"Daylight" DVD (director: David Barker)

Ah, finally -- a micro-indie film with intelligence and subtlety. "Daylight" is a dark drama (not horror, as the packaging would have you believe) that features a young European couple who, on their way to a wedding somewhere in the rural states, fall prey to a team of kidnappers.

The pregnant wife Irene (played with a subtle eroticism by Alexandra Meierhans) gets to know the kidnappers as she is held hostage in an old farmhouse. Her relationships with her captors is subtle, and we're not always sure who is playing who. The kidnappers also have some depth, being quite polite to Irene, but with an underlying sense of unhinged menace. As the kidnappers' schemes gradually go astray, Irene uses her wits to avoid being injured or abused, all the while watching her naive (but murderous) kidnappers fall apart. 

"Daylight" is an engrossing, well-shot, well-directed, and all around well-done film that deserves to be seen. Do yourself a favor and find this one. (Cinema Purgatorio)

"Captive Files 1" DVD

Here we have another 'pink' movie (Google or wiki it if you don't know) from Japan. And this one's a full-lengther (as in 1:40). As it goes, 'Captive Files 1' (directed by Kim Tae-gwan) depicts a lonely postal worker whose obsession for young teenage girl results in his abduction of said girl. He gradually tries to 'train' her to love him, and resorts to bondage and confinement! Well, suffice to say that things don't quite go as well as he plans. It's not rated, and there's plenty of savage sex and some disturbing plot twists along the way. It's fairly well-acted and scripted, and even the subtitles are well-done. An enjoyable little movie here, and certainly memorable, in a darkly-twisted little way. It may go on a tad too long (the epilogue is dodgy and unnecessary, though maybe it somehow is an attempt to justify the brutality and possible charges of sexism that could be levied against the film), but I kinda liked 'Captive Files 1'. (MVD Visual)