It's almost redundant for me to say that Asian horror is at the forefront of what we perceive as disgusting and repellent (in a good way). There's a little extra edge to the way they approach the subject matter. Where American horror has veered out into some pretty bland arenas and have all but killed the (horror) genre, relying on shock value and the cheap scares to induce some semblance of fear, Asians delve much deeper. The approach is not Val Lewton, but a skewered distortion of reality that burrows deep into the psyche and festers there long after the credits have rolled and the movie has officially ended.<br /><br />So. Here we have a trilogy, and you would say, what of it? It's been done before, many times, most famously in TRILOGY OF TERROR and the CREEPSHOW movies. True. However, these aren't the usual possessed doll/woman facing a curse/evil without a name typical of comic-book horror. The first segment, "Dumplings", released on its own as a full feature length movie, has the most ties to the Western world and 1950s horror: the fear of old age and ultimate mortality. An aging actress, played by Lillian Lee, comes across a woman who has a special brand of dumplings which can restore her youth. Of course, right at the start, nothing happens. However, imperceptibly but surely, the actress' beauty resumes itself, and an unlikely co-dependence develops between she and the woman who cooks the special dumplings. Until she finds out what the special ingredient within the dumplings are really about.<br /><br />The second story, "Cut", also straight-forward, might be the weaker of the three even though it has some very tense moments: a director finds himself hostage to a situation with an actor who was little more than an extra, his wife attached to a piano like a puppet, and a child strapped against a sofa. Unless he strangles the child on the sofa, the disgruntled extra will slice off his wife's fingers. This portion moves with exquisite tension until events threaten to give in, and of course, there are surprises in store.<br /><br />The third and final installment of the three is "Box", directed by Takashi Miike of ODISHON, and it plays with the unease that characterizes some of David Lynch's own forays into inter-dimensions. Here, a young woman is tormented by dreams of the twin sister who perished in a fire when they both were circus performers (and her father seemed to prefer the dead sister). Art directed almost to ridiculous levels, it presents a situation that seems to be heading one way, or in fact, might very well be non-existent -- something within the young woman's head. The fact that her editor looks like the father who died in the fire when she was a girl doesn't help in clarifying anything, and the story's own ambiguity lends light into its own world.<br /><br />Of the three short films my favorite is "Dumplings". It presents a fear that we all know: the fear not only of growing old, but becoming undesirable -- a specter of our former selves. That Mrs. Li, knowing the horror she is being privy to, continues on her pursuit of youth, not altogether knowing what she will be really giving up, is part of the visceral horror that in other hands would have become just another remake of THE LEECH WOMAN (and its imitators). That final shot of Mrs. Li, as she looks on, serene, and licks the blood off her lips, a tongue that has become grotesque, cutting to the sound of her chewing those little dumplings is classic.