A FILM OF TWISTS : "BAD GUY"

I seem to be all about famous auteurs with questionable reputations these days. Kim ki-duk is, without a doubt one of them. Then again we can say the same thing about South Korean cinema in general. Korean cinema tends to be something you either like or you don’t I find. Then again, it’s my personal opinion that if you can get used to the idea of doing things a little bit differently, Korean cinema can be your friend. One has to be open to have one’s preconceptions challenged though. Even more so if you are going for a director like Kim ki-duk. Bad guy is the story of… Well seemingly what is a very bad guy indeed. Han is seemingly mute, although his toughness and fighting skills makes him a feared and revered figure in Seoul’s red light district. He and his two friends help run and “protect” a particular brothel in this region. One day, as he saunters through the park, Sun, a twenty one year old, beautiful student catches his eye. The thing is, he doesn’t just think she’s sexy, he actually falls in love with her. In a stage managed robbery gone-wrong,Sun is forced to start work in the brothel Han helps manage. Adaptation his hard, Sun refuses to accept her fate at first; but then as time goes by, she slowly begins to adapt to her new life. The question is however, will she adapt enough to actually fall in love with Han ? Now, if you watch a few of Kim ki-duk’s films, you cannot, in my opinion, avoid noticing that there are a few tropes that he loves using over and over again. And one of them is definitely the “Stockholm Syndrome” that we also see here. In many films, the characters are kept, often as not from birth, in isolated conditions, away from the world (Think of The Bow or Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring). At some point they start fighting against the conditions they’re in. Then they accept them. And in fact they reach the point where they grow to love and defend these conditions. I’m not saying that the conditions are always necessarily as “bizarre” (for lack of a better word) as Bad Guy (or The Bow) but still. When you get over how disturbing the whole thing actually is, it is interesting to consider the body’s defense mechanisms under these circumstances. Ki-duk actually unites this, in quite a few of his films, with the concept of fate. It is as if the acceptance of the characters is more or less due to the fact that this is the way things were meant to be. This was what was meant to happen all along. It goes as far as throwing a bit of the supernatural into the mix (and often when we expect it the very least). And, again as often as not, the endings are happy. Or can be considered happy. I mean, I found the end of Bad guy profoundly disturbing, but hey, the characters seem quite happy… Bad guy and Kim Ki-duk in particular, will definitely give you something to think about. I strongly suggest you give it a go, if only for the sake of having a different experience.

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL FOR THIS ONE : "THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WIERD"

This is yet another film I have taken an embarrassingly long time to get round to. It was shown – and I purchased it – in the Istanbul Independent Film Festival a couple of years back, and then literally forgot it existed for about four years (Yes, that IS how big my film archive is). I came across it just the other night, it was one of those nights when, you know, you want to watch something, and you just have no idea what you want to watch. Five minutes of this… Nah… Ten minutes of that… Mm, maybe later… At around my eleventh try – and I was on the verge of considering a very early night at this point – I randomly started watching this one. Now, you know that, with classic films, usually the first 15 minutes of a film is exposition – setting the scene – then “something exciting” that starts the ball rolling usually begins (wise men and women have discovered that if the exciting thing takes longer than that to happen we tend to get bored. Usually. The Godfather, for example, is an exception to this, but then again it is an exceptional film). Anyway, so I start watching this film, right? 15 minutes in, I am excited, invested in the story – and yet I have no idea what is exactly going on!! The adrenaline (and there is A LOT of it in this film) and intrigue – kept me glued to the screen. By the time I had figured it out completely, it was about 40 minutes into the film and I simply had to watch it. Because I HAD to know the end of the story… Awesome, exciting and funny, if you need something to pep up a boring Sunday night, look no further!
Ok, so, the context of the film is so crazy and complicated that I actually needed to go online and check when the damn thing was set. It’s 1940’s Manchuria. (Manchuria, for those not in the know, is a region comprising Korea and China). Anyway, in the 1940s, Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese army. In this confusion lawlessness was pretty much rife. In the midst of everything, a mysterious map appears on the “Ghost Market” (market for stolen goods) one day. It disappears pretty quickly, because everyone – Chinese bandits, the Japanese army, the Korean resistance movement, not to mention any number of Korean gangsters and ne’er do wells are all after the map. No one is quite sure what it is a map of, but rumor has it, it’s a great buried treasure dating from the Qing dynasty. Thus starts our story. But where will it go? How will it end? You will have to watch the film itself to find that out…
First up, if the name wasn’t a big enough clue, yes, this is basically a western set in Korea, and made by Koreans. Now, don’t wrinkle your nose up at it; like I just said, it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve seen lately. The Western themes are skillfully mixed with a very specific brand of Eastern humor. There is a whole plethora of characters (I mean, I have been a bit sketchy about that part but it’s on purpose; I want you to go through that bewilderment and excitement of trying to figure out what the f..k is going on in the first half hour too. It’s not confusing at all, it’s great fun and I literally couldn’t stop laughing. My point is, there are actual protagonists. Three actually. Yep you got it : The Good, The Bad and the Weird. Just like the classic movie hehe). Oh I seem to have forgotten half a sentence at the beginning of that parenthesis. I’ll start again shall I? Ok, there are a plethora of characters and yet each is distinct, memorable and once you actually figure out what the heck is going on the story isn’t difficult to follow at all. The one thing I may “knock” about it, is the fact that the whole historical context of the thing is not actually explained until well into the second half. In fact, I got the year it was set in by checking online, the whole thing is very ambiguous and they use horses one heck of a lot for transport so I actually thought it was set a lot earlier, like turn of the century or something. But even without context, it’s just such fun and so funny that really, you can’t find fault with it. One of the funniest films I’ve seen in a long, long time.

I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK

Circumstances have led me to a slightly “themed” week. Well, partially themed anyway. And the theme of the week is South Korea! I have chosen for your delight and delectation two South Korean classics. And one of them is “I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK” by Park Chan Wook. Park Chan Wook is possibly the most famous modern Korean director, known for such classic films as Oldboy, Mr Vengeance and more recently Thirst.
Now, if you watched any of his movies before, you might be struck by the general darkness of the themes and of the movie itself. Not so in this case. I’m a cyborg but that’s ok is quite serious in its own way, but it’s basically a rather fantastic love story. The whole story takes place in a psychiatric hospital in Korea. The newest addition to the “family” is Su jeong-lim who thinks she is a cyborg. She is also on a mission however. She must make contact with her grandmother (who is really a mouse and was taken away by the same white-coats who didn’t believe her either) to find out her own reason of existence. Oh, and she must kill all the white-coats to avenge her grandmother. In hospital, she meets Rain. He is a thief. Not a kleptomaniac though, he can steal anything. From your pity to your talent for ping-pong. Su jeong-lim is struck by Rain but nothing will deter her from her mission. However, the other rather eccentric inmates are not going to make things easy for her either…
Now, even though there is no animation per-se, fans of anime will find something bizarrely familiar in this film. I can’t begin to describe what, but I definitely know it’s there. It’s something in the larger-than-life characters. The cheerful décor, the crazy adventures, the surreal atmosphere… Within a matter of minutes, Park Chan Wook has taken us on a crazy journey in a magical land- despite the presence of doctors and nurses- and even group therapy constantly reminds us where the “magic” is coming from… Still, we never think about that for long… The typically Asian attention to detail, the tasteful and subtle comedy, the pure art… A lot of Asian films may be considered difficult to watch, especially if you are not used to the genre. They can be considered dark, or too deep with too many subtle messages for the “Hollywood-numbed” brain. But this film is just so purely esthetic and joyful, I can’t think of a better introduction to Asian cinema. One last foot-note I will be adding is that if you like this film, you should really try watching some “anime” too, I’m ready to bet you’d like it. And vice – versa of course.

SOUTH KOREAN CLASSIC : "THE HOST"

Well, second on the menu we have another “Korean classic”. The Host by successful Korean director Bong Joon-ho became the most successful film in the history of South Korean cinema, gathering 13 million viewers. If you rely solely on the synopsis, you may be confused, but as always with Asian cinema, the devil is in the details…
The Host is basically a monster-movie. The callousness of western scientists cause the birth of a monster in the Han River in Korea. The monster leaves the water and takes to the streets, terrorizing the inhabitants. And at the end of the rampage, just before it vanishes into the river, it takes of a secondary school student, Hyung-seo. Now, Hynug-seo is at first assumed dead, and mourned by her family along with the other victims. In the meanwhile, the area is sealed off and rumors of a deadly virus begin spreading. In the midst of the chaos, Hyung-seo’s father receives a phone call from Hyung-seo herself. The monster has taken her back to some kind of sewer, she has no idea where she is but she’s alive. The family tries to alert the authorities but they are far from inspiring confidence. Hyung-seo’s father is, well, not the brightest bulb in the box so no one believes his story anyway. His brother is an alcoholic; his sister is a famous almost failing archery champion. His father thinks a little bit of bribery here and there is what makes the world go round. In short, the authorities take one look at them and tell them to go back to bed. This, however, is the last thing they will do. They have decided that they will battle the monster with their bare hands if need be, and rescue Hyung-seo at all costs… And so the adventure begins…
Now, before we go on any further, I would like one thing to be known. This is the most successful combination of horror/adventure/comedy I (or anyone else in my humble opinion) have ever seen. No matter which way you look at it, the film is just plain different, and more than a cut above the rest. First of all, the film is easy to watch, simply because the characters are so… Well real. I mean, there are incredibly surreal moments in the film, but the characters aren’t “perfect” and “handsome” and “strong” as they tend to be. Incidentally, they are not particularly well off. Park Gang – du, the father, lives at home with his own father and helps run a small convenience store. The brother, as I mentioned, has drinking problems. Not particularly likely heroes for a “monster-flic”, right? And yet, they are perfect for the part. One, because they are an average family pulling together in a crisis, which is in my opinion more likely than one lone gunman going it alone. (As can be seen in some other monster-flics I need not mention). Secondly, they provide the most wonderful opportunities at situational comedy you can imagine. All in excellent taste and surprisingly when you least expect it. A memorial service where the family is crying after their lost daughter/granddaughter/niece for instance... (Trust me, I am not a fan of “insensitive” humor and cry half the time as I watch the news but I was in stitches watching THIS memorial service)
Thus Bong Joon-ho sways very gracefully between a very intelligent comedy and a breathtaking adventure (where unexpected developments are also plentiful incidentally) without so much as missing a beat. I am personally highly embarrassed I had never watched it before, and am guessing you will be too by the end…