3 Extremes

Director: Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park, Ji-Woon Kim, Nonzee Nimibutr

Overview

Three Asian directors, from Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, join forces to create an omnibus horror film, Three...Extremes. In Fruit Chan's "Dumplings," shot by Christopher Doyle, Mrs. Li (Miriam Yeung), a thirtysomething former actress with a philandering husband (Tony Leung) goes to visit Aunt Mei (Bai Ling), who sells the most expensive dumplings in Hong Kong. Mrs. Li knows about their rejuvenating powers, and she also knows about their unpleasant main ingredient, but after some initial nausea, she digs right in. In Oldboy writer/director Park Chan-wook's "Cut," a successful filmmaker (Lee Byung-hun of Joint Security Area) arrives home to find that a disgruntled extra (Lim Won-hee) has taken over his home, and fastened his pianist wife (Kang Hye-jun of Oldboy) to the grand piano. The madman threatens to cut off the wife's fingers, one by one, unless the director strangles the helpless child he's tied to the couch. Takashi Miike directs the last segment, "Box," about a young author and former circus performer, Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa), seemingly haunted by the ghost of her twin sister, who died a mysterious and horrible death while practicing their act. Adding to Kyoko's trauma, her editor (Atsuro Watabe) is a dead ringer for her old stepfather/ringmaster, who may have perished in the same "accident" that took her sister's life. Three...Extremes was shown at Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival in 2005. For the American release of Three...Extremes, the order in which the films are presented was altered from the original "Box," "Dumplings," and "Cut" to "Dumplings," "Cut," and "Box." This film was actually preceded by another omnibus film, Three, that was nevertheless retitled Three...Extremes II for the English-language market and issued after this one.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/22/2007
UPC:	0031398178002
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	R
Source:	Lions Gate
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:06:00
Sales rank:	38,503

Special Features

Disc 1:; 16:9 widescreen ; Original language 5.1 Dolby Digital; Original language 2.0 Dolbt Digitial; English and Spanish subtitles; Audio commentary with director Miike Takashi for Box; ; Disc 2:; Dumplings full-length feature; Original language 5.1 Dolby Digital; Making of Dumplings; English and Spanish subtitles; Scene index; Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tony Ko-Fai Leung	Li Sije
Bai Ling	Auntie Mei
Chin Wah Yeung	Qing,Actor,Actor
Lee Byung-Hun	Ryu Ji-ho
Lim Wan-Hee	Ryu Ching
Gang Hye-Jung	Director's Wife
Kyoko Hasegawa	Kyoko
Atsuro Watabe	Hikita
Mai Suzuki	Young Kyoko,Shoko
Pauline Lau	Actor
Zabit Memedov	Actor
Wong Su-Fun	Actor
Lim Won-hee	Actor
Gang Hye-jeong	Actor
Lee Jun Goo	Actor
Lee Mi Mi	Actor
Mitsuru Akaboshi	Actor
Won-Hie Lim	Actor
Kwong Chan	Composer
K?ji End?	Composer
Peach Present	Composer

Technical Credits

Lilian Lee

Chan-wook Park

Haruko Fukushima

Ahn Soo-hyun	Producer
Shun Shimizu	Producer
Peter Chan	Producer
Naoki Sato	Producer
Fumio Inoue	Producer
Park Dong-ho	Executive Producer
Lilian Lee	Screenwriter
Chan-wook Park	Screenwriter
Eric Tsang	Executive Producer,Sound/Sound Designer
Choi Pyeong-ho	Executive Producer
Oh Jung-Won	Executive Producer
Lee Eu-Gene	Executive Producer
Kazuo Kuroi	Executive Producer
Haruko Fukushima	Screenwriter
Kim Suk-won	Sound/Sound Designer
Jin Nakamura	Sound/Sound Designer

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- 3 Extremes
1. Main Titles [4:50]
2. Cooking [4:53]
3. Gossip [5:17]
4. Tummy Ache [6:05]
5. MMM MMM [5:50]
6. Quick Fix [4:23]
7. Help Needed [3:30]
8. Last Thoughts [3:10]
9. Main Titles/Day At the Office [5:24]
10. Home At Last [4:57]
11. Revenge [4:45]
12. Serious [5:19]
13. Not Her [2:53]
14. Options [1:51]
15. Shake [6:21]
16. Last Chance [9:47]
17. Main Titles [3:30]
18. The Box [7:09]
19. Show Time [4:51]
20. Jealousy [6:56]
21. Aftermath [5:07]
22. Inside [5:11]
23. Alive [3:30]
24. Revenge [4:25]
Disc #2 -- 3 Extremes
1. Overseas [4:28]
2. An Old Friend [4:41]
3. Her Specialty [4:44]
4. Leisure Afternoon [4:17]
5. Seconds Please [5:10]
6. Something's Changed [2:54]
7. Woman's Intuition [3:37]
8. Quick Fix [5:12]
9. Empty Home [4:30]
10. Hard Job [4:25]
11. Brand New Batch [3:32]
12. The Truth Hurts [4:32]
13. New Woman [4:54]
14. Paying the Price [5:03]
15. Panic Attack [4:12]
16. Detective Work [4:35]
17. Wrong Intentions [3:40]
18. Crossing Paths [4:38]
19. Finding Her [4:22]
20. Ultimatum [6:59]

Menu

Disc #1 -- 3 Extremes
Play Movie
Set Up
Audio
5.1 Dolby Digital
2.0 Dolby Digital
Subtitles
English
Spanish
Subtitles Off
Scene Selection
Director's Commentary
Audio Commentary for the Box by Director Takashi Miike
Disc #2 -- 3 Extremes
Play
Scene Selection
Subtitles
English
Spanish
Subtitles Off
Special Features
The Making of Dumplings
Trailers

Editorial Reviews

Omnibus films are uneven by their nature, and Three...Extremes is no exception. Unsurprisingly, the film, as a whole, has no cumulative power. The three shorts, from three directors, each with a distinctive style, from three different countries, don't really compliment each other in any way. They are all meant to be disturbing, and beyond that, there is no genuine thematic or stylistic connection. Fruit Chan's segment, "Dumplings," is an unappetizing though aesthetically gorgeous presentation of youth-obsessed cannibalism. It is viscerally unsettling, but, despite Christopher Doyle's stunning work, it's essentially an EC Comics-worthy morality play gussied up with fancy visuals. Its tale of vain women and a wicked back-alley abortionist/witch also contains more than a hint of misogyny. Takashi Miike's "Box" is less problematic thematically, but it's overly familiar. Perhaps owing in part to his prodigious output, Miike is an inconsistent and occasionally sloppy filmmaker, and, despite the presence of twin little-girl contortionists, this is one of his less interesting efforts. While "Dumplings" is memorable in its way, only Park Chan-wook's (Old Boy) brain-twisting and amusingly reflexive "Cut" makes a lasting positive impression. Once again, Park's motif is revenge at its most baroque, and from the elaborate set design to the startling, witty performances of Lee Byung-hun as a successful young film director and Lim Won-hee as his insane tormentor, the film gets the most out of its abbreviated running time. Park is the one director represented here with both a great "extreme" tale and the means at his disposal to tell it to full effect.