Recently, I watched Boksuneun naui geot or Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first of the Vengeance Trilogy by director Park Chan-uk, and although it shared some characteristics to Chinjeolhan geumjassi, this film was not so clear cut. In fact, I didn't like it or at least I had a very hard time watching it and sympathizing with the main character. Maybe it's because I'm a father, but couple that with the fact that the little girl character has the same name as a very fetching violinist I used to know, and the fact that violin music plays at points during the film, it's like one big fat trigger whipping me across the face repeatedly like Yu-sun's bow did.
The film is about a deaf guy who finds himself taking care of his older sister who needs a new kidney. Interesting though that kidneys are also later symbolic in Chinjeolhan geumjassi. Ryu, played by Shin Ha-kyun slogs in a factory to pay the hospital bills. He gets laid off from the job, and ends up bringing his sister played by Kim Ji-eun to his flat for care. Ryu is determined to find a kidney for his sister, but unfortunately carries type A blood. He hooks up with a dodgy couple of guys who are willing to sell him a kidney. They throw the old bait and switch, and their mummy tells him he doesn't have enough dosh to buy a kidney but she so nice that she can find one if he gives his kidney in exchange. Naively maybe, Ryu gives up a kidney and the next thing he knows he's lying naked in a vacant tower of flats, broke.
Ryu's girlfriend, Yeong-mi played by Bae Du-na, is an anarchist and hatches a plot to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy family, more precisely from the man who laid Ryu off in the first place. A bit of surveillance and the pair easily snatch Yu-sun, played by Han Bo-bae. She's so cute! A ransom exchange is planned and the pair of kidnappers have every intention of returning the girl, but then Ryu's sister figures out what is going on, and kills herself because she is ashamed of what her brother has done.
Ryu can't believe what has happened, and takes the body to the place where he promised to bury his sister. While placing his sister under a grave of stones, a peculiar character arrives. The character is credited as being retarded, but clearly the young man simply suffers from a rather serious case of cerebral palsy. A little bit of understanding goes a long way, people. He takes a fancy to the tchochki necklace that the little girl wears. He tries to nick it, but ends up just creeping the shit out of the girl. She tries to run across a rickety bridge to Ryu, whom she considers a friend, but dives in the river. Flailing, her cries are ignored by the deaf kidnapper and she drowns. My last ounce of sympathy for Ryu just floated down the river.
The story now focuses on the story of Park Dong-jin, Yu-sun's father, who has vowed a little revenge of his own. He works with a police inspector to track down the kidnappers and eventually comes across the body of his daughter. The scene in the medical examiner's room is quite telling. Park attends the autopsy, and is being torn apart emotionally as we hear the bone saws and stuff cutting up Yu-sun. He goes back to the scene of the crime and discovers the body of Ryu's sister buried on the opposite shore. He attends her autopsy and shows no hint of repulsion as the bone saws go to work on her. Tracing the steps of the kidnappers and using a series of photographs, Park discovers Ryu's identity. He goes after Yeong-mi, who devised the kidnapping to begin with and tortures her for information. During that time, he takes out a delivery man who may have seen something he shouldn't have, and the viewer begins to see that this humble electrician isn't the bootlack he has been portrayed as so far. He continues to torture Yeong-mi, who confesses that she is truly sorry for what has happened and warns him that if she disappears, her anarchist friends will get Park. The dude's basically got nothing to lose, so he amps up the electricity and that's the end of Yeong-mi.
Meanwhile, Ryu is getting a little payback on the brothers who scammed him in the first place and their drug-addicted mummy. He doesn't come out unscathed and discovers that Yeong-mi has been murdered. He now must take vengeance on Park, and goes to his house. Ryu is promptly knocked out in his weakened state by electricity the moment he tries to open the basement door. Park takes him back to the river and explains that he understands that Ryu is a good guy, but that's why he must be killed. Park cuts the lashings, and then in a gesture of poetic justice, cuts his hamstrings so that Ryu is forced to slump into the water and drown like Yu-sun.
Park drags the body from the river and cuts it into smaller pieces so that it's easier to bury. He finds a nice quiet location down a country road and is in the middle of digging a decent pit when a group of four anarchists show up and stab the guy to death, pinning a note to his chest detailing the death sentence that Yeong-mi had written earlier in the film. So it ends up being a zero sum game. Everybody involved in the kidnapping is dead and I hate that. Somebody has to survive, even if it's the bad guy, somebody has to be left standing.
The viewer is led to sympathize from the beginning with Ryu, who does everything he can to care for his sister. But by the end of it, I was cheering for Park, Yu-sun's father. I was actually surprised at how differently I saw this film. Before, I may have sided with Ryu, but I guess I see things differently now.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
She Ate the Layer Cake
I suppose it was only a matter of time, but Layer Cake is now my second favourite film. About a year ago, perhaps longer I read an article in the New York Times about a Korean director who was apparently making waves in the violent-film genre. I scoffed ignorantly thinking that nobody could top Takashi Miike.
A sudden re-interest in Korean culture made me think of this director, and after a particularly stressful Friday at work (you know, the kind of stress that makes your head feel 15 pounds heavier), I went up to the video shop and rented the last of the "vengeance" trilogy by Park Chan-uk, entitled Chinjeolhan geumjassi or Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. I couldn't remember the director's name exactly, so the clerk had to ask the shop's walking dictionary and he knew right away who I was looking for:
Me: I can't remember the name exactly, it's something Korean. He makes violent movies.
Dictionary: You mean Park Chan-uk?
Me: Chan-uk - that's the one. I've heard he's more violent than Takashi Miike.
Dictionary: Ummm, I don't think so. Miike's violence is pretty sick, but Park's violence is more beautiful. He leaves a little more to the imagination...
My Korean is fairly limited, consisting of a few phrases such as hello, goodbye, and you play violin very well, but I mustered a "kam sa ham nida" and rushed out the door. For good measure, I grabbed six Corona and a beef rendang on the way home. I was set. I remembered what the Dictionary told me, and I have to say he was very right.
I was looking forward to something parallel to Sasori and this had some overlap, and would have been a great place for Sasori to pick up, but it soon outgrew the Japanese film and revealed itself to be something so much better. The music is solemn and orchestral, triggering fond memories of a very fetching Korean girl playing violin in my flat several summers past. The music lends itself very well to the tone of the movie. Very well. One thing that really helped move the story along is that the lead actress has a strong resemblance to my hair dressor, a woman quietly plotting some revenge of her own.
It begins as the story of a young woman, played by the very captivating Li Yeong-ae, who went to prison for the man she loved. I thought Li was the same woman who starred in Bin-jip or Three Iron, but I was wrong. That lead actress is Lee Seung-yeon. Totally different actress. During her time in prison, Geum-ja formulates a plan to take revenge on the guy. She spends thirteen years in prison, acting as a selfless, model inmate who does everything she can to win the trust of others and get what she wants. She tallies several favours, and manages to kill the cell block bully with a smile on her face. She wins fans across Korea, one of them being a creepy minister who, it turns out was sent to keep an eye on Geum-ja. Promptly after getting out of prison, the new Geum-ja tells the preacher to fuck himself and she begins collecting favours. She pays a visit to one of her fellow inmates who has been released and picks out some nice clothes and takes a flat. Next, she approaches the family of the boy she allegedly killed and asks for forgiveness. They tell her to go away so she cuts off a finger and threatens to cut off more until they forgive. The bandaged finger is used as a nice little time marker by the director, a little obvious, but novel all the same.
Back and forth between a series of flashbacks and present day, the story unfolds. The next step Geum-ja takes is to acquire a gun, made for her by the husband of one of her former cell mates. This is a big favour - for this Geum-ja had to give a kidney. At least I think that's the one she gave her kidney for. Geum-ja reports to a bakery where she is given a job by the former prison dessert teacher. She works a few days and then asks for a 3 month advance. She seduces the son of the baker, and tells him she will kill him if he touches anything in her apartment. Geum-ja has discovered that her daughter had been given up for adoption and was living in Australia.
Jenny, played by Kwon Yea-young uses a fairly convincing accent, though one completely unsuited to Australia and is very eager to travel to Korea with her mother. She threatens to cut her throat if her adoptive parents don't allow her to go with Geum-ja. They relent and off she goes to Seoul. She meets the son of the baker and learns a little Korean. She chooses a puppy and takes it on a picnic to the country where she takes Korean lessons with the son while Geum-ja shoots the puppy in the head. Sissy was completely confused by the whole movie, beginning with the flashbacks, and then with the dead puppy. I guessed that Geum-ja was only practicing and making sure she could do the deed when the time came. During the lessons, Jenny writes a letter to her mother explaining that she is angry with her mother and wants her mother to apologize. Back in Seoul, the Australians arrive at the bakery and find Jenny.
The plan is not quite complete. Geum-ja takes one more favour from an inmate who has been keeping an eye on the real child killer by posing as his girlfriend or whatever. She carefully waits for Geum-ja, and unfortunately is uncovered by the creepy preacher. He reveals the connection between the two women, and Mr. Baek hires two goons to do her over. He ties her to a chair in his apartment and patiently eats his dinner while the two goons wait for Geum-ja and Jenny to arrive. The guys ambush Geum-ja and her daughter in the snow covered street, chloroforming the girl and trying to shove Geum-ja in a car. Of course, Geum-ja wants revenge so she's not going to take it lightly. She shoots one guy in the face - the camera shot is from behind his head and the viewer is treated to a rather unconvincing blowout. She then chases down the guy holding Jenny and waits until she is in close range to pull the trigger. She carries Jenny back to Mr. Baek's apartment, where the fat fuck is lying unconscious on the floor. See, his girlfriend or whatever was a master poisoner and went to prison for poisoning someone in the first place.
The flashbacks are over now, and the movie is about half over. The vengeance begins, and this is done very well. The director admits in an interview that his intention all along was to ask "When is violence ever justified?", and he keeps the message true. He turns the question inward - the viewer is forced to contemplate an appropriate answer. With the help of the original case inspector, who knew that Geum-ja was innocent all along but needed to close his case, she holds a congress with the families of the victims - turns out there are five families - in a schoolhouse where Mr. Baek is being held.
Cunningly, the meeting is wired, and Baek can hear everything being discussed, everything being agreed and all the hatred and sadness harboured by the families. One by one, the families are treated to a videotaping of their child's death. Baek made tapes for souvenirs, and Geum-ja found them. After all the violence and gore, I found this scene to be the hardest to watch. Though, you don't see the crux of the footage, you do witness the reactions of the families. This is how I know the director is good - maybe also due to my hair dressor's personal story, but Park made me feel like I was sitting there in the schoolhouse. Geum-ja asks the families what they want to do, and each person agrees to secrecy. Some want to hand him over to the police, where others want their pound of flesh. It is agreed that the families will take care of the matter themselves and that the ransom monies they had delivered to Baek would be returned. The first people to have a go are the parents of the first boy - each has agreed to leave a little something for everyone else - and so forth. Geum-ja herself has already beaten, poisoned, and shot Baek and leaves it at that. Her vengeance will be satisfaction. Satisfaction knowing that others were able to dispense rough justice along with her. They clean up the crime scene and pose together for a photo so that nobody will ever rat on another, and they go their separate ways. Back in Seoul, Geum-ja apologizes to Jenny and buries her face in a tofu cake. Closure.
A sudden re-interest in Korean culture made me think of this director, and after a particularly stressful Friday at work (you know, the kind of stress that makes your head feel 15 pounds heavier), I went up to the video shop and rented the last of the "vengeance" trilogy by Park Chan-uk, entitled Chinjeolhan geumjassi or Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. I couldn't remember the director's name exactly, so the clerk had to ask the shop's walking dictionary and he knew right away who I was looking for:
Me: I can't remember the name exactly, it's something Korean. He makes violent movies.
Dictionary: You mean Park Chan-uk?
Me: Chan-uk - that's the one. I've heard he's more violent than Takashi Miike.
Dictionary: Ummm, I don't think so. Miike's violence is pretty sick, but Park's violence is more beautiful. He leaves a little more to the imagination...
My Korean is fairly limited, consisting of a few phrases such as hello, goodbye, and you play violin very well, but I mustered a "kam sa ham nida" and rushed out the door. For good measure, I grabbed six Corona and a beef rendang on the way home. I was set. I remembered what the Dictionary told me, and I have to say he was very right.
I was looking forward to something parallel to Sasori and this had some overlap, and would have been a great place for Sasori to pick up, but it soon outgrew the Japanese film and revealed itself to be something so much better. The music is solemn and orchestral, triggering fond memories of a very fetching Korean girl playing violin in my flat several summers past. The music lends itself very well to the tone of the movie. Very well. One thing that really helped move the story along is that the lead actress has a strong resemblance to my hair dressor, a woman quietly plotting some revenge of her own.
It begins as the story of a young woman, played by the very captivating Li Yeong-ae, who went to prison for the man she loved. I thought Li was the same woman who starred in Bin-jip or Three Iron, but I was wrong. That lead actress is Lee Seung-yeon. Totally different actress. During her time in prison, Geum-ja formulates a plan to take revenge on the guy. She spends thirteen years in prison, acting as a selfless, model inmate who does everything she can to win the trust of others and get what she wants. She tallies several favours, and manages to kill the cell block bully with a smile on her face. She wins fans across Korea, one of them being a creepy minister who, it turns out was sent to keep an eye on Geum-ja. Promptly after getting out of prison, the new Geum-ja tells the preacher to fuck himself and she begins collecting favours. She pays a visit to one of her fellow inmates who has been released and picks out some nice clothes and takes a flat. Next, she approaches the family of the boy she allegedly killed and asks for forgiveness. They tell her to go away so she cuts off a finger and threatens to cut off more until they forgive. The bandaged finger is used as a nice little time marker by the director, a little obvious, but novel all the same.
Back and forth between a series of flashbacks and present day, the story unfolds. The next step Geum-ja takes is to acquire a gun, made for her by the husband of one of her former cell mates. This is a big favour - for this Geum-ja had to give a kidney. At least I think that's the one she gave her kidney for. Geum-ja reports to a bakery where she is given a job by the former prison dessert teacher. She works a few days and then asks for a 3 month advance. She seduces the son of the baker, and tells him she will kill him if he touches anything in her apartment. Geum-ja has discovered that her daughter had been given up for adoption and was living in Australia.
Jenny, played by Kwon Yea-young uses a fairly convincing accent, though one completely unsuited to Australia and is very eager to travel to Korea with her mother. She threatens to cut her throat if her adoptive parents don't allow her to go with Geum-ja. They relent and off she goes to Seoul. She meets the son of the baker and learns a little Korean. She chooses a puppy and takes it on a picnic to the country where she takes Korean lessons with the son while Geum-ja shoots the puppy in the head. Sissy was completely confused by the whole movie, beginning with the flashbacks, and then with the dead puppy. I guessed that Geum-ja was only practicing and making sure she could do the deed when the time came. During the lessons, Jenny writes a letter to her mother explaining that she is angry with her mother and wants her mother to apologize. Back in Seoul, the Australians arrive at the bakery and find Jenny.
The plan is not quite complete. Geum-ja takes one more favour from an inmate who has been keeping an eye on the real child killer by posing as his girlfriend or whatever. She carefully waits for Geum-ja, and unfortunately is uncovered by the creepy preacher. He reveals the connection between the two women, and Mr. Baek hires two goons to do her over. He ties her to a chair in his apartment and patiently eats his dinner while the two goons wait for Geum-ja and Jenny to arrive. The guys ambush Geum-ja and her daughter in the snow covered street, chloroforming the girl and trying to shove Geum-ja in a car. Of course, Geum-ja wants revenge so she's not going to take it lightly. She shoots one guy in the face - the camera shot is from behind his head and the viewer is treated to a rather unconvincing blowout. She then chases down the guy holding Jenny and waits until she is in close range to pull the trigger. She carries Jenny back to Mr. Baek's apartment, where the fat fuck is lying unconscious on the floor. See, his girlfriend or whatever was a master poisoner and went to prison for poisoning someone in the first place.
The flashbacks are over now, and the movie is about half over. The vengeance begins, and this is done very well. The director admits in an interview that his intention all along was to ask "When is violence ever justified?", and he keeps the message true. He turns the question inward - the viewer is forced to contemplate an appropriate answer. With the help of the original case inspector, who knew that Geum-ja was innocent all along but needed to close his case, she holds a congress with the families of the victims - turns out there are five families - in a schoolhouse where Mr. Baek is being held.
Cunningly, the meeting is wired, and Baek can hear everything being discussed, everything being agreed and all the hatred and sadness harboured by the families. One by one, the families are treated to a videotaping of their child's death. Baek made tapes for souvenirs, and Geum-ja found them. After all the violence and gore, I found this scene to be the hardest to watch. Though, you don't see the crux of the footage, you do witness the reactions of the families. This is how I know the director is good - maybe also due to my hair dressor's personal story, but Park made me feel like I was sitting there in the schoolhouse. Geum-ja asks the families what they want to do, and each person agrees to secrecy. Some want to hand him over to the police, where others want their pound of flesh. It is agreed that the families will take care of the matter themselves and that the ransom monies they had delivered to Baek would be returned. The first people to have a go are the parents of the first boy - each has agreed to leave a little something for everyone else - and so forth. Geum-ja herself has already beaten, poisoned, and shot Baek and leaves it at that. Her vengeance will be satisfaction. Satisfaction knowing that others were able to dispense rough justice along with her. They clean up the crime scene and pose together for a photo so that nobody will ever rat on another, and they go their separate ways. Back in Seoul, Geum-ja apologizes to Jenny and buries her face in a tofu cake. Closure.
Monday, January 01, 2007
The Golden Mullet
Happy New Year. Well, at least I hope YOU have one. I'm miserable. Ali has gone and it was all very shitty. Christmas night, she gave me a dirty look for not leaving Bob's place early enough so she could pack a decent suitcase. She was also a little upset that I had left her alone with Bob, giving him ample opportunity to give her the third degree. On Boxing Day, we popped around to Orange Peel's and had a nice little get together. Ali didn't say a word about staying too late then though. The next morning, we had a quick good-bye and she was off in a taxi to JFK and I was off to work.
I watched Tim yin mat yue or Sealed With a Kiss the next Saturday, and I probably shouldn't have. I watched it because it starred Louis Koo. This is the first drama I've seen him in, and it was actually quite good, except for the shitty ending which sucked. I'd tried to watch it before, but the reception wasn't good so I abandoned the effort. This movie was made before Koo began sporting his Golden Mullet and he looks better, or more believable, without it.
Okay, so the story goes like this: Koo plays a mute villager who doesn't have much to do around the place except help his mum look after the shop, work on his boat, and shake down addicts and restauranteurs for protection money. His friend Angel, played by Suk-Ching Au seems to be the brains of the outfit and Kam Shui (Koo) the muscle. Angel is a bit of a tomboy in the film, but has a crush on Kam. Along comes Mandy, played by Yo Yo Mung, who rents a room above Kam's shop and waits forlorn for her ex-boyfriend to call. He doesn't.
Time goes by, and Kam develops a crush on Mandy, who in turn has developed a crush on a fire-fighter. Kam is left to run the shop all by himself, but as good friends do, he and Angel help Mandy get in with the fire-fighter. Of course, Kam doesn't really want this to work but Angel doesn't want Mandy in the way of her friendship with Kam. Mandy and the fire-fighter go off to Hong Kong, and Angel and Kam continue the shake downs so they can gamble.
I guess in a small seaside village like this one, the protection racket develops a certain rapport with their targets. And so it is with a particular individual who seems to never have the money required and is frequently thrown in the harbour. During one shakedown, Angel who is working solo, goes bezerk on the guy because he tells her that he likes her. She considers this an affront and shivs the guy in the gut with a broken bottle. Kam runs down to the beach and sees what Angel has done, and the fun and games are over.
Angel disappears and Kam takes the addict to a doctor. Everything seems to be back to normal until Kam goes to clean the room upstairs and finds cues from Mandy that she knew he liked her and Kam decides to go to HK to find Mandy. Kam grabs an address and runs through town to the ferry.
And if the movie had ended there, it would have been nice. Unfortunately, some people don't like happy endings and I'm not saying that everything has to end happily ever after, but this ending really sucked, almost as hard as Layer Cake, but with a romantic premise mixed in. On the way to the ferry, somebody stops him and reminds him that his flip flops just won't suit him in HK, and that he should change his shoes. He runs back to the shop and begins to put on his nice shoes. He hears something in the back and goes to investigate. It's the drug addict who seems to be strangely calm considering he's just been caught breaking into a shop. Kam lets him eat some food and just as he turns to finish putting his shoes on, he gets a knife in the back. The remaining five minutes is just too sad, or maybe I'm emo. Suffice it to say that as soon as Kam turned around to go back to the shop, the movie sucked.
I watched Tim yin mat yue or Sealed With a Kiss the next Saturday, and I probably shouldn't have. I watched it because it starred Louis Koo. This is the first drama I've seen him in, and it was actually quite good, except for the shitty ending which sucked. I'd tried to watch it before, but the reception wasn't good so I abandoned the effort. This movie was made before Koo began sporting his Golden Mullet and he looks better, or more believable, without it.
Okay, so the story goes like this: Koo plays a mute villager who doesn't have much to do around the place except help his mum look after the shop, work on his boat, and shake down addicts and restauranteurs for protection money. His friend Angel, played by Suk-Ching Au seems to be the brains of the outfit and Kam Shui (Koo) the muscle. Angel is a bit of a tomboy in the film, but has a crush on Kam. Along comes Mandy, played by Yo Yo Mung, who rents a room above Kam's shop and waits forlorn for her ex-boyfriend to call. He doesn't.
Time goes by, and Kam develops a crush on Mandy, who in turn has developed a crush on a fire-fighter. Kam is left to run the shop all by himself, but as good friends do, he and Angel help Mandy get in with the fire-fighter. Of course, Kam doesn't really want this to work but Angel doesn't want Mandy in the way of her friendship with Kam. Mandy and the fire-fighter go off to Hong Kong, and Angel and Kam continue the shake downs so they can gamble.
I guess in a small seaside village like this one, the protection racket develops a certain rapport with their targets. And so it is with a particular individual who seems to never have the money required and is frequently thrown in the harbour. During one shakedown, Angel who is working solo, goes bezerk on the guy because he tells her that he likes her. She considers this an affront and shivs the guy in the gut with a broken bottle. Kam runs down to the beach and sees what Angel has done, and the fun and games are over.
Angel disappears and Kam takes the addict to a doctor. Everything seems to be back to normal until Kam goes to clean the room upstairs and finds cues from Mandy that she knew he liked her and Kam decides to go to HK to find Mandy. Kam grabs an address and runs through town to the ferry.
And if the movie had ended there, it would have been nice. Unfortunately, some people don't like happy endings and I'm not saying that everything has to end happily ever after, but this ending really sucked, almost as hard as Layer Cake, but with a romantic premise mixed in. On the way to the ferry, somebody stops him and reminds him that his flip flops just won't suit him in HK, and that he should change his shoes. He runs back to the shop and begins to put on his nice shoes. He hears something in the back and goes to investigate. It's the drug addict who seems to be strangely calm considering he's just been caught breaking into a shop. Kam lets him eat some food and just as he turns to finish putting his shoes on, he gets a knife in the back. The remaining five minutes is just too sad, or maybe I'm emo. Suffice it to say that as soon as Kam turned around to go back to the shop, the movie sucked.
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