Although it has been a long time
coming, this year seems to be the first where it is impossible to ignore the
influx of Korean filmmakers in Hollywood.
Chan-wook Park made his English-language debut
with Stoker, while the second film in his revenge trilogy (Oldboy) is also being remade with Spike Lee at the helm, with a
release set for later this year. Jee-woon Kim (A Tale of Two Sisters, The
Good, the Bad, the Weird) also made his American debut with The Last Stand, which was also Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s return to film. Joon-ho Bong (The Host, Mother) makes
his American debut with the star-studded science-fiction film, Snowpiercer. Anyone who has paid
attention to international cinema in the last decade would have been able to
predict this wave of new arrivals from South Korea. Hollywood has been pillaging the talented
directors from thriving foreign markets since the early days of cinema.
Korea had a
slow start in joining the world in the participation of the film production,
with the first feature film produced in the early 1920s. For many years the
condition of the nation’s cinema was a proper reflection of the country itself,
which was often quite tumultuous. During the silent era of cinema Koreans
suffered Japanese Occupation, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Though the films
were strictly censored, the Koreans found a way to circumnavigate this problem
through the use of the byeonsa. A byeonsa was somewhat like a live narrator,
there to translate the intertitles for the audience. They were also free to
interject their own comments of satire and criticism when Japanese authorities
were not present.
Sound
brought unique issues to filmmaking all around the world, but the censorship in
Korea
made it especially tricky. Film was universal without words, but the addition
of dialogue only meant further censorship for Koreans. In 1938, the Japanese
government encouraged the use of the Japanese language while simultaneously
banning the use of the Korean dialogue. Fortunately, the end of the Pacific War
in 1945 resulted in Korea’s
liberation.
In
the years following, the north and south split apart, with Soviet military
troops advancing and taking the northern portion of the peninsula. The United States
placed troops in the southern region and the Korean War made film production
nearly impossible until the ceasefire in 1953. With assistance from the United States,
the South Korean government then reorganized the film industry, resulting in a
brief flourish of success.
This was
short-lived, however, as the most oppressive time in Korean cinema history
arrived with the military coup of 1961. During the 1970s, Korean cinema was
crippled by censorship. The success of television matched with no freedom of
expression resulted in a depression in theaters and many production companies.
The Korean CIA had spies within the media, as well as schools and churches, so
as to unearth any dissenting individuals. Censorship did not merely mean that
the films would not be seen, but often resulted in imprisonment, torture,
forced confessions and even executions.
It wasn’t until
the assassination of President
Park in the 1980s that
South Korean cinema finally had a chance to begin. From 1988 to 1995, the
censorship laws were slowly revoked, allowing for a completely fresh generation
of filmmakers to create their own national cinema from the ground up. Even more
remarkable than the speed with which South Korean became internationally
praised and appreciated since moving to civilian government in 1993 is the fact
that it has also become one of the few places in the world where homegrown
films outsell the Hollywood imports.
I can appreciate
that foreign films can often be difficult to recommend, not simply because of
the subtitles but because of varying styles and pacing preferences. For those
wanting to ease their way into international cinema, South Korean cinema finds
a great deal of influence in Hollywood films.
There is also preference to violence, especially with the removal of censorship
and the freedom to delve deep into the content that was, until recently,
forbidden. There is no better substitute for fans of a Hollywood
blockbuster than a South Korean blockbuster. In some cases, I prefer the
latter.
5. The Man From Nowhere (2010)
The Man From Nowhere follows in the
tradition of popular thrillers in South Korean’s recent past, most notably Oldboy. There is heart at the center of
a film filled with graphic and fascinating action, which somehow always remains
more than moderately believable and entertaining. The Man From Nowhere had the highest box office numbers of the year
in Korea,
and it is easy to see why. Although it may not be entirely original or
unpredictable, The Man From Nowhere
is endlessly enjoyable.
The film begins with a little girl and an
ex-special agent. Cha Tae-shik (Won Bin) lives next door to an impoverished
child named So-mi (Kim Sae-Ron) who often escapes into his pawn shop in order
to avoid her addict mother. When So-mi’s mother uses the pawn shop in order to hide
a large amount of drugs, he is pulled into a larger plot. In order to rescue
his next-door neighbor and friend, Tae-shik comes out of hiding in order to
carry out swift justice.
There
are some spectacular fight sequences, which are both brutal and fast, leading
up to a few final sequences worth watching the whole film for. Much of the film
is filled with drama that is so effective that there is more power in the
violence. Hollywood action films could take a
lesson from South Korean cinema, as few are able to blend believable characters
and melodrama out of implausible action scenarios the way they do. This was the
second feature from director Jeong-beom Lee, who also wrote the screenplay.
4. My Sassy Girl (2001)
Based
on a series of true stories posted by Ho-sik Kimon the internet describing his
somewhat dysfunctional romantic relationship, My Sassy Girl is an implausible film. There are so many ways that
this movie should not have worked, and in fact, when it was remade in America, it
absolutely did not work. And this is despite the fact that the remake was
directed by Yann Samuell, a French filmmaker who directed one of my Desert
Island French films. But that’s another list. This is not easy material to
convey with sincerity. There is some sappiness, some predictability, and the
film ends with what can either be construed as science fiction or fate. All of
this in a film which is part drama, part comedy and has a running time of over
two hours. All of this comes together, despite every reason it should not,
because of a great cast and filmmaker, Jae-young Kwak.
Director
Kwak also adapted the stories by Kimon for his screenplay, which follows the
misadventures of hapless college student Gyeon-woo (Tae-Hyun Cha), who
inadvertently becomes involved with a young nameless girl (Ji-hyun Jun) when
she is drunk on the subway and strangers assume that the two are together. With
no other choice but to take care of a stranger, Gyeon-woo finds himself
entangled. Their relationship is mostly one-sided, with the girl behaving
erratically, stringing Gyeon-woo along just enough so that he continues to
amuse her. These games are both amusing and sad, because there is a reason the
girl keeps Gyeon-woo at a distance.
This
film hasn’t been released in the United States,
despite having been poorly remade by Hollywood.
The only way to see this film is by import DVD. I myself have only seen it
once, and this is one of the few films that I love which is not in my massive
collection. It is also a film which I can recall the feelings of watching it
more than the film itself, perhaps because I was shocked by how emotionally
connected I became with the characters over two hours time. A film with such a
lasting impression and emotional resonance is extremely rare, making this one
of my favorite romance films as well. Find a copy of this any way you can, get
a box of tissues for the unavoidable tears and enjoy the only film in my South
Korean list without bloody carnage.
3. The Host (2006)
[Review
from film’s theatrical release in the United States]
It has been a
really long time since there was a really good creature film. They are simple
and don’t need a lot of explanation. The creature just exists and must be
destroyed for order to be restored. The Host is a creature film at times, but
there is focus spent elsewhere often during the film. The film follows a family
as they try and find their youngest family member, who is struggling to survive
in the creature’s nest deep in a sewer. There are many things going on besides the
creature, but the essence of the film could at any minute switch back to
creature should it randomly appear. Like many horror films, The Host is a
survival film. It is also a family-in-peril horror film on top of being a
survival creature film. And, like any good horror film, it knows when to make
fun of itself also.
Just as Jaws made
the beach seem frightening and suspect, The
Host turns the Han River, a dull and unexciting river running through much
of Korea,
into a horrifying co-creator and home for a monster that emerges one day to
wreak havoc on the city. The creature is created when an American scientist
tells a lowly Korean assistant to pour dozens of bottles of chemicals into the
sink. This begins a theme against authority running through the film. It isn’t
just American authority, although they don’t look that great at any one point,
but all authority, including Korean officials and police officers. Even seeming
to make a point that it isn’t the individual as much as the whole, an American
soldier off duty in Korea
helps to battle the creature alongside one of our Korean protagonists, almost
as if he were on duty he might have been part of the problem rather than a part
of the solution.
The authority
figures are of no help when a young girl is taken with her family left
grieving, but even more shocking is their refusal to help when the family
receives a phone call from the girl letting them know she is still alive and
being held in the creature’s lair within the sewer. With the authorities claiming
the phone call to be just a bad dream or grief, the family decides to break
free from quarantine and escape to rescue her themselves. Her father, a near
narcoleptic bum, her grandfather, the owner of a small snack shop by the river,
her aunt, a world famous archer, and her uncle, a college graduate who can’t
find a job, all equip themselves as best they can and set out to kill the
creature and save their youngest family member.
It is a sad fact
that American horror films are anything but original these days, and yet there
is so much going on outside of Hollywood, and along with the Descent and 28 Days Later, The Host
belongs in a category with films that are groundbreaking and will play a large
part in the direction horror goes in next. Far better than I could have
expected in terms of scale and emotional attachment to characters within a
horror film, The Host is not only one of the best horror films in years, but
simply one of the best films in years and certainly the best monster film in
decades.
2. The City of Violence (2006)
Korea’s
particular burst in cinema this last decade makes it an interesting country for
examination right now, especially concerning the subject of revenge. Many
Korean films in the recent past have dealt with revenge, most notably Park
Chanwook’s Oldboy, the second in his
vengeance trilogy. Until the 1980s Korean cinema was highly oppressed for many
years, but from 1988 to 1995 the censorship laws were slowly revoked, allowing
for a completely fresh generation of filmmakers to create a New Korean cinema.
These films have proved to be highly violent and often dealing with vengeance
and revenge as a common theme and although much of this is associated with
Korean filmmakers suddenly being freed from censorship, able finally to make
more violent film, in fact violence, revenge and torture have long been
engrained in Korean stories. The City of
Violence continues this tradition along with some new tricks to keep it
cutting edge.
Part detective
story and part buddy action, The City of
Violence begins with a single act of violence which spawns the film’s
events. Detective Taesoo (played by director, Ryoo Seung-Wan) doesn’t appear to
be a very motivated or hardworking hero when we join him sleeping at a desk
along with three shirtless thugs. His demeanor is calm and collected, even
stoic as he receives a phone call from back home telling him that his friend
Wangjae has died. He returns home to find that his friend’s death was no
accident and decides to stay and try and figure out what really happened.
Eventually he joins forces with another high school friend, Sukhwan, who has
been investigating on his own. What is interesting is watching the two friends
work together each piece of the puzzle on his own until they join forces to
find the person responsible and get revenge. City of Violence continues this theme in Korean cinema along with
many other expected areas of focus.
For instance,
Korean cinema also tends to place a great deal of focus on the time period of
being young and in school, both as a bonding period and as a period and setting
where horrific events can happen. This is primarily because of the intense
amount of time a child spends in the Korean school system by the end of high
school. In The City of Violence the
high school segments come as they do in many films; through flashbacks, but
director Ryoo Seung-Wan adds in his own postmodern style to the traditional
storyline. Before the first flashback a split screen is showing us the person
on the other end of a phone conversation but it suddenly switches another shot
which is taking place a few moments in the future. This jarring bit of editing
plays with the audience’s concept of time immediately before throwing them into
a flashback, a whirlwind of changes that is quite interestingly disorientating.
As much attention
is given to the smaller details in the film, the focus is bound to be on the
action, which is a perfect balance of realism and entertainment. The streets in
the film are overrun by gangs which seem to echo The Warriors and when all of these gangs corner our hero in the
street the result is the perfect answer to the horribly digitalized fight scene
in The Matrix Reloaded in which Neo
fights hundreds of men. (One could answer that this was already done with the
climactic battle of Kill Bill Volume One,
and there certainly seem to be some valid points to that argument and I
wouldn’t doubt that Tarantino would love this film and nearly all of New Korean
cinema.) This scene takes all of the elements which worked in all of this
films, and maybe a little of Oldboy’s
hallway battle, and makes them work in a natural and unique way. Instead of
ripping off other action films or attempting something so original that it
doesn’t even seem to echo in reality, Seung-Wan has simply improved upon many
previous concepts and made them work to his advantage. And this is within the
first thirty minutes of the film and only the second large fight with plenty
left to come.
Even as the
fighting takes on a life of its own, there are many moments within the film
which seem to be inserting a pastiche from several American films with cult
status. It seems a perfect counter-response to Tarantino’s Kill Bill which takes much from Samurai films. These brief
references are done with the respect of the new wave of postmodern filmmakers
Tarantino seems to helm so appropriately, especially after the Grindhouse
experience.
1. Oldboy (2003)
I
have often heard it said that there are no more original ideas for films
anymore. It is believed that all that could be thought of has already been
done, and now we can only expect copies. While Chan-wook Park’s new film, Oldboy
borrows the mood and feeling from many great films of the past, the premise is
one that seems shockingly unique.
After
the film opens with a confusing scene in which it seems as though Dae-su Oh
(Min-sik Choi) is holding a man from his tie over the edge of a building, it
immediately jumps into a hilarious scene where a much more clean-cut Dae-su Oh,
a seemingly ordinary man, albeit extremely intoxicated on his daughter’s
birthday, goes through a whole spectrum of emotions waiting to be released in a
police station. After being picked up by a friend, Dae-su Oh calls his daughter
and wife, and then is kidnapped off the street. He is placed in a room with
decent living conditions including a television, and is kept there for fifteen
years.
As
the fifteen years pass within the cell, the mystery builds as to why Dae-su Oh
is held captive, and it seems as though the film can go nowhere from this
point, but when he is released on a grass filled rooftop the film just gets
better. Dae-su Oh receives a phone call telling him that he has five days to
figure out why he was held captive, and with the help of a young woman he meets
in a sushi bar, he sets out to solve the mystery. Little more can be said of
the plot without spoiling the surprise, which met every expectation I had from
the film as it had impressed me so far. The mystery is built until the very end
in which all of the film comes crashing into a wrenching, disturbing, and
Shakespearian climax on par with films like Seven
and Titus.
Although
Oldboy is not necessarily an action
film there are a few fight sequences which are choreographed and shot in a way
which will make you wish more of the film had action. One scene shot in a
hallway is done in all one continuous shot, reminiscent of the famous scene in
samurai film Sword of Doom. The
brutality of the scene is only matched by the humor, which is just enough so
that the violence is slightly more bearable.
The
characters are so well developed in Oldboy
that when they begin to go through the extremely graphic situations it is
much more difficult to watch. Min-sik
Choi plays Dae-su Oh with such precision, despite an extended amount of the
film spent in isolation. The last fifteen minutes of the film were so stressful
to watch that it actually gave me a headache. And it was worth it. This is
perhaps one of the best films in its genre in years. There is simply no other
way to stress the fact that despite the limited distribution, this film should
be well known and talked about. I am certain that every audience member which
sees this film will not walk out and forget it.
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