Main Cast: Bai Ling, Miriam Yeung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Pauline Lau, Zabit Memedov
Release Year: 2004
Country: HK/KR/TH/JP
Run Time: 126 minutes
Plot
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. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Review
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. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Miki Yeung; Wong Su-Fun; Lee Byung-hun; Lim Won-Hee; Gang Hye-jeong; Lee Jun Goo; Lee Mi Mi; Kyoko Hasegawa; Atsuro Watabe; Mai Suzuki; Yuuya Suzuki; Mitsuru Akaboshi
Credit
Pater Wong - Art Director, Patricia Cheng - Associate Producer, Dora Ng - Costume Designer, Cho Sang-Kyung - Costume Designer, Tomoko Yasuno - Costume Designer, Fruit Chan - Director, Takashi Miike - Director, Park Chan-wook - Director, Kim Sang-beom - Editor, Chan Ki-hop - Editor, Yasushi Shimamura - Editor, Tin Sam-Fat - Editor, Kim Jae-beom - Editor, Eric Tsang - Executive Producer, Oh Jung-Won - Executive Producer, Choi Pyeong-ho - Executive Producer, Lee Eu-Gene - Executive Producer, Park Dong-Ho - Executive Producer, Kazuo Kuroi - Executive Producer, Chan Kwong-wing - Composer (Music Score), Koji Endo - Composer (Music Score), Peach Present - Composer (Music Score), Yee Chung-man - Production Designer, Takashi Sasaki - Production Designer, Yoo Seong-Hee - Production Designer, Christopher Doyle - Cinematographer, Koichi Kawakami - Cinematographer, Chung Chung-Hoon - Cinematographer, Naoki Sato - Producer, Peter Ho-Sun Chan - Producer, Fumio Inoue - Producer, Ahn Soo-Hyun - Producer, Shun Shimizu - Producer, Kim Suk-won - Sound/Sound Designer, Kinson Tsang - Sound/Sound Designer, Jin Nakamura - Sound/Sound Designer, Lilian Lee - Screenwriter, Park Chan-wook - Screenwriter, Haruko Fukushima - Screenwriter, Su Chun-Hung - Visual Effects, Lilian Lee - Book Author, Bun Saiko - Short Story Author
Three... Extremes (traditional Chinese: 三更2 Saam gaang yi) is a 2004 international Asianhorror film collaboration consisting of three segments by three directors from three countries. It is a sequel to, and follows the concept of Three (2002), this time with more established directors. The three segments are, in the following order:
Dumplings - An aging actress wishing to reclaim her youth goes to a woman who makes dumplings that supposedly have regenerative properties; however, they contain a gruesome secret ingredient.
Cut - A successful film director and his wife are kidnapped by an extra, who forces the director to play his sadistic games. If he fails, his wife's fingers will be chopped off one by one every five minutes.
Box - A soft spoken young woman has a bizarre recurring nightmare about being buried in a box in the snow. Searching for her long lost sister, she realizes her dreams and reality may possibly be connected.
Dumplings Theatrical
Dumplings was extended and turned into a full length theatrical film that was released into British cinemas by Tartan Films in the spring of 2006.
Box office
The film was released on November 17, 2005 in 19 North American theaters. Despite positive reviews by critics such as Roger Ebert,[1] it grossed $36,414 ($1,916 per screen) in its opening weekend, and its final gross stands at a modest $77,532.
