It may seem an odd thing to say about a film in which a baseball bat as an instrument of assault and rape is a recurring theme, but what makes A Bloody Aria a darkly delightful surprise is its restraint.
Director Won Shin-yun infuses the moralisms with a pulpy energy that recalls cheery shockers such as Hostel and Saw, while also indulging in Three Stooges-style bumpkin-knockabout humour.
Won's critique of the abuse of power in South Korean society lacks trenchancy, but he subverts convention with an incisiveness lacking in much transatlantic horror.
It's supposedly an essay on the nature of human brutality and there is a certain amount of narrative deftness at play, but whether in the sequences of dialogue or violence, in both cases extended, the film is not merely unattractive but also uninteresting
It all looks like Michael Haneke-lite but, as a comment upon the fact that people tamed by violence tend to promote it when given half a chance, it has its grimly amusing merits.
Korean filmmaker Won uses a startlingly in-your-face style for this outrageous examination of bullying at all kinds of levels. Both unsettling and entertaining, it also finds real terror and black humour in the least likely places.
although the degeneration of events from bad to worse is made unbearably tense, Won also peppers his film with black humour, without ever abandoning his allegiance to social commentary.
Intense film about bullies, psychos and all around not nice guys. A bit confusing, especially the ending, but very compelling. Also, I've begun to notice I'm giving everything I like 4 stars. I used to give 5 stars out like they were fliers, but now I'm addicted to 4 stars as a grow older. I think I'm a 4 star
maniac.
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