Bestseller (베스트셀러, Beseuteuselleo ) 2010

Production values add to the atmosphere

Along with Moss and Bedevilled, Bestseller is one last year’s rural-set films where local villagers hide an ugly secret or secrets. Each is very different but they all set the countryside as a site of horror and a place for repressed memories. Kang Woo-suk’s Moss is an atmospheric thriller about a son who goes to a village when his father dies and finds that everything isn’t quite right. Soon he begins to suspect foul play in his father’s passing and tries to dig up the secrets of the community, which is lorded over by the village foreman playing by the brilliant Jeong Jae-yeong. Bedevilled shows us an island and a woman who is brutally raped, attacked, and persecuted by the other islanders through the eyes of a visitor from Seoul. Following a cataclysmic event she snaps and exacts revenge in this scopophilic masterpiece. Finally there is Bestseller, which starts out as a creepy haunted house horror when a famous writer gets away from the big city to write her comeback two years after having been accused of plagiarism. A big revelation switches the focus of the film, which becomes a thriller where she tries to uncover the death of a girl who she believes was killed by the villagers.

Director Lee Jeong-ho treads carefully in his debut as he maneuvers through the conventions of horror and name checks half a dozen classic horror films in the process. A writer going off to a big haunted house in the countryside for some quiet to write is basically the plot to The Shining (1980), not only this but just like in the famous opening scene from that film we follow the protagonist from various eerie helicopter shots as she drives to the remote location. Besides this the film also makes heavy allusions to Psycho (1960) and Don’t Look Now (1973). The first half of the film is an exercise in suspense and is very effective. The mise-en-scene is wonderfully executed as the sets, sound design, editing, and cinematography are all top notch. The problem is that it feels like a bit of an exercise and can come off as a little lifeless. Eom Jeong-hwa, an accomplished actress who has some horror experience with Princess Aurora (2005), looks good in the role but sometimes misses the mark with her constant staring and paranoia. This could also be a product of Lee’s direction as he takes such pains to evoke an atmospheric horror. 

Like so many other Korean films, Bestseller deals with past trauma and repressed memories. As I mentioned earlier it does this in much the same fashion as Moss and Bedevilled by situating the trauma, by proxy or otherwise, in a rural environment. The villagers, at first welcoming, quickly turn sour on the writer’s presence as she begins to dig up the truth on the 20-year-old disappearance of a young girl. The secrets they hide are predictably dark and while they do not stem directly from political atrocities, like the revealed trauma of films like Save the Green Planet (2003) and A Man Who Was Superman (2008), they do echo a number of related themes. For one the brutal countryside could be seen as a representation of the North, it could also be seen as a metaphor for the past and how modern Koreans choose to deal with it. Various events in the film point to a manipulation of memory and show us how most characters are deeply affected by it a key concern in Korean cinema. 

Unfortunately the film has some very significant drawbacks, I’ve already mentioned Eom’s performance but far more problematic are the atrocious lapses of judgment in the execution of the finale. There is a supernatural bent to the film that is necessary to complement the style of the first half but this angle is played down during the rest of the narrative until the very end when it comes back with a vengeance. The problem is that the logic of the film goes right out the window. Laws of physics are blithely disregarded, generic codes are awkwardly juxtaposed, and the obvious resolution is forced into place. Ultimately the film is a great display of technique and a competently made horror/thriller with lots of fun twists but it lacks cohesion and focus.

★★★☆☆

The villagers turn on the writer

Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

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The Servant (Bang-ja-jeon) 2010

Kim Dae-woo is running the risk of stereotyping himself, but when the result is a film like The Servant (2010), is this a bad thing? After starting off as a versatile scriptwriter with the films An Affair (1998), Rainbow Trout (1999), and The Foul King (2000), Kim made his first foray into the period film, more specifically the Chosun-era erotic melodrama period film, with his adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, Untold Scandal (2003). His directorial debut came in 2006 with the comedy Forbidden Quest, before his sophomore feature The Servant. Like Untold Scandal, The Servant is based on a famous text, this time the oft-filmed pansori tale Chunhyang. To western audiences the most famous take on this tale is Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang (2000), an epic and beautiful version that blends in scenes of pansori being performed in a modern theater with the narrative shot as a representation of the performance. Kim’s version is far less Brechtian but nonetheless engages with the text/song in a thoroughly satisfying manner.

Bang-ja and his master

Chunhyang is a simple tale of woman, named Chun-hyang, and Mong-ryeong, a studious magistrate’s son who fall in love and get married illegally before he must leave for Seoul. During his absence a corrupt magistrate arrives and forces Chun-hyang to become his concubine. She refuses and his faced with death but is saved at the last moment by Mong-ryeong who has now become a Royal Inspector.

The Servant follows much the same pattern but twists the narrative in favor of examining social structures and adding some eroticism. In this version Mong-ryeong is a conceited brat and it is actually his servant Bang-ja who fills the role of the love interest. He is strong, smart, competent, and kind, if a little shady and naïve. He undermines Mong-ryeong, in his quest to have Chun-hyang, at every turn, but not always intentionally. Mong-ryeong leaves for Seoul to follow his studies and Chun-hyang and the servant (who is now a merchant) pursue a relationship, which surprisingly is more or less in plain view of her family who disapprove (because it will not elevate her status) but tolerate it. The ending is also quite different but I won’t go into that here.

Mong-ryeong and the corrupt inspector

2010 seems to be a banner year for eroticism in Korean cinema. In my previous review on A Frozen Flower (2008), I mentioned how nudity and sex, which had previously been very taboo in Korean cinema, are getting more and more prevalent and graphic. Last year brought us the pseudo-erotica 3D film Natalie, the sexually-charged remake of The Housemaid, and The Servant, one of the most sexually-explicit Korean films I have seen. Not only does it feature numerous sex scenes but it also introduces elements of sexual deviance (the inspector who comes to town and tries to take Chunhyang as his concubine) to a tale that is really supposed to be a love overcomes all romance.

The Servant is a well-written and assiduously directed affair, but even more so it features jaw-droppingly gorgeous cinematography and sumptuous production design. Korean cinema constantly amazes me when it produces films for a fraction of the cost of Hollywood yet put all of those pictures to shame. It is also packed with great performances from Ryoo Seung-beom as Mong-ryeong Kim Joo-hyeok as Bang-ja, and even better characters, like Oh Dal-su who is a riot as a lubricious old man who gives Bang-ja tips to woo Chun-hyang. While this is a thoroughly entertaining film I do hope that Kim will try something new with his next feature, I have been forgiving but many reviewers have commented on this film’s similarity to Untold Scandal.

Korean Cinema News (04/11-04/17, 2011)

A lot of festival news this week as the lineups to Canne and the Udine Far East Film Festival were announced.  I have decided to cover Korean box office as well as other industry news and have included under its own heading at the bottom of the post.  Both this and last weekend's box office are covered this time around.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Interview with Acclaimed Director Park Jung-bum

Park Jung-bum, director of much-lauded The Journals of Musan, talks about the difficulties of a low-budget production and his personal reasons for making a risky film about the lives of North Korean defectors in the South.  (JoonAng Daily, April 12, 2011)

Increase in Funds for Documentaries at Busan Film Festival

The Busan International Film Festival is set to expand funding opportunities for documentary filmmakers.  A new fund is available for documentaries depicting conflict areas and the Busan FIlm Commission Fund has been set up to contribute to post-production costs on high-quality works with meager means.  (Film Business Asia, April 13, 2011)

13th Udine Far East Film Festival Announces Lineup

Entering its 13th year, the Udine Far East Film Festival has announced the films which will be screening at this edition.  The program includes 12 new Korean films, including favorites Bedevilled, The Man From Nowhere, and The Unjust, but also many world festival premieres such as Cyrano Agency.  In addition a pair of Korean comedies form 1961 will be screened as part of the festival's Asia Laughs section.  (Udine Far East Film Festival, April 13, 2011)

Korean Film Council to Support Local Filmmaking

As part of its 2011 plan to support local filmmaking, the Korean Film Council will: make funds available to foreign co-productions filming in Korea; subsidize labour costs on low-budget films; act as guarantor for films with overseas potential; and invest in contents fund.  The KFC will also work to retrain films crews, develop 3D technology, fight piracy, and more.  (Screen Daily, April 14, 2011)

3 Korean Films Selected for Un Certain Regard Section at Cannes

While none were selected for the main competition vying for the Palme d'Or, three much-anticipated Korean films will screen in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.  These include: The Day He Arrives, the new Hong Sang-soo; Na Hong-jin's follow-up the The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, which has been recut for the festival; and Arirang, Kim Ki-duk's first film in three years.  (The Chosun Ilbo, April 15, 2011)

Modern Depictions of North Korea in Korean Cinema

Park Jung-bum's The Journals of Musan is the newest in a long line of Korean films dealing with the North in an increasingly more direct manner.  This Washington Post article briefly analyzes the change of North Korea's depiction in South Korean cinema since censorship was relaxed enough to allow it in the late 1990s.  (The Washington Post, April 17, 2011)

BOX OFFICE

Suicide Forecast Prevails in Close Battle for First Place

Going against powerhouse Clash of the Families, hot off two first place finishes at the Korean box office, Suicide Forecast managed to clinch the weekend crown in a close finish with 279,636 admissions.  Clash of the Families took a big hit but nonetheless gained 265,795 admissions, its has sold 1,827,051 ticket to date.  Also opening this week were I Am a Dad, which had a so-so showing with 70,860 entries, and critical hit The Journals of Musan, which mustered barely over a thousand spectators in limited release.  (Hancinema, April 17, 2011)

Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

A Frozen Flower (쌍화점, Ssang-hwa-jeom) 2008

Steamy sex scenes

Eclectic director Yu Ha’s fifth feature explores yet a new generic territory, after drama in Marriage Is a Crazy Thing (2002), high school angst in Once Upon a Time in High School (2004), and the gangster saga of A Dirty Carnival (2006), A Frozen Flower is period gay romantic thriller, set during the Koryo dynasty. Only a Korean films could embody all of these elements and still be called a success, which it is, but it does create a narrative which can be difficult to know what to make of. Yu Ha was initially reluctant to embrace the period genre, which he felt uncomfortable with, but he decided to embrace it as he sought a change from his previous work. Given how versatile he has been, it comes as no surprise, but I hardly would have thought he felt he was doing the same thing with his previous films, which are each very different works. Yu strikes me as a potential modern Korean equivalent of Howard Hawks as he deftly navigates his way through multiple genres. Like Hawks he leaves his own mark but his films do not feature a uniform style or mise-en-scene, a feature commonly associated with auteurs which Hawks was and Yu is fast becoming.

Hong Lim (Jo In-seong) is the head of a troop of 40 strapping well-trained bodyguards to the king (Ju Jin-mo) who loves him. They have an ongoing relationship that is not particularly well hidden from the other members of the king’s court, including the queen (Song Jie-hyo). Due to pressure from the Yuan kingdom and the possibility of being forced out of his throne because he has no heir, the king hatches a plane, which is to have Hong Lim impregnate his wife as he can’t do it himself. Naturally the queen and Hong fall in love and the king finds out, bringing tensions to a head in the court.

It is an engaging story filled with taboos and erotica supported by a big budget ($10 million) and high-quality production values, although Darcy Paquet in his review notes that local audiences felt some of the production design seemed a little cheap and I would tend to agree. It isn’t the first period Korean film with overt homosexual themes, that would be the wildly successful The King and the Clown (2005), but it is the first one to be so explicit about it. Nudity has not featured prominently in Korean cinema, save for a few short scenes from more risqué directors such Park Chan-wook, but this seems to be changing as sex scenes are now more frequent and far more explicit than they were even five years ago. Most films still refrain from explicit eroticism and for the moment this phenomenon seems nearly confined to period films, like A Frozen Flower and The Servant (2010), a twist on the famed pansori tale Chunhyang, then there’s Natalie (2010), supposedly the world's first 3D porn film, which tanked at the box office.

The film suffers sometimes because of its uneven tone, its self-seriousness can often come off as amusing which undermines the passion of the intimate scenes between the protagonists in the love triangle. The swordplay scenes are very effective, although the numerous fights between Hong Lim and the king are again a little difficult to take seriously as they parade around with massive swords. These phallic symbols bring a new meaning to the terms crossing swords. The climactic battle, which features dynamic sound effects and props and walls being sliced and smashed, is wonderful, it’s just too bad the end seems so silly. All in all, an intriguing story with lots of momentum will pull you in and despite a few missteps, this is one journey worth taking.

★★★☆☆

Impressive swordplay

Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

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A Better Tomorrow (무적자, Mujeogja) 2010

Great production values

Song Hae-sung’s A Better Tomorrow is a flashy remake of John Woo’s seminal 1986 classic which tries hard to refigure the tale of brotherly love in a gangster-riddled modern Busan. John Woo served as an executive producer for this film, which is a co-production between South Korea, China, and Japan, something that would not have happened 15 years ago. Budgeted at $8.7 million, this is a pricy affair with excellent production values and some stunning set pieces, the problem is that the plot is so familiar and drawn out that it is difficult to care.

Ju Jin-mo, last seen in Ha Yu’s gay period epic A Frozen Flower (2008), plays the role of a gangster who tries to go straight and win the affection of his cop brother. Like the original the plot is thin and the outcome can be spotted a mile away. However Woo’s version was a seismic blockbuster that revolutionized the Asian film industry by creating a new type of stylized action film that would be emulated for years to come. This Korean update does feature some great gunfight sequences, but they are short and infrequent throughout the 124 minute running time.

The plot is a major problem in this new version as it cuts out some significant elements, such as the younger brother’s love interest, yet is still half an hour longer than the original. The characters do not have much depth and are often lacking in charisma, especially Song Seung-heun who cannot possibly match Chow Yun-Fat’s iconic cool from the original. It is a difficult task to recreate a beloved character and it is often wise to change the protagonist so as not to invite comparison, but Song's incarnation lacks three-dimensional characteristics.

The divide between the brothers

There are a few minor changes from the original: the gangsters deal in arms as opposed to counterfeit money; and the overseas set piece is set in Thailand instead of Taiwan. The most promising change is that the brothers are North Korean defectors, this also sets up the seeds of the younger brother’s resentment as the elder brother abandoned him when he initially defected to the south. While this could be an interesting premise, appropriate attention is not given to North-South tensions and this becomes little more than an afterthought.

One of my favorite things about Korean cinema is its propensity to hop across genres. This style of filmmaking can irk a lot of viewers but is also the reason many western audiences are so transfixed by these films. The Host (2006), Save the Green Planet (2003), My Sassy Girl (2001), and many others exhibit a deft handling of generic conventions as their narratives fly across horror, comedy, sci-fi, melodrama, action, and social commentary. This is also true of films that have not crossed over to western audiences, in fact it is pretty much the style of filmmaking that many have come to associate with South Korea. A Better Tomorrow does not cross genres and the reason I mention this is because it’s a damn shame that it doesn’t. It severely limits itself by working within the confines of an already limited original. It takes away without adding, it tones down instead of taking it to the next level. This wouldn’t bother me so much but there is so much skill and potential from a technical standpoint that I wish they had given themselves more leeway to experiment and add a real Korean touch.

The film looks great and has a couple of great, albeit brief, action sequences but is let down by an obvious and simplified plot, two-dimensional characters, and a horribly misjudged finale. Although the film was a hit in its domestic market (with over 1.5 million admissions), I think that director Song Hae-seong is capable of a lot better. Having previously helmed Calla (1999), Failan (2001), Rikidozan (2004), and Maundy Thursday (2006), by comparison his latest effort seems decidedly by-the-numbers.

★★★☆☆

Solid set pieces

Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

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Memories of Murder: Part V - Female Representations

"Yet this absence of the mother had hardly nullified her fascinating and spectral presence, which is structured around the male subject’s unconscious desire to return safely to his place of origin. Even though the mothers are not ubiquitously present they are central to the narratives”

Park's Lover...

The position of female characters within these narratives that centralize around the recuperation of male subjectivity is problematic at best. Volume wise, as characters they are few and far between but what they represent is what is more complicated to ascertain. Some essays attack the fact that all the females in these narratives are seemingly just mothers and whores, sometimes both rolled into the same character. Since these films are dealing predominantly with masculine trauma it is not surprising that women in them are depicted as one or the other of these central male-female relationships. In Memories there are extremely few female characters and they add very little to the plot, which is not to say they are not "ubiquitously present". We learn about Det. Park’s family and up until the very end, where he has built his own family away from his past, the only woman we see that he has something beyond a work-based relationship with is the women he is sleeping with. She embodies both "the mother and the whore", a condensed narrative of sorts. We first see her naked having sexual intercourse with Park and immediately following this they engage in a casual post-coital conversation while she administers him with a vaccine. She sates his sexual appetites as well as giving him medical care and thus embodies characteristics of both a mother and a lover. It is true that the women are present throughout in so much that they effect the psyches of the males and are important to their historical, social, and personal developments, but they hardly appear in physical form and are never fully distinguishable characters as they only serves as emblems of their relationships to the male protagonists "the images of women remain prefixed on the rigid bifurcated conventions of whores and mothers". Since the film is all about character types which symbolize a generation and its subjugation, and problematic relationships with itself it is not altogether surprising that this approach is used. However, it is true that women could play a greater role in a number of these narratives. lt could be that the filmmakers in questions are too concerned with there own personal relationships with the characters they depict on screen to be altogether fully aware of the feminine aspect of the societies they embody. Therefore there is "a misogynistic tendency against women“ that “constitutes perhaps the most visible and disturbing symptom of a cinema that has earned its reputation abroad as consisting primarily of "violent introspective melodramas".

...becomes his mother

The other women in the film have similar traits. Gui-ok, the woman at the station only serves to add a feminine touch to the investigation, she listens to a sappy radio show and notices a song that comes up (however this scene does serve to emasculate the stumped male detectives and superintendent) and also interviews the rape victim who isn’t comfortable around men. This rape victim is an interesting characterization as she has suffered from a very real form of trauma and is so scarred that she can no longer live in society or relate to it in any way. As she explains her experience to Gui-ok, the scene is intercut with flashbacks of her experience, which are terrifying and humiliating. Therefore she cannot be said to be a fleshed-out character in her own right, as she is merely a device from which to extract evidence. It seems that all the females in Bong’s narrative are little more than symbols but a look at his next two films (The Host and Mother) makes it clear that he has the ability to do justice to female representations.

Previous: Part IV - Subversion of Genre

Next:  Part VI - Psychoanalysis and Scarred National Identity

Korean Cinema News (04/04-04/10, 2011)

I am starting a brief industry news section which will run weekly and feature posts on Korean films from a global perspective.  As I dabble with it over the coming weeks, the format and content may well change. Please contact me with thoughts or any suggestions to improve it.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Arnold Schwarzenneger to Star in Kim Ji-woon's The Last Stand?

After two stints as Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenneger's return to the silver screen may come as the star of Kim Ji-woon's US debut The Last Stand, which will come from a blacklisted Hollywood screenplay.  (Ain't It Cool. April 6, 2011)

Poetry's Yoon Jung-hee Honored with French Cultural Order

Yoon Jung-hee, star of the Lee Chang Dong's much-lauded film Poetry (2010), has been honoured with a top French cultural award.  French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand named Yoon an "Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters."  (YonHap News Agency, April 6, 2011)

Korean Cinema to Be Focus of Jeonju Film Festival

Independent Korean cinema will be featured prominently at this year's Jeonju film festival.  Short films from Yang Ik-jun, hot off the heels of Breathless (2009), and internationally-renowned woman's director Boo Ji-young will be featured alongside efforts from Im Kwon-taek and others in Korean Cinema Showcase section.  (JoonAng Daily, April 8, 2011)

Bong to Preside over Cannes' Camera d'Or Prize
Bong Joon-ho has been selected to head the jury for the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which is given to the best effort from a debut filmmaker.  He has previously attended the festival in competition as part of the omnibus Tokyo! in 2008 and his most recent feature effort Mother in 2009.  (Deadline New York, April 7, 2011)

Lee to Judge Critics' Week at Cannes
Master filmmaker Lee Chang-dong whose last two films, Poetry (2010) and Secret Sunshine (2007), both won awards at Cannes, will return to the festival this year as the head judge for the Grand Jury prize during the Critics’ Week Festival de Cannes.  (The Hollywood Reporter, April 7, 2011)

My Way to Be Focus of Press Junket at Cannes

Upcoming Korean blockbuster My Way will be the focus of a promotional event hosted by this year's Cannes film festival. Kang Je-gyu's My Way, a World War II set film with a record setting 30 billion won budget, is set to be released simultaneously in Korea and Japan in December.  (The Korea Times, April 7, 2011)

BOX OFFICE

Clash of the Families Dominates Korean Box Office for Second Week

Clash of the Families has now spent two weekends atop the Korean box office with a haul of just over 450,000 admissions.  That's a 6% decline from last weekend and its total now stands at 1,375,000.  Late Blossom continues to play well, having just crossed 1.5 million admissions in its 8th week.  This week Clash of the Families will vie with Suicide Forecast for the box office crown.  (Hancinema, April 10, 2011)


Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.