Three Extremes

This movie is twisted and definitely worth watching!

The best horror anthology since "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie," "Three... Extremes" is composed of three great films from three great Asian directors. The film starts off with Fruit Chan's "Dumplings," which is about an aging actress who begins to consume dumplings that will make her appear younger. This is an incredibly disturbing short, and its subject matter will most likely offend most people. The next short is Chan-Wook Park's "Cut." A disgruntled extra kidnaps his film's director for one of the most elaborate torture sequences of all-time: For each five-minute period that the director doesn't kill a small child, the extra will cut off one of the director's wife's fingers -- which are superglued to a piano. Full of haunting images and even a few big laughs, "Cut" is my favorite of the three shorts. Takashi Miike directs "Box," which I was the most let down by. I had watched "Audition," "Ichi the Killer" and the "MPD Psycho" mini-series prior, so I was looking forward to Miike's segment the most. It's a slow-paced thriller and is very creepy. Although not a failure by any means, it left me a little underwhelmed overall -- despite an excellent ending. The two-disc DVD box comes with the feature-length cut of "Dumplings," as well as a making-of for this short. Takashi Miike provides commentary for his short also. Highly recommended.