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.
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