Did Sunday see the entire film industry wake up from the collective delusion of fame and fortune, leading to a sudden urge to abandon moving pictures for volunteer work and exciting careers in gun repair? Seems like it; this week is slower than Terrence Malick.
The slow news week has led some to resort to desperate measures. Witness those pictures of Will Ferrell standing around one real world location for Land of the Lost. He’s no Johnny Depp, that’s for sure.
So I’m over here getting enthusiastic about Dream, a new movie from Korean director Kim Ki-Duk, the poster for which was just posted at Twitch. The furor over Korean cinema has died off, leaving a handful of directors there to do their work in peace. Kim is one of these; I loved 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring and I got a good amount out of Time, as well. He’s on the watch list.
Plus, the plot sounds a lot like that of a Haruki Murakami novel. I’ve been revisiting a bunch of the author’s books lately — they’re real comfort reading — which leads back to the persistent unease about the high probability of one eventually being filmed badly. (Tony Takitani got a pass by using a short story as source material.)
The plot for Dream has a man’s dreams mixing with reality thanks in part to a connection with a somnambulent woman who may be involved with a traffic accident that took place both in dreams and reality. Yeah, there’s a potential for real cheese there (as in the main poster, which has a too-heavy Threadless/emo bent) but it could be something pretty entertaining. Kim has proven his style and chops a couple times over, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The film is in post, and I’ll be looking for it at festivals or on DVD later this year.