FirstLoveMovies

Then I was invited to see an early cut of the film at Imagica in November. I can say that whatever form the final cut takes, it is a rough and unblinking depiction of the sexual and medical exploitation of Thai children -- it shows as much as can be shown within legal limits. What I admired about it is that it painfully captures the guilt on all sides in social problems such as this. The fact that Yang Seok-il's book (see right), which the film is partially based on, contains even more disturbing truths is hard to stomach. No wonder Sakamoto wanted to go back to genre filmmaking with Fujiwara Tatsuya-starrer Chameleon.

A couple of major festivals unfortunately decided to pass on Children of the Dark (weren't brave enough to program it?), but I think aside from its domestic run it'll eventually garner the overseas attention it deserves. Whatever critics and audiences think of Children of the Dark, it'll get people talking and hopefully help give a voice to some of these kids.

kev wrote:WOW!

Thanks for posting!

Thanks too, for stopping in! Good to see you out and about, again... Glad that RL hasn't sucked you dry!

kev.

In our anything-goes age, pedophilia remains one subject that makes everyone from film industry executives to ordinary fans nervous, to put it mildly. In "Lolita," Stanley Kubrick made the title character older than the 12-year-old in Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel, while suggesting the sex rather than showing it, but the film was still at the outer limits of what was permissible in 1962. In his 1997 version, Adrian Lyne tried to be more faithful to the novel, and his film was turned down for distribution by every Hollywood studio before finally going into limited release in the U.S.

Junji Sakamoto's "Yami no Kodomotachi (Children of the Dark)," based on a novel by Yan Sogil and scripted by Sakamoto himself, is a far rawer depiction of pedophilia and its victims than anything in the "Lolita" films, but not in a pornographic sense. Instead, Salkamoto shows, with a documentary-like directness, how children caught in the web of a Thai prostitution ring are exploited, abused and, in some cases, murdered when they are no longer sexually salable. Despite its thriller plot structure, the film is a serious indictment, based on actual cases. There is not a "Lolita"-ish leer in it.

Like this post to see ed2k links  [278.34 MiB]

Like this post to see ed2k links  [461.98 MiB]