THREE... EXTREMES

DUMPLINGS. A former TV actress, seeing the first wrinkles appear and to win back her unfaithful husband, decides to ask for help from Aunt Mei, famous for her "special" dumplings with rejuvenating power. CUT. A young talented director, upon returning home, is kidnapped by a madman who had worked as an extra in his films. The kidnapper has also kidnapped and tied up the director's wife and a child, putting the man a terrifying choice: either he kills the unknown child or the kidnapper will cut off a finger every five minutes from the director's wife. BOX. A writer is tormented by the sense of guilt for having caused the involuntary death of her twin sister many years ago. "Three…Extremes" presents itself as an attempt to unite the traditions of three Eastern countries (China, Korea, and Japan) through the common language of genre cinema in episodes, and all this is carried out by three directors of undeniable talent and notable authority in the film industry, two of whom have succeeded in becoming known and appreciated in our country; these are Chan-wook Park ("Old Boy", "Lady Vengeance"), Takashi Miike ("The Call", "Audition"), and the lesser-known Fruit Chan. It must be said immediately that "Three…Extremes" is not a successful operation because the union of three authoritative directors in an operetta with markedly commercial connotations has not borne good fruit: each episode is completely overwhelmed by the desire of the respective directors to prove themselves as authors and to show the public how good they are. Let's clarify, it is not a defect to want to highlight undeniable artistic qualities on the part of the directors involved, but the ideal would be to dose the technique and not place it above any other element, because, in doing so, the film lacks emotional participation and results in a coldness and hermeticity sometimes bewildering. It is impossible for the viewer to identify with the various characters and be carried away by the events staged because the emotional gap between the represented and the representation is too evident and it is not possible to create that particular empathy that should necessarily be at the base of every emotional feedback process. But let's come to the stories. "Dumplings" is directed by Fruit Chan, a director foreign to the horror genre who nevertheless provides us with the most horrific, cruel, and politically incorrect story of the triptych. It is a highly pessimistic story that shows how far the contemporary individual is willing to go to conform and be accepted by a society based on appearance; the whole thing is seasoned with cannibalistic and incestuous themes. The story in itself seems particularly original and the actors prove to be entirely up to the task, but in more points one can notice an excessive haste, naturally dictated by the restricted times for an episodic film, and a cut-off ending devoid of a real conclusion, which leaves a slight bitterness in the viewer's mouth. "Dumplings" certainly deserved more attention and perhaps could have been quietly the subject of a feature film. "Cut", by Chan-wook Park, is the most classic story (and probably the best) perfectly in tune with the time that the medium-length film requires; the director delights with a series of suggestive camera movements and sought-after framing and does not spare us even a certain dose of atrocity and splatter parenthesis. However, the entire episode eclipses itself in a grotesque conclusion and characterized by excessive hermetism. "Box", although directed by an excellent director like Miike, turns out to be the worst episode; very far from the canons of horror and filled with a series of elements of a sometimes annoying presumption, it is distinguished by an exasperating slowness, a lack of final climax, and a narrative poverty rather unusual if compared to the previous episodes. Everything is based on the good photography and the excellent directing qualities of Miike, dealing with a predictable little story and devoid of a real basic idea. In the past, there had been an attempt to gather several authors under the roof of the episodic film, recalling the collaboration between Carpenter and Hooper in "Body Bags", Vadim, Malle, and Fellini in "Three Steps in Delirium" or Romero and Argento in "Two Evil Eyes", but in all these cases, a result far from that achieved with "Three…Extremes" was had, thanks to a greater ability to combine technique and spectacle; in "Three…Extremes" there is simply a commissioned operetta, an academic example of undeniable directorial mastery, but incapable of involving the viewer or leaving in him any emotion that extends beyond the vision.