Thursday, August 6

My Sincerest Apologies


Neither I nor are the friendly folks over at HorrorTalk a bunch of dumbasses. Those two horrendously superlative pull quotes on both the U.S. and U.K. DVD covers of 3 Extremes 2 (Saam gaang / Three) were culled from this review I wrote years ago at HT. Yep, the author of this 'lil blog is internationally misquoted for the sake of selling DVDs. As you can see, my remarks were meant for the full director's cut of Peter Chan's Going Home released by Panorama on Hong Kong DVD, not the pan-Asian anthology mash-up Chan's work was shortened and shoehorned into. So I'm sorry to those poor souls who watched expecting "a masterpiece" which "needed to be seen" and afterward probably cursed HorrorTalk's name. Also you don't have to read my review, my writing is as dreadful as it is now.

I've only seen 3 Extremes 2 (what a terrible title) once and honestly can't remember one bit of Memories or The Wheel. I stopped watching once Going Home began because I didn't care to see an abridged cut. The last time I watched Chan's film was sometime last year and it holds up wonderfully. Despite this sounding trite, I still have no qualms with placing it among the all-time classics of the genre. A simple story masterfully handled by Chan and cast with striking emotional impact on the viewer. The film was nominated and/or awarded a slew of awards in its native country and deserved every nod.

Shame Chan's director's cut has dissolved into obscurity. The DVD I reviewed seems to be the only official release on the globe to this date and long out-of-print. Again, I apologize for the false advertising by Lionsgate and Tartan, but do strongly recommend tracking down the individual Going Home.

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4 comments:

I Like Horror Movies said...

Yeah of all films to be misquoted on, that really is salt in the wound

KFelon said...

Didn't they do the very same thing with Dumplings for the first 3 Extremes film? I mean cut it down into a short?

I had no clue any of the films on 3 Extremes 2 had a longer cut, much less that any of them was decent.

thanks

Jayson Kennedy said...

Yep, Dumplings was edited down to fit into the anthology. That and Going Home (in their full version forms) are well worth a watch.

Matt-suzaka said...

I didn't know Dumplings was also edited down...I really liked that one the most. Wasn't hard to figure out what the shocking twist was, but it was so well made and paced. I'm gonna have to check out the longer version fo sho!

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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