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The Scarlet Letter: Illicit Intercourse and the Cost
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- A number of recent South Korean winners of international film festival awards have managed the double-act of becoming both a critical and a commercial success.
Director Byun Hyuk, previously known for the 2000 movie "Interview," appears to have been aiming at both the critics and the mainstream audience in making his first film in four years. While using three top stars, stylish scenes and competent editing, Byun also delves deep into issues of people's susceptibility to temptation and sin.
"The Scarlet Letter," which opens on Friday in Seoul, certainly stands out in a local film world overflowing with commercial and trendy drama flicks. It was first shown as the closing film of the 2004 Pusan International Film Festival, held in the southern port city of Busan earlier this month.
While aiming at two targets, however, Byun has failed to hit either. The lesson is how important a story line is for a film.
The director's description of the film as a thriller and melodrama rings hollow as it is let down by a plot that is not tight and rather boring.
The film portrays the relationship of an intelligent cop, named Gi-hun, who investigates a murder case suspected to have been caused by a woman's illicit intercourse. (It bears no relation to Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel). The killer of a photographic studio owner is all but forgotten as the double life of Gi-hun, played by Han Suk-gyu, as a perfect husband and the lover of Ga-hee (Lee Eun-joo), a friend of his wife Su-yeon (Um Ji-won) leads him to ruin.
Sung Hyun-ah, a former Miss Korea who rose to stardom after releasing a nude photo album a few years ago, plays the widow.
The two storylines initially give the impression that they will converge at some point in the closing stages, but barely do so. The murder case is irrelevant to the main subject of the movie: people who committed adultery and the consequences they suffer.
The crime story eventually becomes no more than a condiment to improve the flavor of the movie. Byun did not miss out on the interest value of the tale of a beautiful and enigmatic young woman whose husband was killed cruelly, illustrated by an episode describing the daily life of the lead character, a police investigator. But it would have been better if the director pushed backward the murder incident to better convey the message of his film.
The climax of the movie, a carefully constructed setpiece in which the director says he made much effort to describe what hell is like, is also a letdown. With Gi-hun and Ga-hee suddenly confined together by accident in the latter part of the movie, the two lovers sweat, bleed and hate each other in the dark and narrow space and a "shocking" truth is unveiled.
The truth and twists, however, feel more embarrassing than shocking, the director turning toward a certain subject to increase the twist in the plot, but failing to give it the attention it deserves.
Actor Han's impressive performance of the complex character is one of the bright points. The film, which marks Han's 10th in his 10-year career as an actor, reemphasized his value as a top actor who played a major part in the current renaissance of the Korean film industry. For some moviegoers, "The Scarlet Letter" may stand out only as Han's first choice after almost five years of a slump.
sshim@yna.co.kr |
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发表于 2004-11-3 12:47
，之前李小姐凭处女心经和爱的蹦极已红得发紫）。在影片《太极旗飘扬》和电视连续剧《不死鸟》中的演出，奠定了她从纯情偶像少女到演技派演员的转变基础。此番在影片中扮演一个性感撩人的女歌手，还与韩石圭有大量激情戏，可说是李银珠从影以来的重要转折点。
发表于 2004-11-6 20:17
