Faithless
03-04-2005, 07:48 PM
So, I guess "Bad Guy" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307213/) which was produced in 2001, is finally being released in the states (Feb 2005).
I mean, that's cool and all for Asian film exposure, but if I go just based on Gene Siskel's review, below --
"The main characters are a glowering, near-animalistic gangster (played by Brandoesque Korean TV star Jo Jae-Hyeon), who barely speaks a word in the entire film, and the pretty young middle class college student (Seo Won) whom he accosts in a park and tricks into slavery in a brothel. Their affair is voyeuristic and brutal."
Would a film like this really be anything to herald? It sort of reads like a sick male fantasy -- seriously mistreat some woman and still have her end-up being your SO. Come on! Only in the movies right? Sounds too misogynistic to me to promote.
But then again, what do I know, I'm not a big time reviewer. :rolleyes:
Korean dark hit `Bad Guy' gets its U.S. premiere at Siskel (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/mmx-0502110397feb11,0,4239876.story?coll=mmx-movies_heds)
By Michael Wilmington * Tribune movie critic
Kim Kiduk, most controversial of the hot young South Korean filmmakers, is best known in the U.S. for the pastoral "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter," his lyrical study of the lives of two monks on a floating island in the mountains. "Bad Guy," Kim's biggest Korean hit, now getting its U.S. premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center, is a very different affair: a violent, sexy, angst-ridden and tremendously disturbing study of obsessive love in the Seoul underworld of crime and prostitution.
The main characters are a glowering, near-animalistic gangster (played by Brandoesque Korean TV star Jo Jae-Hyeon), who barely speaks a word in the entire film, and the pretty young middle class college student (Seo Won) whom he accosts in a park and tricks into slavery in a brothel. Their affair is voyeuristic and brutal. The characters around them are mostly amoral psychopaths. The atmosphere is hellish. But out of it comes a genuine, twisted love story that, at the end, may make the hair rise on your neck. "Bad Guy," which won Kim the best director prize at the Berlin Film Festival, is a work by a hard-core artist working with raw candor, deeply personal themes, no brakes and masterly style. It will rock and shock you as few recent Asian movies have or can. (In Korean, with English subtitles.)
"Bad Guy" (star)(star)(star)1/2 (South Korea; Kim Ki-duk, 2001). 6:15, 8:15 p.m. Fri., Mon.-Thur.; 3:15, 7:45 p.m. Sat.; 3:15, 5:15 p. m. Sun. The Gene Siskel Film Center is at 164 N. State St. Call 312-846-2600 or visit www.siskel filmcenter.org.
.
http://www.koreanfilm.org/
I mean, that's cool and all for Asian film exposure, but if I go just based on Gene Siskel's review, below --
"The main characters are a glowering, near-animalistic gangster (played by Brandoesque Korean TV star Jo Jae-Hyeon), who barely speaks a word in the entire film, and the pretty young middle class college student (Seo Won) whom he accosts in a park and tricks into slavery in a brothel. Their affair is voyeuristic and brutal."
Would a film like this really be anything to herald? It sort of reads like a sick male fantasy -- seriously mistreat some woman and still have her end-up being your SO. Come on! Only in the movies right? Sounds too misogynistic to me to promote.
But then again, what do I know, I'm not a big time reviewer. :rolleyes:
Korean dark hit `Bad Guy' gets its U.S. premiere at Siskel (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/mmx-0502110397feb11,0,4239876.story?coll=mmx-movies_heds)
By Michael Wilmington * Tribune movie critic
Kim Kiduk, most controversial of the hot young South Korean filmmakers, is best known in the U.S. for the pastoral "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter," his lyrical study of the lives of two monks on a floating island in the mountains. "Bad Guy," Kim's biggest Korean hit, now getting its U.S. premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center, is a very different affair: a violent, sexy, angst-ridden and tremendously disturbing study of obsessive love in the Seoul underworld of crime and prostitution.
The main characters are a glowering, near-animalistic gangster (played by Brandoesque Korean TV star Jo Jae-Hyeon), who barely speaks a word in the entire film, and the pretty young middle class college student (Seo Won) whom he accosts in a park and tricks into slavery in a brothel. Their affair is voyeuristic and brutal. The characters around them are mostly amoral psychopaths. The atmosphere is hellish. But out of it comes a genuine, twisted love story that, at the end, may make the hair rise on your neck. "Bad Guy," which won Kim the best director prize at the Berlin Film Festival, is a work by a hard-core artist working with raw candor, deeply personal themes, no brakes and masterly style. It will rock and shock you as few recent Asian movies have or can. (In Korean, with English subtitles.)
"Bad Guy" (star)(star)(star)1/2 (South Korea; Kim Ki-duk, 2001). 6:15, 8:15 p.m. Fri., Mon.-Thur.; 3:15, 7:45 p.m. Sat.; 3:15, 5:15 p. m. Sun. The Gene Siskel Film Center is at 164 N. State St. Call 312-846-2600 or visit www.siskel filmcenter.org.
.
http://www.koreanfilm.org/