December 9, 2019

Top Ten Korean Movies of 2019 (Sort of)

Thanks to the Korean Film Archive on YouTube, this past year was very much devoted to movies of yesteryear, especially those starring Choi Eun-hie or directed by Kim Ki-young. So while a few movies on this list are fairly recent, most date back at least 50 years. And as much as I consider myself a fan of Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, and Kim Ki-duk, I would now count A Flower in Hell and Transgressions as among my favorite Korean films of all time.

1. A Flower in Hell (1958): Choi Eun-hie's turn as an amoral woman in this war melodrama is so good and so atypical that it's almost hard to believe it's her.

2. Empty Dream (1965): This dreamscape set in a dentist's office rates as one of the most surreal flicks I've ever seen. And yes, I'm including Un Chien Andalou and Meshes of the Afternoon.

3. A Hometown in Heart (1949): If coming-of-age films like Okja and The 400 Blows are your thing then have I got a movie (with a young Choi Eun-hie) for you.

4. Columbus (2017): This visually impressive American indie has chunks of dialogue in Korean and a terrific lead performance by Korean-American matinee idol John Cho.

5. Dark Figure of Crime (2018): You can't have a top ten Korean movies list without at least one featuring a serial killer. Hence, this engaging flick by director Kim Tae-gyun.

6. Night Before Independence Day (1948): Basically a silent movie with a narrator, this arthouse relic about urban lowlifes is absolutely fascinating to watch.

7. Parasite (2019): One of the most buzzed-about films of 2019 is really just the latest masterpiece from Bong Joon-ho, a director who has plenty of wonders to his credit.

8. Transgression (1974): From the psychosexual Kim Ki-young comes this mind-bender about three men under consideration to helm the monastery after the old monk dies.

9. The Widow (1955): The first Korean movie directed by a woman should be required viewing given how it was short-shrifted when it was released.

10. Yangsan Province (1955): Kim Ki-young's first film is a gorgeous folk tale that gains power from performances and music very much rooted in the past.

November 30, 2019

Brawl Busters: Ladies Kick Butt

Kim Jeong-yong's action-packed, female-focused Brawl Busters is the type of martial arts pic where you can boil down the story to a single word: REVENGE. The reasons for it may vary from character to character but the passion for executing it is universally intense and tirelessly unrelenting. So who's out to get blood? Well, there's the son of a lech killed by a butterfly stickpin, a dead man's supernaturally gifted daughter (and her pink-garbed posse of kick-ass ladies), and a wandering warrior whose parentage and motivation is infinitely less clear. Don't trouble yourself with trying to discover the inciting incidents beyond that. None of it really matters because Brawl Busters is all about fights and weaponry.

Especially the weapons! You'll see gold mittens with cardboard claws, an impossibly long, white scarf that can unfurl then encase a head, a fan that catches a half-dozen death-darts, a 25-foot-long, sharply tipped braid that's used like a whip, and some vicious pinwheel blades that appear to be hand-operated sometimes, and other times by mind. This is the kind of flick where our heroes jump impossibly high, survive endless blows, and surmount improbable odds. It's also pre-CGI, which means that the majority of the impressive acrobatics are sheer athleticism. What's not to applaud?

"We must capture them alive so that we can torture them to death," sneers the nastiest of the bad guys. But despite the nets, trapdoors, and the amnesia-inducing poison, these Korean-style Robin Hoods aren't going to be easy to ensnare.

November 23, 2019

Mission for the Dragon: The Korean Bruce Lee

Did you know that after Bruce Lee died, a number of Asian actors took on very similar names for an endless line of Bruceploixtation martial arts flicks, all looking to cash in on the posthumous brand. There was a Bruce Li, a Bruce Lai, a Bruce Le, a Bruce Ly, a Bruce Lie, and a Bruce Lei. That last one also went by Dragon Lee but his real name was Moon Kyoung-seok and while he hardly ever garnered his iconic predecessor's mass appeal, he's certainly no less appealing than Jean-Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundren (and likewise looks best when he's stripped his shirt for his cartwheels, bicep flexes, and tiger claw poses). In Mission for the Dragon, the chances to go topless come with some regularity as his character clearly prefers fighting bare-chested than with the encumbrance of a royal blue smock. Or even that fancy mirrored vest.

The central conflict here involves a beloved father who may have been murdered or may just be missing. More likely to hold your attention than daddy's whereabouts are the film's wacky audio tracks, both the sound effects (recalling the '80s-era arcade game Space Invaders) and the dubbed vocals (which, for all I know, might be performed by one underpaid actor doing multiple cartoonesque, often-accented voices). Be sure to keep the subtitles on despite the English dialogue, simply for the pleasure of seeing "(whips)" and "(thuds)," "(screams)" and "(grunts)" at the bottom of your screen. This feature also permits you to appreciate sterling bits of dialogue like "You can't recognize the truth," "Prepare to die," and "I must kill or be killed." Statements like that last one only gain depth and nuance when paired with "(emotional music)."

October 21, 2019

Parasite: The Latest Greatest

Much has been made of Bong Joon-ho's most recent movie Parasite, which has picked up Best Film awards at a number of festivals including the prestigious Cannes. But when a reviewer proclaims that this movie is the director's masterpiece, you have to wonder: Have they seen anything by Bong Joon-ho before? Isn't Memories of Murder a masterpiece? How about Okja? Or The Host? I'd certainly argue on behalf of any of them. As for Mother, and Snowpiercer, and Barking Dogs Never Bite, I've no doubt that those have their champions too. Seriously... He hasn't got a stinker in the bunch. My point is that when you're dealing with a director like Bong — or Park Chan-wook or Pedro Almodovar or Federico Fellini — it ultimately becomes a matter of favorites since nearly everything they make is touched by genius. Is Parasite Bong's masterpiece? Well, it's definitely one of them.

And so, unsurprisingly, Parasite has no shortage of riches: it's got astute class commentary that portrays the rich as children insisting they be pampered; strong performances across the board, especially from the ever-reliable Song Kang-ho as the downtrodden patriarch; a suspense-laden crime story that challenges your alliances periodically; and plenty of visual gags to interrupt the ongoing tension with intermittent giggles. Will the poor Kim family usurp the rich Park family by taking over the roles of all their servants in their architectural wonder of a home? Well, yes and no. What that means exactly is answering in a distinctly Bongian manner, upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement. Now keep your dirty paws off those dog treats.

October 5, 2019

The Midnight Sun: The Kidnapped Son

Neo-noir film wasn't just a thing in the U.S.A. during the 1970s. South Korea had its own thing going on too if Lee Man-hui's The Midnight Sun is any indication, a rock-solid, dirty-noble-cop movie in which our antihero is a cranky commander with a short temper, a detached attitude, and some sort of medical condition that requires him to drink an unappetizing brown liquid out of a warmed-up baby bottle. The primary crimes that he's currently dealing with are a spate of motorcycle robberies involving a young woman who rarely isn't wearing a red mini-dress, and a grieving, heartbroken kidnapper who has targeted the cop's troublemaking son as his mark. Will the boss-cop nab the thieving lovers and prevent his own child's murder before he wins that upcoming departmental award? The suspense is pretty thick in The Midnight Sun so you're never totally sure until the dual finale arrives and it's so full of outlandish twists and turns that you'd likely dub this film improbable if it weren't so damned enjoyably crazy.

Indeed you'll cut this flick a lot of slack because it's so well paced and populated by so many entertaining secondary characters like a romantic police officer who's courting his supervisor's standoffish, tour-guide sister-in-law; a self-supporting orphan (with a pet squirrel) who's searching for his one living sibling; and a tormented ex-con who can't keep his sunglasses on straight or disguise his voice for the life of him. Another charm? The flick also has that strange Kodachrome palette that defined a generation of film and feels like a nostalgic Instagram filter. Of such tints are dreams made.

September 24, 2019

An Early Rain: Who's the Drip?

The giddy excitement a new raincoat elicits from spacey hired domestic (Mun Hie) seems like that of a child. "What should I do? This raincoat is changing my life?" she queries after a frolic at the local nightclub where she finds herself the somewhat improbably unparalleled object of desire for all the suits and the musicians on site. The one who continues in hot pursuit of her is a womanizing mechanic (Shin Sung-il), who — mistaking her for the daughter of the French Ambassador — dumps his sugar mama, hustles his former flings, and gets himself a new suit so he can... take her to a bar for a televised wrestling match?

Not exactly the ideal date but she seems to like it well enough. Hell, she even stays in good spirits when, on the way back home, the stolen car gets a flat tire and the engine conks out. Is it love? A mutual infatuation? Or two young people projecting their fantasies of a better life on each other's mistaken identities? I suppose for some people that might pass for romance and could even end up in troublesome marriage if neither party gets found out.

But the opportunities to find out are somewhat limited in Jeong Jin-woo's An Early Rain because their dates are dictated by the weather: These two only meet when there's a downpour. Are gray skies ahead for this pair of pretenders? Of course, they are... which leads to fun times at the roller rink, the amusement park, the horse track, and a boat ride. And less fun times, that remind you that though money can't buy you love, it can purchase something more disturbing and more violent.

September 11, 2019

The Wrath: Some Ghosts Need Compassion

When a rich residence gets possessed by a determined dead lady during the Joseon era, the harried homeowners can afford the very best exorcist (Lee Tae-ri) in the region. But what if that shaman-for-hire recommends a kinder, gentler approach to the vengeful spirit? What if he argues for compassion instead of immediately banishing the murderous ghost to the netherworld? Would you keep him on retainer? Based on The Wrath (Yoo Young-sun's 2018 sartorially lavish remake of 1986's Woman's Wail), I'm guessing most of us would. Especially after watching this supernatural life coach vomit black blood profusely before giving sound advice to his clients instead of running for the hills. Perhaps his stick-to-it-ness is a sign of the times.

Because no one flees the palace in The Wrath. Not the servants. Not the wives. Not the shaman's extensive support network. There's a real sense of "We can handle this" at work for these people despite the proven track record of their unforgiving terrorizer. A trail of corpses isn't about to stop the returning son (Kim Ho-chang), the self-satisfied step-mom (See Young-hee), or the pregnant widow (Son Na-Eun) from believing they can take on this grudge-bearing ghost. Clearly, since this is a fright flick, not everyone who thinks they can outwit the family curse proves to be correct. Delusions of grandeur are par for the course. But hey, someone's got to do it. Or at least die trying.

Where to Watch: The atmospheric The Wrath isn't playing in a theater near you. It's streaming on Shudder.

September 8, 2019

My Sister Is a Hussy: Actually, She's a Tomboy

Han Hyeong-mo's hilariously named My Sister Is a Hussy is one of those strange films that can't decide whether it's for or against female empowerment. On the pro-woman side, you have two daughters raised by their judo instructor father to be masters of self-defense. And so we get to see martial arts battles that show these young ladies beat up a pair of self-styled studs cruising in the park, an abusive husband who wants a maid for a wife, a young man practicing at the dojo, a small gang of hoods seeking revenge, and a burglar with a gun and a thirst for new clothes. These scenes are unquestionably fun. But on the anti-woman side, we have to witness the more independent older daughter body-slammed into submission by her father, accidentally punched in the face by her husband, and roughed around by that aforementioned gang of hoodlums because she's worn down and devoid of self-worth.

Even the end of the movie feels unclear in its messaging for while the female protagonist (Moon Jeong-suk) is now dressed in traditional Korean garb and playing the submissive wife seeing her husband (Kim Jin-kyu) off to work, we're also aware that the night before when their house had an intruder that her husband would've died — and the criminal would've escaped — had not this fiery young wife awakened from a knock-out punch and jumped back into the brawl. In a way, My Sister Is a Hussy wants to have it both ways: It wants the "weaker sex" to act as such even if we all know that they're stronger, smarter, and sassier. It also thinks that there's nothing more appealing than a woman who knows how to fight back. is the idea to appeal to everyone?

September 2, 2019

Our Twisted Hero: The Loneliness of Outrage

Political art always gets a bad rap. That bias is based on the idea that social commentary, like a critique of fascism for instance, is inherently didactic, that informing us about power structures is somehow a lesser goal that sharing insights about Life or Love or Loss. In reality, great political art still does that too: Through a discourse on society, we can learn about our own inadequacies or the fallacy that the pursuit of happiness is even possible in the purest sense when other oppressive factors come into play. Look at Park Jong-won's Our Twisted Hero. The film is a detailed analysis of fascism as it plays out among a classroom of boys at a country public school but it's also a poignant examination of how even righteous, rebellious spirits can be broken down and seduced by corrupt power systems in ways that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

By not following the classic underdog narrative and having its infuriated 5th-grader eventually triumph over the class bully, Our Twisted Hero is a painfully accurate recreation of how hard it is to topple corrupt systems of thought and behavior and the lasting damage that's done when you try to stick up for yourself or an ideal only to encounter indifference, shame, betrayal, and ostracism. To actually combat the bullies one needs a commensurate strength, whether that comes in a collaborative groundswell or in a greater hierarchical ally. The lone wolf is an incredibly rare phenomenon, one which Hollywood likes to pretend is — secretly — each and every one of us but which is probably more like one in a million. Still, you gotta admire the chutzpah of anyone who breaks from the pack (even temporarily) to fight the good fight. We're all capable of that and that's no small thing either.

August 30, 2019

A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher: What a Coincidence

The likelihood is incredibly great that director Yoon Dae-Ryong and his co-writer Kim Chun-Kwang must've seen the 1940 movie Tuition since their own A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher so closely follows the hard-times plot of its predecessor. But whereas the older flick focuses primarily on one poor young boy's constant struggle to get a decent education despite his ailing grandmother and his missing parents, its 1948 successor is ultimately about that down-on-his-luck student's sympathetic teacher who ends up moving out of town, getting married, then harboring an escaped criminal with disastrous results. Featuring a voiceover by a byeonsa with a quavering voice, this update with its narrative expansion defies expectations by packing in twice as much plot despite running a significantly shorter amount of time.

The impact of these changes is so dramatic that it seems ridiculous to compare the two despite a few scenes that are almost mirror replicas of the original. Because in the end, A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher is more pure melodrama, right down to the poses many of its characters periodically assume at times of great crisis: a look to the heavens at a time of mercy; hands raise to the face at a moment of terror; the collapsing on the ground when suffering pangs of hunger. This is not a criticism as such touches are part of the pleasure of A Public Prosecutor... In a world when vengeful husbands fall on knives and abandoned children wander around at night, nothing less than a bitten knuckle will do to convey the tension.

August 19, 2019

A Day Off: An Off Day

Watching Lee Man-hui's late-'60s melodrama, you get the feeling that the director was a big fan of L'Avventura, La Notte, and the other great existential romances of the decade. Like those two Antonioni films too, A Day Off is beautifully shot in black-and-white and involves characters futilely searching for a deeper meaning in life. (Good luck, right?) This time around however one major practical concern is also at play: One of the film's two leading ladies, Ji-yeon (Jeon Ji-yeon) is six months pregnant and needs to get an abortion. (Even the doctor thinks she's unwise to carry to term, people!) Unfortunately for her, both she and her shady boyfriend (Shin Sung-il) are damn flat broke.

And so, a good chunk of A Day Off is spent following the unlucky love of her life as he attempts to scrape together the necessary funds from a ladies' man, a drunk academic, and a chubby guy who really likes to take baths. But where the movie gets especially interesting for me is when he goes on a bender with a different woman, an equally down-on-her-luck Seoul-mate who wants to drink this particular Sunday — hell, every Sunday — into oblivion. As these two souses careen from one drinking hole to the next, A Day Off begins to feel both more real and more surreal — capturing the recklessness, giddiness, and danger of getting blind stinking drunk with someone who can match you drink for drink. How's it all end?

Well, the censors banned it for being too depressing back in the day despite a coda that's like a little poem to "being". Is life a flower growing in the crack of a city sidewalk? This poetic flick wants to believe so.

August 10, 2019

Empty Dream: Dental Fantasies

What is it that aligns the art of expressionism with the world of medicine repeatedly in film? Is it utter madness? It sure seems like it as some of the most vivid cinematic manifestations of the genre are associated with some seriously demented doctors. Who can forget The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T? From South Korea comes another example: Yoo Hyun-mok's no-less-outrageously loopy Empty Dream, a largely silent black-and-white fantasy that concerns two patients of a dentist with an odd methodology. One toothaching woman (Park Su-jeong) will undergo a perversely intimate form of resuscitation after fainting during her procedure; her male counterpart (Shin Sung-il) will find his novacaine shot sending him into a weird sexual fantasy that involves that woman in the neighboring chair.

But was it actually novocaine? It's questionable. Because his drug-induced daydream is going to take him to some pretty twisted places via scenes that mix bondage and electrocution, a cabaret crooner and a dancing contortionist, strategically torn clothing and animated mannequins. Where else can the sun be put out of existence by a single gunshot fired by a madman? The waking world is no less strange as characters' minds are flooded with equally bizarre imagery like whirring circular saws, lewd mouth rinses, and teeth cleanings that apparently cause orgasms. Does your dentist's office stock erotic magazines in its waiting room? Does your dental hygienist remove your stockings to help you relax? The office smelling salts may not work when they need to in Empty Dream, but you're also unlikely to fall asleep.

August 4, 2019

Three O'Clock on a Rainy Afternoon: A Love Pentagon

Three O'Clock on a Rainy Afternoon is one of those tragic romances that's so fraught it seems likely that someone might kill themselves while listening to opera. The only question is who? The Korean-American war correspondent (Lee Min) whose bride abandons him before the honeymoon? The violin player who unknowingly crushes on his best friend? The young woman (Kim Ji-mee) who's promised herself to two possible husbands? The homegrown veteran (Choi Mu-ryong) with severe depression and a cane? The undergraduate music student who seems to fall for everyone while no one really cares? Oh yes, there's a lot of frustration in this love pentagon. But as to leaping into oblivion, as one character puts it, "I was too weak-willed to go through with it."

There's also a lot of Western references in director Park Jong-ho's heartbreaker circa 1959: a jazz band at the army barracks, another one at The Pagoda nightclub, a ballet company doing pas de deux, a music class with a few bobbysoxers, some wedding vows spoken in English, and a professed proficiency in the cha-cha. They've even adopted one truly unsettling American ethic in this post-war Korea. Per one drunken, former G.I.: "I miss the battlefields on a night like this. When I felt frustrated, I would point my gun at the enemy. After a round of firing, my heart would feel much lighter." Gun therapy! (And yes, this is the type of guy who would take a slug a woman... and does.) Soon enough, you're no longer wondering if one of these character is going to slit wrists and taking bets on which one might pull out a pistol and shoot another in a fit of passion. Well, someone does die. But not in that way either.

July 30, 2019

The Happy Day of Maeng Jin-sa: A Sucky Second Marriage

Lee Yong-min's update of Lee Byung-il's The Wedding Day is definitely a dispiriting downgrade so while you may recognize some framed compositions, many plot points, and even a few verbatim lines from the original, you'll also quickly be able to tell that The Happy Day of Maeng Jin-sa is a pale imitation of the original. The central story remains unchanged: A family lucks into the big time when their only daughter receives a marriage proposal from a rich man's son sight unseen. But the good fortune is suddenly marred when they discover this same future son-in-law has a pronounced limp. Extraordinary measures are taken to save the bride-to-be but they end up backfiring on nearly everyone but the groom.

So what's missing? The maidservant (Choi Eun-hie) no longer secretly lusts after her standoffish lady (Lee Bin-hwa). The maidservant's suitor is now a bumbling fool. The giggling grandpa has lost his sense of humor and while equally absent-minded is not as endearing as he once was. The one thing that's truly consistent is that the patriarch (Kim Seung-ho) is an unlikable social climber. Funnily enough, that last role is played by the same actor in The Wedding Day and even he did a better job the first time around.

Because it's a Lee Yong-min film of course it has its one major strangeness too and that may be the movie's redeeming value: the cryptic river mystic who says puzzling things like "Why not try fishing with a straight hook?" and "You have too much, you lose too much!" No one pondering his maxims or taking his advice but please take mine: Skip The Happy Day... if you can.

July 28, 2019

A Devilish Murder: Cat Drinks Blood, Seeks Revenge

I haven't seen many Lee Yong-min movies but after only two, it already feels safe to say he is one strange director. A Devilish Murder, his mid-'60s, black-and-white ghost story, is a loony mix of spirit possession, sibling rivalry, and Dorian Gray mystery all wrapped up in one delicious package. As you might guess from that last detail, the film does involve a supernatural painting — the Red Portrait [of devoted wife Ae-ja (Do Geum-bong)] done by an artist who assisted in the murder of its subject but then went on to immortalize her in blood. The victim's surviving husband Shi-mak (Lee Ye-chun), who remarried her conniving sister, may be innocent of the crime but he's also criminally passive when it comes to recognizing she'd never commit adultery while his wicked mom would do anything to cover the fact that she herself is sleeping with the family's horny doctor (Nam Kung-won).

Admittedly, A Devilish Murder can get convoluted at times. Does the dead grandma return as a cat or a vampire? Is the maid a force of good or evil? Does midnight happen twice in one night? Furthermore, the one exacting revenge isn't really the spirit of the dead woman so much as it's the shapeshifting cat that drank her blood when she was buried behind a wall. Charmingly dated special effects will remind you of the human-animal bond repeatedly; there's a seduction scene in which the phantom woman has feline paws below the sheets, a fight that finds her injured hand transformed into a claw, and some reveals in a well-placed mirror that shatters defensively. Who the helpful maid remains a mystery but the fun of A Devilish Murder isn't figuring out whodunit so much as keeping up with what the hell is going on.

July 27, 2019

Holiday in Seoul: An Off Day Off

Ob-gyn doctor Yang Mi-hie (Nam Hui-won) has quite the day planned for herself and her husband, reporter Song Jae-guan (No Neung-kyeol): shopping for a man's tie and a woman's beach umbrella at the Shin Shin Department Store, some time at the beach, a picket boat ride, Chinese food at Asawon, water skiing on the Han River, a visit to Deoksu Royal Palace, a yet-to-be-determined movie, some dinner at the Grill, and then an outdoor concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He thinks this all sounds like too much. And he's right. Because they're both going to be incredibly busy today — he'll be getting the scoop on a killer after being kidnapped by an old lady with a mentally ill daughter who acts out love scenes and death scenes histrionically; she'll be consulting with women who clearly want abortions before she delivers a baby to an ailing woman who just happens to be the killer's wife.

They're not the only two having jam-packed days. His reporter friends are pulling pranks and scamming drinks; her fellow wives are out to carouse while the men are away; and their next-door neighbors are in an emotional tumult because that devious wife is having an affair and that cuckolded husband is smashing up stuff in the living room, including a framed portrait of James Dean. That doesn't even include the Lothario who runs a shady sidewalk gambling scam or the drunk man across the street who returns from an all-night bender to discover his unmarried daughter is now pregnant. Oh yes, there's a lot of plot in Lee Yong-min's Holiday in Seoul, not to mention a white snake that appears out of nowhere and a strange instrumental use of the song "God Bless America" while the doctor stares patiently at an intravenous drip.

July 22, 2019

Between the Knees: It's Just What You Think It Is

What kind of movie would you guess has accumulated the most views on the Korean Film Archive's YouTube channel? Is it the revered cult film Housemaid? A thrilling classic like Yoo Hyun-Mock's The Aimless Bullet? Something from the new millennium such as the 2000 version of Chunhyang? Of course not. It's Between the Knees, Lee Jang-ho's trashy flick about a classical flautist (Lee Bo-hee) who keeps having flashbacks of the day she was molested by her classical music teacher when she was a little girl. Currently, that traumatic encounter has captured the eyeballs of over 1.4 million viewers who have learned, if they stick it out for this erotic oddity, that whatever is causing this protagonist to have PTSD has also made her knees her primary erogenous zone. Not only does a man's touch to her patella send her into shivers of anticipation but even seeing another woman's leg being stroked and groped on the bus can prove to be sensory overload.

Want to see a flute get a hand job? Or the flute used as a sex toy? Well, you're going to have to bear witness to a series of increasingly upsetting rapes that culminates in a gang bang in the back of a van. As soft porn goes, this one is too dark to arouse any but the most twisted of minds. As you might deduce, Between the Knees is not a tale of sexual awakening so much as it's a metaphorical movie about the corruption of the pure Korean soul by Western culture. For not only is the tutor a truly creepy white man but a younger brother is obsessed with Michael Jackson whose dance moves have so mesmerized the younger sibling that he seems to be lost to the greater tragedies in his family so preoccupied is he with perfecting his moonwalk.

July 9, 2019

The Wedding Day: Black and White Union

Sometimes, a form of cruelty emerges in morality tales featuring rich men who wed poor women. Consider the sadistic acts inflected by the Marquis of Saluzzo on Griselda in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or the sliced-off heel and snipped-off toes in The Brothers Grimm's "Cinderella." Ouch, right? That twisted aspect also pops up in Lee Byung-il's The Wedding Day, a cinematic fable in which a female servant — infatuated with the bride-to-be — marries the wealthy suitor when the family patriarch coerces her to take his daughter's place after being tricked into believing his future son-in-law has a limp. Yet rather than being overjoyed by a life of luxury, our handmaiden looks depressed when taken away in a palanquin. The only one truly happy by the switcheroo is her new husband and his brother-in-law, the traveling scholar who cooked up the scheme.

And so... The father-of-the-bride is now humiliated. The bride herself will never find a good match. The mother-of-the-bride realizes her hubby's a moron. Even the local worker who'd hopelessly pined for the servant-woman remains despairingly single at the end. Perhaps grandfather is happy. He's senile and clueless and unflappably giddy. But the main players, outside the groom's family, are universally screwed and sad.

That said, The Wedding Day is visually appealing, with plenty of elegantly composed long shots and countless sartorial touches to delight the eye. Too bad that this film is ultimately a deflating romance nastily mocking disabilities. The circle of dancing young ladies who ridicule the purported handicap in a sing-song fashion is especially deplorable. May they be spinsters for the rest of their lives.

June 29, 2019

Night Before Independence Day: Have I Got a Story to Tell

Most times when people say "inspiring," what they really mean is "impressive" because they so rarely take any sort of action afterwards. To actually be "inspired" is a truly rare thing. So while I'd like to say that Night Before Independence Day is inspiring, whether it ends up being so remains to be seen. Although made in 1948, Choi In-kyu's captivating movie is actually a silent film in a way, one which had a single narrator's audio track added in post-production. Such a device is actually part of the Korean cinematic tradition as byeonsas — more or less, onstage voice actors — often took on the vocal parts before talkies in lieu of the tinkly pianos we tend to think of accompanying pre-sound movies on our side of the Pacific. Choi, however, doesn't do voices; if anything watching Night Before Independence Day is more akin to hearing a bedtime story told with accompanying visuals; a sordid tale involving thieves, rapists, murderers, addicts, gamblers, and double-crossers left and right.

It's all kind of loose and wild, with an antihero who wears blind man sunglasses all the time, and characters sneaking in and out of an abandoned warehouse space with the interrogator light overhead flickering on and off with cryptic meaning. Shirtless boxing matches, makeshift card games, narrowly escaped sexual assaults, greedy intravenous drug use... the action is continual and culminates in a death that launches a patriotic speech that somehow propels two surviving couples into a new idyllic world full of unexpected promise, a sunny land where men pair off with men, and women with women. Yes, Night Before Independence Day goes to some truly unexpected places. I was absolutely fascinated by it. I'd like to make a film like this. But will I? Unlikely.

June 27, 2019

Tuition: A Poor Education

Poverty may inspire some to get an education but it also gets in the way of learning. It's not just going to school hungry that does it in Choi In-kyu's and Bang Han-jun's drama Tuition either. It's also the shame that comes with not having the cash to pay your tuition. And it's not the teacher that's creating that sense of guilt. The kids without money feel bad all on their own. Yet the drive to learn is strong! So when given the opportunity to go to his aunt's house over 20 kilometers away, Yeong-dal (Jeong Chang-jo) makes the journey alone — first on foot and then a stretch on an oxcart before resuming his trek unassisted (often with indifferent vehicles passing him by). You have to admire his tenacity even as you wish he had an adult to accompany him, given his grandmother (Bok Hye-suk) — and primary care taking — is continually ailing. Where are his parents, you ask? Well, they're trying to make a living elsewhere and while they do show up at the end, they don't appear overly delighted to see him. The formality in that part may be cultural but it's still pretty weird to witness.

In truth, there's not a lot of emotion to be found in Tuition. Most of the action is presented matter-of-factly with incredibly sparse dialogue, although the scene in which the young boy cries that he's "bad luck" as a way to comprehend the lack of food and money in his struggling household is certainly an anguishing one. I also appreciated the subplot involving a young girl in similar straits: She's the school's other top pupil and their initial rivalry to get top honors shifts once they realize their struggles are the same.

June 25, 2019

Hurrah! for Freedom: A Fragment of Liberation

Gertrude Stein once said that she enjoyed the beginnings of movies but lost interest once she could figure out the plots. I understand her viewpoint. Somewhat related, I'm a big fan of movies with missing footage. I enjoy being left in mid-air by a truncated flick, films like The Widow and Yangsan Province, historic works which end not where the director planned but where the footage comes to an end. Sometimes, there's something less pat and more real about stories that are inconclusive, accidentally or not. It's as if we'd suddenly turned our heads away from the action then discovered that all of the players had left, thereby leaving us to come up with our own conclusions and narratives. Such is the case with Choi In-kyu's Hurrah! for Freedom which not only ends in the middle of the action but periodically jumps around as if some internal footage had also disappeared.

What we know in Hurrah! for Freedom is that the Korean resistance is committed to rioting as a way to combat Japanese occupation and people from all walks of life are getting involved: mothers, nurses, lovers... At times, Hurrah! for Freedom can recall the Italian Neo-realists with its intense-faced men and low-gloss interiors; other times, the style feels almost French New Wave like the highly stylized cuts that happen between a guard and a hospital patient. Vignettes of a woman breaking up a fight between two boys only to get a mud-ball thrown at her back and a man caressing another man's face in a homoerotic manner pull you in as well. This film may also be known as Viva Freedom, but I couldn't resist Hurrah!

June 21, 2019

Columbus: Korean-American Comes Home

Admittedly, the presence of the Korean language in Columbus is primarily a handful of international phone calls held by Jin (John Cho), a book translator who has returned to the States to care for his ailing father (Joseph Anthony Foronda), a noted scholar, but Columbus also touches upon the cultural differences between American and South Korean cultures on many fronts and is really such an exquisite film in its own unique way that it seems appropriate to bend the rules of this blog and include it. After all, Park Chan-wook's Hollywood entry Stoker and the dry tutorial The Great Courses: The World's Greatest Churches: Two Churches in Seoul, Korea are both part of Korean Grindhouse, too, and neither is nearly as good as Kogonada's exquisite indie flick.

What makes Columbus so special? Oh, many things like how it avoids turning its central relationship between Jin and Cassandra (Haley Lu Richardson), an architecture nerd, into a romance; how it similarly avoids sex scenes between these characters and a friend of the family (Parker Posey) and a librarian (Rory Culkin) respectively; how it spends so much time talking about ideas especially as they relate to architecture — most memorably to the work of Eero Saarinen, his father Eliel Saarinen, and the lesser-known Deborah Berke. The movie makes you realize how often traditional films ignore the myriad relationships available to men and women, parent and child, peer and peer, person and place. The cinematography by Elisha Christian is also worth noting as it so successfully uses the striking buildings and interiors of the film's hometown for truly remarkable framework again and again and again. I can't recommend this one enough.

June 17, 2019

The Widow: Females First, Female Firsts

Quick. What's the first Korean movie directed by a woman? Yeah, I didn't know the answer either and that's too bad because Park Nam-ok's The Widow is actually really, really good. This despite missing the final footage and having the ten minutes preceding that missing footage devoid of sound. How many movies can you say are unquestionably worth watching even though you never get to see the end? Well, The Widow is one of that select few. Part of the movie's appeal can be attributed to Lee Min-ja who brings a lot of complexities to the lead character, the single mother Shin: She seems crafty by necessity, devoted but only to a point. She's neither the hero nor the villain; she's more a self-respecting woman trying to get by in very less-than-ideal circumstances. You can't blame her for manipulating her husband's old friend, the rich Mr. Lee (Shin Dong-hun), and you've got to appreciate Park's unexpectedly bold presentation of her as a far-from-perfect mother to her petulant and needy child Ju (Lee Seong-ju).

Also hard not to relish is how the sex symbol of The Widow is neither Shin nor the philandering Mrs. Lee (and certainly not the prostitute who lives down the street). It's Taek (Lee Tak-kyun), the unofficial lifeguard we first meet wearing only a bathing suit even as our protagonist is hanging out on the same beach in traditional raiment with a parasol over her head. You could say, he's The Widow's homme fatale who will lead Shin to compromise herself in her family, to indebt herself to a married man, and to drink hard liquor. He's not trying to ruin this lady's life. He simply can't help cause all-around grief and destruction. Just ask his former love, Mrs. Lee.

May 29, 2019

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum: Terror Tourism

The six young fools in Jeong Beom-sik's Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum have decided to explore a cursed and abandoned psychiatric hospital that landed on CNN's Seven Freakiest Places in the World. On their way to the bloodcurdling Room 402, they check out the Director's Office, the Lab, the Shower Room, and the Bathing Room, and the Storage Room where they find such ominous relics as a photo of former inmates, some loose syringe needles, a creepy clown doll, a dead chicken, and a discarded wig. The graffiti too sends a clear message... Get out! Yet none of them pay attention to the signs until too late. Instead, harnessed up with two-way cameras that allow YouTube viewers (a.k.a. us, the audience) to see what they're seeing as well as their reaction shots. The goal? To get to one million viewers. The cost? Oh, maybe their lives.

But just how scary does it get? Is someone playing a trick on someone? Are there vengeful ghosts that have to do with war crimes or mental illness? Is all the footage coming from the participants and the cameras with motion sensors that one of the crew stalled earlier that day? How much does the guy at the control panel in the tent on the hill really know about what's going on? After all, HQ is having issues all its own and that pair of dirty underwear someone tied to a branch doesn't turn out to be then helpful landmark everyone though it would be.

We never get to the truth behind all the mysterious happenings and while we see the YouTube viewership climb well beyond 900 thousand, we never see it hit the goal. Not that it matters — it being this movie and the reality show that it contains.

May 26, 2019

Kim Ki-Young's Top 10 Movies

The films of Kim Ki-young reflect a different South Korea than the one I learned about in the movies of Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, and Hong Sang-soo. I suppose you'll hear echoes most clearly in Kim Ki-duk's filmography which is similarly focused on disturbed psychodynamics but even so, I was not prepared for the zaniness that is Kim Ki-young. Best known for The Housemaid which more or less set a template for many of the movies that would follow, he also made some fine films atypical of that landmark flick, and ones which I happen to prefer. It's hard to believe Yangsan Province has been so summarily dismissed because I find it magical.

10. Woman of Fire: Proof that a director's quintessential film may not be the best of the bunch. (Which isn't to say it's not good.)

9. Iodo: This strange murder-mystery is set on an island run by women who go to extremes when competing for men.

8. Insect Woman: Arguably, the best of Kim's reworking of The Housemaid.

7. Killer Butterfly: This may be the weirdest in Kim's filmography with talking skeletons and 2,000-year-old urine both memorably featured.

6. Promise of the Flesh: A woman on her way to prison has the train ride of her life.

5. The Housemaid: This classic Korean psychosexual melodrama features many plot elements that Kim would revisit again and again.

4. Woman of Water: The ill-treated, silent female lead is a trope of cinema. Kim's take gives her voice though and the final message is a powerful one.

3. The Sea Knows: Set in Japan, this military flick finds a Korean soldier struggling to survive with some help from his Japanese girlfriend.

2. Yangsan Province: A love triangle ends in disaster for government official's son, a poor widow's son, and the woman they both love.

1. Transgression: This one takes Kim's extremist tendencies into a monastery where three monks are battling it out for the top spot.

Also by Kim Ki-young: Beasts of Prey

May 2, 2019

Private Eye: Snoop Gets Major Scoop

Jang Kwang-su (Ryu Deok-hwan) is a gifted medical student who chances upon a dead body that he uses to further his skill set as a surgeon. Hong Jin-ho (Hwang Jung-min) makes his living by taking scandalous photos of women having affairs then getting those pics published in the local paper, no doubt with salacious copy. So when Jang realizes that his practice corpse is the son of a political dignitary, he naturally enlists Hong to track down the murderer. Why shouldn't a photojournalist who stalks down unfaithful spouses be able to track down a serial killer? Okay, I'll admit that's a bit of a jump but if you're willing to take it, Park Dae-min's Private Eye is highly entertaining.

In supporting roles, neither Oh Dal-su nor Yun Je-mun may be giving the performance of a lifetime as a shady military officer and an even shadier circus performer but even at 70 percent capacity, they keep the action moving. Vastly more effective is Uhm Ji-won who plays an inventor who aspires to be the greatest scientist in Korean history and in most movies would also be doubling as a love interest but here is improbably but delightfully not. She may have longings for Hong but she's infinitely more committed to astronomy and James Bond-worthy gadgetry than she is to snagging her man. Anyway, she's smart to set her sights elsewhere since so many of this movie's men aren't interested in women at all. I won't add any spoilers now but I will say that what they desire instead may not be what you first suspect.

P.S. If you're wondering why the younger trapezist looks familiar, that's because actress Kim Hyang-gi grew up to star in the Along with the Gods franchise.

April 27, 2019

Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days: What the Hell!

A movie can take its inspiration from anywhere: a great book, a bad book, a play, a graphic novel, or in this case, a webtoon. As you might guess given this particular source material, Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days isn't exactly realistic. Director Kim Yong-hwa's episodic tale of the underworld is instead a combination of video game action, Medieval redemption, and modern-day dramedy.

It's a complicated plot full of flashbacks and flashbacks in flashbacks, a story in which you may struggle to reconcile financially struggling humans on earth with costumed judges in the Hells of Filial Impiety, Indolence, Deceit, Betrayal, Injustice, Violence, and Murder. So many hells! So many green screens!

None of these hells are scary, mind you. The ravenous raptors and the firey Go-Bots, much like the CGI wolves and the animated tiger, are creatures more likely to surface via your PG-rated Xbox than by way of your worst nightmares. The closest thing this flick has to a real threat is the dwindling value of the mutual funds which the caretaker-grandfather (Nam Il-woo) and his guardian angel (Ma Dong-seok) pray will provide for the future of their young charge's future. As for the corny jokes and silly gags we've come to expect in action pics, one grim reaper (Ju Ji-hoon) does drink a chamber pot of urine. But overall, the comedy is more tonal than actual. So what's the point? "No one is innately bad. There are only bad circumstances," quips someone near the end. You could say the same about many movies.

April 11, 2019

Choi Eun-hie's Top 10 Movies

The best way to ensure a rich career as an actor may be to fall in love with a great director. That strategy sure worked for Gena Rowlands, Giulietta Masina, Anna Karina, and even Mia Farrow — though that last one didn't end so well. Add to this list Choi Eun-hie, the Korean actress whose partnership with Shin Sang-ok produced a number of unforgettable films (and even more not-so-memorable ones). Not all the movies below are their collaborations — Yoon Yong-gyu directed A Hometown in Heart; The Lovers and the Despot is a doc about their crazy abducted lives — but if you're no fan of Shin, you're likely no fan of Choi. For the record, I enjoy them both.

10. A Broad Bellflower (1987): While in North Korea, Choi actually directed as well as acted. This anti-romance is icy cold!

9. Seong Chun-hyang (1961): There's been a number of biopics about Chunhyang but Shin's sadistic version is so far my favorite.

8. The Money (1958): This early Choi pic reminds me of the Italian neo-realist films like Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D.

7. Madame White Snake (1960): I'd re-watch this fantasy about a reptile disguised as a woman for Choi's entrancing dance of seduction alone.

6. A Reluctant Prince (1963): Scenery-chewing Choi and co-star Shin Yeong-gyun are having so much fun as a king and his concubine that you forgive every excess.

5. My Mother and Her Guest (1961): I've got a soft-spot for this flick which finds Choi once again playing a woman choosing status over pleasure.

4. Evergreen Tree (1961): Perhaps Choi's most noble role is this one — a self-sacrificing instructor who devotes her life to teaching the children in a small country village.

3. The Lovers and the Despot (2016): Considering how many melodramas she made, you may be stunned to learn that her real life was even more dramatic.

2. A Hometown in Heart (1949): An orphaned child monk in search of his mother bonds with a widow in search of a purpose. Choi at her most understated.

1. A Flower in Hell (1958): This wartime pic finds Choi playing a completely amoral prostitute whose transgressions only get worse once she falls in love.

Other movies starring Choi Eun-hie: Dream (1955), Sister's Garden (1959), Bound by Chastity Rules (1962), Confessions of a College Student (1958), Dongshimcho (1959), The Happy Day of Maeng Jin-sa (1962), It's Not Her Sin (1959), The Love Marriage (1958), Red Scarf (1964), Rice (1963), Romance Gray (1963), Seong Chun-hyang (1961), and Women of Yi Dynasty (1969).

April 10, 2019

Romance Gray: Two Old Men, Two Young Ladies

The movies of Shin Sang-ok are the cinematic equivalent of summer stock: You see the same actors over and over: sometimes with bad age makeup and powdered wigs; more often in typecast roles they've played before. Here Shin regulars Han Eun-jin, Shin Yeong-gyun, Kim Seung-ho, and Choi Eun-hie are all back on board for Romance Gray (a.k.a. Love Affair), a lighthearted melodrama about a pair of philandering husbands, who get caught by their dowdy wives, in affairs with two women who hustle at the local bar. The initial advice proffered at the sewing bee is that cuckqueans need to spend more time on their appearance. But these two ladies escape a fate worse than divorce by unexpected means outside the powder room.

For the wife of the college professor, the plot will involve extortion, a fake mustache, an instant photo, and some martial arts moves. For the wife of the company president, the resolution will follow a forgotten pajama top, a righteously smashed-up apartment, two boozing broads, and some runaway kids who may or may not return. Yet despite all the drinking and shouting, most folks do get back together. Just not all... And that one loose thread is what makes this a pretty darned good genre picture.

Footnote: Romance Gray's screenwriter Lim Hee-jae also wrote the scripts for Madam White Snake, My Mother and Her Guest, and Seong Chun-hyang. Kudos to him!

March 17, 2019

Beasts of Prey: The Return of Insect Woman

Kim Ki-young's late-career melodrama Beasts of Prey is also known as Carnivore and Carnivorous Animals in English-speaking countries but it might just as easily have been called Insect Woman 2 or The Return of Insect Woman or Child of the Insect Woman so indebted is it to the 1972 film that would set the tone for most of Kim's kooky output for the next decade. Repeating plot points include a young woman forced into prostitution by economics who then ends up wreaking havoc on the family of the patriarch who stole her virginity; an insatiably hungry baby that miraculously appears shortly after that middle-aged man is doped into a vasectomy; a bratty, self-important son who swears off vegetables and meat for a diet consisting entirely of honey; an out-of-control rat infestation problem in the basement of the family's country estate; a contractual agreement that divides daddy's time between two households — twelve hours in each.

Some changes work better in Beasts of Prey than previously — the sex scene on the glass table covered with spilled candies; the concubine's insistence that her lover wear a diaper and bib to turn back the clock. Most improvements, however, do not. The look of Beasts of Prey is very akin to that of a 1980s prime time TV soap opera; the acting recalls the comic stridency of early John Waters flicks. Sadly missing is the "infant versus rat" battle, the shadowy figure in the refrigerator, and the demented snarls of the female protagonist. A narrative thread involving gigolos who target middle-aged women also gets dropped too quickly while the barmaid with the mullet should've had more screen time for her hairdo alone.

March 15, 2019

Woman of Water: Basket Case

When a handsome soldier returns from the Vietnam War with a bum leg, the only woman he can secure as a wife has a terrible stutter. And he needs a wife pronto in order to secure the GI benefits that will allow him to purchase a farm. Complicating matters, he's got PTSD worsened by his mother's death while the bride-to-be's got major social anxieties hardly helped by her unimpressive singing voice. "A match made in heaven," says one of the townsfolk ironically. In his dreams, perhaps.

In reality, the two have a nightmarish lot to work through. He still suffers through flashbacks of the frontlines (which can be triggered by the mention of an M-16). She's being exploited as free labor once he discovers her gift for basket-weaving. Will their firstborn child unite the two against all odds? Not once that tyke develops his own speech impediment. Will their newly hired truck-driver seduce the veteran/entrepreneur's wife? No, but she'll write a note saying he did. That last bit might sound a bit implausible but the arrival of a conniving barmaid pretty much throws logic out the window. She's one of those temptresses who seems born to do evil, an opportunist who'd probably get much further if she dumped her less crafty boyfriend.

I'm afraid this is one of those movies in which the femme fatale is missing the requisite je ne sai quoi that would make her irresistible. Is it the role or the actress? I'm not sure. But this troublemaking bad girl feels a little too obvious. Yet just when you think this is building to a predictable conclusion adhering to the rules of film noir, Kim Ki-young puts in a few final plot twists that more than redeem Woman of Water as a tale of redemption. Once again, despite the misogyny, Kim's sympathies lie with his leading ladies. As do ours.

March 14, 2019

Woman of Fire: Kim Ki-Young Recycles Himself

With Woman of Fire (1971), you get a justifiably strong déjà vu feeling as psychosexual auteur Kim Ki-young revisits the exact same territory that he charted so memorably in his landmark movie The Housemaid (1961). But there's something new going on here too as Kim is also laying the groundwork for much of his wildly phantasmagorical work of the 1970s, freaky films like Insect Woman (1972), Promise of the Flesh (1975), and Killer Butterfly (1978). Sure, we're back to a housemaid (Youn Yuh-jung) who gets wrapped up in a perverse love triangle with a composer (Won Namkoong) and his wife (Jeon Gye-hyeon) but we're also getting a glimpse of things to come as Kim would go on to explore the eternally demented battle of the sexes with quite a few variations.

None of it's subtle in Woman of Fire. This country girl who becomes a domestic definitely has a screw loose — perhaps caused by being sexually attacked before heading to the city. The tendency of a few characters to laugh maniacally creates a feeling that the world, and not just a few outcasts, have gone certifiably insane. You might be frustrated or delighted by how much Woman of Fire has in common with The Housemaid. As for me, I experienced both reactions. Ultimately, this over-the-top melodrama might be the quintessence of Kim: the look, the vibe, the excesses, the creepy score, the tawdry tale. Which doesn't make it his best. It simply means that it's not the worst.

Awards: For her turn as the deranged servant who ends up ruling the roost, Youn Yuh-jung won top honors as Best Actress at Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival.

March 13, 2019

Killer Butterfly: The Ossified Will to Live

The lepidopterist who kills butterflies for his collection comes across as a creep nowadays. As animals and insects left and right land on the endangered species list, the idea of killing for sport feels especially unforgivable, and likely twisted. So when we see Killer Butterfly's hero, a harmonica-playing student in need of an antidepressant, inject a particularly big insect — that he's just netted — with poison, it's easy to relate to the female bystander who perceives his passion as perverse. Whether we too would offer him a cup of poison in response is another matter. Don't worry he survives. At least physically. Mentally, he may never be the same as his attempts to off himself are repeatedly interrupted by a cackling, Nietzschean bookseller who will not die even after being burned down to his skeletal remains.

When a cold win blows that skeleton to dust, another bag of bones is retrieved then transforms into a beautiful woman who hankers for human liver because she hasn't eaten in 2,000 years. She actually urinates 2,000-year-old pee should you doubt her age. I'm guessing it stinks! But if the first skeleton aggravated our sourpuss student, and the second one aroused him, neither proves a match made in heaven, and he's left to have one final encounter with a bodiless ancient skull.

What lies in store for the confused co-ed in the next half of Kim Ki-young's phantasmagoria? More skulls, more bones, some x-rays, more existential poetry, more deaths... and according to the imperturbable investigating detective, more empty soju bottles, too. Let's raise a glass of orange juice to zany cinema! (You'll understand the fruit drink reference once you watch this movie.)

March 12, 2019

Yangsan Province: Folk Film / Heart Hurt

I not-so-secretly suspect that Greed is the worst of all vices in that it is the vice that most often teams up with other vices to get the job done. Here the sin of avarice manifests in the mother of a village maiden (Kim Sam-hwa) when the parent becomes covetous of gifted silk. With such rich fabric on her mind, she sacrifices her daughter to the town bully (Park Am), a spoiled brat whose lust for the young girl becomes a destructive obsession. Naturally, obstacles exist — like the betrothed (Jo Yong-su), a poor lad whose father died some time ago and left his family poor as dirt — but Greed and Lust have made a pact. Nothing and no one will stop them. Things do not turn out so good for anyone.

The oldest surviving film of Kim Ki-young, Yangsan Province is an exquisite piece of filmmaking. The performances are highly stylized with the actors often striking poses as if they were recreating a 19th-century melodrama or pressing their faces together while facing out towards the camera like a pair of lovers in a silent film romance. The moment when the young woman slowly sinks out of the camera frame as she joins her seducer on the ground is particularly memorable. The soundtrack is also a stunner orchestrated with traditional Korean instruments that crescendo into an opera of sorts when the doomed young man's mother (Ko Seon-ae) believes her son has died. My favorite part of all may be when the score is integrated into the action as a masked troupe of traveling performers appears to mimic the movie's storyline just in time for the wedding/funeral/suicides. Highly recommended.

March 11, 2019

The Sea Knows: Not-So-Basic Training

Basic training probably involves some form of violence in many military indoctrinations but the punishments inflicted on Aro-un (Kim Woon-ha) as a Korean cadet in a Japanese troupe during World War II are especially brutal — not just physically but psychologically. Imagine licking the shit off the bottom of the just-shined shoe of a fellow soldier as your comrades laugh. (To be honest, I'm wondering how you could polish a shoe and not notice there was poop on the bottom but no matter...) Not everyone finds the shit-eating amusing, mind you. The tallest recruit, a fellow Korean named Inoue (Lee Sang-sa), has Aro-un's back through all the horrible hazing but initially, he's the only one. Then love arrives!

Military brat Hideko (Gong Midori) is prejudiced against Koreans when she first meets Aro-un but soon enough she's warmed up to him and is breaking all the rules on his behalf. Did you know that scrubbing the back of a respected guest in the bath is a Japanese tradition? Well, neither did Hideko's outraged mom (Ju Jeung-ryu). Guess you learn something new everyday. Additionally, Hideko feeds Aro-un endless bowls of white rice, pours him a very shallow cup of ritual tea, and dances around in her kimono — all for Aro-un, Aro-un, Aro-un. Hell, Hideko would rather die in Aro-un's arms than run to a bomb shelter. That's how strongly she feels.

Will these two lovebirds brought together by pity survive the war? It's hard to tell. The American victory over the Japanese may be something to celebrate but even then a Korean soldier had a hard time making it out of the Land of the Rising Sun alive. The last scene in Kim Ki-young's war pic dramatically illustrates how tough that final escape from the jaws of death could be. Thrilling!

March 10, 2019

Iodo: Men Investigate Female Society

When a failed entrepreneur (kim Jeong-chul) mysteriously disappears off a ship headed to an island slated for ecotourist development, his drinking buddy (Choi Yun-seok) — who just happens to be a reporter! — is unfairly blamed for the death. No official inquiry takes place but the surviving journalist does feel compelled to quit his job and set his reputation aright by conducting his own unofficial investigation with his boss (Park Am) in tow. Which brings them both to a strange isle peopled almost entirely by women who have created a puzzling culture incorporating shamanism, deep-sea fishing, and necrophilia.

At first I admit I found Iodo somewhat difficult to track what with talk of frozen sperm and spirit possession casually tossed about. But by the end, I was fine with matter-of-factly accepting narrative elements such as a poorly timed sneeze and the potential powers of an incandescent infertility treatment. Can a Ponzi scheme dependent on abalone reproduction make an entire community filthy rich? Is chemical dumping or sisterly sorcery responsible for a handsome schemer's undoing? Can one woman (Kwon Mi-hye) actually strangle herself with a satin scarf? Best of all, how does her tattooed rival (Lee Hwa-shi) stiffen the limp genitals of their dead lover? (Warning: It ain't pretty!)

So many questions I'd never considered came into play in Iodo. And you know what? I was game for all of them. "It'll be doomsday. The end of human civilization," someone screams near the end of this Kim Ki-young freak show. That cry has become louder in recent years. And so this unusual concoction of sexploitation and eco-terrorism might initially register as outlandish nonsense but ends up feeling like an ahead-of-its-time warning about global apocalypse through climate change.

March 9, 2019

Promise of the Flesh: The Kink of Violence

Rape. That's a disturbing through line to have in your work but it appears to be one in the films of Kim Ki-young who repeatedly features sexual violence against women in his story lines. What makes that weird instead of just disturbing is that you sense that he's periodically attempting to combat sexism and misogyny between the scenes that show his unpredictable heroines being attacked. Bodices are ripped, breasts are exposed, but strangely these victims/survivors are less likely to scream than they are to be facially outraged. It's like Kim is aware of sexism but can't stop thinking of women primarily as sexual objects. Admittedly my exposure to Kim Ki-young is still fairly limited but in the especially twisted and perverse Promise of the Flesh, the leading lady — a murderess (Kim Ji-mee) — while definitely suffering from PTSD has a not-particularly-convincing journey to "love."

What kind of world is it when women are seduced by men barking lines like "I would marry any woman who would take care of my child" or "If you don't marry me, then I'll kill you then I'll kill myself"? It is a world of histrionics. Indeed, you get the feeling that Kim directed his actors to "play to the second balcony" for particularly heightened moments. People roll around on the floor, slap each other in the face, leer at each other as if only the crudest look could convey desire. The camerawork can be equally overstated with prolonged shots of the light at the top of the lighthouse or a particularly strange closeup that zooms in on a single eye during sex. The sweetest thing about Promise of the Flesh is the pink candy the prison guard (Park Jung-ja) is constantly slipping into her charge's mouth.

Awards: Grand Bell honors for Kim Ji-mee as Best Actress and Park Jung-ja as Best Supporting Actress.

March 8, 2019

Transgression: Head Monk in Training

The old monk is dying. Don't believe me? Then explain that blood he's just spat on the temple floor. But before he transitions to the next phase — nirvana seems a bit doubtful — he needs to pass on his mantle to a successor. There are a few men in the running: a power-hungry insider, an inspired academic, and a wise fool. But before we get to their final challenges (answering cryptic questions, fasting, and potentially jumping off a cliff), we get a glimpse into the lives of the latter two especially since they're best friends.

The bookish one mans the drum that calls monks to their daily beatings of bamboo, cures schizophrenia with a well-placed acupuncture needle, and has a tortured, largely platonic affair with a flirtatious female monk from a neighboring temple; his troublemaking buddy steals sacks of flour for money, farts in formal settings, and eats whenever he gets the chance. One is respected; one is loved. There's a lesson to be learned here now what might that be... Maybe lead with the heart, not the brain?

After watching Insect Woman and The Housemaid, I was expecting Transgression to veer into camp but Kim Ki-young chooses not to take the melodramatic route with this one. To the contrary, despite the theatrics — which are often quite striking and deliberate in a way that feels more arthouse than grindhouse — this film is grounded in a reality that mirrors our world with minimum grotesquerie. The extended opening shot of a giant rock may strike you as an example of bad moviemaking but when Kim returns to that seemingly bland visual at the end, it's suddenly laden with meaning that is nothing short of humbling. You might say, "Buddhism rocks."

March 7, 2019

Insect Woman: Off With Whose Head?

Hungry for something truly bizarre? Then here's a movie that definitely out-weirds such cult classics as Hera Purple and Terror Taxi, two fellow films that had at least one bloody foot in the horror genre. This particular bit of craziness is called Insect Woman and comes from the warped mind of Kim Ki-young, a director whom I only knew from The Housemaid. On this particularly occasion, he definitely starts off with a bang. What we learn in short order: A married man (Won Namkoong) is checking into an insane asylum where patients, with impotence issues, will double as doctors. And teary-eyed kleptomaniac student (Youn Yuh-jung) is going to be pushed into prostitution after her father dies without leaving her family a financial legacy. They're brought together for a relatively long-term extramarital affair by two nasty lady pimps — all while a lounge version of "My Cherie Amour" plays in the background. From here, it only gets stranger.

The ensuing oddities are both large and small. At the more extreme end, we've got a vampire baby who feeds on the blood of living rats. At the subtler end, we have an irritable son committed to a diet of honey to avoid eating anything that's ever been alive. Snarling lips. Broken plates. Slapped faces. Mexican chicken. Spilled milk. Then there's the calculating wife who dopes her husband so she can subject him to a vasectomy. This movie has serious balls! Whether the shadowy figure in the refrigerator or the aphrodisiac gumdrops on the coffee table get your rocks off depends on how turned on you get by freaky for freaky's sake. I found it very stimulating.

Awards: Insect Woman won best director and best actor honors at the Baeksang Arts Awards for 1973.

February 16, 2019

A Reluctant Prince: The Man Who Shall Not Be King

Watching A Reluctant Prince can be somewhat like channel surfing except each time you change the channel, you've got most of the same actors involved with a different plot. The opening section feels like a comedy about two tight-knit brothers (Shin Yeong-gyun and Kim Seung-ho) pointlessly persecuted by the government. Then when, fairly early on, the younger sibling (Shin) gets suddenly promoted to king because of his bloodline, you think it's going to be a Pygmalion story. But the king never masters the ways of the court and the focus shifts to a forbidden romance — that between him and his hometown girlfriend (Choi Eun-hie). Then even that story line gets abandoned after she comes to realize that it's best for the nation if she weren't around. Which leaves the king to go on a Leaving Las Vegas bender that lasts for years (during which he toys with falling in love with the queen).

So how do you classify Shin Sang-ok's 1963 movie? A bromance? A romance? A period piece? A tragedy? Well, it's definitely not the last option because A Reluctant Prince is played in a broad style that forbids you to inhabit its more serious moments — and there definitely are some — for very long. In fact, scenery-chewing of the highest caliber may be what holds A Reluctant Prince together. The cartoon-like glee exhibited by Choi and Shin when stitching up a pair of torn pants that has left his privates exposed or the exaggerated childishness they parody while running around the palace courtyard at night may ring as false but it's also incredibly fun so why begrudge them the pleasure they're apparently having. A Reluctant Prince is a movie that wins you over for all the wrong reasons. Or makes you realize there are times to abandon "what should be" or "what could be" and simply embrace "what is."

February 14, 2019

Evergreen Tree: My Favorite Teacher

I'll admit this right up front. I'm a total pushover for movies about idealistic teachers who move into poor and/or working class neighborhoods and go on to become valued members of the community — films like the classic To Sir With Love and the all-but-forgotten Sing. So I'm definitely the target audience for Shin Sang-ok's Evergreen Tree which focuses on young educator Yeong-shin (Choi Eun-hie) who has taken her pedagogy to the countryside where she's about to inspire an entire small town to help her build an elementary school from the ground up.

And she's got a love interest too: teetotalling, charismatic community organizer Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun), a fellow high-minded graduate who's working to better another coastal village through his own brand of rural activism. The stars may have destined these two for each other but first there's some serious work to do. For Yeong-shin that means farm work, fundraising, hands-on construction, and dealing with the local Casanova (just back from Tokyo); for Dong-hyeok that means fieldwork, aerobics, choral singing, and managing the farmer's guild. If all goes as planned then it'll be at least three years until these two love birds get married. A bran-new wedding bell that doubles as a school bell? Why not!

But when did any two-and-a-half hour movie spotlight a romance in which all went according to plan? Problems are bound to arise like a bad case of appendicitis, an alcoholic relapse, and a well-timed bribe. (Man, you can always count on the self-serving rich people to foil the collective betterment efforts of the poor!) But romance isn't the only reason for living. Good works have their place too. And if there's a drought in your neck of the woods then this movie can overcome that with its final waterworks.

February 13, 2019

Madame White Snake: Succubi Are Hot

At last! A supernatural story! Shin Sang-ok's fun fantasy Madame White Snake is all about a white snake disguised as a woman (Choi Eun-hie) who seduces the sweet-natured brother of a pharmacist's wife following their meet-cute encounter on a boat during a rainstorm. It's easy to see why he'd fall for her. Her elaborate fan dance alone — executed when he swings by her palatial house to retrieve an umbrella he'd lent her the day before — is about as irresistible as one can get. Plus, she's always throwing silver coins his way and has a ready excuse for every strange occurrence. Sticklers may point out that none of her excuses are particularly believable but that's the power of love: Even the preposterous seems reasonable.

Released in 1960, Madame White Snake keeps the special effects simple and strange: thick globules of smoke signal magic ahead and a light fog allows the snake-woman to fly to another dimension occupied by a judgmental monk and the Goddess of Deadpan. But the real magic here is Choi Eun-hie who's always been a creature of hidden powers. At times vampiric, at other times witchy, she's constantly casting spells as she slowly entraps her prey in a romantic fantasy that may have some serious repercussions. (The villagers have been dying at the rate of a dozen a day!) That's when the "quack shaman" enters.

He's the black snake to battle her white snake. Evidently the world is full of snakes — probably the worst reptile being the governor snake who forces our leading lady to drink alcohol so she'll pass out so he can rape her in bed. The rufey has been around forever! Well so have women who get revenge.

February 12, 2019

Red Scarf: War Hurts Women

After watching her early sloppy-drunk scene in Shin Sang-ok's war pic The Red Scarf, you're reminded how much actress Choi Eun-hie was restricted by the material provided to her throughout her career. To her credit, in many performances, she periodically pushes against the "lady" stereotype in which she's been straitjacketed but she's never quite as exciting as she was when she played that amoral hooker in the brilliant A Flower in Hell. The Red Scarf isn't a bad showcase for her talent, mind you, it's just that she'd be that much more compelling if she could rail against the military-industrial complex instead of serve it.

How does she serve? Basically, she's condemned to being a soldier's wife, not once but twice — first to a one-screw-loose pilot (Nam Kung-won) who proposes shortly after meeting her; then to his much calmer replacement (Choi Mu-ryong) who unlike his comrades has not been burdened with a nickname like "Sissy" or "Nerd."

How she gets from one man to the next is all due to the machinations of a brusque, alcoholic major (Shin Yeong-gyun) who doubles as the local matchmaker with a kind assist from the bar's good-time madam and bartender (Han Eun-jin). Yet as the adrift young woman becomes domesticated a second time, she also becomes less fascinating; and as insanely preposterous as the rescue of her second husband from behind enemy lines might be, you secretly wish the leading man had been killed so his wife could move on to husband number three or at least descend into a world of boozing and whoring and drugging and thieving. Or jumping in an airplane and becoming the first female fighter pilot in South Korean history.

February 11, 2019

Women of Yi Dynasty: Some Shorts by Shin Sang-ok

"A Woman Must Obey Her Husband"
The opening short of Shin Sang-ok's Women of Yi Dynasty omnibus is the South Korean equivalent of a Roger Corman fright flick. The acting is amateurish; the camerawork, erratic; the lighting, flickery; the script, clunky. Character development takes second place to a morbid plot worthy of Edgar Allan Poe: A chaste young woman is married off to a rich family's crybaby son then must suffer in silence when her young groom dies on the wedding day. Her one attempt to escape to see an ailing mother does not end well.

"The Seven Sins of a Wife"
Film number two continues the "woeful woman" theme as well as the drab cinematography. Married to a sterile man, a fruitless first wife (Choi Eun-hie) coerces a simple-minded, gnome-like servant into having sex with her so she can pass off their offspring as a legitimate heir. The catch is that she's not fooling anyone but her husband and he's the only one who gives a damn.

"Forbidden Desires in the Palace"
The final entry in this trilogy has a much brighter palette with its vibrant blues, lurid yellows, and overripe reds as well as a much more upbeat ending: The main woman, a court lady who is raped outdoors then suffers through various attempts to induce an abortion (like throwing herself down a snowy hill, bathing in a freezing river, and ingesting poison scraped off a stone), ends up leaving the palace alive — if in a casket — with her baby safe beside her. As for the baby's father, well, let's just say this mother's friends are overprotective.

February 10, 2019

It's Not Her Sin: She's Got Her Finger on the Trigger

Shin Sang-ok's not-quite-noir-but-close It's Not Her Sin is a movie that parcels out its info in very small packages since neither husband Sang-ho (No Neung-kyeol) nor wife Seong-hui (Ju Jeung-nyeo) nor adopted sister Yeong-suk (Choi Eun-hie, the Queen of Sighs) nor her boyfriend Myeong-chil is initially willing to talk about why a married mother might pull a gun on her recently engaged best friend on a staircase inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This reluctance to speak also leaves the prosecutor the difficult tasks of figuring out why someone was trying to pawn off a wedding gift to raise one million won in quick cash and how a couple with no issues could possibly only have one child after eight years of marriage. To him that's strange! So if he doesn't get some answers fast, something terrible could happen. Not jail time exactly but a fate much, much worse... namely, divorce!

Which leads to the extended flashback that in turn leads to its own series of gnarly questions like... What's the sin referenced in the film's title? Is it pre-marital sex with a sleazy ladies' man (Jeon Taek-yi) or a coerced abortion with an unlicensed physician? Is it smuggling goods out of Japan or having a baby boy out of wedlock? Is it chain-smoking or bribery? Adultery? Lying? I personally think it's the sin of omission that haunts these characters. Speak up, people, and you may taste the delicious freedom that comes with living honestly.

Some particularly memorable moments outside the flashy open: adopted toddler Sik shoots at his birth mother with a toy machine gun then refuses her loving embrace; a slick-haired buyer of goods says, "Money is like a woman. It gives birth to more"; two women embrace after one shoots the other because girls gotta stick by each other!

February 9, 2019

The Money: The Filthy Rich

The disparity between rich and poor is worse than ever but Kim So-dong's 1958 movie The Money pretty much nails the basics that have been true forever. Wealthy people treat the day-to-day concerns of the impoverished cavalierly; money-lenders will exploit opportunities to make a buck off the destitute; those with little still cling to materialistic standards when it comes to cultural rites of passage like marriage. In other words, The Money is hitting all the right marks, including the guilt that comes with doing well financially at a friend's expense.

The film also taps into alcoholism as an insidious undoing for the downtrodden, a weakness that can be exploited by those in power with impunity. Not that booze is the only thing that's going to be the undoing of one unlucky farmer (Kim Seung-ho). He's also got an unscrupulous neighbor and some big-city scam artists who couldn't give a damn about his family's fortunes and simply see him as a way to easy money. Given that the local police officer appears to do little except bicycle around town while making nice with everyone, it's hard to imagine that justice or the law would ever come to this everyman's rescue. Doom hangs over everything for these downtrodden.

And that includes potential daughter-in-law Ok-jyeong (Choi Eun-hie), a barmaid whose got her own battles with poverty exacerbated by a money-grubbing, dirty old man (Choi Nam-hyeon) who caresses her while she's asleep. "I hate this world," Ok-jyeong says after one particularly harrowing night. Considering the dreadful lives of most everyone else in Money, she'll have no trouble finding others to echo that sentiment. Well, at least one of the bad guys dies.

The Love Marriage: Hurtful Hearts

There are three types of marriages: the love marriage, the arranged marriage, and the hybrid. According to Lee Byung-il's domestic drama The Love Marriage, everyone wants the first one but that might not be for the best. After oldest daughter Suk-hee (Choi Eun-hie) and Seung-il (Seong So-min) get married for true love, the honeymooners play a disastrous truth-telling game during which he's forgiven for having a prior sweetheart while she's abandoned for four years — during which she wanders around like a zombie — for the same thing. Matters are even worse for the second daughter Moon-hee (Lee Min-ja) whose refusal to meet her mother's choice of the perfect spouse, nylon salesman Wan-seop (Lee Ryong), culminates with the lovesick young woman overdosing on pills to prove her passion for a wimpy tutor (Choe Hyeon) who the family has recently fired. As for youngest daughter Myeong-hee (Jo Mi-lyeong), she's tricked into an arranged marriage of sorts with Yeong-su (Park Am), the sadistic, misogynist assistant of her father Dr. Ko (Choe Nam-hyeon) who chuckles at everything.

He's not the only one laughing either. His son Gwang-sik (Park Gwang-su) shares his father's optimistic, carefree attitude and seems to find everything funny as he gives the sad fates of all his older sisters little more than a giggling shrug. As long as good-natured grandpa (Kim Seung-ho) buys him a camera, this boy is good to go. In complete contrast, the family matriarch finds little amusing and can't understand why her husband's approach is so consistently laissez-faire. Given his hands-off style has led to one daughter becoming a temporary hermit, one daughter landing herself in the hospital, and one daughter pairing off with a man who's going to be cruelly dominating, she has every right to be exasperated. But hey, The Love Marriage is just a movie! Let those wedding bells ring!