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Korean director Kim Ki-Duck, known for creating visceral and often visually stunning movies with far reaching subjects that are more often than not beloved by critics for their strong vision and powerful themes, here present us with Arirang a documentary following a period of creative stagnation and self-imposed isolation.

Arirang is an enigma of sorts, on the one hand it is an (apparently) honest and raw exploration of one man’s mental breakdown, and on the other it is an often boring, self-indulgent ‘film’ that blurs the line between documentary and drama. Kim Ki-Duck explains it during one of many conversations with himself (literally, since he plays both parts of the back and forth), but it does bear explaining in this review; during the filming of his 2008 movie Dream one of the cast was nearly killed in an accident while filming a hanging scene, and while his films (15 in total at that point) had previously featured plenty of dark and troubling moments the true horror of what could have potentially befallen one of his actors truly took hold of Kim and led to a period of self-doubt and instability causing a 3 year isolation and solitude in a remote cabin. Because of his strong attachment to cinema, even though he had retreated from the world of film production, he couldn’t actually stop making movies the result of which is this self-made ‘documentary’.

The footage is raw, static with the occasional hand held shots, depicting his everyday life and interspersed with scenes of direct interaction to the camera, or direct interaction with himself where one aspect of his character will attack, question, or criticise the part of him that seems to have retreated away from the world. In many ways it’s difficult to clarify Arirang, how much of it is a true and accurate portrayal of Kim Ki-Duk’s minds workings and how much of it is merely played up for the camera is essentially impossible to determine – he himself states more than once he’s not sure if this is an honest document. For a man so deeply rooted in cinema it seems like the most logical form of therapy to make a movie from his mental demons, and for anyone interested in the inner workings of cinema Arirang will no doubt be of some interest. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy watching, it’s singular location and subject are at times arrestingly dull.

It’s difficult to pin down who the audience for this movie is, it wouldn’t be shocking to see it playing in art galleries alongside other works exploring the self, indeed having sat and watched similarly long introspective or surreal films in galleries by artists like Sophie Calle or Matthew Barney I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if I came across Arirang in that setting. But that’s not Kim’s world, he creates works that are viewed in cinemas, beautiful and harrowing films like Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring, and so Arirang exists in that context – but presumably appealing to far less of his usual demographic. The drama vs. documentary aspect of the film is highlighted most succinctly in the somewhat over the top final sequence, which almost derails any sense of realism, but since even the most sincere of documentaries are arguably subject to the filmmakers perspective the artistic licence of Kim as a story teller was bound to come through, if even in such a tongue in cheek manner.

Self-indulgent, definitely. Honest, quite possibly. An artistic exploration of self? Certainly. Arirang will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is enough intrigue in its premise and its delivery that quite a few will take something away with them after watching it – certainly fans of Kim Ki-Duk will want to check it out, if only to be amused at how crazy he actually is.

After it’s limited cinema run this summer, Arirang will be available later in the year through Terracotta Distribution.

Crows Zero II is the sequel to Takashi Miike’s 2007 hit Crows Zero, set at the Suzuran High School for Boys the film is about as far from a high school movie as you could imagine with the story being concerned with the infighting amongst a fragile alliance of gangs and their common enemy in the form of rival school, Hosen Academy. I should mention straight off that I haven’t seen the original – which is not ideal, but at the same time the movie fills you in on all the details that you need to know without leading to much, if any, confusion.

Suzuran High School, or “School of Crows” (hence the title), is a disparate state of gangs with it’s former leader, Serizawa, having been beaten in the previous movie by now leader Genji, whose G.P.S. Alliance is trying to unite the school as one. Tension is thrown into the mix with the return of Kawanishi, a former Suzuran who two years previously knifed and killed the leader of Hosen, an act for which Hosen would like revenge but that also led to an uneasy truce between the two schools. Inevitably the truce is broken and the two schools are thrown into all out war. It takes at least 40 minutes for all of that information to seep through – perhaps this wouldn’t quite take as long if I’d seen the original – and clocking in at over 2 hours and 10 minutes the movie could do with being a bit more succinct. For instance there are numerous superfluous club scenes where the background music becomes a full performance video, without these ‘trendy’ J-Rock interludes aimed at playing towards a certain audience style the movie would flow better – as it is the movie is filled with a constant guitar heavy J-Rock score that is a standard for this genre.

For a Takashi Miike film Crows Zero II is remarkably restrained on gore and violence, which is not to say that it doesn’t have any, indeed the default reaction to any line of dialogue seems to be to head butt or punch someone. The story is a mixture of remarkably simple – basically it’s one school versus another – and at times bafflingly complex, with the dynamic between all of the various gangs, not to mention the inclusion of Yakuza gangs and Genji’s Yakuza boss father, all adding to a sense that the movie is perhaps trying too hard in between the action sequences. Perhaps that is as an attempt to increase the character development from the first film, but for me it came across as getting in the way of the actual story – for instance one slap stick comedy scene involving a character trying to scare a girl with a snake as a method of seduction is at once very Miike (for his versatility of mixing a variety of styles) and yet also completely and totally irrelevant.

The movie slowly builds to the final climactic action sequence, the only one that is really of any merit, where a 200+ person brawl takes place over more than 20 minutes of screen time. This end sequence is much more the frenzied Miike style that people tend to like, although it’s still restrained in comparison to the sheer gore-fest of some of his other works. As the showdown between Suzuran and Hosen takes place it builds into a multi-level brawl with various characters holding the floors of Hosen Academy as Genji and Serizawa (finally united) attempt to get to the top to beat the Hosen leader, Narumi. The concept is so wonderfully simple, and entertaining, that it could basically be an 80’s or 90’s beat-em up videogame – beat your way to the top for the final boss. In the end it’s the last fight that makes this film worth it, the plot is middle ground, and the length of the movie made it drag a little until that point. Fans of the first one will likely want to check it out as an expansion of the original story, and overall it’s certainly not bad, but equally it’s not Miike’s best work.

Crows Zero II is available on DVD now.