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TrumpetGuy818
Reviews
Ken (2006)
An abundance of action, suspense, and drama...
KEN is an interesting short film from the creative mind of writer/director/editor Eric Won. Mr. Won has given his audience an aggressive piece of cinema with an abundance of action, suspense, and drama, beautifully captured by his Director of Photography, Michael Alba. KEN is an extremely ambitious project, in which Mr. Won tells the genesis of a homeless boy, Ken, who is given shelter by a wealthy illegal arms dealer, Jack... a relationship that develops into a father & son bond that spans 20 years. Ken grows up to be Jack's bodyguard... to protect his "father" at all costs. A rival arms dealer, Marcus, who once worked for Jack wants to eliminate him and take over his business, and his bodyguard, Victor, who has a vendetta against Ken, plan their strategy. The game is on...
Karl Yune turns in a fine performance as Ken. Ken Butler truly commands the screen as Jack. Tom Druhilet as Marcus is appropriately evil, and Yun Choi is excellent as the cold, calculating Victor.
The film is long on action, but comes up a bit short on character development, which is both it's strength and it's weakness. Given the running time of the film, only so much could be done. If KEN was of feature length, this first rate cast would have been able to give the characters the chance to be fully expressed, and Mr. Won could have more fully realized his potential as a Director, which he executed with the heart of a lion and the soul of a King. Having said that, KEN is a fine short... stylish and exciting... and highly recommended.
Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (2005)
A film well worth visiting
With the saturation of gratuitous violence, nudity, and obscenities so prevalent in today's film-making, the producers of Murder On The Yellow Brick Road offer to it's audience a murder mystery in the genre of film noir
a good, old fashioned Raymond Chandler styled "who-done-it"... without any of those elements. It appears that their vision was to buck the current trend and tell their story based on the strength of it's characters, plot, and exquisite cinematography, as well as offering a film to parents that they could enjoy as well as having the ability to bring their children to see without having to cover their eyes and ears. Interestingly, even though the film deals with a death and it's aftermath, Murder On The Yellow Brick Road is a kind and gentle film... concentrating on character relationships rather than mayhem, and is paced so the viewer can enjoy the cinematic elements that makes this film successful... an intelligent story, sturdy acting, pin-point direction by Ross Hagen, fine editing, exceptional music, and exquisite lighting. If you want to take a trip back in time to the shadowy days when there were hidden secrets around every dark corner... Murder On The Yellow Brick Road is a prime example of independent film making... a film well worth visiting.