There's a world of a difference between the comic book movie and the the fable on film. For whereas the former is typified by hero worship and snide asides, the latter distills human behavior into small scale tragedies of a much more personal nature. Unlike the more-or-less invincible leads of their Marvel-made counterparts (kryptonite notwithstanding), the leads in folktale cinema suffer dearly when they take a loss. There is no full recovery, anymore than there is a conquering of evil. Which one is more like real life, I ask you? Those superhero movies piss me off.
Lee Man-hui's The Water Mill is an exquisite example of the folktale film, an aching mix of Cinderella, Samson, and The Gift of the Magi. How else to explain this tale of a strongman (Shin Yeong-gyun) who comes across a slipper in the river, only to bump into his soon-to-be beloved (Ko Eun-a) the day she's missing a shoe. Their subsequent romance is fraught with issues: she's married, in debt, and doomed. The first issue is resolved when her husband dies; the second, is made right when her new lover sells himself to pay off her I.O.U. But the third item, well, that's going to require stealing undergarments and praying to the west wind. And when's the last time you've heard of that approach working out?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment