Gunsmoke
Director: Shin Seong-il
Year: 1966
Rating: 5.0
Country: Korea
AKA - Choyeon
For months now I have been wanting to get to some of the old Korean films
that the Korean Film Archives have generously put up on YouTube in the Korean
Classic Film Channel. There must be about hundred or more films from the
1950's through the 1970's and all with English subtitles. It is a treasure
that I wish other countries would do. Korea takes a lot of pride in their
film legacy and film industry and have marketed their films outside of Korean
very successfully.
Now I will be the first to admit that I know absolutely nothing about Korean
films from that period - none of the films or actors or directors - so this
is all new but unlike other film industries from that period that I have
been interested in such as Hong Kong, France, Egypt or even Mexico there
seems to be very little out there on the Internet in English. For example
I looked up the main actress in this film, Nam Jeong-im, who is an absolute
stunner and all I could find out about her is "Nam was commonly referred
to as one of the "Troika" along with her rival actresses, Yoon Jeong-hee
and Moon Hee of the 1960s and early 1970s". Troika of what I wonder? Beauties?
Great actresses? Popular actresses? Melodramatic actresses? Because damn
if this film isn't melodrama on steroids. Nam also made a hell of a lot of
films in her short career - over 40 in 1967 alone! So I hope to watch a few
of these Korean Archive films from time to time and piece together what I
can about the films from that period. They will just be random picks - the
title Gunsmoke in English intrigued me but there was no gun smoke to be seen
here - just a whole lot of tears.
Koreans love their melodramas. If I am cable surfing and come upon a Korean
TV show, the chances are about 50/50 that someone is either crying or yelling
at someone. This affinity apparently goes way back. I am a little familiar
with this genre that I call the Weepies because I have seen so many that
Taiwan made in the 1970's often starring Brigitte Lin. They often follow
a pattern of love between two people of different economic means or a love
triangle or a disease shows up. They are female centric and the stars gather
a huge loyal female fan base. Sometimes they end happily ever after or more
often in tragedy sending every one home with Kleenex in their hand.
The melodrama here towers above what I have seen in those Taiwanese films.
Looking at it from today it feels a little creepy and pathetic actually but
back then I expect it was quite effective. We are all so jaded now. Three
female friends are on an island for the weekend soaking up the sun and quoting
poetry of love and laughing. They return to the shore and find their boat
missing but lo and behold a handsome fellow in a motorboat comes by to save
them. The man Jin-u (Shin Seong-il) and one of the girls Gyeong-a (Nam) immediately
fall for one another and run through the woods and dance under the moon as
we all do when we first fall in love.
Gyeong-a goes back to Seoul where she has a job as a tutor in the home of
a wealthy family. And it turns out the older son has just returned and he
is of course Jin-u. But it is no coincidence - he had seen her photo, went
to the island and sank their boat. Ok - romantic I guess but a little stalkerish
I would say. Still they fall in love over the objections of his parents -
she is a nobody - and have a fake marriage ceremony so that they can go to
a hotel - where the concierge puts on a romantic record and later asks if
she wants an erotic magazine - and have sex - or so we assume. But then Jin-u
introduces her to his brooding handsome romantic painter friend (Lee Soon-jae)
who says things like "Is there such a thing as love" and you are thinking
to yourself oh oh that was a bad idea. Never introduce your girlfriend to
a man better looking than you are who is artistic. Never.
So we see the love triangle coming a mile away and she is like a leaf in
the wind blowing from one to the other. At some point you realize Jin-u's
parents were right - she is trouble and not good enough for their son. It
goes over the top - at one point Jin-u brings out a gun and says to her I
want to die - here take this gun and shoot me - I have a will in my pocket
to protect you - use the handkerchief so you won't leave fingerprints or
powder burns - put the gun in my hand after I am dead and walk away. I am
like just shoot yourself!
The two men eventually decide to duke it out - in a wheat field with stalks
a mile high - and Gyeong-a is running for miles through the field looking
for them as music swells shouting out their names as they beat the crap out
of one another. But putting that aside - either you like this sort of thing
or you avoid it like a newly discovered plague - the film in black and white
is beautifully shot and the acting is good even when they have to give these
solemn flowery speeches that would thrill the heart of a sixteen year old
girl. So my first film in this collection wasn't a total success but I was
impressed enough by aspects of it and will return for more.
