This has seemingly all been seen before - the
gangster life with its strong doses of male bonding, betrayal, the surrounding
violence, a beautiful woman who softens a hard heart and a John Woo finale
- but I don't know if it’s been done much better than this. This is just
simply brilliant - the mood is sleek and dangerous with a wonderful physical
rhythm that is hypnotic and Lee Byung-heon as the coolest of gangsters
in his designer suits and calm composure is in complete command until he
shows one moment of humanity and his world falls out from under him in
a heartbeat.
Korea had two great adult romantic films in
2005 and both tanked completely at the box office. This film and Green
Chair. There is hardly a plot to write about in GIT - it’s a beautifully
shot Zen like work of slow moments that will sneak up on you and drill
to the center of your heart. A lonely film director goes to a small island
in the off season in hopes that his ex-girlfriend of years ago will keep
her 10-year old promise to show up. While waiting for her to come, he goes
about his days and fills his time with simply living in the present. He
chats with the sister of the hotel owner, stares out at the sea, takes
walks - nothing much happens – yet it’s deliriously romantic. This is so
refreshing - the director never looks down and plays to the audience with
big emotional melodramatic scenes but just delivers a small slice of life
story that felt so much larger.
This was the second biggest box office film
of the year and for a rarity its popularity is matched by the quality of
the film. I went in expecting a soppy dim-witted Korean comedy and came
away completely emotionally undone - this debut work from director Park
Kwang-hyun is amazing. It’s kind of like Brigadoon meets the Korean War
and whips back and forth between the magical, the comical, the brutal and
the tragic to wonderful dizzying effect. In some ways the film goes just
where you expect it to but while doing so it creates an emotional core
that becomes devastating by the end.
Park Chan-wook’s third and final piece in his
trilogy of revenge films is so visually glorious and imaginative that one
can easily be swept along like a swift rip tide. He seems to constantly
play with his presentation – imagery that made me gulp like a school boy
in love – an ever constant parade of changing colors, texture and camera
angles with playful swirls and doodles as add-ons. It simply knocked me
out. This isn’t quite enough to allow me to completely overlook the lack
of a strong emotional core within this beautifully wrapped gift, but it’s
often times comical overtones and stunning appearance made for a great
viewing experience.
A lonely married woman in her thirties sleeps
with a young man and goes to jail for this offense. She does her time and
as soon as she is out she immediately jumps into bed and into a continuance
of their torrid affair. It is incredibly sexy and passionate, but what
I loved most about this film is it’s lack of being judgmental and an ending
that didn’t make them pay for their “sin” against social morays – it basically
says love and good sex is a higher calling than being polite and to go
for it. A masterful work.
Two boxers on the fringe of society are destined
to meet in the ring looking for a little redemption in their lives and
the viewer is left with an emotional conundrum – we want them both to win
and in a sense they both do. Melodramatic and poignant, this tears at your
heart with good intentions and two ferociously appealing performances.
Though this has all the packaging of yet another
romantic comedy, if so it is certainly one of the most subversive ones
I have come across. A teacher is assigned a female student teacher as his
assistant and puts the moves on her immediately – then virtually rapes
her – and then dates her – then falls in love with her. Part of me recoiled
in horror that this was portrayed as a sort of romance, but part of me
was fascinated by it as well. Repulsive and romantic, it is moored by a
terrific performance from Gang Hye-jung as the student teacher.
Director Hur Jin-ho gets wonderfully gentle
performances from his actors (Christmas in August, One Fine Spring Day)
and in a film industry that often seems to prize yelling and crying, his
films are a lovely oasis of reflection and reticence. In an echo of “In
the Mood for Love”, a man and a woman meet after their significant others
are in an automobile accident and they discover that they were having an
affair. As they wait for their recovery, they slowly drift into one themselves
partly for revenge but also partly to fill a hole in their lives. It’s
a lovely slow moving film that quietly explores desperate passion.
A mocking irreverent rendering of the assassination
of President Park in 1979 that is all the funnier because it is based on
true events and because it so annoyed much of the Korean establishment.
Everyone from the perpetrators to the government come across as idiots
without a clue. After the killing is performed, the Three Stooges who carry
it out flounder without a plan on what to do next – somewhat similar to
a recent invasion of a foreign country – and always a good reminder that
because people are in power doesn’t necessarily mean they are smart.
Stunningly shot with deep colors, striking close-ups and fevered imagery, “Red Shoes” veers wildly between art film and genre film, but every frame is beautifully thought out and rendered. The film is cluttered emotionally with almost too much angst – paranoia, anger, jealousy, infidelity, obsession, madness, sexual desire and a suggested Electra Complex. All these tangled up emotions create a messy layered sense of psychosis that surrounds the basic horror elements of the story with unnerving effect. Assisting all this are isolated urban settings, eerie atmospherics, a jarring musical score and some terrific acting from Kim Hye-soo and Park Yeon-ah (who succeeds the little girl in “The Phone” as one more reason never to have children!).