A VILAIN YOU WILL LOVE TO HATE: "HOUSE OF CARDS"

You know the new trend these days. If a good British show is created, you know, if it’s really, “properly” popular, chances are it will cross the pond and get an American version made. I’m thinking of things like The Office and Coupling (although it is universally agreed that the U.S. version of coupling wasn’t even one eighth as funny as the U.K. version. Just saying). One of the more recent remakes is of the iconic British political drama, House of Cards. Now, imitating things is OK up to a point, but if you try to replicate it completely, chances are you will end up with egg on your face ( as in the case of Coupling for example). The intelligent thing to do, in my way of thinking, is to take the basic format that worked, and add something from yourself. I don’t know, develop it a bit. Make it something new; don’t just make it a photocopy. In this sense taking the basic plot and moving into 21^st century American politics works. Put a star of world renowned talent like Kevin Spacey in the leading role and it works even better.

Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is Majority Whip. He has served his party loyally for years, and he fully expects to reap the benefits – especially when the time comes to nominate a new secretary of state. However, politics doesn’t always quite turn out as you may have planned, and in this particular case, against all the odds he had calculated, the job goes to someone else. Now, here’s the problem. You do not upset someone who holds so many political secrets, especially if they have both burning ambition and great political talent. They tend to have a rather nasty tendency to, I don’t know, make plans to avenge themselves. I mean think about it, it would be more than awkward if they turned out to be the next President of the United States. And this, as you already may have guessed, is exactly what Francis intends to do…

As you can guess this is a particular “genre” of film/ series. The cat-and mouse. The power struggle. You watch it as much for the beauty of the strategy as the storyline if you know what I mean. And, you know, I was always a fan of Kevin Spacey but even more so after this. I mean, my God. He is the perfect anti-hero. You cannot exactly like Francis – or his wife Claire (played rather brilliantly by the talented Robin Wright) for that matter. They are cold, calculating and driven by nothing but success, at any cost. But at the same time, Francis plays the system so well, and even though he is cold, calculating and just a teensy bit scary, gets the better of so many “typical” political bad guys so smoothly that well… You can’t help not like him. Ok, he’s doing it mainly for his own advancement but well, it’s one in the eye to “the system” if you get my drift. So in the end, you watch with baited breath and really hope he does well. Even though you kinda feel you shouldn’t be rooting for him, if you get my drift. I mean there are tons of other characters like that. There’s the power hungry new to the game journalist, Zoe Barnes for example. You sympathize with her trying to get ahead in her business but once she (guess thanks to who) suddenly hits a meteoric rise, her attitude really starts getting on your nerves. Or I mean, that’s how I felt. Tell you what, watch the series and we’ll discuss it. It’s one of those series, there is one HECK of a lot of things to talk about. 

FRANCE MEETS SOUTH KOREA : "THIRST"

The more observant among you, my readers (we precious few – we band of brothers!) may have noticed I am rather fond of Park Chan Wook. I seem to have pretty much eulogized about him in my previous article about him – see “I’m a Cyborg But It’s Ok”. I am about to do it again. Behold Thirst. A film by Park Chan Wook. And in fact, a rather intelligent adaption of the classic Emile Zola novel Therese Raquin. Confused ? I certainly was. But absolutely titillated by the idea of the combo of one of my favorite classical authors(YES I know, I’m square. Live with it.)and one of my favourite directors? You betcha. I finally got to watch this film the other day. And boy did I get everything I expected and more…
Now, to fully appreciate the film – and the intelligence of the adaptation by Park Chan Wook himself and Seo Gyeong Jong – I should give a brief summary of Therese Raquin. So I shall. Basically, this is the story of Therese, who through circumstances, is forcibly married to Camille, the spoiled and effeminate son of a patron and neighbor. She then falls in love with Laurent, a vagabond who stays with her more because he can no longer afford prostitutes than anything else. They proceed to murder Camille to be together; however, murder is not as “easy to forget” as the couple first imagine… It is basically a naturalist novel which seeks to prove Zola’s ideas on the human condition and this is a very short summary of it indeed – I strongly recommend you read the book as well!
Now, onto the film. As you can imagine, it is set in South Korea and all the characters are Korean. Now, the Therese in this story is Tae Ju who is an orphan who was brought up by Mrs. Ra and forced to marry her spoiled son Kang Woo. Tae Ju is very unhappy in her marriage indeed. Laurent however, is Sang-hyeon and he is a childhood friend of the family and – wait for it – a catholic priest working in a hospital. Not a very appropriate euphemism for a playboy? No wait, there is more. He is a priest, who through a blood transfusion that has seemingly gone rather wrong has become a vampire. The only way he can survive is through consuming human blood, which makes life complicated if you believe in “Thou shalt not kill.” The couple will proceed to “inter-infect” each other with their own personal brands of good and evil. Through Tae Ju, Sang-hyeon discovers lust and love for the first time in his life. Tae Ju who is left unsatisfied by her husband clings to him. She is entranced by the idea of leaving Kang Woo and being with him. Especially if this means living (and being young) forever – thus Kang Woo’s days become numbered. All that being said, Sang-hyeon is still very much a priest in his own soul and even though love and lust may lead him to do unexpected things, well, let us say he will stay true to himself in the end…
Honestly, you don’t need to read Zola to enjoy this film – but those of you who have will do so more, I enjoyed the many parallelisms. And please don’t think “blasphemy” right away – this is a very tasteful and respectful, all be it modern and slightly well, different adaption. But that is not to say Park Chan Wook has not added something “personal” to the mix. The film is touching, observant, intelligent and sometimes quite hysterically funny in the way only Asian cinema can be. And Park Chan Wook’s great success is that he can give this whole range of emotions without disrupting the general feeling of the film, a film that becomes rather somber and at one point slightly surreal towards the end of its 2 full hours. It is one of those films that will most probably give you a migraine if you are prone to them or just make you grumpy for the rest of the day. But you will not regret watching it. That, I promise you.