Let The Right One In (aka Låt den rätte komma in or Let Me In)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Foreign

If anyone out there were to ask me what movie to watch to get a feel for a perfect World of Darkness game, or if anyone wanted me to recommend a vampire film which truly explores new ground, this foreign film based on the 2004 vampire fiction novel by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist would definitely be the film I would cite.

Let The Right One In is a movie unlike any I have ever seen before. Brooding, dark, poetic, disturbing, touching, thought-provoking and yet fascinating, this film stands apart in the deluge of Underworld/Twilight (aka Too much Action, or Too much Drama) vampire tales that have been appearing in both film and on printed media. Centering on the awkward friendship forming between a 12-year old boy Oskar and a child named Eli who may or may not exactly be human, the story is a winding snow-covered path through a dark fairytale of poetic viciousness and ravenous human nature. Perfectly cast, beautifully shot, concisely scripted and then given just enough a dash of special effects to retain its modern nightmarish feel, this film had me holding my breath, staring in muted tension and sighing in uneasy happiness as the tale unfolded in its almost two-hour length. (I had opted to watch this over lunch, having the unfortunate scenario of having to stay up since yesterday... but I tell you, in no point did the film feel too slow, dragging, or overly focused on unnecessary plot threads.)

The title was taken from the Morrissey song "Let the Right One Slip In" (one can find this in their Viva Hate special edition album) as well as from the vampiric lore of vampires being incapable of entering another's abode without being invited first. The movie beautifully bares its own adaptation of vampire lore and carefully reveals it aspect by aspect in each passing scene. A gamer using the Vampire: The Requiem system can very easily design a Bloodline after watching this film. You will also find yourself fascinated by director Tomas Alfredson's attention to little cues on color, sound and detail. In fact, after seeing this film, you will realise how this small list of items suddenly invokes great images to recall:
1.) Rubik's cube
2.) Morse code
3.) Acid
4.) Window blinds
5.) Underwater swimming pool shots

Sadly, with this film already being so beautifully done, an American remake is supposedly in the works. Somehow, American distributors still find it difficult to believe that a Swedish language foreign film of this caliber would be hard for their audiences to understand. Then again, even the English release of the book was renamed to "Let Me In" because the publishers felt the original title was too long.

How sad.

Catch the original before the remake distracts you with its really shoddy version! (cases in point? Ringu vs The Ring, 엽기적인 그녀; literally, That Bizarre Girl versus the American remake, My Sassy Girl)

http://www.lettherightoneinmovie.com/

My Sassy Girl - the American remake

Rating:	★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Romantic Comedy

It was painful to go through.

I love Jesse Bradford and have always enjoyed watching him in different roles. He shines here, as the poor mistreated guy who just happens to have saved the formerly-unnamed-sassy-girl-but-since-this-is-an-American-remake-had-to-be-given-a-whole-complete-name played by Elisha Cuthbert. Elisha Cuthbert fails utterly, however, to play the female lead role in any way that is utterly endearing or convincing.

Seriously.

Even in the scene with her playing piano and Jesse showing up with a single rose felt flat, forced and sadly scripted.

Gone were the poignant touches of emotion and bonding. Gone were the naive growing attraction to one another which seemed unthinkable at first. Gone were her infamous likes "You wanna die?" and her strange horrible anger towards anyone wearing a certain color. Gone too was the mystery of what made her so sassy and angry and instead we are left with a rich blonde fuck up of a gal who we forcibly HAVE to feel for after her long drawn out letter explains in absolutely unnecessarily long exposition why she is such a bitch.

And yes, in the first scene Jesse sees Elisha, he is talking about wanting to have sex with her.

So wtf?!?!??!

Gone was the main theme song.
Gone was the hilarity of the amusement park sequence.
Gone was the immensely touching scene when they meet the other guy.
Gone were the high school uniforms and the perfect comic timing shown by ianna Jun (aka Ji-hyun Jun) and Tae-hyun Cha with perfectly wonderful dialogue like this:

The Girl: You know why the sky is blue?
Kyun-woo: Because the reflection from the sunshine causes...
The Girl: Wrong! It's to make me happy. I wanted it to be blue, so it's blue. You know why fire is hot? It's all for me. I wanted it to be hot, so it's hot. You know why we have four seasons here in Korea?
Kyun-woo: For you?
The Girl: Correct.

The movie has some saving graces however.

The art direction was superb, with great choices for some scenes. While they replaced "The Shower" of Hwang Sun-won with the Titanic movie instead as the reason "all ________ love sad movies", the visual style for the movie scene was nice. Horrid beyond belief was the western sequence they used to replace the "bounty hunter samurai" sequence. But other moments like the part where Jesse is against a wall with a huge arrow pointing at him, and such were nice.

Lighting was horrid. In one particular scene, Jesse is in class when Elisha shows up to tell the professor some reason to get him OUT of class. Guess what! One single spotlight was on, illuminating Jesse amidst a room of other students. Sobrang obvious naman na set-up.

Then the struggles to adjust the beautiful scenes into a New York context were painful. The mountain confessional was instead the length of the Central park walkway.... which was plain boring to watch. The catching up with one another at the train, as well as the goodbye scene at the train just fell flat. The soldier sequence seemed boring rather than amusing.

And again, no high school uniform dance!
No high school uniform dance!
No high school uniform dance!
No high school uniform dance!

Kasi, wala silang high school uniform sa USA.

Hay.

If you have NEVER seen the original Korean My Sassy Girl, watch this. You'll probably like it cause it does retain some level of the message the original wanted to impart. Be warned however, the American version LOVES to spoon feed as usual. So where you'd have a nice silent moment shared by the characters in the original moment, you'd have all this unnecessary voice over dialogue in the American one explaining one or the other.

Hay.

So there's my rating. 2 stars.
Simply because this movie may interest others to find the original one.

Oh and here's the 10 simple rules from the original.
The American remake fucked it up too.

Kyun-woo: The 10 Rules: 1. Don't ask her to be feminine 2. Don't let her drink over three glasses 3. Drink coffee instead of Coke/Juice 4. If she hits you, act like it hurts. If it hurts, act like it doesn't 5. On your 100th day together, give her a rose during her class 6. Make sure you learn fencing and squash 7. Be prepared to go to prison sometimes 8. If she says she'll kill you, don't take it lightly 9. If her feet hurt, exchange shoes with her 10. She likes to write. Encourage her

Canon From Mｙ Sassy Girl

Posted this for my Panda Bear.

Whenever I hear this song, I find myself missing you even more.
Hope the weather ain't too cold there in Vancouver, love.

I'll be there to be your jacket again someday.
I love you!