intense, grotesque, beautiful. a quiet afternoon in with Kim JeeWoon.
Kim JeeWoon and Lee ByungHun had previously worked on three projects together: The good the bad and the weird [2008] a bittersweet life [2005] and the segment memories from three extreems [2002].
Kim JeeWoon is responsible for jump starting my love of korean cinema with tale of two sisters and a bittersweet life (which is in my top 5 favourite films) and i guess without him i may never have developed this unwavering adoration for Lee ByungHun [Iris, jungdok, everybody has secrets, a bittersweet life, bungee jumping of their own, once in a summer, i come with the rain, G.I. Joe, beautiful days, hero, do i need to go on?] as the combination of this director and actor could well be the best thing to ever happen to the world. well, my world.
I really loved memories and the good the bad and the weird. and it really should go without saying by now that a bittersweet life is phenominal. So i was interested in this movie when i saw they had teamed up again late last year.
I dont know why i have only gotten around to watching this now at the end of 2011 but never mind. as expected it was worth the wait. watching i come with the rain and G.I. Joe yesterday reminded me that there was still a Kim JeeWoon - Lee ByungHun film on my hard drive to watch. (i come with the rain was really amazing by the way. ByungHun and Kimura Takuya's second movie together. someone somewhere loves me.)
I dont know why i have only gotten around to watching this now at the end of 2011 but never mind. as expected it was worth the wait. watching i come with the rain and G.I. Joe yesterday reminded me that there was still a Kim JeeWoon - Lee ByungHun film on my hard drive to watch. (i come with the rain was really amazing by the way. ByungHun and Kimura Takuya's second movie together. someone somewhere loves me.)
This movie was going to be hardgoing - I figured that from the blurbs and reviews everywhere saying 'not for the faint hearted' and such. I saw it had been editted a bunch of times for release due to its insanely graphic violence but I just couldn't turn it down. I have to admit i did spend rather a lot of the film wincing away from the screen - and i have a fairly strong stomach for sh*t like that - so yeah i guess i would agree that it is pretty damn violent and gross.
It is about psycho killers and completely insane horrible people so you expect and indeed find a great deal of torture and sexual violence (thankfully the later of which was not particularly graphic) with added cannibalism and god knows what else. yup, it is full of all manner of nasty things that just make you hate humans and their sick ways. But obviously this is not some american slasher gorno flick, there is depth to all the characters and a real progression in the story line.
To outline the plot for you; psychopath (a real one who feels no pain, fear, remorse etc) kidknaps tortures and kills people in his big ass horrible house remeniscent of some hillbilly torture barn in the middle of southern america, complete with guillotine, steak knives, endless supply of sheet plastic, you know the sort.
So this guy is an actual psychopath, not just getting his rocks of to nasty stuff - he is clever, thinks the world owes him everything, really strong and fearless, but above all heartless. This is important, many films' bad guys have been driven insane by some crap sh*t that happened in the past making them flawed and ultimately fragile, but this is a text book psychopath who has no fear of pain or loss. This guy is played by Choi MinSik [oldboy, lady vengence,] who better to convey all this savage disconnection from human emotion than a fantastic actor like him?
So this guy is an actual psychopath, not just getting his rocks of to nasty stuff - he is clever, thinks the world owes him everything, really strong and fearless, but above all heartless. This is important, many films' bad guys have been driven insane by some crap sh*t that happened in the past making them flawed and ultimately fragile, but this is a text book psychopath who has no fear of pain or loss. This guy is played by Choi MinSik [oldboy, lady vengence,] who better to convey all this savage disconnection from human emotion than a fantastic actor like him?
Ok, so he is one side of the coin, the other side is a secret agent who is the husband of one of the slaughtered women, played by ByungHun. After the death of his wife, agent SooHyun vows to take revenge and a manhunt outside of the police force begins.
SooHyun plays with his prey like a cat, catching him and torturing him like his own victims, then letting him go to catch up with him again, hounding him at every corner. It becomes sadistic and intense, and as you can imagine it indeed spirals out of control.
ByungHun, as i have said many times before, has the most emotive eyes and you just can't ever help getting drawn into how his characters are feeling. This movie holds no exception to that, you follow SooHyun with the distress and remorse he feels, and understand that there couldn't possibly be any other way to ease his pain than to inflict suffering onto the man who killed his wife, however morally conflicted by that thought you may be.
ByungHun, as i have said many times before, has the most emotive eyes and you just can't ever help getting drawn into how his characters are feeling. This movie holds no exception to that, you follow SooHyun with the distress and remorse he feels, and understand that there couldn't possibly be any other way to ease his pain than to inflict suffering onto the man who killed his wife, however morally conflicted by that thought you may be.
So the cast is brilliant and this movie is directed by a guy with such a beautiful eye for the perfect shot and the perfect pace that it not only offers the action, blood, and gore that many people may want out of a film like this, but it also delivers the beauty, grace, and heartbreaking emotional presence, found in all Kim JeeWoon movies. Always a bittersweet confliction of the savage and the beautiful.
I wouldn't say this was an easy film to watch by any stretch of the imagination. But i do think it is worth it. Right to the very last stunning soul destroyingly sad scene this movie offers more than just a angry cop tracking a nasty killer and taking matters into his own hands.
It shows the nature of human actions and reactions, laying them out bare like exposed nerves in freezing cold biting air, and the intense twisted reality of heavy grief and remorse, and also the savage consequences of having neither of the those two feelings.
I wouldn't say this was an easy film to watch by any stretch of the imagination. But i do think it is worth it. Right to the very last stunning soul destroyingly sad scene this movie offers more than just a angry cop tracking a nasty killer and taking matters into his own hands.
It shows the nature of human actions and reactions, laying them out bare like exposed nerves in freezing cold biting air, and the intense twisted reality of heavy grief and remorse, and also the savage consequences of having neither of the those two feelings.
Movie posters:
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Fantastic review. You are so right, it's so much more than the usual cop tracking killer kind of story, it really hooks you in emotionally. It is a strange feeling, rooting for that awful violence, it feels wrong to justify it but it does feel as though it's the only way. It' so uncomfortable to watch but so mentally worth it. I was totally blown away by ByungHun, his performance was fantastic, he is so expressive yet so minimal! How he changes as a man throughout the film, how he handles doing these things, his mental state. Incredible. I'm definitely going to check out the other movies you mentioned. Thanks for the reccommendation!
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