Around the television series which clog up our account but which Kris and I both like watching (“Lost” and the upcoming “Battlestar Galactica,” if Netflix ever releases it to us), I seem to have all these small films in the queue. (And I never get to the theater at all.) I’m not sure if I should post on any of these–I’ve liked the majority of them, but they also don’t open up whole new cinematic vistas for me… they’re just good. So, if you’re interested: The aforementioned Assisted Living is recommended, a capsule review tacked onto my incoherent post regarding good and evil.
Here’s another: Kim Ki-Duk’s 3-iron is about a guy somewhat adrift in his life, sneaking into vacationers’ homes to live for a few days while they’re gone, before moving on. One house he happens into isn’t empty; a woman is there, and emerges bruised and beaten after he’d settled in. What follows lacks grandiose conflict, although there is a brief, brutal, and powerful collision with her husband, but it is a film that manages–with little dialogue, and without too much plotting–to convey a real sense of the inner lives of its characters. It feels like a poem more than a narrative, and it looks like one, too. I’m not sure what that means, but it’d look good on the poster. It’s rare to see a film so enamored of how its characters bathe, dress, eat, just silently circle around one another in small spaces… (but, don’t worry, it’s not Bresson–there is narrative to hang our identifications on).
I liked it.
I also liked this movie very much. I found it gripping even without much dialogue. I’m not sure why the English title is completely different from the Korean title, which translates literally to “an empty house.” I like the Korean title better because it not only references the empty houses they break into but also the charactes who are initially empty. They fill up each other somewhat, but without the possibility of a happy ending their inner lives can’t exist in reality–hence the almost supernatural power acquired by the male character and the almost surreal ending. I can’t decide whether the movie was tragic or not, but it was compelling.
watched last night. i liked it quite a lot. i don’t really know what to say about it other than that it moves seamlessly between modes, in such a way that even the realistic parts get suffused with a surreal glow, and the surreal parts don’t seem surreal. very nice indeed.
sunhee says the lead actress is a big star in south korea. which makes me wonder about the dynamics of the film industry there. is this the equivalent of a big hollywood star earning street-cred by acting in an offbeat indie? are there similar divisions in the korean cinema between the mainstream and the independent? etc. etc.