Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry (and other films)

Sad Professor

Did anyone else get a chance to see this? I’m a big fan of the director but I was a bit late getting around to his latest film Poetry and unfortunately today is its last day in the IFI. Although it was screened at Jameson earlier in the year. It’s a very moving and haunting film about a grandmother diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who discovers that her grandson and his friends had a part to play in the suicide of a local girl. It bares some resemblances to Joon-ho Bong’s Mother from last year except it is more of a character drama than a suspense thriller.

I would strongly recommend the director's other films as well. I haven’t seen his first film Green Fish, but Oasis, Peppermint Candy and Secret Sunshine are all excellent. Lee is one of the great directors working in South Korean cinema at the moment. He’s not a genre filmmaker though, so he probably doesn’t get as much attention internationality as the likes of Park and Bong. He specialises instead in making very intense and moving human dramas. His characters and their stories feel incredibly authentic.

For anyone not familiar with his previous films:

Peppermint Candy uses the same reverse chronology (and arguably to greater effect) as Memento did a year later. It begins with a man committing suicide on a train track and traces his life back in the time to explain why he did it. It’s a mystery film which comes together beautifully at the end and there are many small touches to be picked up on in subsequent viewings.

Oasis is love story between two social misfits: a girl with cerebral palsy and a screwball ex-con. Both characters are abandoned by their families and misunderstood by society. Their relationship begins on a distributing note, but there are several beautiful fantasy sequences and the ending is both funny and heartbreaking. The film captures a side of human society that we don’t often see in film. So-ri Moon, who also had a significant role in Peppermint Candy, is magnificent as the disabled girl.

Secret Sunshine is brilliant as well but despite coming out over 3 years ago has yet to be released on DVD outside of Asia. I got an R3 copy of the Korean version from YesAsia last year and there’s a R1 Criterion of it coming out shortly, so hopefully a UK/Irish release will be forthcoming. Fantastic film though and well worth the effort. It is a very powerful meditation on grief and recovery with a great performance from the lead actress. Kang-ho Song (Thirst, Mr Vengeance, etc) is also in it.

Any other fans of Lee’s films?

johnny_ultimate

Im actually on the way to see Poetry now. Shame it only got a weeks release.

Sad Professor

Yeah, I got a fright when I saw there was only 1 day left. I thought maybe it had started last week and I missed it. I think distributors have difficulty with Lee's films. I was just looking at the trailer for Poetry and it makes the film seem utterly unappealing. If I wasn't so familiar with Lee's films already I mightn't have bothered.

Anyway, enjoy!

johnny_ultimate

Really liked it. While the first half was well written and performed, I had this nagging feeling that it lacked character and a distinct identity. But as the plot strands conclude, the resolutions are ambiguous, unexpected and very effective. A rare film that doesn't handhold the viewer or overstress themes or ideas. What it lacks in distinctive visuals it makes up for with confidence of delivery. Will definitely aim to check out his other stuff!

LittleBook

You've just prompted me to have another look for Green Fish and it's winging it's way to me as we speak, have to wait 'til end of November for Poetry. Secret Sunshine remains elusive.

Big fan of Lee's films, admittedly only having seen:

Peppermint Candy the recent history and culture of South Korea told in the guise of one young man's life, stunning and yes, as you say, to be watched again and again.

Oasis a uncompromising look at the Korean social system and the treatment of handicapped people there ... which is also one of the best love stories I've ever seen ... albeit the most harrowing, challenging, realistic and beautiful love story I’ve ever seen.

Moon So-Ri's performance in Oasis is up there with Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot, amazing.

johnny_ultimate

Just finished Peppermint Candy there, excellent film. Definitely an impressive use of the central narrative device, and all the more heartbreaking for it. Perhaps a bit melodramatic at some parts, but for the most part I loved it Dug the repeated motif of trains too, very nice touch.

Have the DVDs of Green Fish and Oasis (Amazon binge) so will check em them out in the next few days. Cheers for the recommendations.

Sad Professor

I think all of Lee's films are melodramas to a certain extent, but in a good way. There's a great sense of catharsis at the end of his films. Peppermint Candy is probably him at his most showy though. His subsequent films are far more minimalist as I think you probably already saw with Poetry.

Try and get a hold of Secret Sunshine as well if you can. I really enjoyed that one.

e_e

I loved Poetry (even managed to see it twice). Manages the tricky balancing act of being unpredictable yet believable from beginning to end. Beautifully made and with one of the most intriguing lead characters of the past few years and the way Chang-Dong creates tension from the smallest events is amazing.

But I found Peppermint Candy to be way too overblown and melodramatic to the point that it was just unpleasant to watch rather than harrowing or thought-provoking. It was cringe-worthy to me and not in an intentional way. Very disappointing.

I might check out Oasis soon, I'm hoping that it leans closer to the former film.

johnny_ultimate

The only bit that struck me as excessively melodramatic was the soldier section, and obviously the beginning (but that worked). Broad most of the time, sure, but I dunno I felt it worked. I'd also say the main character felt a wee bit inconsistent at times, but it didn't distract me. It certainly lacks the subtlety of Poetry, but it aims for a different approach and IMO succeeds.

Sad Professor

Oasis is a beautiful film. It's incredibly minimalist with the emphasis much more on realism than the sort of narrative trickery you see in Peppermint Candy. It's easily his best film IMO, although I haven't seen Green Fish yet.

johnny_ultimate

Just reading up on it there and PC is a far more damning critique of Korean Society than it might appear to us Westerners. Well, can't say I'm familiar enough with South Korean economic history to have picked up on it all :pac:

Sad Professor

Yeah, there’s a lot of social commentary in his films, but some of it is so subtle that you’d have to be from South Korea to notice it. He’s very good at creating a social context for his characters to inhabit. This is very evident in Secret Sunshine which takes place in a small town and by the end of the film you feel like you’ve lived there.

johnny_ultimate

Watched Oasis there, great stuff. Definitely more in line with the Poetry style, but with a fantastically distinct voice. Everything from disturbing to funny to moving. The two main performances are just fantastic, but even more fantastic are the fantasy elements :pac:

The scenes where Gung Ho imagines herself as a 'normal' person are heartbreaking, and a brilliant way to get inside the mind of a character who can barely express herself in front of others

A film that makes no compromises and feels powerful and confrontational as a result, while never forgetting the focus on the two misunderstood individuals at the centre of it all.

LittleBook

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The two main performances are just fantastic, but even more fantastic are the fantasy elements :pac:

The scenes where Gung Ho imagines herself as a 'normal' person are heartbreaking, and a brilliant way to get inside the mind of a character who can barely express herself in front of others

I'm not embarrassed to admit that up until that point I thought

she actually DID suffer from cerebral palsy

, she was amazing.

Sad Professor

Another South Korean director of small films that I’d really recommend is Kim Ki-duk. His work is very philosophical and bit abstract at times (more so in recent years). Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring is probably is most well known film. 3-Iron is a favourite of mine though.

johnny_ultimate

And finally got around to Secret Sunshine tonight (although my Green Fish DVD remains unloved and unopened).

Another beautiful film. 2 and a half hours long, but not a wasted scene or moment. I don't like lumping all directors from a country together, but the South Korean directors have this tremendous ability to lure the audience into a false sense of genre security, and then go on another hour or two past the point where lesser films would end.

Sad Professor

Yeah, I Saw the Devil is a good example of that as well. The first 20-30 minutes would have been the last act in many other films.

I haven't got around to Green Fish yet either.

johnny_ultimate

Yup that and the Chaser are the two that specifically spring to mind, and now Secret Sunshine can be added!

Actually, for some reason I was expecting a comedy with Secret Sunshine, and despite moments of chuckling, much more intense than that :pac: Must admit to a bit of pity for the good-intentioned but ludicrously awkward Kang-ho Song in the film. His persistence is to be admired, but definitely one of the most bumbling, misguided wooings I've come across in cinema.

Sad Professor

I really liked his character. He's like a dog the way he follows her around. But it's endearing. He's a bright spot in an otherwise bleak story. I was so pleased Lee didn't go down a predictable route with that relationship. There's a great scene where she goes running to his house and then thinks twice. It marks the point of departure for the film. Up until that point it could have been the beginning of a very predictable story.

Based on the early scenes I think I was expecting Secret Sunshine to be some sort of feel-good Elizabethtown-type film. Which it so isn't. It's very uncompromising, but also very cathartic in the end. Like Poetry, I thought it ended on the perfect note.

johnny_ultimate

I got around to watching Green Fish today, and while the story is certainly less original than his later work (the depressed gangster's moll? Innocent young man drawn into a world of violence?) it's definitely a watchable, interesting film despite this familiar core, and you can begin to spot the evolution of his style. Visually, it's quite engaging and hypnotic, with excellent use made out of reflections and neon lighting particularly. There's quite a few moments of poignancy in a story that's a mix of the familiar and the occasionally unexpected. The Big Brother character particularly is more complex than many other directors would attempt. It's not as blackly comic, but it reminded me of Kitano's yakuza works at times, as well as more obvious Western story influences.

He certainly honed his storytelling abilities in subsequent works, but the debut is well worth a gander.

e_e

I loved Oasis up until the last 20 minutes, where the film just descends into contrived, inconsistent and cliché territory. But it definitely needs to be praised for dealing with taboo subjects and unwritten prejudices in society. A brave film in that regard and an incredible portrayal of cerebral palsy from the lead actress too.

I have the Criterion copy of Secret Sunshine on the way but no player to play it on at the moment.

johnny_ultimate

Secret Sunshine is probably my favourite of his, really excellent stuff. I think with that and Poetry he really hit his stride - smoothing out the slight rough edges of his previous stuff to make hugely engaging and emotionally involving films.