. I’m normally a fan of independent horror as they tend to actual be interesting and have a real feeling of insecurity and macabre. The independents don’t rely on spectacle and have time to develop a far more intense world of horror. I have given up on American horror as it never scares me, tends to be re makes of Asian horrors that I by far prefer or use cheap shock tactics but without any real menace and certainly no psychological horror. But this film sounded really intriguing and said it was the best zombie movie out there, now I have a huge soft spot for Zombie’s doesn’t matter the movie if there’s Zombies I’m there. There are so many terrible zombie movies having been a staple of the B movie horror genre and still I love them. Zombies have always made me laugh truth be told but then a new wave of modern Zombie films started to emerge to replace the B movies. Also the Hollywood Zombie movie went from classics such as Dawn of the Dead to the genre killing spectacle that was the Resident Evil movies. Now while I like the re makes of Dawn of the Dead the follow ups lacked any real punch and the 1st Resident evil movie was brilliant but the less said about its awful sequels the better. But alas the Zombie film went from amusing with the clichéd jumps to some truly scary stuff like 28 days Later and Rec. So when an independent says it the best Zombie movie I though hell yes.

Now Pontypool is a creepy little slow burner that starts to unsettle you and then goes a bit too far so it’s not really that easy to follow and you are left feeling confused and a bit stupid. The story centre’s around a radio station and it 3 members of staff. On one cold dark morning shift maverick radio host Mazzy is spinning his slightly confrontational stories much to the annoyance of his producer that wants him just to report the news and weather and the amusement of the tech girl. While doing their morning program they get a news break about a protest that seems to be going out of control from their eye in the sky reporter. Now the entire story is told and seen from the point of view of these three inside their radio studio so we only know as much as they do and are as clueless to what’s going on as they are. We get our information from panicked phone calls and eye witness reports from their one man in the field.

The problem with the movie isn’t the slow burn start or the lack of visuals; I didn’t mind that all was left up to my imagination. When the scenes of people being eaten or strange mobs are descending on locations I could imagine what they looked like and knew that we were facing a zombie epidemic. The problem isn’t even the new twist on the Zombie genre which was actually a really interesting idea. The idea is that this bout of Zombieism is via an evolution in the way a virus is spread. This like 28 Day we have a virus turning people into a rambling mass of unthinking flesh eaters. But it’s even cleverer than that the virus is being spread through the English language. Somehow certain words in the English language have become infected and by saying them you become infected and slowly lose yourself as an individual. You see very little of the Zombies in fact its better when you don’t as it adds to the sense of isolation and confusion. The problem is the film gets too clever and starts not really making much sense expecting you to fill in all the blanks and understand a whole speech about how we need to learn how not to understand and by making no sense we can survive, which means that there’s a lot of nonsensically conversation on how to unlearn our understanding of the English language.

So here is what I have put together of the plot and tried to make sense of what was going on. The virus is in English only and only certain words, a cryptic message tells us that terms of endearment hold the most threat. So ideally we shouldn’t be speaking English to each other or using nice terms like sweetheart, which our characters seem to ignore as producer lady calls up her daughter and tells her “everything will be fine sweetheart” way to spread a zombie virus lady!!!! Ok other information that we learn, a cat called honey is missing and some of the Zombies may be wondering around with the missing cat’s poster. This I think is how the virus got spread people started looking for the lost cat used the word Honey (which is an endearing term and therefor infected) others overheard and got infected. So there you have it Zombie plague was spread by a missing cat there’s a new twist. Somehow when you get infected you start repeating the infected word and then go blank. Once in blank zombie mood you start to repeat whatever sound you here, one report from outside is people standing by a car imitating the sound of windscreen wipers. Noise draws the zombies to you so be quiet, which is a staple of the Zombie genre and so is the fact that when they find you they will eat you.

Other strange plot conclusions include the fact that this disturbance started outside the practice of a doctor who somehow escapes and crawl into the radio station through the window. By this point tech girl is whistling like a kettle clearly infected so doctor ushers Mazzy and producer into the sound proof both and them doesn’t explain what’s going on. Mazzy is acting skittish and weird and doctor is babbling about linguistics and radio receivers. From my understanding is the Zombies are like receivers they need a sound that they can respond to bouncing this sound of themselves and then for some reason eating people. Oh also another important fact is if the zombie doesn’t find a sound to respond to they vomit up loads of blood and die, which is the fate of poor tech girl. This is where I think you need to be a speech and language therapist or have a degree in linguistic or the English language because I don’t know what anyone is really talking about, I get the gist of the plot but really they could have made it a little more accessible my Ma in Contemporary Film didn’t save me from brain ache.

So what did I learn from Pontypool, don’t call your cat Honey, Kiss is kill and if in doubt drop a bomb on it!!!!!

Moving on I decided to follow up Pontypool with a bit of Asian Horror and a nice looking Korean film called Someone Behind You. Now I mainly choose this film because it was only 1hr 20min and my head was in pain from Pontypool so just wanted a nice little haunted school girl movie which the Korean do well. Now Tale of Two Sisters is my fav horror of all time so I put a lot of faith in Korean horror makers and always expect an interesting twist. Someone Behind You turned out to be a little more complicated than I was expecting, which may be due to brain fry from Pontypool but really I think it was just an unfortunate choice.

The story involves a family curse and the poor girl who is now affected by it. Somehow when you get cursed anyone you tick off decides they want to kill you until at last someone succeeds. So poor Gai-na (this is the way my subtitles spelled her name) is trying to recover from the shock of her Aunt getting butchered by her other Aunt in front of her eyes. This horrific scene is probably what passed the curse onto her. Now Gai-na is being haunted by some disfigured person telling her she’s next and people she knows are trying to kill her for reasons related to jealously. It was easy to follow for most of the film weaving a spooky tale of haunting, isolation and family tragedy as Gai-na tries to find out the route of the curse and how to survive it. All the while she is getting cryptic messages and help from the mysterious boy at school that it doesn’t take a genius to realise that only Gai-na can see.

So my money was on him either being a ghost trying to help her break the curse or a figment of her imagination creating a buffer zone for her own delusions. Now I was firmly expecting either ghost or she’s a crazy as the plot but no instead the film takes a strange turn and stops making sense instead bringing in another plot right at the end. It turns out that her boyfriend is in fact the son of a man her father fired who in a state of desperation burns down his house with the family inside. Somehow the boyfriend survived and grew up thinking of nothing but revenge and kills Gai-na’s parents and sets the house on fire in an attempt to kill Gai-na as well. Lucky for Gai-na she’s in the fencing club and some display swords have been knocked of the wall added to the perfect timing of her younger sisters arrival and they manage to kill crazy boyfriend and escape fire waking up in the hospital.

Now this would all be good if I hadn’t spent the entire film thinking it was some kind of supernatural enemy that was haunting our girl or that there was some family curse. This particular plot seems to be forgotten and instead a revenge thriller has appeared regardless of all we’ve seen so far. But just for added plot twists and confusion Gai-na through some dream flashbacks thinks she sees her sister with a knife. She wakes and low and behold sister tells her it’s all her fault and goes at her with a knife and the sisters wrestle with each other resulting in the death of younger sister. Gai-na is shocked and upset so who turns up but mystery boy to tell her he told her so. Gai-na sees the situation for what it is as she replays the events of her sister’s death. It was not younger sister that went mad it was Gai-na herself that lost the plot and decided to stab her sister to death, dum dum dum maybe Gai-na was mad the whole time maybe all those times she was attacked wasn’t because jealousy turned to murder and in fact she just kept attacking people.

I hear you say of course that makes so much sense, this is in fact a plot devise I’ve seen in Korean horror. Well mystery boy seems smug about the fact that he did tell her not to trust herself and after the flash back reveal that he was in fact never there we pretty much realise he must be a figment produced by her madness. Gai-na’s despair makes her turn on her own figment and stabs him in the chest only for him to smirk evilly and Gai-na fall down on the floor revealing a knife in her chest. Ah ha not only was she mad but he was a projection of another personality living in Gai-na by stabbing him she really stabbed herself and now is dead yes yes that makes sense. Well sorry but no it makes no sense because the last scene is a boy at school being bullied at school by a teacher, after being humiliated and left alone mysterious boy appears looking sharp in a suit, smirks and say do you want to kill him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What wait mystery boy wasn’t part of Gai-na in fact he seems to be a truly evil entity that prays on those who are weak, jealous or seek revenge. I have come to the conclusion that he is in fact the embodiment of this curse. At first he manipulated Gai-na’s family all the way back to her grandparents. He seems particularly fond of love triangles since brides always end up dead, then he found Gai-na and her revenge obsessed boyfriend and lastly he was able to make her crazy enough to kill her sister and herself. Now that that family is all dead he has found a new victim to hang around and the circle of violence starts again.

What did I learn about Someone Behind You, don’t watch it after Pontypool and beware attractive looking Korean boys in suits giving cryptic messages of who to trust, it’s better to ignore them!!!

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Beautiful boxer is the true story of Nong Toom a woman who was born male and entered one of the most masculine of sports to save the money to have a sex change. The sport was Muay Thai the Thai art of kick boxing a powerful, brutal and beautiful form of martial arts. Nong Toom was born a boy to a poor family but soon realized that his fascination with all thing feminine ran deeper and desperately desired to be a woman on the outside as well as the inside. Beautiful boxer details his life story from a child training to be a monk, to a young adolescent that in order to earn money to support his family discovers the easiest way to earn money is in a boxing ring, through the difficulties of being a woman trapped in a mans body trying to survive in a very male dominated sport, to being Thailand’s 1^st transvestite boxer and to finally having his dreams come true and step outside into the world as a woman.

The most interesting aspect of the film Beautiful Boxer is its duality. The character of Nong Toom sets out and masters one of the most masculine sports in order to be ultimately more feminine. Nong Toom is a woman born in a man’s body that has great masculinity but also manages to have his goals realized when he has his sex change. At one point existing as Thailand’s first transvestite boxer he has to deal with the conflicts of both his body and mind.

When Nong Toom enters a ring he doesn’t enter as a man, he has the strength, skill and physical form of a male boxer but underneath it he never denies his femininity. He choose Muay Thai as it was the only option to raise money for his poor family and as he grew in strength, determination and skill he realized just how much money could be made in this sport. Willing to put his body through the training he soon had earned enough for his parents and realized that he could also save up and get the sex change he wanted so bad. Not afraid of what others thought he explored his femininity both in and out of the ring. Having the body of a man he strengthens himself to the peak of physical ability using his male strength to achieve his goals.

But as he gets closer to his dream he begins to sacrifice his male body. At first he only wears make up in the ring but as he earns more money he begins to explore his more feminine side, wishing to look more and more like a women. He wears a top in the ring to hide his chest and refuses to strip naked at his weigh ins. He begins to take hormones reducing his strength and increasing his femininity. At one point caught between the two worlds of a professional Muay Thai fighter and a gentle woman. As his physical strength decreases his emotional strength increases. He is clear of his goals and makes the necessary sacrifices to achieve them, his resolve is set and when he has become far too feminine to fight as a male boxer (women are not allowed in the boxing ring in Thailand), and he travels to Japan to take part in a fight with a female Japanese wrestler. As much as he needed his male physicality it was only to achieve his final goal and become a women ultimately choosing femininity over masculinity.

The films main focus is that of duality which is the underlying theme of this film. The idea of masculinity versus femininity, as well as beauty and grace versus harshness and brutality. The entire film is steeped with these juxtapositions and examples of these ideals can compliment each other as well as work against each other. Not only is Toom’s duality explored but also the very sport of Muay Thai. Thai kick boxing is a violent and brutal sport using elbows and knees to make connecting blows. The risk of injury is high especially since it uses such points as the elbow to deliver fast accurate and strong blows. But at the same time it is a beautiful sport many of its moves are dance like and can be preformed with the same grace as any professional martial art. It takes a lot of talent to master this sport and to bring out both its powerful and graceful nature. It is through this that Toom learns about himself, like the sport he is both graceful and powerful he can be both beautiful and brutal.

The film has a beautiful duality in itself, unfolding in scenes that look like an artistic vision as well scenes that unfold with a natural realism. The look of beautiful boxer is much like the theme it explores. Some of the movie shows us a harsh reality and brutality of the world with even segments of the movie having a grittier tone and harsher colours and scenes. At a complete juxtaposition to these, sequences of the movie are done in an almost dream like quality, lighter colours are used and the scenery is more gentle and peaceful. When exploring the world of Muay Thai many earthy colours are used, reds of blood and browns of earth. The world of Toom’s femininity is a place of pastels and whites. As Toom becomes more feminine his clothes are the colours stereotypical of female wear and his face is paled with foundation. The weather also plays a strong part in this film. When times are difficult or harsh it is dark and cloudy, confrontation, pain and fear brings rain and evening settings. When there is beauty to behold and things are going well the setting is early morning and day time, the days are also clear and sunny. The weather matches up with the feelings that Toom is going through, when dreaming the world takes on a gentle feel and the colours are beautiful and varied. Every detail of this film stresses duality and juxtapositions. It’s a film about conflictions and only by embracing the conflicting natures within your self you can find a resolve. It’s about distinguishing weaknesses and strengths and finding what’s truly important to you. It’s the journey of one individual explored not only through themselves but through the medium of film. Beautiful boxer uses it visuals, score, cinematography and narrative to fully explore the life of Nong Toom.