When you gaze into the abyss...

Passing through darkness.  (Miniseries, E1-E12, Korean; 2023)
Director: Park Ba-ram

Over the centuries, humans have agreed on how they should live life. Compassion, tolerance, and acceptance have been the mantras to sail through the rough waves in the high seas of life. We respect the other with the adage 'Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you' and think that should suffice for all to mind their own business and lead meaningful lives.

Life, as we know it, has been so easy. As if there is not enough of Nature's hostility towards over existence, there is danger from our own kind. Nature has dictated species protect their own kind. Still, violence and savagery are justified in the name of the continuity of species and territorial ambitions, which, in a way, also ensure the dissemination and dominance of species. Only in the human species do we humans kill another for the sheer pleasure of seeing someone die. Our inquisitive mind yearns to know what lies beyond the realm of life. Sending someone to the Otherside or just stepping momentarily into the gate of death and stepping back in gives some unbelievably enjoyable thrill and erotism.

We are stepping into the zone of dark, mind-bending psychological crimes. Some wonder if we are all inherently evil. Is that any truth that this is because we are all born out of the Original Sin, that we are all sinners and are at the Mercy of the Divine for Redemption?

Did 'civilisation' or living in communities mould us to behave in a particular manner? Numbers matter when we are exposed to dangers day in and day out in our early days of existence.

Remember our school days. Children who have not fully developed the inhibitory synapses of the frontal lobe say all the darnest. At the playgrounds, they can be pretty cruel, spewing venom with filters, leaving a spate of their schoolmates/playmates with developmental issues or social anxiety.

This Korean miniseries is not for the faint-hearted. It tells the tale of a criminal profiler and his team in the Behavioural Crime Analysis of the Seoul Metropolitan Police, who takes his work too seriously. Stemming from a near-drowning episode in his childhood, the detective develops the ability to empathise with both the victims and the perpetrators of the crimes he is tasked to solve.

This journey takes him and his dedicated team through a harrowing experience, questioning everything we try to pinpoint as the culprit to make someone turn to the dark side.

Is it the absence of a father figure as a child grows up? Is childhood trauma, sexual assault, corporal punishment, bullying or humiliation the culprit? Is the brain wiring to be blamed? What is at fault, Nature or Nurture? For every possible aggravating factor that may lure one to crime, many uproot themselves out of filth to be somebody. Is loneliness a precipitating factor? As Nietzsche said, 'If you gaze into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you!'

What about the people who often associate, investigate and peep into the lives of these vermins of society? Do those who fight with monsters should look into it so they do not become monsters? Scriptures say, 'You are the company you keep with'. A calf which hangs around a piglet would eventually feed on filth like hogs usually do, Amma used to say!

Before we say the cases are hyped to appease the viewers, the cases were reported by Korea's first criminal profiler, Kwon Il-yong and journalist-turned-author, Ko Na-mu.

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Who wants to live forever?

Afsos (Regret, Hindi/English; 2020)
Amazon Prime Video

The human race is the way it is because we are mortal beings. We know we have a shelf life and we want to finish all our humanly possible achievements within our lifetimes. Since our existence is finite, we yearn to immortalise it via discoveries and inventions. Our zest to explore the world we are born into pushes us to yonder to foreign shores and new frontiers. 

Without the fear of death, we would probably be fat blobs, uninitiated to pursue any endeavours. Everything would seem purposeless. Relationships are meaningless as there is nothing to expect anymore. We know what happens and how it will end. The diseases that we will get will give us the pain of illnesses but not relief from the distress. We will regress to our primal state; engaging in purposeless activities with impunity, knowing that nothing awaits us at the end. The seven deadly sins of Man will have a field day.

With the fear of death and hope of a comfortable after-life or re-births, we tend to empathise and care for the less fortunate. By creating stories about a possible after-life which seems forever or another lifeform which may be worse than the current one, we are cowed into submission of an unseen power. That sets law and order. Only death can save our lives on Earth.

A refreshing dark comedy about a loser who is even hopeless at suicide: he has had 11 failed attempts. He tries to lie down in front of a moving train; a vagabond distracts him. He tries to drown; fishermen save him. He tries placing himself amid busy midday Mumbai traffic; motorists avoid him skillfully. He finally hires a hired killer but even the assassin fumbles as she is given the wrong address.

The protagonist suddenly finds a purpose in life. His story that he had written and had been repeatedly rejected receives attention from a possible publisher. Life suddenly has meaning. The problem is that the killer that he hired has a one-track mind. No job should be left unfinished. She goes after him repeatedly in a twist of errors and comedy.

Duleep Singh 

Meanwhile, on the other side of India, in Uttarakhand, 11 monks are killed. The remaining 12th monk is the suspect and is at large. He is purportedly holding the elixir of immortality (Amrut). The investigating police officer goes over to summon assistance from the Mumbai Police. Also in search for the Amrut is a British scientist. Hot on the trail of all these is an investigative journalist who is looking into the activities of the agency that sends hired assassins. To complete the imbroglio is the protagonist's therapist who wants to stop him from killing himself.  

An impressive feat with a touch of philosophy and a peek into thanatology, the study of death and dying. An exciting addition to the story is the character of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of Punjab and the Black Prince of Perthshire. He, at 180 years of age, is seen loitering around the railway station dying to have Death embrace him! He had apparently tricked the British by convincing them that the Kohinoor was indeed the Elixir of Immortality. The British realised the dupe when Queen Victoria died! Meanwhile, the elixir was nicely tucked unceremoniously in a vessel in a small temple in the cold, snowy mountains of Uttarakhand.

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Beware the deep and dark webs!

Irumbu Thirai (இரும்புத்திரை, Iron Curtain, Tamil; 2018)

Every now and then, one can get a fresh new idea popping up in Tamil movies and this is one. As usual, most often the filmmakers, in their best wisdom, would decide that the storyline should be so frivolous that the whole film will end up making not much for an impact, especially to those outside the purview of Kollywood fans. 

This film acts more like a PSA (public service announcement) highlighting the general public the dangers of freely divulging personal particular and private data to social media and to people of authority. 

The gist of the story is how loans supposedly released for purchases end up with third parties via interception at a digital level. In the greater scheme of things, these wastages are mere paper losses. To the poor debtors, it is a question of life or death; of loss of livelihood. As far the bank is concerned, the transaction is done and the borrower has to pay, no matter what. 

In the movie, the audience is also introduced to the Darknet, perhaps in a completely one-dimensional manner. It gives the impression that the Dark Web is interchangeable with the Deep Web (where private data is stored) and is owned by a single person and everything bad that happens in the world can be traced to it. A little clarification is warranted. Perhaps the two Youtube snippets below can shed some light into this.

The Dark Web or Darknet provides an authority control-free environment for people to conduct their activities. Unfortunately, it also became an avenue for drug pushers, pimps and smugglers to conduct their clandestine activities and launder their monies through the help of cryptocurrency.

Two disturbing things that appear in this film involve the main two characters. The hero, an Indian Army Major is seeing wooing foreign tourist in the hope of marrying them and migrating away from India. It does not speak much of an Army Officer who has so much disdain over the nation that he is supposed to be defending.

In another scene where this Major is assigned to a psychiatrist for anger management issues, it appears to me that their (the Major and the psychiatrist) interaction is anything but a physician-patient one. No one seems to realise that something is wrong in the manner their business is handled. 

And again it is the lesson of poetic justice and the unbelievable success story of a lone wolf against the powerful and intricate web of baddies of international proportions. This formula works for some.

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In hindsight...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Some will say, "Get over it already!". Others would say, "Put your past behind, there is so much more to look forward to life." Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag (and smile, smile, smile). Perhaps it is the guilt of doing or omitting to do certain things brings shame to the living. Certain unsavoury or inappropriate jokes preceding the event send shivers down the spine every time the deceased's memory resurfaces. Our secret wish maybe, "if only I could re-live that moment!" Sadly, it is just in our dreams can we author our narratives. In an alternative realm, we can re-live every day on a daily basis.

Frances McDormand, whom we saw giving a sterling performance as a straight-thinking pregnant police officer in chilling cold Minnesota in the black comedy 'Fargo' and won an award for that, is seen here in the lead-belt white state of Missouri. She assumes the role of a grieving mother whose teenage daughter was brutally raped and murdered. The events preceding her mishap probably hurt her more. Bringing up two rebellious teenagers as a single parent is no easy task, especially when her abusive estranged husband is very much in the same town with a pretty young thing. When her deceased daughter left her home, the mother and daughter had a tiff when the girl insisted on going for a night-out unaccompanied.

The local police never managed to solve the case. To keep the heat on the law to continue the investigations, the mother rented three billboards at the edge of town to personally attack the police chief on his inefficiency. To be fair, the head had really tried and was inflicted with terminal cancer.

The rest of the story brings out the police brutality, racism, bullying, town politics as well as painting another picture at the other end of the seemingly insensitive police chief. Interesting enough to win many accolades under its belt.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson

A quirky dark comedy

Fargo (1996)
Story, Production, Direction: Joel and Ethan Coen

Homespun murder story on embroidery frame?
Get the punch line?

This movie can be said the most successful one coming from the Coen brothers with their special brand of quirky dark comedy. They start the film with a caption with says...

"This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred."

At the end of the credits, however, the usual inter-title claiming that the characters are all fictitious still appears. Now which is which?

It is set in dead cold winters of Minnesota. People who are native to Minnesota who are well versed with the Minnesota accents will appreciate the sing-song nature of their speech. The film goes at length to poke fun at their accent and some mannerism which sounds more like Swede or Norwegian - with the yaahs...

Along the way, you also notice the subtle jibes towards modern living where people are eating all the time and people tend to go agape over food that look so gross and unappetising!

The story is essentially about a docile car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), gets into money trouble after some bad investments. Even though he is a manager, the business belongs to his domineering father-in-law who thinks that his son-in-law is good for nothing! Jerry hires a duo of bungling gangsters from the neighbouring town of Fargo to kidnap his insecure wife to ease his financial woes.
The brutal gangsters leave a trail of destruction and dead bodies, including a policeman.

In comes an almost fully pregnant investigating police officer, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand who went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress), to the fore.
William H. Macy gives a sterling performance as a domesticated son-in-law who tries to cover up his deficiencies and his crime at the same time tries unsuccessfully to deal with the ruthless hoodlums.

The joy in watching the movie is not guessing the outcome of the story as it quite predictable but in the subtle jokes can be seen 'in between the lines'.

In the theme of B Noir of the 40s!

Across the Hall (2009)

Every now and then a story with dark themes, characters with dark pasts, shady morals comes along. It usually comes and goes without creating much fanfare! This is one of those. Well, that does not mean that the movie is of poor quality. On the contrary, it excels in its own way and excites its own admirers of its own specific genre.

Set in a run-down hotel, Riverview Hotel, which had seen better times with its peeling wallpaper and lazy workers. The peculiar angle of cinematography, like the angle of the hotel signboard, set the tone for a good film noir. In keeping with some noirs of the 50s where loud jazz music was introduced, the filmmakers decided to infuse loud (a tad too loud) background score which I thought killed the suspense.

As expected the film noir takes a twist here and there, the story moves in a non-linear fashion, going in flashbacks and flash-forwards with certain scenes recurring and the murderer goes scot-free.
Julian gets a call from his frantic friend, Terry, that his fiancee was cheating on him. He managed to track her down to a room in the Riverview Hotel. As Terry mentioned that he had a gun (stolen Julian's gun), watching her and was obviously under the influence of intoxicants, Julian feared for the worst.

What Terry does not know is that Julian is the backstabber and the room was supposed to be their rendezvous!

The mysterious butler (he did not do it!)

Julian sneaks into the hotel undetected by the night staff but is spotted by an ex-girlfriend who was staying in one of the rooms. Terry confronts his fiancee, June. In the struggle to prove a point, she is fatally wounded. Then comes the uncertainty of how to cover up the crime. After much running around and tense moments, to cut the story short, Julian is framed for a crime he did not commit. Terry, who initially did not know the identity of his beau's mysterious lover, found out about Julian's treacherous act when he found his phone in June's room when Julian was never supposed to be there.

Terry walks away satisfied and Julian is in a betwixt as all evidence point at him as the guilty party!

Nothing great but watchable.