Korean films on his list are The Host, Memories of Murder and, oddly enough, JSA.
Of course, Shaun of the Dead is also on the list. Read into that what you will.
Three Korean Films on Quentin Tarantino’s Top 20 Films Since 1992
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
“Shaun of the Dead” is a great movie, and “The Host” is a good one, too. “JSA” sucks.
Everytime QT speaks something bad happens.
“Violence is one of the most fun things to watch”
Guess who said that?
I thought Oldboy and 친절한 금자씨 would have definitely made his list.
“Shaun of the Dead” pretty funny and good for a low budget laugh, but great no.
“JSA” I thought was pretty damn good, but it was a long time ago since I saw it.
“Old Boy” boring, just how many time can you repeat the same fight until the film runs out.
Oldboy is definitely my fav, followed by the very excellent Memories of Murder. JSA and the Host were decent, but they aren’t on the same level of awesomeness.
Liked “The President’s Last Bang” and “Tazza,” albeit for very different reasons.
Speaking of which, what’s Kim Hye-soo like? (You know how you are)
I hate to be hatin’, but I’ve always felt “The Host” was waaaaay over-rated. It’s a good film, but the accolades it’s gotten internationally are ridiculous, and I suspect many critics have jumped on it’s jock because they suddenly realized they’ve missed a lot of good Korean cinema and are trying to make up for it. For example, a Rotten Tomatoes ranking of sci-fi’s 100 best films by their editorial staff put it at #8 (of ALL TIME!), ahead of “The Matrix,” the original “Frankenstein,” and freakin’ “Star Wars.” Come on. This for a movie that’s obviously at least 30 minutes too long, shamelessly plays the ol’ Korea-as-victim-of-evil-America cliche, and has several scenes that are total train wrecks (Hey, when the family is crying over the death of their young child, let’s have them cry so hard that they look ridiculous! It’s brilliant!).
On another note, I’m totally in agreement with crazy Quentin on “Unbreakable.” I love the approach that movie took with the superhero mythos, and I’ve always felt it was under-rated and unfairly compared to “The Sixth Sense.”
PS Oldboy rocks.
“(Hey, when the family is crying over the death of their young child, let’s have them cry so hard that they look ridiculous! It’s brilliant!)”
I don’t think you “got” The Host.
Arghaeri (#4),
“JSA” was ‘damn good’ and “Shaun of the Dead” was just ‘pretty good’? Were you half asleep when you watched “Shaun of the Dead”? It is a great movie.
The reason “Shaun of the Dead” is so great movie is that clever gags or funny lines is in almost every second of the movie, starting from the very beginning. Also, everything is so well woven together, with subtle references and not so subtle references to previous gags and funny lines. You just have to pay attention. The fact that it was a relatively low-budget movie makes it even more amazing. It is one of the best comedies I have ever seen.
Below are three links. The first one shows that the gags and funny lines started from the very beginning of the movie. The second link shows one of the funniest scenes in the movie. And the third link is just a quick run through of the movie, but it does not really do it any justice since it leaves out a lot of great stuff. Try watching it again without your girlfriend nibbling on your ear.
First Link
Second Link
Third Link
Sorry! Here is a better compilation of the scenes from “Shaun of the Dead”
When Quentin talks, people listen. My reactions:
I really, really, want to check out this ‘Battle Royale’.
Woody Allen? In Jennifer Aniston’s voice from ‘Cheers’: Really?
‘Audition’ is so scary I don’t even want to talk about it.
Dazed & Confused: Nails my high school-era experience. Absolutely nails it.
Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ is another one of those films that is too-scary.
A shout out for ‘Lost in Translation’? Yay!! One of my very favorite films.
I really, really, want to check out ‘Memories of Murder’.
I really, really, want to check out ‘Police Story 3/Supercop’.
Shaun of the Dead is great. Every time I see it (4 times so far), I like it more.
M. Night Shamalangadingdong? I invented that name! But yes it’s obvious.
Bruce Willis’s greatest performance (so far), however, was in ‘Pulp Fiction”.
I’d really like to watch a movie one day where someone utters the following words: “Get off my lawn you waeguk-noms!”
pedro:
Guess not. Maybe sometime, one of you true cinema connoisseurs can explain it to a dumb layman like me.
How any list of great Koreans movies in recent history could exclude 크로싱 is beyond me.
“Shaun of the Dead”? It is a great movie.
Maybe for an american it seems highly original, but its not so special when you’re raised on it.
JSA was really boring; turned it off. Same with the Host.
He didn’t mention Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), or Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992). So I don’t think I’ll take his advice at all.
NK @ 12,
Does this come close?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOotoWs5hvU&feature=related
Start from about 2:40.
DLB
AHAHAAH, that was awesome DLB.
here’s another funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVwQwAqKJE4
Damn, that kid’s got a future in entertainment. Horny little bugger!
DLB
I was also surprised he didn’t mention ‘Old Boy’. In fact, the whole trilogy warrants an honorable mention at least. He did mention at least one Michael Mann movie, ‘The Insider’, which is good. Both ‘Heat’ and ‘Public Enemies’ are the works of pure genius. Mann was also one of the first to shoot digital (he used the Viper when filming both ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘Collateral).
Gregory,
Your mention of “Old Boy” reminds me of that great line used to describe Korea’s New Wave of directors as “a great deal of talent incorporating a great deal of violence.” I think this would have to apply to Tarantino himself.
DLB
Can’t believe he omitted Old Boy and Lady Vengeance. Memories of Murder I can accept but Host and JSA??? They aren’t in the same class.
But then again, Tarentino isn’t in the same class as Ridley Scot who is still making good movies in his advanced age. Tarentino’s resume hasn’t grown much beyond Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers, and Pulp Fiction. Although his contribution to pop culture “go medieval on yo’ ass” is certainly not small.
#23 True to an extent. But to Tarantino’s credit, ‘True Romance’ was an amazing tour de force (from a writing standpoint) as was ‘Death Proof’.
#22 I think many Korean movies are very liberal in their portrayal. I imagine that the reason they stir up quite a considerable amount of foreign interest. I think western movie directors warm to Korean movies because they retain that sense of integrity – an element that is truly lost on a lot of North American movies as of late.
“Shaun of the Dead” is great movie? I thought it was one of worse movie ever made.
If you’re going to delete all articles you might as well refer to it as “Shaun of Dead”
You don’t get to see a lot of movies then?
To be fair if english is not your first language, you’re not going to get a lot of the humour, in fact even if it is and you’re not english you may miss a lot of the humour also, since as far as I recall some of it depends on english cultural references.
# Like “Legend of Seeker”
Granfalloon> also think Unbreakable was a great movie. Heard the original intent was to have had a sequel, except the movie bombed. A sequel could have gone into interesting directions about him being a ‘superhero.’
JSA was good, but nothing unique. Shaun of the Dead just OK. The Host was just another take on the monster movie that did not seem to add anything. Better Korean movies out there and Memories of Murder seems interesting
“The President’s Last Bang” is a great movie. It’s also one of my fave movie posters, as well.
JSA was my introduction to Song Kang-ho. A nice concept for a movie but a poorly executed film that was saved by Mr Song’s warm and multifaceted performance. He is brilliant, even if he couldn’t save a dog like 놈놈놈. I guess Tarrantino didn’t see Vengeance Is Mine or A Tale of Two Sisters which are the most incredible Korean films ever.
If you want deeper understanding (of at least one aspect) of The Host, go to a large event like The Incheon Global Fair and Festival in white face and get stuck in the special “we’re screening for influenza” line. The funeral scene in The Host was was the most disturbingly hilarious scenes ever. No wonder Tarrantino loved it.
Old Boy was good but overrated. The octopus scene is one of the most memorable scenes, at least for a Western boy, in modern Korean cinema. I was shocked when I first saw it, but now living in Korea and having eaten plenty of “fresh” octopus, it probably wasn’t so outrageous after all.
The most exciting thing about Heat was wondering when in the hell they were going to pick up the trash that was building because of the sanitation union strike subplot.
I fell asleep during Lady Vengeance. I might have like it better for the sheer weird factor if I had seen 대장금 before watching it.
The best Korean movie I’ve seen is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
(봄여름가을겨울그리고봄)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring,_Summer,_Fall,_Winter…_and_Spring
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374546/
http://www.mininova.org/det/2034159
That’s a movie I reflect on long after watching.
“The best Korean movie I’ve seen is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring …”
I tried to get into it. The best I’ve seen has the English title ‘The Way Home’. The Korean title is something like 집아로 or 집어로. A bit corny but moving.
‘Oldboy’ and that whole genre puts me to sleep — literally — every single time. Whereas everything Tarantino has done totally rocks, including Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, and anything else that nobody has yet mentioned and I might have forgotten. My students, meanwhile, are loving Haeundae/해운대. Not just my students. The entire population of Pusan, it seems. (하지원 rules!)
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