 Alternative title: Ddongpari
Written and directed by: Yang Ik-Joon
Starring: Yang Ik-Joon as Sang-Hoon and Kot-bi Kim as Yeon Hue.
Breathless was certainly breath-taking. Whether it was for the graphic violence, uncut and grotesque, or the scene where the main character prevented from getting his happy ending, which had the audience literally grasping for breath, it was effective. It was provocative, controversial and shocking. And that certainly made an impression.
The story follows a disturbed Sang-Hoon (writer/director/star Yang Ik-Joon), a violent debt collector and his relationships to people. He meets Yeon Hue (Kot-bi Kim), a high-school senior, who doesn’t seem to be afraid of him and stands up to him, which seems to be exactly what Sang-Hoon needs. The film follows their dysfunctional relationship and their disturbed relationships with their families, only to end with an-almost-happy-ending, with Sang-Hoon becoming more humane and on his way to fix his life, when he is beaten up to death by Yeon Hue’s brother.
The film explores the topic of domestic violence and its effect on people. Sang-Hoon has lived with it during his childhood and has been influenced by the death of his mother, whilst Yeon Hue is being mentally harassed by her brother and father, also having been influenced by the death of her mother. Those issues are revealed through a series of flashbacks and shed light on the essence of the characters and their inner disturbances.
There are ups and downs in the movie and even though it kind of dies in the middle, the film gets absolutely marvellous close to the end. The scene where Sang-Hoon bursts into tears in the arms of Yeon Hue and she starts crying as well is one of the most influential scenes I’ve seen in a long time. It showed such a great vulnerability and weakness, how two people fell apart in front of one another, as if they’ve been craving that for eternity. Both characters were utterly disturbed and living in a dysfunctional world, although everything was all right on the surface. But we got to look deep inside of them and it was a revelation.
The film should have ended there, as we already knew what was going to happen later – he was going to change slowly and crave a better life, probably quit his job, become closer to his sister, forgive his father and get together with Yeon Hue. We didn’t need to see that. And when he gets beaten up to death and after his death everyone gathered together for a happy ending was just too much for me and almost ruined the whole experience.
How many times have we seen this before? One example I could immediately think of is Cruel Intentions (although a completely different story, same concept) – Sebastian (bad boy, negative character) realizes he is in love with Annette and is ready to throw his previous life away to be with her, when he gets hit by a car and dies, but things get resolved after his murder and “everyone lives happily ever after”. A little too cliché, no?
Yet, it touched us. Those of us who have experienced such deep inner conflicts, striving to keep our disturbances inside and living on the surface, where everything is OK, and we have craved falling apart in someone’s arms and letting everything out. Sang-Hoon was really well played, his need of a dominant figure in his life was made obvious and his submission to the girl who didn't put up with his stuff changed his life. If it weren’t that long, if there were less swearing and if it ended with the scene of both characters' breakdown, it would’ve been perfect for me. In this way, it was almost perfect. But it was still breath-taking.
*Image source:
http://semmi94.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/1373120.jpgLabels: cueafs, east asian film, movie reviews |
