Saturday, June 25, 2016
Revenge and payback
Today's film shows the Korean cinema as one of the most adept at unrestrained violence.
And we think we have an obsession with the rough and tough.
Today's film is textbook brutality.
in which a man is held in a brutal prison for fifteen years then released with no explanation.
The movie is basically about who put him into the clink and why.
When he does find out then, well, the climax of the film is quite worth all the difficult waiting.
I am not sure if this is a primer on violence and torture but it is pretty thorough going.
The larger question is, or might be, why does anyone want to watch a movie like this? Especially enlightened me.
Well, for one thing if it is a well produced story and this one is there is nothing like the value of identification. For example there is a lot of footage based on tooth torture. Who can't identify with that?
I am not sure how this works but I know that there is a strong attraction to this kind of film. I am not the only one.
Part of it is the assurance that the hero is going to get even and in the most graphic way. This because the beginning, the first quarter of the film, is about his suffering at the hands of an anonymous villain. The rest of the film is about his tracking this fucker down and giving him what for.
The thing here is that the violence is in small doses. Teeth. Fingers. There are some big ones but those tend to be death blows.
One other thing. No one in this film is pretty. There is no Bruce Lee. The women are probably beautiful but the men are not. At all. Even the shirtless scenes fail to arouse the homoerotic aspect. Which is such a big part of most martial arts films. Just shy of a boner most of the time.
Look. You either like this kind of shit or you do not and if you do this movie is one of the best.
It made my day!
Labels: films
