What Happens in an Alley: Children of a Debtor's God

The story of a financially-burdened business executive (Kim Seung-ho) with nine children, a seamstress wife, and a dependent mother, What Happens in an Alley intermittently registers as topical dramedy, its soundtrack buoyed by lighthearted vibraphone. Eventually, however, matters take the inescapable dark turn. What were you expecting? The title alone conjures up images of dirty needles, makedo toilets, illegal abortions, and sordid sexual escapades. Plus the company boss has a Hitlerian mustache and a Maoish uniform. Who couldn't foresee that director Park Jong-ho's slice-of-life flick would switch into social-realist mode?

Until it does, though, coming home drunk will be a chance for slapstick; marital arguments will culiminate in one-liners with dark undercurrents. As for this movie's recurring obsession with baby-making, that plot-point leads to weird scenes like one with an unhelpful obstretrician (Kim Hee-kab) and another with an unmarried woman (Kim Ji-mee) being groomed to carry the seed of an heirless married man. What these characters fail to realize is that there are worse things in life than childlessness. Like appendicitis, bribery, robbery, domestic violence, sexual assault, and living paycheck-to-paycheck. And What Happens in an Alley has those tragedies, too. Which makes it a pretty good movie. Or should I say melodrama?

Bloodline: Poor, Poor Miserable Need

Opportunity is scarce for the residents of the hilltop shanties in Bloodline: a sock-selling daughter (Um Aing-ran) gets pressured to become a "hostess"; a cigarette pedlar (Shin Yeong-gyun) can't scrounge together the doctor's fee for his wife (Lee Kyoung-hee). In this part of town, one tough-luck story is no better or worse than the other. Newspaper serves as wallpaper; your daily outfit has at least one patch. And generally, it goes downhill from there.

Neo-realism Korean-style rarely disappoints and Kim Soo-yong's group portrait of North Korean defectors making hard-scrabble lives for themselves just south of the 38th parallel is no exception. This career-making film, shot in expert black and white, covers a lot of territory too including swank nightclubs, military barracks, construction sites, and street merchants. You can see the inequities in all these environments and how inflexible the system is to change. Is it any wonder that the older generation (Kim Seung-ho, Hwang Jeong-sun, Choi Nam-hyeon) have grown dissatisfied with the life they chose? Was it worth all that trouble and effort just to get a family-sized can of papayas? The spark of hope is reserved for those who get out!

Awards: Blue Dragons for Best Film, Best Actor (Kim), Best Actress (Hwang), and Best Supporting Actor (Choi); Grand Bell for Best Film.

The Coachman: No Simple Retread of The Bicycle Thief

The opening sequence of The Coachman reveals a young man speeding away on a stolen bicycle while the rightful owner runs after him shouting "Thief! Thief!" Sound familiar? Well, the deja vu is intentional for director Kang Dae-jin's Silver Bear winner of 1961 owes a lot to Vittorio De Sica's neorealist landmark . This Korean variation similarly explores a struggling working class family's existence, specifically a widowed deliveryman (Kim Seung-ho), his eldest son (who keeps failing the governmental exam), his deaf-mute daughter (who's trapped in an abusive marriage), his other daughter (who's dabbling in escort services) and his youngest boy (who we met in that thrilling first scene).

To dub the overall situation grim would be accurate but such a description would also shortchange much of the kindness with which the story is infused. You sense a real mix of respectful privacy and shared concern among the family members who are blessed with truly caring, self-sacrificing friends, including a truck driver (Hwang Hae) who comes to their aid multiple times, and a housemaid (Hwang Jung-seun) who takes extreme action to save a man in whom she sees inherent goodness. Nothing's idealized here, mind you — especially the rich who exhibit a narcissism that's never gone out of date. But The Coachman lifts the spirits with a happy ending that defies the odds and feels plausible.

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.

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!

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."

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!

Confessions of a College Student: Family Scam

One of the pleasures that comes with binging a bunch of Shin Sang-ok movies from the late 1950s and early '60s (a time when the director was cranking out two to five movies per year) is seeing certain actors reappear alongside his wife and muse Choi Eun-hie. Here, in Confessions of a College Student — a women's picture of Sirkian proportions, Shin regulars Kim Seung-ho (Dongshimcho, Sister's Garden, Lee Seung-man and the Independence Movement) and Choi Nam-hyeon (The Youth, Prince Yeonsan, Tyrant Yeonsan) show up as a big-hearted politician and a lecherous landlord respectively. Kim especially shines as his character, a teddy bear if there ever was one, journeys from overworked statesman to doting father.

As for Choi, her turn here as a destitute student who stumbles into a rich family thanks in part to the machinations of her mystery-loving gal pal (a budding novelist) is quintessential chick flick fare. She's vulnerable but determined, scared but resourceful, desperate but smart — and ultimately a young woman of integrity whose final confessions of her wrongdoings finds her unexpectedly in a better place than she could've ever possibly imagined. She's got quite a few plot-turns to execute before she gets to that final happy place such as fending off sexual harassment in the workplace, getting hit by a car then landing in the hospital, and finishing up her law studies before taking on her first case (a feminist murder trial!) — all while living a lie. And to think this all started with her last surviving grandmother's funeral. Well some say, every time the door of a casket closes, the window of opportunity opens. That and the truth will set you free to make oodles and oodles of money.

Dongshimcho: Young Mother in Love

Shin Sang-ok's preposterously pulpy Dongshimcho had me reflecting on the difference between melodrama and soap opera, kindred spirits to be sure. Well, in my mind at least, the second genre distinguishes itself with its bounty of complications and coincidences, mostly if not entirely of a romantic nature. Here you can see that impossibly insane intricacy in a minor character like Mr. Kim from Busan (Kim Seung-ho) — who is at once the business associate for Seoul publisher Kim Sang-kyu (Kim Jin-kyu), a rival for the latter Kim's secret love Mrs. Lee (Choi Eun-hie), and a potential buyer of Mrs. Lee's house — as well as in another relatively secondary role like Ok-joo (Do Kum-bong), the main Kim's fiancee who is also a high school acquaintance of Mrs. Lee's daughter Kyung-hee (Eom Aeng-ran) and the daughter herself of Company Chairman Lee (Kim Dong-won) who has funded her beloved's business enterprise which is in jeopardy now because of a loan made to Mrs. Lee so the lonely widow won't lose her house which for various reasons she doesn't want to sell to the earlier mentioned Mr. Kim from out of town (who just happens to be a merry widower).

It's hard to explain but it's not hard to follow though it is hard to believe. Such is life? Well, maybe. I was more interested in period details like phone calls that are received in the local pharmacy, open train windows that frame brokenhearted passengers tearfully looking out in search of the cause of their distress, and various stacks of 8½" x 17" paper which signal accounting and serious work. There's also a surprising amount of screen time spent on watching people get in and out of shoes as they enter various houses. I, for one, wasn't bored. And if the ever-so-friendly realtor looks familiar that may be because you recognize him as the bullying boss in The Hand of Destiny which is more melodrama than soap but similarly so-so.

Sister's Garden: A New Lease on Life

Like any good melodrama worth a toilet paper roll's worth of coarse tissue, Shin Sang-ok's Sister's Garden finds its emotionally distraught characters collapsing on the floor in tears multiple times. Who can blame them? They've got a lot to cry about, the rent first and foremost. Turns out the widowed father (Yu Chun), a beloved doctor dying of a disease he once cured in others, is going to leave some serious debts behind. Once the martyring eldest daughter (Choi Eun-hie) figures out a way to make some money, she's suddenly saddled with a second IOU after her impetuous sister (Choi Ji-hie) opens a not-so-popular dress shop with her not-so-successful painter-husband (Nam Gung-won). What's a girl to do?

Become a madam at a disreputable inn, start drinking alcohol to please the crass customers, forsake her true love — a tight-lipped medical student (Kim Seok-hun), and consider the marriage proposal made by one Mr. Bang (Kim Seung-ho), a shady character whom her father restored to health but who nevertheless can't resist an opportunity to pimp her out to make a buck. Maybe this good-daughter-about-to-turn-bad wouldn't go to such extremes if she didn't have a much younger brother (Ahn Sung-ki) to take care of. But then again, maybe she's grown bored with the bourgeois life and isn't that crazy about becoming a doctor's wife. Whatever her reasons, you get the feeling that the nasty turn of events has awakened something inside her. When the swell of "Ol' Man River" is heard behind this movie's "happy ending," you can't help but recall the lyric "You and me / We sweat and strain / Body all aching / And wracked with pain." In other words, the potential for "good times ahead" looks doubtful. Perhaps "Get a little drunk / And you land in jail" isn't such a terrible fate after all.

Romance Papa: A Hit in 1960, A Relic Today

The title character of Romance Papa is what's commonly referred to as a sentimental old fool. He's also a bit of a windbag with artistic delusions and a braggart dumb enough to challenge his 19-year-old son to a wrestling match. But because he's played by the charismatic Kim Seung-ho, you understand why his family loves him and why one young co-worker aspires to be his drinking buddy. He's what you'd call a lovable shmuck. You still want to see him taken down a peg now and again but your heart goes out to him when later in the movie, he loses his middle management job at an insurance company. Even bores need someplace to work, especially ones who, at 52, can't compete in a youth-driven marketplace. That woeful turn of events is when producer-director Shin Sang-ok's two-hour-plus drama finally starts to get interesting. It's a little late, granted, but there's still time enough for a well-earned weepy ending that has papa's children showing respect by retrieving papa's pawned watch before singing "Happy Birthday" in English. Shin's wife, movie siren Choi Eun-hie who plays the eldest daughter, does more with a simple bow to her parents than Shin does the entire drippy drama.