drama competition

There Is No Competition
$19.99
Tracklisting: 1. Intro / 2. N*ggas Know / 3. Suicide / 4. F*ck Wit Street Fam Feat. Neo Da / 5. We Do This Sh*t / 6. Back To The Damn Thing / 7. Here's Another Hit / 8. Paperman Feat. Neo Da Matrix / 9. Taking Pictures Feat. Red Cafe, Pa / 10. Mo Cars Mo Hos Feat Freck Billiona / 11. Hustlas Poster Child Feat. Cassidy / 12. La The Darkman & Willie The Kid / 13. I'm Getting Money Feat. Freck Bill / 14. U Aint Saying Sh*t / 15. Brooklyn's Finest / 16. F*ck Em All Feat. Red Cafe / 17. Paper Touchin - Red Cafe / 18. Fall Back / 19. I Came From Money / 20. I Don't See Nobody / 21. I'm Da Main Remix Feat Red Cafe / 22. Pimp My Blood / 23. Say Hello / 24. Outro / 25. Dope Boys (bonus) /

The Chimes Of Big Ben
$0.99

The Competition [VHS]
$9.98
The movie was one of my favorites, containing wonderful piano concerti. The tape had an audio flutter (pudapudapuda) and would not rewind all the way. I was very impressed with the return response from ParkWood MEDIA - once I got their correct address. I had thrown out the packing slip (if there was one) and the return address on the box did not have the word MEDIA so my e-mail didn't reach them. I contacted Amazon and Amazon contacted ParkWood and they contacted me. They told me not to bother returning the defective tape so I didn't. I appreciated saving the postage. I will look forward to the credit on my VISA bill.

Woman is the Future of Man
$29.95
After a few years abroad studying film, Hun-joon returns to South Korea a bit worse for wear. Upon his arrival, the first thing he does is go to the home of his university friend Mun-ho who is now an art professor, married, and the owner of a nice home. However, as it soon becomes evident while the two men chain smoke and drink soju at a Chinese restaurant, Mun-ho, like Hun-joon, is not really happy. Also, what becomes evident is that the two men are really not that close and there seems to be a lake of animosity beneath a thin ice of calmness between the two men. This feeling, of course, is linked with a woman, Sun-hwa, whom Hun-joon dated but left in Korea when he went to study in America.

Quite jarringly the film jumps into several flashbacks which depict Hun-joon and Mun-ho's relationship with Sun-hwa. Hun-joon is gentle and thoughtful towards Sun-hwa, but he does leave her. Mun-ho is much more aggressive towards Sun-hwa and has an affair with her while Hun-joon remains clueless. After both Hun-joon and Mun-ho are rejected by the restaurant's waitress--Hun-joon asked her to be in a film and Mun-ho asked her to pose for a painting--they decide to go to the small town where Sun-hwa is managing a bar. However, can such a meeting between the members of a broken triangle truly be fruitful?

Director Hong Sang-soo has received much critical acclaim both domestically and abroad for his complex and slightly disturbing films such as The Day a Pig Fell into the Well and The Power of Kangwon Province, however, while being a decent film, Woman is the Future of Man suffers a little from a glacial pace which makes its under 90 minute duration seem to drag on for a bit longer than what it actually does. Also, as I stated above, the flashbacks at the beginning of the film are a bit jarring and sometimes seem out of place because they do not fit in with the linearity of the overall story at first. However, they do help fill in some pieces to the puzzle upon a second viewing. While not for everyone, Woman is the Future of Man is a decent place to start for those wanting to watch a more "artistic" Korean film instead of the heaps of horror and romance films that saturate the available Korean films in the West.