With a disarming mix of treacle and bloodshed,
the fourth annual New York Korean Film Festival more than lives
up to this year’s titular catchphrase "Inner Turbulence."
In the seven features and six shorts – screened at BAMcinematek
from Friday Aug. 20 to Sunday Aug. 22 – characters, movies and
even the industry itself appear at war with themselves. But victors
do emerge.
Although South Korean films have yet to assume the stature of
those from nearby China and neighboring Japan, the national cinema
has recently garnered substantial attention from the international
film community. This year, director Park Chan-wook’s revenge
thriller "Old Boy" won the Grand Prix at Cannes; two
years ago, Moon So-ri won a Venice Film Festival prize for her
portrayal of a woman with cerebral palsy in "Oasis."
These accolades duly noted, this year’s lineup suggests the quickest
way to sizable American audiences may be through midnight screenings
at the Cineplex instead of repertory programming at the art house:
"Save the Green Planet," the punchiest entry in the
field, could easily translate into a late night knockout if circumstances
allow.
Director Jang Jun-hwan’s feature debut certainly has all the
prerequisites for a cult hit: a bizarrely intricate, conspiracy-driven
plot, mentally deranged characters with diehard loyalties, scrappy,
do-it-yourself sci-fi costumes, and plenty of astonishing, over-the-top
performances shot in a kinetic, colorful style.
By weaving homeland obsessions (serial killers, foreign occupation,
institutionalized conformity) with global preoccupations (systematized
brutality, ethnic cleansing, threatened ecosystems), Jang ensures
his serio-camp science fiction relates a distinctly Korean flavor
while resonating across cultural borders. The nail-biting tension
sustained between his two central characters – a paranoid beekeeper
and his kidnapped nemesis, a CEO who may or may not be a warmongering
alien from Andromeda – plays like a loopy "Manchurian Candidate"
(2004) made all the more artful by slyly built-in homages to
cinematic masterworks like "La Strada" (1954) and "The
Wizard of Oz" (1939).
Tellingly, "Save the Green Planet" is one of three
festival films to focus on mass murderers. Another, "Memories
of Murder," is based on the true story of Korea’s first
serial killer who raped and killed 10 women in the Kyonggi province
in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. (This film is one of seven
shown solely at the The ImaginAsian Theater at 239 East 59th
St. in Manhattan during the earlier part of the festival which,
began on Aug. 13.)
The third, simply titled "H," is a richly atmospheric,
awkwardly plotted whodunit along the lines of latter-day B-movies
like "Identity" (2003) and "Never Talk to Strangers"
(1995). Pitch-perfect in terms of tone, Lee Jong-hyuk’s modern-day
noir doesn’t skimp on graphic depictions of violence. Ears are
lopped off. Throats are slit. An unborn baby’s arm reaches out
from its dead mother’s side.
The body count mounts. The generic anime "Sky Blue"
climaxes with blood spiraling upward from gunshot, star-crossed
lovers to an operatic score; the 12-minute parable "Face
Value" (part of the shorts compilation "If You Were
Me") culminates in a car crash; the police drama "Wild
Card" punctuates its good-cop bad-cop narrative with head-bashing
liquor bottles and a repeatedly well-aimed mace ball (familiar
to "Kill Bill" fans as the grisly weapon of choice
for GoGo Yubari).
Even Im Sang-soo’s family drama "A Good Lawyer’s Wife"
ends up at the local morgue. This sophisticated critique of contemporary
morals starts off as a series of serio-comic episodes about cheating
spouses. But before long, the lightweight, soft-porn reality
is layered with weighty social commentary as one character’s
constant carnal craving sets off a disastrous domino effect.
By the time Moon (the aforementioned award-winning actress from
"Oasis") has straddled her next-door neighbor’s emotionally
stunted son, the eroticism has left the theater. As was made
clear in 2001’s "Monster’s Ball," nothing is sadder
than sex fueled by grief.
The festival’s two cheerier entries, "The Classic"
and "Singles," relate a cock-eyed optimism that supersedes
Hollywood’s happy endings. The former, Kwak Jae-yong’s Asian
blockbuster, leavens two tearjerking epistolary narratives with
improbable coincidences and fireflies which never die; as to
"Singles," Kwon Chil-in’s twenty-something four-hander
is a true oddity – a potty-mouthed comedy of manners that evolves
into neutered lesbian dramedy.
For moviegoers bent on using the program of shorts, "If
You Were Me," as a way to see the full breadth of styles
within a single sitting, one warning: This series, funded by
the Human Rights Commission of Korea, is tinged with didacticism.
So while the surgical procedure forced on children to improve
English pronunciation in Park Jin-pyo’s "Tongue Tie"
is harrowing, it still registers as purposeful fiction.
The one exception is the 28-minute documentary from Cannes’ current
prize-winner Park Chan-wook. A seamless blend of staged reenactments
and talking heads, "N.E.P.A.L. Never Ending Peace and Love"
recounts the tale of a Nepalese woman who was misdiagnosed as
mentally ill for over six years because no one on the hospital
staff spoke her language.
Thank God for subtitles.
BAMcinematek hosts The New York Korean
Film Festival 2004 from Aug. 20-22. Tickets are $10. The theater
is located at 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene.
For the schedule of film dates and times visit the Web site at
www.bam.org or call (718) 636-4100.
