DVD - October 06

Cinderella (R3)

Mommy's little girl Hyeon Su (Shin Se Kyung, Moon Geun Young's friend in My Sweet Bride) is a normal 17-year-old student, beautiful enough to disregard her friends' latest obsession: plastic surgery. Or maybe the lack of interest is due to the fact that her ever so gentle mother Yoon Hee (Do Ji Won of Ladies of the Palace and The Land) is a plastic surgeon. When one of her friends decides to go under the knife for a little revision, Yoon Hee gives her more than a pretty new face. The result is blood all over the place. Seeing so many of her friends die, Hyeon Su finds comfort in her friend Sung Eun, but then she discovers a little secret mommy wouldn't want her to know...

'Cinderella' (Official site)

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The Woods (R1)

The Woods" is a psychological horror story that begins when a neglected teenager named Heather (Agnes Bruckner) is dropped off by her parents at a remote all-girls boarding school deep in the forest. Watched over by sinister head-mistress Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson) and her staff, Heather is tormented by her classmates and is desperate to go home.But when students start disappearing and she begins to have horrifying visions, Heather realizes things at the school are not what they seem. She only knows there's something out there in the woods - and it won't be letting her leave any time soon.

MPD Psycho aka: Multiple Personality Detective Psycho: Complete Box Set (4 DVD) (R1)

Prolific, extreme Japanese director Takashi Miike's MPD PSYCHO is based on a manga by Eiji Ootsuka. Produced for television, this release contains the first two episodes of a six episodes mini-series. Homicide detective Yousuke Kobayashi takes on the personality of calculating investigator Anamiya Kazuhiko after being traumatized by the murder of his wife. Anamiya solves the case by capturing the serial killer Shinji Nishizono. But a few years later, a mysterious cult with barcoded eyeballs is linked to a series of copycat murders that imitate the work of Nishizono. The multiple-personality detective, Kobayashi-Anamiya, is recalled from retirement to solve the case, but will his delicate mental condition survive an investigation with such a personal connection? MPD PSYCHO, despite being a television production, still contains the shocking violence and bizarre plotlines that have made Miike a cult favorite.

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (R2)

After totaling his car in an illegal street race, Shaun Boswell is sent to live with his father, who is in the military, in Tokyo, Japan, to avoid juvy or even jail. While in school, he befriends Twinkie, a "military brat." Twinkie introduces him to the world of racing in Japan. Though forbidden to drive, he decides to race against D.K., the "Drift King", who has ties to the Yakuza, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting, racing that involves dangerous hair pin turns. To repay his debt, he enters the underground world of drift street racing. As he becomes better and better, he must finally prove his worth in that world by once again racing D.K.

Dasepo Naughty Girls DTS (R3)

The career of director Lee Jae Yong is amongst the most unique in Chungmuro, and his new film Dasepo Naughty Girls is nothing different, a quirky comedy adapted from a sexually explicit (the film is a little tamer, but still very raunchy), hilarious and extremely popular online comic. Mosseulmo (lit. useless!) High has a peculiar curriculum, giving a new meaning to sexual education. Its students struggle week in and week out in between S&M lessons, mass venereal diseases and teachers dating minors. Amongst all those strange characters is a girl so poor she literally wears poverty on her sleeves (Kim Ok Bin of Over The Rainbow), a one-eyed outcast (Lee Kyeon of Yeon Gaesomun and Hello, Francesca) and her stunningly beautiful sister (who, go figure, takes a leak with the boys. I wonder why...), a chubby teacher who likes to dress like Sailor Moon while dating his students, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. They study (very little), they date (a lot), and in between you also get your dose of dance skits. It's like Sex is Zero meets Bollywood!

District 13 (aka: Banlieu 13) (R2)

The plot involves a futuristic France where the worst ghettos have been walled off from the rest of society, their schools shut down, and the police force evacuated. The people in power simply want to ignore the plight of the disenfranchised, but this becomes difficult to do when the most notorious gang, led by the wild-eyed Taha (Bibi Naceri), gets its hands on a nuclear warhead and proceeds to demand a 20-million-Euro ransom, with the city of Paris as its hostage. Enter Damien (Raffaelli), a one-man police strike force, who has 24 hours to disarm the missile. To help him navigate the war zone of District 13, he springs a vigilante antihero, Leito (Belle), from jail. Leito has personal reasons for taking down the crime lord: Taha has turned Leito's adolescent sister into his junkie pet. As the ultra-athletic duo go up against Taha's gangster army, they repeatedly (and conveniently) lose their guns, and are forced to improvise, thrashing goons with steering wheels, cinder blocks, and their foreheads. Lovers of action flicks could ignore the English subtitles completely and still relish the hyperkinetic beauty of the whip-quick combat.

Ghost Of Mae Nak (R1)

new twist on a legendary ghost story, set in modern Bangkok, shows how love transcends death. Mak and Nak, a young newlywed couple in Bangkok, acquire an antique brooch and an old abandoned house that soon bring them into contact with Mae Nak Phrakhanong, a figure of horror and despair from one of Thailand's most enduring ghost legends. While Mae Nak's ghost protects the couple from an unscrupulous real estate agent as well as a pair of burglars, it becomes apparent that she expects a terrible favour in return. Mak, the young groom, is incapacitated by a powerful coma, and his bride Nak must exhume the Mae Nak's corpse from its hidden grave so that the skull can be restored using the antique brooch. Only in this way can Mae Nak's spirit finally be set free.

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'Ghost Of Mae Nak' (Official site)

The City of Violence Limited Special Edition DTS (R3)

The City of Violence marks the first full-fledged starring role for Korea's best action director Jung Doo Hong, whose action choreography can be seen in many films including Taegukgi, Silmido, and No Blood No Tears. It also marks a return to acting for director Ryu since his masterful debut Die Bad in 2000. After spending most of his adult life in Seoul, detective Tae Soo (Jung Doo Hong) returns to his hometown in Chungcheong Province to attend an old friend's funeral. He meets some familiar faces, including Seok Hwan (Ryu Seung Wan) and Pil Ho (Lee Bum Soo from Forbidden Quest), who is now a very ambitious gangster. When he learns the details of his friend's murder, Tae Soo teams up with Seok Hwan to find the culprit and bring him pain - Ryu Seung Wan style.

Slither (R1 & R2)

Michael Rooker (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER) stars as Grant, a big bald guy from a small southern town who gets possessed by a meat-hungry parasite-worm creature from space. Even under the alien influence he still loves his wife, Starla (Elizabeth Banks), but she's alarmed at his weird new habits, such as consuming all the local wildlife. The sheriff in town (Nathan Fillion) investigates. He still carries a torch for Starla from when they were kids, but once the squirming, slithering, and cannibalism begin in earnest, it becomes clear that this is no time for romance. SLITHER's combination of interesting characters, deadpan humour, gore aplenty, and genuine scares, earns it a place alongside cult classics like RE-ANIMATOR and the various LIVING DEAD and EVIL DEAD films. Director/writer James Gunn wrote 2004's DAWN OF THE DEAD before SLITHER and it's abundantly clear where his loyalties lie: SLITHER aims its acid-dripping, brain-sucking tongue right into the hearts of horror fans. Heads explode, monsters squiggle into gaping mouths, tentacles wrap around Banks's negligee-clad body, and the sheriff takes it all in his stride.

Teachers Mercy aka To Sir With Love Limited Edition DTS (R3)

A group of elementary school classmates get together to visit their former teacher Ms. Park (Oh Mi Hee - All For Love), who moved to the countryside after retirement. Sixteen years have passed, but the schooltime memories are still vivid for all involved because of the terrible things she did to her students. Some of them are left with psychological trauma and even physical impediments from her harsh treatment. Ms. Park, of course, remembers things a little differently. With the students determined for revenge, this school reunion is anything but typical, and the teacher-student relationship gains a new and very striking meaning.

'Teachers mercy' (Official site)

Dog Bite Dog (DTS Version) (Hong Kong Version)(R0)

Dog Bite Dog shocks its audience with a brutality rarely seen in Hong Kong cinema. The exorbitant violence, which is a necessary evil for survival in Dog Bite Dog, almost qualifies it to be a cult film. Director Soi Cheang departs from frightening thrillers, for which he is acclaimed, and makes a genre-wise different but just as stunning piece. Edison Chen (Infernal Affairs II) and Sam Lee reunites after Gen-Y Cops, both making great breakthroughs, starring as a merciless assassin and an insane cop respectively. The normal story of struggle between a cop and an assassin, when taking place in a nihilistic world, surprisingly creates enormous cinematic tension and a relentlessly pessimistic mood. Visually and thematically unique among Hong Kong films, Dog Bite Dog is a must-see for those into alternate cinema.

Apartment Limited Edition DTS (R3)

Ahn Byung Ki. The man behind Nightmare, Phone, and Bunshinsaba has returned after a long hiatus with his latest entry in the horror field, this time casting a superstar in the leading role. Ko So Young's last film was the 2003 political thriller Double Agent with Han Suk Kyu. This is her first time starring in a horror film, after spending most of her career between popular TV dramas and big screen melodramas. After its successful threatrical run in Korea, Apartment arrives on DVD to thrill international audiences. Just remember to keep your lights on, at least until 9:56 PM!