Directors’ Cup Voting, Round 1, Match 31: Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy)
strangers in Paradise (1) vs Peppermint Candy (0)
Jarmusch’s Strangers than Paradise (1) – CHang-dong’s Peppermint Candy (0)
Peppermint Candy is too cynic for my taste.
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) 1 vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy)
Stranger Than Paradise plays out as a cross between some sort of absurdist comedy and extremely downbeat drama. A drama about loneliness in which barely a scene goes by that isn’t shared by at least two characters, about disillusionment about the American Dream where characters are perfectly content with no jobs, with TV dinners and with little money, about alienation and yet most of the film features these characters even if not necessarily enjoying each other’s company certainly engaging in it more and more out of choice rather than necessity as the film goes on. I’m not surprised if this sounds like a hard sell.
Probably the most effective and impressive thing about Stranger Than Paradise is how effortlessly it combines humour with poignancy. Its sense of humour is a strange thing, creeping up on you more and more as the film progresses. It is a genuinely brilliant piece of comedy as all the comedy is so underplayed and not pointed out to the viewer that for it to provoke even half the laughs and smiles it does is impressive – most people can telegraph a joke to the audience, it takes more skill to make something funny without the telegraphing. And when the comedy works it really works. The highlight for me was when our three characters go to watch a film and we watch them staring at the screen whilst we hear a cacophony of sound effects coming from the film they’re watching, and they just sit there blank faced – I was laughing uncontrollably for about twenty seconds! And yet as I say the film has many poignant moments, moments that depending on your life experiences so far can really touch you or ring true. The impressive thing here though is that many moments in the film seemed to me like, depending on who is watching, they could come across as either funny or poignant. There’s a maleable quality to the film, not dictating to the viewer how they should be feeling.
This put a spell on me.
Peppermint Candy uses a structure now familiar to us thanks to the likes of Memento and Irreversible, that of showing the scenes in reverse order, though utilised before either of those two films were made. Both Memento and Irreversible have been accused of gimmickry and regardless of whether or not those claims are earnt in the case of those two films certainly Peppermint Candy does not deserve such treatment. The benefits of telling the story in reverse are made quite clear in this film as instead of making you wonder what is going to happen next you are made to wonder what happened before – the film ends up less about the changes that occur but instead why they occured.
As such this tale of innocence lost is less about the innocence that is lost, though that is crucial, but instead about the initial force that would propel our character towards his loss – a force that isn’t revealed until near the end of the film (whereas a chronological take would squander its power early on). All the forces at work though (not just the initial one) are linked together in an intelligently handled fashion in to a look at the political situation in Korea. I won’t talk at length about this, as I don’t have enough knowledge about or authority on the situation in Korea in the 1980s and 1990s, but that the three crucial powers that effect our main character Yong-ho’s life are the Gwangju massacre, the tightening grip of the government and the Asian financial crisis is no coincidence. It’s kind of like Forest Gump in that regard, except far smarter and not nearly as toxic.
We also become less interested in what is going to happen to our main character, a man who at the start of the film is heavily depressed and commits suicide before a hurtling train, and more about who, what and why this character is. Indeed throughout Yong-ho is never less than fascinating to watch, to see how he changes and why he will change. That symbols reoccur adds to an already strong feeling of inevitability (we do already know the ending after all) in the film such as the reoccurance of the titular candy, tears appearing in the same place on Sun-im’s cheek or the train which will one day kill him reappearing on several occasions rushing along like the thread that connects these events together.
Stranger Than Paradise 1 – Peppermint Candy 0
Stranger Than Paradise 0 – Peppermint Candy 1
Jarmusch’s Strangers than Paradise (1) – Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy (0)
low-budget deadpan minimalist realism vs. animated maximist historicism
Stranger’s concentration allows Jarmusch to say more with less about less.
Stranger Than Paradise 0 – Peppermint Candy 1
Both Jim Jarmusch and Lee Chang-dong are favourites of mine, and I’ve seen all their films. I’d be happy to see either progress, but this is a very easy choice for me. I’m a big fan of South Korean films, I think Lee Chang-dong is one of the most talented Korean directors around and not only is Peppermint Candy his best film, but it’s one of the best Korean films I’ve seen. Simply fantastic.
Jarmusch’s Strangers than Paradise (1) – Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy (0)
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) 0 vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) 1
Peppermint Candy had a powerful message to impart as it told its story in reverse chronology. We get to see what formed the character’s personality and drove him to the point where we first see him, as the film starts. Acting is believable and well-done, particularly by the lead. The storyline is sometimes hard to take and depressing, but the film’s oblique take on Korean history through events in the character’s life is done in a way that holds one’s attention, without ever becoming a political lesson. The recurring motifs of the train tracks and peppermint candy are presented in just the right way. The main character just wants to go back, as the train speeds toward him in the opening scenes, but we see that it won’t do him any good. He will still make the same mistakes. Not only can you not go home again, you can’t go back again, either.
Only the second film I have seen from Lee Chang-dong, the other being Oasis. He is a good director of actors and lets his character’s story unfold in the most realistic of ways.
Hate to vote against a Jarmusch, but his film of the two slackers and the Hungarian cousin of one, just didn’t have the same punch. A rather pedestrian Jarmusch against a poignant and hard-hitting S. Korean film.
Stranger Than Paradise 0 – Peppermint Candy 1
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) – 1 vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) – 0
Peppermint Candy is an excellent film and would have received my vote over a lot of films in this cup, but I love Stranger Than Paradise and agree with pretty much everything Cecil had to say about it.
Pedestrian Jarmusch? “Stranger Than Paradise” is the archetypal Jarmusch! The birth of Jarmusch the legend! Either you hate it or love it, like or or don’t like it, but you can’t categorize it as pedestrian.
One of the things I really like about STP is the blackouts between scenes.
Well, Bobby – I got rather bored with it at times. I have seen perhaps too many of these type of road/slacker films. I know it was early Jarmusch, but I think he greatly improved with films like Mystery Train and Night on Earth when he added an extra dimension to the slow paced action. Relative to the quickly paced and hard hitting Peppermint Candy – which you need to see if you haven’t to compare – Jarmusch did seem rather slow and – yes – ‘pedestrian’. I know it had those signature Jarmusch moments, many of which worked, but overall it didn’t have the same impact for me as the other film. Were it up against his later films, the contest would be much harder for me to decide.
In any case, this should prove to be a most interesting match. I am looking forward to all comments about either film. I think Matt is on to something relative to the two completely different styles – and what works best for each poster here. I may be way off re my own take on the Jarmusch, but Peppermint Candy is hard to beat (and very tasty) – imo.
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) 1 | Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) 0
Stranger Than Paradise 0 Peppermint Candy 1
wow, very hard one to choose but :
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) – 1 vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) – 0
Stranger Than Paradise 0 – Peppermint Candy 1
This is actually a really tough one…
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) – 0 vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) – 1
By far the toughest decision that has to have been made so far. Absolute insanity… The films are both so perfect there is only one way to solve this problem… Are both films my favourite from each director? Peppermint Candy is, but I prefer Mystery Train over Stranger Than Paradise. So that’s it.
Stranger Than Paradise 0 – Peppermint Candy 1
I thought Peppermint Candy was a great film that managed to not only get over, but perfectly justify it’s ‘gimmick’.
It turns a pretty bleak depressing story in which lots of bad stuff happens and a guy tops himself, into a mystery story in which a suicidal man manages to work backwards in last last fleeting moments of life to a point where life really was beautiful. And it’s a film which you don’t have to bother watching twice to appreciate the train symbolism.
I like Stranger than Paradise too. But I’m going to keep my comments minimalist.
It’s difficult to choose between the two films But I think I’ll stick with Peppermint Candy for now.
9-8 Paradise
Probably the road/slacker film wasn’t a road/slacker film until Jarmusch did it with this one. He might be one of the first directors with a gen-x sensibility.
Dimitris’ vote:
Stranger Than Paradise 0 — Peppermint Candy 1
i don’t know, i guess i’m feeling vague when having to discuss either Lee or Jarmusch. funny because i consider these films my primary picks for them, but let’s wait a few more years till we see a full oeuvre from Lee, hehe. a backwards misery for the South Korean “dynasty”, a losers’ agenda in the U.S. of A. i don’t think anyone needs support here but i’ll go with my “at the moment” preference, thus being feisty as a bobcat!
by the way, Memento doesn’t hold a candle when against Peppermint and Lee’s film was BEFORE worthless Nolan’s attempt!!!"
Bobby – totally agree with you there. I prefer Jarmusch here to Wender’s or even Linklater’s take on the slacker or road film – which I guess were derivative of Jarmusch. Also, Jarmusch has great taste in music. OK – I’ll take back ‘pedestrian’ and substitute ‘laconic’. How’s that? I was unfair to Jarmusch earlier. The vote stays the same, however.
@ Bob: Keatonesque?
Stranger Than Paradise 0 — Peppermint Candy 1
Stranger Than Paradise is a movie i have terrible issues with. Jarmusch uses a narrative structure that intends to explain or imply loneliness, alienation and maybe “disillusionment about the American Dream” (as Cecil pointed out), but in his great pretension he doesn’t explain anything, it feels rhetorically empty to me. I found it boring and dead, besides having an enormous antipathy for john lurie, but that is just a thing of my own, it’s hard for me to believe he is capable of acting since he seems always worried to look cool on every scene. Ultimately i consider stranger than paradise to be just one more of those hipster movies that get the hype. (probably if i had seen this with 16 or 18 i would have loved it, it has that cool attitude, but now it’s impossible.)
ah, and Peppermint Candy is brilliant.
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) 1 – Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy) 0
The King of Cool
Since when does a film need to have rhetoric, or to explain something?
Yes, I think laconic is a much better descriptive for “Stranger Than Paradise.”
Rich Uncle Skeleton
THE DIRECTORS’ CUP 2010 : ROUND 1, MATCH 31 VOTING
New participants are most welcome and allowed to vote in the match-ups
Match 30, Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) vs Isao Takahata (Only Yesterday), will remain open for voting until 12am GMT on Friday 2nd July and can be voted on HERE
On this thread voting will be on Match 31, Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy). The other matches in Round 1 will each be getting their own threads.
The extended voting period for this match lasts until 9pm BST (8pm GMT) on Saturday 3rd July, which means that users will have over 48 hours in order to publish their votes. The world map which lists all current time zones can be found on www.worldtimezone.com, so that everyone can be up to date about how much time is left.
After the voting period is over the votes will be counted and the results published. The next match will begin at approximately 9pm BST (8pm GMT) on Friday 2nd June.
The current match-ups can be found on: http://directorscup.lifeasfiction.com/
Each user can vote on any match as long as he/she has watched both films that are lined-up against each other. An explanation for the preference in each case would be greatly appreciated. Team managers are not allowed to vote on matches their own team participates in. The voting should be handled like this:
Film A 1 (or 0) – Film B 0 (or 1)
Please mark the winning film/score in large or heavy print.
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT NAME BOTH FILMS IN YOUR POST YOUR VOTE WILL NOT BE COUNTED
The match you´re going to vote for on this thread is
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) vs Lee Chang-dong (Peppermint Candy)
If you have yet to see Stranger Than Paradise it is available to watch HERE
If you have yet to see Peppermint Candy it is available to watch HERE