But, dude, you’re probably saying right now, why are you watching and reviewing 3 Extremes II before you do an official review of Three Extremes? Haven’t you been getting pretty anal about that kind of thing lately? Well, yes, I have and that’s actually why I’m watching 3 Extremes II first; you see, 3 Extremes II came out two years before Three Extremes, the movie it’s a sequel to! If this sounds numbingly uninteresting to you, feel free to skip to paragraph two of this review, but I’ll talk about it here because it’s exactly the kind of cross-cultural cluster-**** of art vs. commerce that I love to get nerdy about. In 2002, this movie came out with a simple title, Three. It is an omnibus film featuring three short horror films by three different Asian directors. It was a hit in Asia, but apparently not enough of a hit for it to be picked up for distributions in America; two years later, it got a sequel in Asia, called, confusingly enough, Three 2. That sequel was enough of a hit that it got snapped up to debut in America, where it was titled Three . . . Extremes. Yeah, you see where we’re headed. Three Extremes was enough of an arthouse hit here in America that people were then like, “Man, I wish there were more creepy Asian omnibus horror films we could release.” So, then Three got snapped up for distribution and in order to capitalize on the name recognition of Three Extremes, Three got renamed 3 Extremes II and so we have a situation where, if you go on IMDB where they prioritize the American titles, 3 Extremes II got released two years before Three Extremes. If you’re wondering why they switched from spelling out “three” to using the numeral “3” for the “sequel,” well, you’re on your own there.
Anyway, on to the movie. The first story, Memories, revolves around a man who is haunted by troubling dreams and a feeling of impending doom, after his wife leaves him; meanwhile, across town, a woman awakens in an alley and seems to have no memory of who she is. This is the perfect story to start the movie with because it is the most viscerally terrifying; Jee-woon Kim absolutely nails the horror aesthetic that would come to prominence only a few years later with The Ring & The Grudge. This story, and thus the movie as a whole, opens with one of the most frightening sequences I’ve seen in a movie in years; by the five minute mark of the movie, I was an absolute wreck. Kim uses a glacially slow camera, long silences and mysterious images to create real terror. The second story, Nimibutr’s The Wheel, is really bad; it’s a Thai story set among the world of Thai puppeteers and the most interesting thing about this one was just that the cultural element was something I’d never seen before. The performances are awful, particularly Suwinit Panjamawat’s turn as a petulant apprentice puppeteer and the story, involving a cursed puppet, is really stupid. The film ends strong with the best segment of them all, Going Home, the story of a blue-collar single dad who moves into a crumbling, abandoned, soon to be demolished apartment complex with his young son. The only other family in the apartment complex is a strange one: the surreptitious and mysterious Mr. Yu, his seemingly paraplegic wife and the young, incredibly creepy daughter. Peter Chan’s direction is just magnificent here; he has a hell of a location in this massive apartment complex, complete with a huge courtyard between two looming multi-story buildings, and this story exudes a truly creepy atmosphere, all harsh yellow neons, gray peeling paint and filthy green tile. He’s helped along by some great performances. Leon Lai is fantastic as Mr. Yu and Eugenia Yuan is wonderful as his mysterious wife. Eric Tsang brings an endearing slovenliness to his role as the blue collar cop that finds himself drawn into the strange story of his new neighbors. This story has a couple of neat little twists and, ultimately, it turns into a story that’s both disturbing and sad as the heart-wrenching tragedy of the Yu family unwind.
This film has the same problem almost every omnibus film has, which is just that the various stories are varied in quality. I can only think of one omnibus film I’ve seen where I wouldn’t cut at least one of the stories; this one isn’t it. The Wheel is absolutely dire, but I guess you need three to make an omnibus, right? Still, terrible as that one is, I really, really responded to the other two. I’d say Memories is extremely good and Going Home is downright great; they’re both really entertaining and engaging horror short films and I’m glad this movie exists so I could see them. You should see them too, but feel free to fast-forward that middle one. Still, the movie has the good sense of sequence. It starts with the most terrifying scene of the three right out of the gate and then ends with the smartest, most emotionally satisfying one, which is exactly what I’d do if I had to be the one to sequence these three shorts. So, while it may lose its way in the middle, it grabs you immediately and leaves you satisfied at the end. 3 stars.
tl;dr – Asian horror omnibus film is inconsistent as most omnibus films are, but when it’s good, it’s genuinely superlative; viscerally terrifying and emotionally moving. 3 stars.