Terror Comes in Threes: Three (2002) and Three… Extremes (2004) on Blu-ray

The J-horror boom reached the States with the import (and subsequent remakes) of Hideo Nakata’s Ring (1998) and Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge (2002), the latter of which has a somewhat confusing production history that isn’t really germane to our discussion here. By the time it arrived, however, it had already begun to fragment, mutate, deconstruct, and deform.

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At Nighttide Magazine, Julian Singleton writes an interesting history of the term J-horror – where it originated, how it metamorphosed over time, and how its meaning came to include not merely horror from Japan but a particular explosion of similar films that, like Ring and The Grudge, repurposed elements of classic Japanese ghost stories for the modern age.

The article also explores how the Western thirst for J-horror became a catch-all for spooky films from all over Asia, thanks in no small part to the work of imprints like Tartan Asia Extreme, which promised to deliver “cultural hand grenades” from across the region, rarely making much distinction between one and the other.

Enter Three… Extremes, which was released in 2004. Three… Extremes brought together three filmmakers from three different Asian countries, each of whom already had a reputation with Western audiences for their audacious, challenging, and often controversial films.

What I didn’t know until I received this new release from Arrow was that Three… Extremes was actually a sequel. Earlier, Hong Kong producer and director Peter Ho-Sun Chan had put together an omnibus of three short films made by himself, Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr, and Korea’s Kim Jee-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters), simply called Three.

Speaking of confusing production histories, Three… Extremes was actually released first in the United States, probably due to the fact that the directors involved had a bigger reputation here at the time. This led to Three being confusingly repackaged as Three… Extremes 2 in the Western market.

I saw Three… Extremes when it first hit video here in the States, but I never caught Three… Extremes 2 until now, which means this was my first time viewing what was actually the original film.

Do we have all that straight? Okay, let’s begin!

“I can’t shake this bad feeling.” – Three (2002)

Both Three and Three… Extremes have the same central conceit: Three short films, each about forty minutes long, made by three different directors, from three different Asian countries. In the case of Three, those directors are less familiar to Western audiences than those in the sequel – and not as tightly bound up with horror cinema.

Korean director Kim Jee-woon is the one who has made the biggest splash on this side of the pond, though at the time he made “Memories,” his biggest hits were all still to come. “Memories” showcases some of the same strengths that he would later bring to A Tale of Two Sisters and I Saw the Devil, even if it’s in service to a story whose twists the audience will be aware of long before the segment chooses to reveal them.

Thailand’s Nonzee Nimibutr may be the most unfamiliar name in the whole bunch, at least here in the West. According to Letterboxd, Three is the most popular film that he’s been associated with. His story, “The Wheel,” concerns a traditional style of Thai puppet theater. While the tale would probably have greater resonance for those who are familiar with the cultural history being explored, it’s also perhaps the most classic ghost story in either of the two films, concerning greed, tragedy, melodrama, and some puppets that might be cursed.

“Going Home” is the final and best segment in Three, helmed by Hong Kong director Peter Ho-sun Chan, who initially put the anthology together. “Going Home” is a ghost story, a love story, and a story of obsession. It builds an incredible atmosphere with its setting of decayed apartment houses, and centers itself on a compelling mystery that resolves hauntingly, if a bit divisively. It may be the best segment in either movie, and is honestly worth the price of admission by itself.

“Our lives suck, and we’re going to hell.” – Three… Extremes (2004)

Three… Extremes opens with what would become its most notorious and most successful segment – and probably the only one that contains anything that could really be considered shocking. A modern Elizabeth Bathory story about a woman who consumes dumplings made from aborted fetuses, I’d say that’s a spoiler except the segment makes it clear surprisingly early on. From Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, “Dumplings” was subsequently expanded into feature length, making it certainly the most well-known story from either movie.

At the time that Three… Extremes was released, Korean director Park Chan-wook was blowing up thanks to the international success of Oldboy, the middle film in his “Vengeance Trilogy,” and still the flick that his name is most closely associated with. Basically a bizarre sort of “torture porn” story of vengeance, “Cut” features several of what would have been the director’s trademarks at the time, including a number of twists and turns before we get to the end.

While I first watched Three with the release of this set from Arrow, I saw Three… Extremes when it originally came out, back when I still worked at a video store. At that time, the director I was most familiar with – and most excited about – was certainly Japan’s Takashi Miike, who I mainly knew then thanks to Audition.

Perhaps because of that film, I was expecting something more shocking from “Box,” which does contain a few haunting and creepy images, but is ultimately a quieter story than one might expect on the heels of Audition (or some of Miike’s other films from the same era). When I first saw this anthology, I probably found it a little disappointing, though today “Box” is definitely my favorite of this second batch, and my second favorite from all six shorts.

At one time, Letterboxd allowed reviews of the individual segments of Three… Extremes, which it subsequently combined into one listing for the film as a whole. This means that one person I follow left a review for what turned out to be Miike’s segment that said “a beautiful & sad nightmare […] by comparison the other two shorts in three xxxtremes [sic] are for children.”

Initially, I couldn’t tell which segment this review had been intended for and, by extension, which segments it was slighting. I eventually found that it was tagged with Miike’s name but, honestly, even if I never had, I could have guessed. “Box” is the only one that fits that description even a little.