Addicted (a.k.a. The Poisoning) April 26, 2009
Posted by koreancinemahouse in : Drama / Romance, KCH Moobie News , add a commentThe following review was written by Bobbi Mimmack for Korean Cinema House in 2003.
Starring: Lee Byung-heon, Lee Mi-yeon, Lee Earl.
Directed by Park Young-hun.
Year: 2002
Having previously starred together in The Harmonium in My Memory, Lee Byung-heon and Lee Mi-yeon reunite for the stylish drama/suspense movie, Addicted.
Lee Byung-heon plays Dae-jin, a handsome young man who lives with his older brother Ho-jin (Lee Earl) and his beautiful wife Eun-soo (Lee Mi-yeon). Eun-soo organizes concerts and events in the city while her devoted husband keeps their home and garden in order in between creating beautiful pieces of furniture in his artist’s workshop. But younger brother Dae-jin shuns the work, love, and responsibility exhibited by his brother and sister-in-law, preferring to tinker with cars and race on a local track. His life seems carefree, if not exactly happy, as Dae-jin’s indifferent demeanor is often frustrating to those around him in his lack of purpose. But fate takes an unexpected turn one day when Dae-jin and his brother experience separate, but simultaneous car crashes, a devastating double tragedy that leaves Dae-jin in coma. When Dae-jin awakes, Eun-soo brings her brother-in-law back home, where she has lived alone for the past year. As Dae-jin recuperates, his behavior begins to disturb Eun-soo. Dae-jin has now taken on the characteristics and mannerisms of his older brother, her husband Ho-jin. But even more disturbing is Dae-jin’s eventual revelation that he is not Dae-jin at all, but in fact Eun-soo’s husband Ho-jin, inexplicably existing in Dae-jin’s body. And as far as Dae-jin/Ho-jin is concerned, he is just as much in love with his wife now as he was before the tragic double accident, and he has plenty of intimate details about their marriage to make a convincing case that he is Ho-jin, as he claims. How is Eun-soo to respond to her brother-in-law? Should she accept that he is suffering from a mental illness, or believe that the soul of the husband she loves is alive in Dae-jin’s body?
In many films, a suspension of disbelief is necessary to enjoy the narrative without being annoyed. And in lighter dramas and romances, such as Ditto or Il Mare, to name a couple, going along with seemingly impossible details is made easier by the tone of the film. But in Addicted, the movie’s central premise of souls switching places if given opportune timing is more difficult to accept, given the more serious feel of the film. Because most viewers know from the film’s advertising that this soul-switching will take place, every piece of information that’s fed to the viewer before the accidents - every gesture, every character detail, every phrase - seems forced and unnatural. As a viewer, you can feel the set-up, and the feeling isn’t subtle, but more of a poking you on the shoulder to be sure to take notice of what’s going on so you’ll “get it” in the second half of the movie. I found these contrived details annoying and distracting, and because of them, I had trouble getting into a flow with the narrative.
Despite problems with the script and pacing of the film, the actors do a fine job with the material they are given. The female lead, Lee Mi-yeon, does a great job of portraying the vivacious Eun-soo, bubbly and distracted to the point of even forgetting her own wedding anniversary. But it’s Lee Byung-heon who really gives an outstanding performance, yet again. Although he doesn’t reach any new levels of acting in his career (at one point his catatonic expression looked like it could have been from footage in JSA: Joint Security Area.), Lee Byung-heon adds another solid performance to his growing list of impressive performances. Even when the scenes fall into the overly-dramatic, the two leads keep things from getting too sappy by the grace of their screen presences. In what could easily be the most melodramatic scene of the movie, Lee Byung-heon and Lee Mi-yeon deliver a slow, steamy, emotional sex scene. Every touch, every glance, and every movement are portrayed as having the utmost emotional weight attached. But if any male fans of Lee Mi-yeon are hoping to get an eyeful of her, they’ll have to contend with the “well-placed arms syndrome,” which will likely leave them complaining that the love scenes dragged on far too long. But the ladies who appreciate the sight of Lee Byung-heon’s lovely backsides won’t be complaining. 
Visually, Addicted is a very appealing film, with lots of splashes of bright reds and apple greens in the beautiful sets for the film. The bohemian charm of an artist’s house came through quite well, with quirky details painted onto windows and furniture, and unique knickknacks placed throughout the property. Lots of nice touches of color are added to furniture and food, even if the details go a bit overboard at times. Those bright barn reds of the lawn furniture and the cute little decorations on the drinking glasses often leave the sets looking like ads for Pottery Barn.
Addicted is the latest in a string of Korean films to be slated for a Hollywood remake, yet to me, this film felt like a Hollywood flick to begin with. It had everything going for it except the script. Michael Petroni, scriptwriter for Ann Rice’s Queen of the Damned will be adapting and directing the Hollywood version of this film, so it remains to be seen if any improvements are made in the script.
A.F.R.I.K.A. January 8, 2007
Posted by koreancinemahouse in : Comedy, KCH Moobie News , add a commentI’ve written a small review for Shin Seung-soo’s 2002 comedy starring Lee Yo-won. Full review currently missing.
Ultimately enjoying A.F.R.I.K.A means that you have to try and take it for what it is, and at best that’s a fun enough romp. But the task can often be a difficult one. It makes so little sense and it’s unnecessarily long thanks to a bunch of lengthy scenes involving giddy girls dancing.
“Teenage Hooker Becomes Killing Machine” coming to DVD in the UK January 7, 2007
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Wow, this was some turn up. I’d first heard about this film a few years ago when it started to do the U.S. festival circuit and I had tried to source it, along with the director’s second film Chow Yun-Fat Boy Meets Brownie Girl but to no avail. Well, I’m happy to say that finally Teenage Hooker Becomes Killing Machine [lit. The high-school student who got chopped up while selling herself in Daehakno is still in Daehakno] is getting a release in the UK thanks to new label Third Window Films, who have also licenced a bunch of quality titles for 2007, many of which are currently out of print in South Korea but can still be found by looking hard: Guns and Talks, No Blood, No Tears, Kick the Moon, No. 3 are just a few of the projected ten titles for this year.
For those curious, Teenage Hooker Becomes Killing Machine is a sixty minute short from Nam Gi-wung, who also produced, wrote, edited and provided cinematography. Shot on MiniDVD (6mm) in 2000 - it stars Lee So-yun as a high school girl who falls into prostitution, but when her secret shame is discovered by her teacher (Kim Dae-tong) he threatens to tell all, unless she provides him with sexual favours. When she becomes pregnant the teacher hires two hitmen to take care of her. Their mission is a success, or was, until she’s revived as a cyborg by a crazed inventor. Recalling the traumatic events she sets off down a path of revenge…
Third Window Films are touting the film as “An acrid and sarcastic criticism about hypocrisy, deception and the violent authority of an older generation supposedly leading the young.” Well, we’ll find out nearer the time just how well it works; it certainly smacks of Shinya Tsukamoto by the sounds of it. I’ll be looking forward to it and as soon as I have any more info I’ll be sure to let you know.
To find out more about Third Window Films and their upcoming releases check out their website at http://www.thirdwindowfilms.com/main.htm
Seoul Box-Office 2007: Looking ahead January 5, 2007
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So what will the New Year bring us? South Korean cinema overcame some difficulties when in July last year a new screen quota reduction policy was enforced. This literally halved the amount of days that films are allowed to be shown at the local box office. Yet despite this records were broken and audiences ensured that their homeland would take little over 60% in domestic profits. The Host stormed the box office and in less than two months became the highest grossing Korean film of all time, just out-gunning earlier 2006 hit The King and the Clown. These flicks were amongst the elite, which also included the successful Forbidden Quest, proving that South Korea could still be at the top of its game if it tried. But for these well received movies the industry also managed to milk some tired franchises (but box-office pleasers) with the third instalments of Marrying the Mafia and My Wife is a Gangster, along with My Boss, My Teacher - a follow up to 2001’s My Boss, My hero (alright the latter isn’t really a franchise, but it was already flawed enough). Plenty of generic actioners and dopey romancers also filled in some months.
A few interesting titles seeped through, but I hope to talk about those another time, one of which is Park Chan-wook’s - who leaves behind his revenge thrillers in favour of romantic comedy - I am a Cyborg, But That’s OK, which performed shockingly bad at the end of the year, but should see a swift DVD release soon.
In light of the screen quota issue, with roughly eighty new films being prepared for 2007, which makes it a much lesser output than last year, one hopes that we’ll get plenty of quality, well thought out productions. Aside from two or three gems in the past few years I’ve yet to be as bowled over as I was at the end of the nineties/early noughties, where the industry appeared to be truly original and there were too many films to highly recommend. These days you can get by with just three or four must see features and happily do away with the rest. So I have high hopes for the new year, with Park Jin Pyo’s Voice of a Murderer (based upon a real life 1991 kidnapping) topping my list, where I hope to see something as powerful as 2003’s Memories of Murder. I’m also looking forward to plenty of DVD releases and hope to update you on those in the future.
So here’s to what will hopefully be a happy and succesful new year for South Korean cinema.