Choi Min-Sik @ New York Asian Film Festival 2012: In Summation

When the Violent Eye last peered out, it surveyed several of Choi Min-Sik’s films, reacting to them quickly after.  The proceedings went, chronologically, as follows: Quiet Family & Shiri, Happy End & Chi-Hwa-Seon: Painted Fire, Lady Vengeance & I Saw The Devil.  This was in preparation for his appearance at The New York Asian FilmFestival. During that time, some of his other most significant and personal favorite movies were shown in the theater, preceded by insightful introductions and followed by revealing question and answer sessions with the esteemed actor.

The days and nights of the festival during which Min-Sik was present were reported on at Unseen Films at the links listed below:
Channeling Mad Sentiment Toward Choi Min-Sik
(Mentions of Oldboy and Nameless Gangster screenings + q & a's)

Missed Connections, Landed Fists

(Mentions of Failan and Crying Fist screenings)

Choi Min-Sik Talks
(Details of introductions and q & a's that followed Failan and Crying Fist, video clips for introductions of both movies)

A major part of the q & a sessions on Monday involved discussing Choi’s lengthy self-ban on film industry activity in protest of the South Korean government’s bending stance on its film quota system.  
The first talk, following a screening of FAILAN, focused on the details of the quota system and why Choi felt so strongly about the issue, from the point of view of a member of South Korea’s artist community.

During the second talk, which came after the festival showed CRYING FIST, he spoke out the issue, more on the subject of his decision to abstain from working in the industry and how it connected to his craft.  His words on this, captured below, revealed a very philosophical outlook on the part of the iconic actor.

Now is the time to delve back into the master actor’s past films, and look forward to what he has in store for the future.

Me on twitter = @mondocurry

Preparing for Choi Min-Sik @ The New York Asian Film Festival 2012 Part 3: LADY VENGEANCE, I SAW THE DEVIL

My look at Choi Min-Sik’s films, outside of those being shown on a glorious big screen at the 12th New York Asian Film Festival, is completed in this edition with 2 more: LADY VENGEANCE (2005) and I SAW THE DEVIL (2010).  They are a load of fun.  In an excessively psychopathic murderous sort of way.  This is said tongue in cheek, but then again maybe not entirely.  This in fact may get at the establishment of The Violent Eye in the first place.  To appreciate and explore the onscreen portrayal of violence.  Appreciating its craft and what it has to say about ourselves as a society, yes, but also to acknowledge another aspect of it: that we love watching these artificially constructed acts of brutality so that we don’t have to create them - nor feel a desire to create - them in real life. Perhaps this is why Korean cinema, with its startlingly fresh and innovative production of filmed action, strikes so much of a cord, and why Choi Min-Sik, whose acting helps tremendously to pull off many of the most memorable moments of onscreen carnage, is our man of the moment.

These two movies are works that demand far more than a cursory look, as both of them deliver some of the attention demanding, visceral violent sequences while at the same time commenting on it, trying to say something new about it, or trying to say something about how we portray it.  Let’s begin by looking at where these movies fit in the body of Choi Min-Sik’s acting work, and see how far we get.

Both movies mark the second time a prominent director would work with Min-Sik. LADY VENGEANCE is Park Chan-Wook’s third and final installment of his vengeance trilogy.  Everyone widely regards OLDBOY as the one with Choi Min-Sik, however it’s one of the ones with him.  The one he is featured in most prominently for sure, but he plays a major role in LADY VENGEANCE as well.  I SAW THE DEVIL finds Min-Sik once again working with director Kim Jee-woon, whose film we looked at earlier, THE QUIET FAMILY, featured Choi in a supporting role.  The similarities do not end quite there.  For both films, the directors essentially had our man portray the ultimate embodiment of irredeemable evil filth.  They knew who to go to.  Park spoke on this to some extent, explaining that he wanted the antagonist to be this way so that there was no question of him deserving his comeuppance (he clearly does) at the hands of the families whose children he murdered.  The question of morality then shifts entirely to those who would kill in the name of revenge -- if their actions are justified by their own merit.  I am less clear on Jee-Woon’s intent on depicting unsophisticated pure evil.  This may be what has gotten the film a bit less critical acclaim, or at the least a bit more of a raking over the coals among peers whose opinions I respect.  I feel, though, it was something of an exercise on the part of Jee-Woon, to make something so extreme in its button-pushing that he was parodying the stuff we go to see, while at the same time delivering that stuff in spades.  What I mean, I guess, is that he seems to be trying to have his cake and eat it too.  If that is the case, I think he was successful.  Whether or not that success makes the film a more praiseworthy critical work remains to be seen.

Other similarities pertaining to Choi Min-Sik: In both films he receives as much pain and suffering as he inflicts.  In the case of LADY VENGEANCE, perhaps more even.  He is made the proverbial whipping boy by the protagonist of both movies, emphasizing one of Min-Sik’s most brilliant feats: to convincingly portray both aggressive rage and harrowing suffering -- often in the same scene within seconds of one another.  So, what do these two portrayals of unmoderated malevolence have in common?  Eerily, both involve individuals who work with children.  Min-Sik’s child killer in LADY VENGEANCE is an English teacher in prominent neighborhoods.  In I SAW THE DEVIL, he portrays a more low profile busdriver.  

Beyond that, there are differences that set Min-Sik’s roles in each film apart.  While in LADY VENGEANCE, he more agreeably fits the profile of documented serial killers, the sociopath of I SAW THE DEVIL is a bit harder to swallow, an equal opportunity fountain of hate, spewing aggression on children and the elderly alike.  He gets sexual gratification from intimidating women, attempting to rape two, while other female victims he seems content to dispatch with quickly and brutally, usually bludgeoning them to death.  Males are not outside of his victim pool.  They usually meet their ends due to unfortunate encounters with him, and are usually stabbed savagely.  While LADY VENGEANCE posits Min-Sik as middle aged, out of shape, and more of a conniving villain, in I SAW THE DEVIL he seems older, more grizzled, yet a physical aggressor.  His destructive path is indeed caricature-level superhuman, like when he disposes of a truck full of off duty soldiers.

As an overall feature film, LADY VENGEANCE has an incredible level of quality.  It shows director Park’s knack for so many things: creating memorable, humorous exchanges between characters, even in...perhaps especially in dire situations.  Here, in his attempt to make a film that stands on its own and provide something of a conclusion to the trilogy, it was perhaps overly ambitious.  I the theater on the first run, I was captivate through and through.  Later on, some scenes do seem to run a bit long, overly drawn out and melodramatic, especially when it pertains to protagonist Geum-ja’s forcibly abandoned daughter.  Still, the fact that there even is that aspect of the film gives it such an impressive mythology of connected characters and intersecting back stories.  Park playfully cast some of the South Korean film industry’s best talent to reposition players from earlier works of the trilogy.  The detailed sociological discussion that follows the killer’s capture amongst Geum-ja and the family members of his other victims, whom she assembled together does not only comment on the empty victory that is revenge, but shows the mentality of those who were the victims, the difficulty of actually rising above.

I SAW THE DEVIL is, again, a lot less philosophical.  What I meant earlier by Jee-Woon having it both ways is that his film pushes too many buttons with too much ease to not be showing off an awareness of the beast he has constructed, and one that has been created many times before --- enough so to force the question ‘why do it again?’.  It starts out with a girl on a snowy road, stranded, pregnant, and moments later, the victim of Min-Sik’s brutal character.  She also happens to be the wife of a top level government agent.  Imagine all the times in the movies we’ve complained of something being too unlikely.  This turns rational probability on its head and says ‘screw it, this IS a movie.’ It’s not the only time during the film it happens.

The movie is also an amazing flipping around of the conventions of this sort of film.  Starting with the most high stakes killing at the beginning, there is no longer a chase with any stakes in it.  And when the serial killer is found by the protagonist (played by Lee Byung-hun who worked with Jee-Woon in A BITTERSWEET LIFE), the suspenseful chase is again over, with the agent very un-heroically technologically tracking him so that he can beat him senseless whenever he acts up again. Like Geum-ja, these characters are preoccupied with how to truly punish a monster for whom death does not seem enough.

Later, when Min-Sik’s killer emerges from near death, covered in filth, laughing, incredulous at We may forget it as Jee-woon messes with our notions of morality, but that larger than life action movie aesthetic is thrown right back at us in this final scene.

The title still interests me.  In answer to the question, ‘who is the devil?’ for a while it seemed pretty simple: Min-Sik’s nihilistic murderer.  Yet, a bit of doubt has crept back in. Is the devil in the agent, as perceived by Min-Sik? It is the only individual that, at some point, brings out a reaction of fear.  And isn’t the agent’s intent to keep the killer in a kind of purgatory -- a perpetual hell, where momentary glimpses of pleasure are suddenly yanked away and replaced by pain?  Another idea I have is that the devil is intangible, not in Min-sik necessarily, but in the capacity for evil that Ii Byun-hon’s anti-protagonist finds in the murderer and in himself.  His crazed and perfectly rendered act ambiguously laughing and crying suggests the hell that he is in.

I hesitantly venture to suggest Min-Sik’s is a meta-performance.  He takes all of the crazed, explosive performances of the past and amps them up a thousand times.  Yet, there is no explanation, no experiences or insight to connect him to any kind of reality.  The other only other reference point I would point to is De Niro’s crazed killer in Cape Fear.  He laughs and enjoys the torment he inflicts on others with a joy that that spreads creepily, infectiously to us in the audience.  Wearing a rugged ‘one of the guys’ flannel (like he did in THE QUIET FAMILY), smoking a casually tilted cigarette, and often hamming things up...His performance is cries out killer as rock star.  

Min Sik was in other acting roles besides these two between his performance OLDBOY and latest work NAMELESS GANGSTER.  They were either not as interesting or,in the case of CRYING FIST will be shown at NYAFF’s side panel on Min-sik.  In the meantime, I look forward to his turn in NAMELESS GANGSTER, and seeing which aspects of the man’s previous work come out in this long awaited return.

SCHEDULE of Choi Min-Sik’s films screened at NYAFF 12 (he will be at all of them)

OLDBOY -- Saturday, 6/30 1 PM
NAMELESS GANGSTER - Saturday, 6/30 9:00 PM
FAILAIN - Monday, 7/1 1:00 PM
CRYING FIRST - Monday, 7/1 9:00 PM

Visit the Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival website for more details.

Preparing for Choi Min-Sik at NYAFF 2012 part 2: HAPPY END, CHI-HWA-SEON: PAINTED FIRE

The next installment of this trip through the movies of Choi Min-Sik that are not being shown at the New York Asian Film Festival 2012 sidebar dedicated to him includes two very different dramatic works, HAPPY END (1999) and CHI-HWA-SEON: PAINTED FIRE (2002).  They lead up to his international breakout role in OLDBOY.  Between these two movies came FAILAN (2001), being shown at the festival, reportedly at the insistence of Mr. Min-Sik.  You can read DBBorrough’s thoughts on FAILAN over at Unseen Films.

HAPPY END End may be one of Choi Min-Sik’s most low key roles, along with THE QUIET FAMILY.  However the length of time he spends in this subdued mode before the devious turn he takes in the film’s final movement is unsettling.  In appearance, we have a Choi who resembles his role in OLDBOY before the legendary confinement sequence, but not ---ly drunk.  He uncannily embodies a plain faced, burdened salary man (in this movie, a recently laid off one), which makes the dramatic turns his characters take all the more riveting.  For much of the movie, he wallows about dejectedly, at first depressed about his unemployment and relative powerlessness in his relationship to his wife (played by Do-yeon Jean), the manager of an English school. Later on he is depressed by his growing awareness of an affair she has been having with a coworker.  

It is a subtle portrayal, balanced by showing dutiful attention to the couple’s baby.  He has a good natured resignation to his domestic role as he picks her up from daycare.  Min-sik can also work with a scene to eschew deadpan humor, as when he whiles away time in a bookstore on romance and mystery novels, coyly aloof to the owner’s chiding that he might actually purchase one of the books.  His sulky demeanor is a good counterbalance to Do-yeon’s more animated performance, as her emotional stability is in constant flux.  She is frustrated with Seo’s (Min-Sik) despondency, conflicted by her acts of betrayal, and panicked by the discovery of an unexpected pregnancy.  Near the end, when she exhaustedly suggests that she and her lover just commit suicide together, it is convincingly authentic appeal for escape.     

Seo’s calm remains in effect until a heady steam releasing finale, which finds an indulgent self-absorption of the lovers to do things that callously threaten the infant’s life.  This leads to Choi Min-Sik’s character to leap over the edge in an act that is in some part physical rage, but also cold calculation. It’s a move that is not so surprising to behold after some none too subtle hints dropped in earlier scenes.  Still, having the range to transform from calm and docile to murderous is Choi Min-Sik’s game.  He can do this like no other, making him an asset to this kind of film.

The movie on a whole is not such a memorable one.  It starts out with a pretty explicit (as far as Korean films go) fling between Bora (Do-yeon Jean) and her lover, but there is no return to anything nearly as racy.  If this movie was made more recently, the final act would have probably been made far more pointedly as a twist. And this might not have been such a bad thing.  Much of the movie moves about in straightforward fashion with little art to it.  The implications of the story’s final violent act, that life could calmly go on, is maybe even more unsettling than trying to dress things up in dramatic effect. 

PAINTED FIRE is a historical drama, told epically, about real life 19th century sumi e ink painter Jang Seung-up.  Choi-mink Sik anchors the film as he portrays the artist whose life was a constantly volatile journey.  At first defensively combative owing to his lack of noble lineage, he went on to become a peerless talent who would be constantly tormented by desires to improve his artistic expression.  Alcoholism, an abusive demeanor towards women, and an unrestrained manner would find him in and out of relationships, at times drifting penniless, at times raising the ire of those who would’ve studied his art with or under him.

The story opens with a Japanese journalist requesting to purchase one of Seung-up’s coveted pieces.  For historical reference, this is at a moment of political turmoil as Chinese and Japanese forces battled for a foothold in their conflict, leaving a destitute Korea focusing on survival. After an insulting question about Seung-up’s background, we are brought back to his childhood, rescued from a beating by a master painter who would try to mentor Seung-up, but would prove to be inferior to Seung-up’s prodigious talent.  Capturing his peers’ fascination with his ability, but spurring them with his crude manner, we follow as the artist rose in stature to the point where he could make demands to a prominent lord.  Still, the state of upheaval   along with his temperament would prevent Seung-up from any form of permanent inner peace.

It is hard to imagine another actor taking on this role with the same level of competence as Min-sik.  He carries the gravity of an obstinate, yet philosophical, figure who is revered and feared by those around him.  As drunkenness leads to out of control outbursts, we see the same kinds of raw emotional rages that he later delivers in OLDBOY.
 

To see Choi Min-sik’s range in dramatic situations, both films are worth taking a look at.

Next and last, before the festival kicks off, will be a look at two films, spread out over time, that lead up Choi Min-sik’s most recent NAMELESS GANGSTER. First is LADY VENGEANCE, followed by I SAW THE DEVIL.  They both feature extreme depictions of madcap villainy, like only Choi Min-sik can do.  Until then...  


Twitter Feed: @mondocurry


New York Asian Film Festival Info: http://www.subwaycinema.com/nyaff12/

Preparing for Choi Min-Sik at NYAFF 2012 part 1: SHIRI, THE QUIET FAMILY

First things First: while it may out me as an unpedigreed Asian film fan, Choi Min Sik by far my most ideal guest from the realm of Asian film actors -- or maybe Asian film period -- that the New York Asian Film Festival could bring to New York.  And bring him, they did.  Since witnessing his gripping performance in OLDBOY, I have looked forward to the few but always high quality performances he puts into his roles.  They are sometimes tortured, often sinister, and always impassioned.  At the New York Asian Film Festival, Choi Min Sik will appear at screenings of four of his movies.  I will attend all of them, starting with OLDBOY and continuing on with three movies I have not seen before: FAILAN, CRYING FIST, and his latest film from this past year NAMELESS GANGSTER.

In order to prepare for his appearance and perhaps inspire a bit of much deserved buzz, I will take a look at most of the movies Choi Min-Sik has appeared in that are not being shown at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.  You can read about those films elsewhere (I’d start by checking in on the many reviews at Unseen Films), and rather than watching them I hope all those in the New York City area will go right out to the theater screenings.

While OLDBOY was the first film to draw my attention to Choi Min-Sik, it was not the first movie I saw him in.  Before that, there was SHIRI and THE QUIET FAMILY.  These are the very first Korean movies I’ve seen, definite classics of South Korean cinema.  

Although it came a year later, let’s begin with SHIRI since that was first in my rewatching sequence.  It is an ambitious political thriller centered around the hot topic of South Korea-North Korea relations, and tells the tale of a North Korean para-military group’s attempt to blow a hole wide open in the already strained coexistence of the two independent nations.  

Along with Choi Min-Sik is an incredible ensemble cast, one that moved on to a hugely impressive future body of work.  The lead South Korean agent is played by Suk-Kyu Han, who plays a dejected cop facing demons of the past in WHITE NIGHT; his fiance/undercover North Korean assassin is played by none other than Yunjin Kim, who starred throughout all six seasons of LOST; and Song Kang-ho, playing another hotshot secret agent, who would later portray numerous flawed and unhinged characters in some of the most widely known and adored South Korean productions, among them: THE HOST, THIRST, & THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD.

But going back to the man, Choi Min-Sik.  Here, he plays an impenetrable lead agent carrying out the North Korean group’s operation.  The movie begins with an uncharacteristically sleek and uniformed Choi leading a squad through routine exercises.  It is a fast, disorienting sequence, and seems to have included murdering live targets.  The next time he and his group will appear in the film is across the border between the two nations, impersonating South Korean soldiers in order to intercept a weapon of large scale destructive capacity.

For much of the movie, Choi is simply an ominous presence:  killing with no remorse, barking out orders to his team.  His range comes out in two scenes in particular: An emotional exchange between him and Yunjin Kim’s assassin character, shot at sharp angles and overwhelming closeups.   As he questions her ability to maintain her cover and carry out their mission, he must also stop her from committing suicide with a handgun as she comes undone, having reached the breaking point in her life as a double agent.  The other scene comes towards the climax, with an enraged Min-Sik revealing the true nature of his group’s intentions and giving an embittered rationalization of their cause.  Here, as in other movies down the line, his voice goes from a growl into eerie high pitched yelps.  He goes where other actors don’t with this ability to seem truly on the verge of losing control.

As for the movie on the whole, it is a solid thriller.  Considering it was from a decade plus in the past, it has innovative ideas.  The weapon stolen from the military and the means of spying on South Korean intelligence are impressive by today’s standards.  And then there is a delirious death by suicide pill to look out for with its surprising results.  SHIRI is definitely worth watching to see Choi Min Sik in one of his earlier dramatic roles.

THE QUIET FAMILY was made in 1998 and in it appears Choi in an uncharacteristically comedic supporting role.  In fact here he is joined again by Song Kang-ho, playing the bumbling uncle and even more bumbling son of the titular family.  It is amazing to see these two playing a pair of oafs together considering their future starring roles in such violent, psychodramatic films, perhaps beginning with their turns in Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance trilogy: SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (Kang-ho) and of course Choi in OLDBOY.  

This movie was the debut feature of Kim Jee-woon, who would work again years later with Choi Min Sik on I SAW THE DEVIL.  It is a fine example of black comedy about a traditional family unit running a failing inn in the middle of nowhere.  When they cover up the death of a guest to avoid the bad light it would cast on business, they find their morality sliding down a slippery slope as a series of mishaps threaten to put them out of business.  

This is rather subdued territory for Min-Sik, although we do get to see him chase a startled couple through the forest, waving a garden tool frantically.  His most dramatic turn here is portraying a love struck middle aged man with less than stellar moves, as he tries to woo the daughter of a well off land developer to no avail.  His infatuation even leads him to try to protect her from her selfish brother’s murderous scheme, putting him at odds with his brother, who is willing to look the other way for the sake of the family business.

Meanwhile the flaws of other members of the family are played up to humorous effect:  The son’s perversions, the older daughter’s flighty attempts to throw herself at any potential male companion, and of course the ruthlessness of the mother and father, whose little acts of deceit grow bigger and bigger until they literally can’t keep their misdeeds buried.  It’s a tribute to the bonds of family that breathes fresh life into the oneliner ‘the family that slays together stays together,’ yet also offers sharp-toothed commentary on the malleable values of older generations. Few films have put their elderly protagonists through such physical trials as in this one.

While THE QUIET FAMILY is not such a Min Sik-centric movie, it is a hilarious example of Korean cinema’s knack for dark humor, and gives an early look at the talent of Kang-ho and Jee-woon before they moved on to act and direct in tremendous projects.

Next up, if things go according to plan, is a viewing of PAINTED FIRE and HAPPY END, two Choi Min-Sik films from the early ‘90s, followed by a look at the two movies right here.