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After watching this anthology of three short horror films from Asian masters, I realized that current American horror is dumb and wussy.

China’s Fruit Chan (FINALE IN BLOOD), Korea’s Chan-wook Park (OLDBOY) and Japan’s Takashi Miike (ICHI THE KILLER) direct one of the three segments of the film. Fruit Chan’s “Dumplings” follows aging TV star Ching (Miriam Yeung Chin Wah) as she goes to Mei (Ling Bai, THE CROW), whose dumplings are rumored to make the eater look years younger. Once we find out what the secret ingredient of the dumplings is we are appalled. But how far will Ching be able to go to look younger?

Chan-wook Park’s “Cut” has a famous film director (Byung-hun Lee, 3-IRON) kidnapped from his home and tied up to a huge elastic band on his film set along with his musician wife (Hye-jeong Kang, OLDBOY), who is elaborately strung up by piano wires. His kidnapper (Won-hie Lim, NO BLOOD NO TEARS) is someone from the director’s past with motivations that are not as we would expect. He challenges the director to reveal deep secrets to save his wife from torture — torture that Holly Hunter would sympathize with. How this episode turns out will have you talking more than how it got there.

Takashi Miike’s “Box” follows Kyoto (Kyoto Hasegawa), a sad writer who is tormented by memories of her childhood when she was in a magic act with her twin sister and her father (Atsuro Watabe).

These films belong to the growing sub-genre in Asia known as Extreme Cinema. They are bloody, violent, but highly intelligent parables often utilizing cool and stylish camera work.

The first film is the most extreme, taking its premise to the most disturbing of lengths. The film has guts. “Cut” has twists and turns much like OLDBOY and SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGENCE. The film knows how to develop original characters and reveal plot secrets in a way that only heightens the tension and complex emotional significance. “Box” is more haunting on a psychological level then the other two films even more so than Miike’s other films, especially his notorious ICHI THE KILLER or AUDITION.

Each filmmaker presents his film with a master’s skill. All three are visually intense and dramatically compelling. The first is more of a short story presenting a scenario while the last two have character journeys. All of them have unforgettable moments that will not be forgotten. The problem with anthology films sometimes is that weaker segments can be forgotten or bring down the overall film. Here, each film works on its own and adds to the overall collection. No true hardcore horror fan should miss this film.