The first short, Dumplings, tells the story of, Ching (Miriam Yeung), an actress who has seen a decline in not only her popularity and beauty, but is in the process of losing her husband, Lee (Tony Leung Ka Fai), as well. Ching learns of a witch/mystic known as 'Aunt Mei' (Bai Ling), a young woman who offers dumplings that offer a rejuvenating affect for those who eat the dumplings. Ching visits 'Aunt Mei' and it isn't long before she realizes what main ingredient of the dumplings are. Does this stop Ching from return visits to Aunt Mei? Not at all and Ching soon realizes that the gift of youth and beauty come with a price.

The second short film, Cut, tells of a young director (Byung-hun Lee) who appears to have everything....a good career, wealth, a fine house and a beautiful wife (Hye-jeong Kang). One night upon returning to his home in Seoul, the power goes out and the director awakens not in his home, but back at the studio where an exact replica of his home has been made for a film he's directing. The director finds himself bound around the waist by a large looking rubber band and his hands are bound together. He's shocked to see his wife, a concert pianist, sitting at the piano, looking like a puppet, with ropes attached to her entire body. The director and his wife have been kidnapped by an extra (Won-hie Lim) from all the films the director has made. The stranger tells the director that his main gripe against him is that he's a 'nice guy'. The stranger tells the director that he's handsome, wealthy and an all-around nice guy and that appears to be the bitch the extra has with the director. The stranger tells the director that even when he messed up a scene after being stung by a bee, while the assistant director climbed all over him for ruining the scene, the director was only kind and concerned about how he was feeling. The stranger tells of how his life has sucked from day one....he had an alcoholic/abusive father and no looks or talent that would ever afford him the luxuries that the director enjoys. He tells how every night he drinks and not only beats his own son, but his wife and because of this, he wants to force the director to do something that goes against his decent manner and unless he kills a young girl he has brought along, he will chop off one finger of his wife's every five minutes. He quickly proves he's not kidding around as he without any hesitation, lops off one of the wife's fingers, much to her horror and that of her husband. The question is, can the director be pushed far enough to murder the young girl and save his wife's fingers and career or does he lack the guts to save anyone?

The disc finishes up with the effort of, Tashike Miike, who has fast become a major star in the U.S. with his many films that push how much pain the audience can take? Box tells the tale of, Kyoko (Kyoko Hasegawa), a reclusive horror writer who is haunted by her past. In her past, Kyoko and her twin sister, Shoko (Yuu Suzuki) worked as part of a circus act with their father. The girls did a combination ballet/contortionist act that always ends with the two girls being placed in very small boxes. It seems young Shoko is showered with praise and gifts by the girls father, leaving young Kyoko a little jealous. Following a horrible accident, Kyoko is haunted by strange dreams into her adulthood where she is wrapped in plastic and placed in a small box. What is real and what is a dream?

Three Extremes is offered in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and looks quite good. The quality of each story is slightly different, but overall the disc looks and sounds very good. Audio is offered in 5.1 Dolby Digital and 2.0 Dolby Digital along with English and Spanish subtitles. I'm going out on a limb here, as I can't find any info on the audio, but I'm assuming each short is offered in it's native language.....Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The bonus feature included on this rental disc is a commentary track by Takashi Miike for, Box. I did check out the disc offered for sale and it would appear this is a two disc release which also includes the full length feature film for the short, Dumplings.

I found this to be a very interesting mix of shorts and by far, the best one in my own opinion is, Dumplings. That short was just too extreme! I'm most interested in seeking out the second disc which houses the extended and feature film length version of, Dumplings, the short was fantastic, I'd like to see if it works as a full length film. Cut was also an interesting story, more cartoonish at times with the gore, although still very subdued, in my opinion and the third installment, Box was easy enough to watch, but to my surprise, the weakest of the three shorts. I'm constantly amazed by the work put out in the Far East and find myself not only enjoying the films, but also daring myself to watch some of them, because let's face it, some of the films put out in the Far East are hard-core and extreme! This set of three stories gives the viewer a taste of what they can expect with some of the efforts of the directors showcased in this disc and I'd like to think, like myself, it only warrants efforts to seek out more of these style films. This film offers it all, cannibalism, abortion, torutre and even hints of incest! I'd definitely recommend this disc of shorts to anyone already familiar with what to expect with the likes of these directors and to anyone not familiar, I'd say this is a nice place to start.

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