Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
I like the opening line in Eric Henderson's review in Slant:
Indeed, I found myself thinking of the film as a kind of psychedelic anti-advertisement against travel in the region, and was glad not to own a smell-o-vision set -- Tran would not have passed up the chance to render the stench of blood and foetid water. It's a miserable experience, the kind that starts with bad things happening to good people, then gets worse.
The film does turn more interesting than that, turning away from straightforward narrative to kind of series of set-pieces, some banal and some surreal. It's rather like descending from a hell-on-Earth slum into a Hieronymus Bosch hell-in-hell, nothing but images of arcing blood, blue men, and foot-kneaded dough.
I'm not convinced that the film has anything to say other than, "life sucks and then you die; oh and look at how clever I am!", but if nothing else, it's worth a look for the beauty of its visual style. I will never watch it again.