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('A Good Lawyer's Wife' screens at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival on 13 November at Regent Street Cinema)

 

"When you're single, you think marriage will guarantee unlimited sex but, when you're married, you quickly realise that it's not like that.
You're not a person anymore... you're really nothing." - dialogue spoken by Ho-jung, on the phone to one of her single friends.     

Synopsis:

Joo Young-jak (Hwang Jung-min) is a lawyer who is in an almost loveless marriage with former dancer Ho-jung (Moon So-ri). The two have little in common, aside from their adopted son Soo-in and, even though his father has been diagnosed with terminal liver failure, Young-jak concentrates most of his energy on his extra-marital affair with Yun (Baek Jung-rim). However, when he accidentally hits a drunken motorcyclist (while taking a drive with his mistress), the ensuing consequences threaten to tear his, already unstable, family apart…



Review:

The original Korean title (literal translation: A Family Having Affairs) is a much more apt description of proceedings within the film than "A Good Lawyer's Wife"; not only because of the sheer number of extra-marital affairs taking place (and the number of family members involved in the various illicit liaisons) but also because of the sheer importance of those affairs to both the characters and the plot itself. From early on it quickly becomes apparent that sex (or a lack thereof) plays a significant role in each of the main characters' lives - they talk about it regularly, they think about it almost incessantly and use it both for sexual gratification and also as a means of (temporary) escape from other, less enjoyable, aspects of their lives.
Make no mistake, this is a film which doesn't pull any punches, in any respect: The sexual content (and there is a lot of sexual content) is shown in extremely frank and graphic terms, and added to the mix are detailed depictions of terminal illness, death, familial dysfunction and the psychological scars (shown to span generations) that inevitably result from it.




When we first meet Young-jak (Hwang Jung-min), it is in his role as a lawyer - the one part of his life over which he feels he has total control - overseeing the unearthing of human remains of people who went missing during the Korean War, and though he exudes an outward confidence and friendliness, under the surface he is a deeply guarded individual, to the extent that one is never sure if he is deliberately hiding his feelings for (and from) those around him or if he actually has no real feelings for any of them at all. He is, of course, having an extra-marital affair, but it is blatantly clear, even to his mistress, that far from being the no-strings, liberated sex (and human connection) which he believes it to be, it is, in reality, as cold and empty as the rest of his life, and he is so closed off that he could sleep with any number of women and yet still be utterly alone. As the investigating team uncovers the bodies from the Korean War, early in the film, Young-jak stumbles and falls into the pit where the skeletons lie, and the parallels drawn to the fall which his personal life is set to take, are impossible to ignore.
Conversely Young-jak's wife, Ho-jung (Moon So-ri), is under no such self-delusions and is totally aware that her married life is nowhere near the ideal which she hoped it would be - Young-jak rarely touches her and, on the odd occasion when they do have sex, she feels next to nothing (becoming increasingly convinced that she no longer has a G-spot), and so she focuses her attentions on her dancing and providing the best life for her adopted son, Soo-in, as she can. However, the increasing interest of a young student (who follows her on his bike and regularly peers through binoculars at her exercising nude in her apartment) sets her desires ablaze and her awakened libido will clearly not rest until she takes him into her bed, regardless of the consequences.




Director Im Sang-soo also uses the plot to deftly critique the concept of family, and the issues (ranging from responsibility to guilt) that family ties create. Young-jak is more like his father (and, it's implied, his grandfather) than he would ever be prepared to admit and the psychological scars resulting from the things they had to face in their lives (going right back, once again, to the Korean War) have had their part in shaping who he is and even his attitude to his own life.
Even Soo-in (Young-jak and Ho-jung's adopted son) must face growing fears resulting from Ho-jung's decision to burden him with the knowledge of his adoption at such an early age, and thus the vicious circle of family-created issues and scars continues to the next generation.

However, the aforementioned dark aspects of A Good Lawyer's Wife are perfectly balanced with a noticeable playfulness and wit - especially in the early stages of the film - accentuated greatly by a Tom Waits-esque (post Bone Machine) musical score by Kim Hong-jib. In fact, the main musical theme is so beautifully conceived that the same refrain can, at one moment, be light-hearted and fun and, seconds later, take on a claustrophobic oppressiveness as the unfolding drama darkens.




Cast:

Both Hwang Jung-min and Moon So-ri give superb performances throughout A Good Lawyer's Wife, as would be expected of actors of their calibre. However, even the supporting cast pull out all the stops to create an almost perfect ensemble piece. The visceral nature of some of the proceedings, combined with the extreme sexual content, could easily have appeared fake and "acted" in lesser hands but, thankfully, the portrayals, under the directorial guidance of Im Sang-soo, are utterly natural and nuanced throughout.

 

Summary:

On the surface, A Good Lawyer's Wife positively pulsates with explicitness while, at its heart, beats a deeply intelligent critique of family and the scars that familial bonds can create. In short, A Good Lawyer's Wife is an utterly astonishing film.

 

 

('The Good, The Bad, The Weird' screens at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival on 13 November at Picturehouse Hackney)

 

"Funny, ain't it? People must know they'll all die someday but they live as if they never will. Damn funny."

The title of the film refers to three Manchurian gunslingers who are all chasing after a mysterious treasure map: "The Weird"/ Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho) is a seemingly bumbling thief and all-round crook; "The Bad"/ Park Chang-yi (Lee Byung-hun) is a ruthless, vain and insecure bandit; and "The Good"/ Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung) is a bounty hunter and sharpshooter. 




The map in question has been sold by an underworld crime boss who has also employed The Bad to steal it back, thereby securing the cash and said map but, before The Bad can get his hands on it, it is found by The Weird during a train robbery. He becomes convinced that it gives the details of a buried treasure site and heads off the find the "gold". 
The Good, while searching for The Bad (to catch him and get the bounty on his head), stumbles across The Weird and, unsure of each other's motivations, they grudgingly agree to help each other by: 
a) Catching The Bad, and
b) Finding the treasure before either The Bad or the imperialist Japanese can get to it.
However, unknown to The Weird, The Good also plans to get the bounty on The Weird's head, once he has served his usefulness.

The overall plot essentially deals with the chase between the three to get/keep the map, find the location alluded to on it and find the buried treasure, but is, in truth, simply a ploy to provide some exhilarating sequences and get the three characters to a point where they can battle it all out man to man.





Regardless of the tag lines that have been attached to the movie, or the trailers specifically edited to push the spaghetti western aspects, "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" is actually as much action as spaghetti, as much comedy as western – a film that shamelessly draws on its influences and parodies the hell out of them. 
Ok, so it isn't multi-layered; there's no real "good will triumph over evil" Western ethos present; there's no morality tale in play and the outcome isn't going to change your views on life, the universe or anything, but if that's what you're looking for, you're kind of missing the point. 
The Good, The Bad, The Weird positively screams exhilaration from every frame and illicits an excitement that has long been missing from most action films.The camera work and the production values are top notch and are used to give a huge sense of movement to proceedings which are already rolling along at a pace. 
Add to that, the fact that director Kim Jee-woon has an amazing ability to stage massively entertaining action sequences which are so good that they could almost stand on their own, with or without the remainder of the film, and the overall result is simply thrilling. The main chase sequence, ablaze with guns, horses and jeeps, is a little longer than is healthy, but you'll have such a grin on your face throughout that you'll happily let that fly. 

Korean films tend to have copious amounts of incredibly intelligent black humour wrapped up in whatever genre is being played and The Good, The Bad, The Weird is no exception, with most revolving around The Weird and giving Song Kang-ho a chance to show that he is as good at playing comedic roles as he is at drama.
If you need more incentives then believe me when I say that another scene involving a diving helmet will stay with you long after the film ends (and possibly forever) and a beautifully unpredictable little plot twist at the close of the movie rounds the experience off to a tee.





Cast:

The entire cast play their parts with suitable aplomb but extra mention should be made of Kang Song-ho (The Weird) and Lee Byung-hun (The Bad) whose performances are exceptional. Both exude a noticable pleasure in their roles and add a significant depth and a tremendous amount of humour to proceedings. Jung Woo-sung (as The Good) also does everything that is required to create as memorable a character as possible but, lets face it, bad guys are almost always more interesting and memorable than good guys - that's just the way it is.


Summary:

A fun-filled, exhilarating rollercoaster ride with a group of characters who wouldn't be out of place in a mental asylum.

 


('Memories of Murder' screens at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival on 07 November at Picturehouse Hackney)



"But... is wanking a crime?"
 (quote from a serial killer suspect in Memories of Murder)


Between 1986 and 1991 a serial killer murdered ten women, between the ages of 13 and 71, in a small town in Gyeong-gi province, south of Seoul, South Korea. The methods by which they were killed ranged from stabbing to strangulation (one corpse was even found with nine pieces of peach inside her vagina) and all the victims were found within a two-mile radius. This being the first serial killer case that the country had seen it caused a media frenzy.




Memories of Murder uses this true-life serial killer story as the basis for its plot with Detective Park Doo-Man (Song Kang-ho) and his violent partner Jo (Kim Roi-ha) assigned to the case. Detective Park clearly isn't the sharpest of detectives, but is thoroughly convinced that he is surrounded by idiots (which is actually pretty true), and is sure that his keen sense for "spotting villains" will allow him to find the killer. 
As he begins to blunder his way through the case, with detective Jo beating up suspects in an attempt to extricate confessions, the film takes a seemingly very black humour approach to the story (when no DNA evidence is found on the victims, for example, Park concludes that the killer must have shaved all the hair from his body and decides on a novel way to search out this hairless fiend), and this not only makes the atrocities committed by the unknown serial killer even more shocking when they start to emerge, but also deftly facilitates the audience being caught completely off guard, at the same time as serving to repeatedly twist viewer emotions. 
The town's half-wit, Baek Kwang-ho (Park Noh-shik), seems to know more about the details of the killings than he should and Park becomes convinced that he is the killer, even resorting to planting evidence to link him to the case, but when Seo (Kim Sang-gyeong), a more experienced cop from Seoul, proves that Baek couldn't possibly have committed the murders (and leads the way to another, as yet undiscovered corpse), resentment between the yokel cops and the big-city detective begins to boil over. Continuing the search for the killer leads them to interview Park Hyeon-gyu (Park Hae-il), a genuinely unsettling, creepy character whose cold, emotionless gaze adds fuel to the detectives beliefs that they really have finally found their man... 
To delve more deeply into the plot would risk taking the edge off a finely tuned, expertly written screenplay. While the film moves slowly, it's always with purpose and is gripping throughout, and though there may not be the nasty, blood-soaked horror and flash of American serial killer movies, that is, in fact, one of its strengths.

In short, Memories of Murder is a masterpiece through and through, which tells its gripping story with wisdom, humour, sincerity and intensity.






Cast & Crew:

The film was written and directed by Bong Joon-ho who understands the importance of subtlety, making even procedural scenes entertaining and amusing. Though there are scenes that involve dead bodies there is little gore and the feeling that comes across is that Bong gives the dead bodies in the film the same respect as he would if they were still alive. This gives even the darkest of autopsy scenes a poignancy that is just not present in Western versions of this type of thriller. 
The gorgeous cinematography by Kim Hyung-Gu is moody, haunting and atmospheric with rice paddy fields, rain, shadows and train tracks all being photographed with an expert eye for long sumptuous views. The cinematography is complimented with an equally enchanting score by Iwashiro Taro who created music that perfectly sets the mood for every scene. 
The acting from all the main cast members is excellent and, with the character of Park, Song Kang-Ho (also seen as the title character in "The Foul King", a North Korean sergeant in "JSA" and more recently a seemingly bumbling thief in 2008's "The Good, The Bad, The Weird") establishes himself as one of the industry's premier screen presences, playing well against Kim Sang-gyeong (the lead in "Turning Gate") as the quieter but more focused Seo. 
Smaller parts are exceptionally well cast and played, from Song Jae-ho's canny police chief, through to Park Hae-il's creepy main suspect. Special note must however be made of the performance of Park Noh-shik as the half-wit Baek. A theatrical actor by trade, he portrays the simple young man with such warmth that by the end of his story arc, when the harsh treatment the character has had to suffer in his life comes to light (thrown into a fire as a child, his face is disfigured and people, especially women, constantly grimace, ridicule and move away to avoid him), you truly feel for him. The depth which he brings to the character, from his inappropriate excitement regarding the murders to his utter fear of the police, is quite simply astounding and stays with you long after the film has finished.



 

 


('Mother' screens at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival on 06 November at Picturehouse Hackney)

 

"If you recall or remember something be sure to tell just me… Only me. Do you understand?"       

A middle-aged woman walks forlornly through a field of tall grass on a beautiful day. Approaching the camera filming the scene, she stops and slowly begins to dance. So begins "Mother", written and directed by Bong Joon-ho...


Review:

Following this strange, yet affecting, scene we are taken to the (unnamed) mother's place of business in a rundown part of town, where she lives with her son Do-joon and sells homeopathic herbs and roots (as well as performing acupuncture on clients without a licence), and as we watch her cutting herbs with a guillotine, while she keeps both eyes firmly fixed on Do-joon across the street (rather than on the task at hand), it is immediately clear just how protective of him she is. Do-joon is mentally slow, has virtually no attention span or short-term memory and still sleeps in his mother's bed. Twenty-eight years old, he is still a virgin and though all around think he is good looking, his mental limitations mean that he has never had a girlfriend - he is even under the impression that sleeping with someone means exactly that. 
When a young girl is killed, police learn that Do-joon had been following her on the night of her death and, with the discovery of evidence near her body linking him to the crime scene, he is arrested and charged with murder. 
Knowing that Do-joon "couldn't hurt a water bug", his mother desperately tries to convince the authorities to re-investigate the case but when they refuse she realises that if her son's innocence is to be proved she will have to find the real murderer herself.




Like Bong Joon-ho's previous films, "Mother" deals with small town folk, familial dysfunction and separation, within a tale detailing the lengths to which the mother is prepared to go to protect her son. Do-joon's late father is never mentioned (although he can be fleetingly seen in an old photograph standing beside a young Do-joon - a photograph which is subsequently torn in two, splitting the images of Do-joon and the man, and reinforcing the aforementioned themes) and the circumstances surrounding his death are never discussed but, as "Mother" centres around the bond between mother and son, the lack of a prominent father figure is essential. 

Initially, the mother is portrayed as a typical, if slightly over-protective, parent bringing up her child single-handedly within the constraints of what’s morally and legally right, but even though her sole focus is ensuring that Do-joon is safe, that he stays clear of less savoury types and gets the best life that she can give him, it becomes increasingly clear that her moral guidelines are much less set in stone with regard to herself - a perfect example of which is her dislike of the rebellious Jin-tae (Do-joon’s closest friend) and of Do-joon's friendship with him:
In the lead up to murder of the young girl, the mother makes it clear that she will have nothing to do with Jin-tae and wants Do-joon to stop associating with him (even instantly suspecting Jin-tae of being the real murderer when Do-joon is arrested) but she is willing to completely disregards these feelings - without a second thought - when Jin-tae offers to help her find the killer. Her continued practicing of acupuncture without a licence (even though she is regularly reminded that it is illegal), while having pride in her adherence of the law with regard to other matters, is yet another pointer towards her willingness to allow her ideals to change to suit her needs at any given time - as long as she can convince herself that the results will allow her to provide a better existence for her son. There is even an implication that her focus on doing what is in Do-joon's best interests may not always have been the case and, as such, her over-protectiveness and need to keep him near could be said to be caused as much by feelings of guilt as by having the sole responsibility of taking care of him.


Though it is essentially true that Do-joon is the helpless one of the two main characters, unable to survive without his mother, the symbiosis of their relationship becomes increasingly evident as the mother tries to prove her son's innocence. Without him around she is clearly lost and her efforts to find the killer can be seen both as an attempt to help her son by clearing his name and also as helping herself by getting back the one person she really needs in her life. Her later choices and actions are far removed from what is morally right and show us the monster that she allows herself to become but, at the same time, they also reinforce the persona of a mother doing what she feels is necessary to protect and keep her child safe, regardless of the consequences.
However, perhaps the most monstrous choice which the mother makes is her decision to carry on with her chosen path despite being given repeated chances to set things right and finding, instead, a way to block her questionable actions from her mind. 
That, in the end, is the only way that she can allow herself to dance.




Direction, Cast & Crew:

Bong Joon-ho is extremely adept at peppering gritty storylines with black humour, and such is the case with "Mother". The humour is universally well realised, adding a gentle eccentricity - and an extra level of realism - to the personas of the characters. Thankfully it never oversteps the ongoing plot, and even serves to accentuate the dark elements present - almost lulling viewers into a false sense of security. The plot itself is multi-layered with both the main story and sub-plots containing social commentary and subtle references to the underlying themes (already mentioned earlier in this review), which all adds up to a film which, like the characters it contains, has a great deal more to it than first meets the eye.

The film direction is exemplary and the camera work has a deliberate claustrophobia present, with many of the scenes mirroring the grittiness of the story with similarly dark imagery. A great deal of the scenes are filmed at night and even those few which take place on bright days tend to show the mother character in somewhat subdued lighting, looking out at a brighter world, which she almost seems to not be a part of - as is the case in her life. Scenes between the mother and Do-joon regularly reference the theme of separation, the two characters repeatedly standing face to face, in close proximity, but with something between them, keeping them apart - be it a window or prison bars - and the placing of the mother within the screen frame is often uncomfortably close, thereby allowing viewers to empathise with her to a greater degree by experiencing feelings akin to those which she is going through - desperation, claustrophobia, paranoia and a sense of false persecution. 



The successful use of camera work which is this deliberately intrusive is, of course, utterly dependant on the quality of the cast performances, and in "Mother" they do not disappoint: 
Kim Hye-ja, as the mother, is almost a household name in South Korea, known for her over-the-top portrayals of hysterical women in television dramas, but "Mother" is only her third feature film to date. Her acting style here is somewhat subtler than usual (one would assume under the tutelage of Bong Joon-ho), resulting in the mother character appearing to be a ticking time-bomb, constantly on the edge of either breaking down or exploding. At times difficult to watch, but at the same time utterly gripping, her portrayal is simply astounding. 
Won Bin makes a major departure from his leading man roles to play Do-joon and gives a memorable and totally believable performance. There is a noticeable chemistry present between the characters of Do-joon and his mother and each of their performances successfully increases the believability of the relationship and viewer empathy for them.

Summary:

How far would you be prepared to go to protect the ones you love, and how would you live with the consequences, and guilt, of any questionable actions taken. In, perhaps, his most accomplished film to date, Bong Joon-ho successfully shows us how fine the line, between being a mother and becoming a monster, really can be.

 



('Miss Granny' screens at the 2015 London Korean Film Festival on 03 November at Picturehouse Central)


"If you compare a woman to a ball, then a woman in her teens is a basketball. To get the ball high up in the air every man reaches for it as hard as he can... A woman in her 20s is like a rugby ball. Several men attack the ball like dogs to get possession of it. This is the only time a man will ever risk his life for a ball... A woman in her 30s is a ping-pong ball. The number of men going after the ball is significantly reduced but the attention paid is still decent... A middle-aged woman is a golf ball. There's only one man for each ball and he continually tries to send it as far away as he can... And beyond that, she's a dodgeball."


Synopsis:

74-year-old Mal-soon (Na Moon-hee) has had a difficult life; a fact she is not only happy to share with anyone who cares to listen but which she also actively goes out of her way to reference repeatedly, regardless of either the subject being discussed or the person she is speaking to (or, more accurately, talking at). Though her outspoken, forthright nature helped her in her younger days to cope with the struggles and sacrifices required to raise her son Hyun-chul (Sung Dong-il) following the death of her husband, over the years Mal-soon's feistiness has largely become argumentative beligerism to the extent that her endless interference in her son's family life has made her daughter-in-law (Hwang Jung-min) seriously medically ill.
On overhearing a conversation in which her family discusses putting her in an old people's home (supposedly temporarily), Mal-soon fears she has become nothing but a burden to those around her and on passing a photo studio called 'Forever Young' she decides the time has come to have her memorial picture taken, in what she's convinced are her final days. Sitting for the portrait to be taken, Mal-soon is told by the photographer that he'll make her look 50 years younger - a compliment she happily accepts - but to her shock, horror (and subsequent excitement) on leaving the studio she finds that physically she does now indeed look like her 24-year-old younger self (played by Shim Eun-kyung).
Deciding to go by the name Oh Doh-ri in homage to her favourite actress, Audrey Hepburn, it slowly begins to dawn on Mal-soon that perhaps this is a chance to live her life again and focus on all the dreams she was forced to sacrifice all those years ago but, as she is soon to rediscover, being young isn't all that easy, especially as her mind (and speech) are still of a rather bitter and fairly twisted 74-year-old...



Review:

Those who sit down to watch a 'suddenly young again' drama/comedy - of which there have been many of varying quality from numerous countries over the years (certainly in the West, at least, often used as vehicles for flagging or, alternatively, burgeoning acting careers; 'Freaky Friday', 'Peggy Sue Got Married', '17 Again', etc etc etc) - will likely expect and perhaps even hope for fairly light-hearted entertainment wrapped around an uplifting, life affirming message; with any commentary (if it even appears) used more for comedy and parody than societal critique or dissection.

While the narrative of 'Miss Granny' certainly remains light (to my mind a deliberate move, confidently realised) and warmly funny enough to enable the film to stand alongside the very best examples of such stories, however, it specifically Korean nature and character idiosyncrasies also speak of story aspects so prevalent in Korean films over the years that they (in terms of 'classic' Korean cinema, at least) became known as almost a comedy sub-genre in their own right: 'Fish out of water' comedies.
Whether you consider Song Kang-ho as the mild-mannered bank clerk taking up pro-wrestling in 'The Foul King'; look at the female gangster pushed to marry and settle down in 'My Wife is a Gangster'; or reference the gangsters hiding out in a monastery of 'Hi Darma' (the latter examples obviously also forming part of the 'gangster comedy' genre) since as far back as the New Korean Cinema wave of the late nineties and early noughties the repeated taking of characters from their normal, expected routines to place them in wacky situations far removed from their comfort zones gradually led to the coining of the term 'fish out of water' comedies and while such tales were of course also seen in other countries' cinematic output (a number of the US examples over the years being in fact based on their Korean counterparts), in Korea they played a far greater part than most in subtly underlining the changing face of society itself through both its modernisation and Westernisation as well as repeatedly referencing the gradual shift in male/female balance - again the commentary largely used to parody more serious cinematic output and use society itself as the basis for topical humour. As such, in taking the mind of a forthright and deeply opinionated older woman and placing it in the (physical) body of a 24-year-old girl,  'Miss Granny' perfectly stands as the latest example of a classic Korean 'fish out of water' comedy, but that really is only part of its homage (if you will) to cinematic lineage. For, the genuine, often laugh out loud humour generated by this well crafted and realised narrative move also screams of one of the most influential Korean comedies of all time; 'My Sassy Girl':



In 2001, Kwak Jae-young's deeply funny, moving and groundbreaking 'My Sassy Girl' went a fair way towards redefining depictions of women, relationships and love not only in Korean romantic comedy specifically but also Korean cinema as a whole. However, a significant part of the humour itself came from the unnamed heroine's loud, regularly abusive, vocal outbursts (the polar opposite of how society expected young women to behave)  to the extent that almost every one of her overly frank statements appeared as shockingly funny, from a viewer point of view. In a similar way, 'Miss Granny' takes outspoken dialogue that would largely be tolerated from the elderly - who have in effect earned the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want and to whomever they want - and places it in the mouth of a character who outwardly appears to be of the younger generation, creating a comparable shock value in the characters around her.
Not only that, but 'Miss Granny' also takes account of societal attitudes to etiquette having greatly changed over the years and deftly points to that fact by making a number of the younger male characters fall in love with Mal-soon as a direct result of her coarse, abusive and uninhibited outspokenness. Add in the ongoing relationship between our physically young/mentally old heroine and a widower in his twilight years and that character 'shock value' is increased tenfold in tandem with the resultant humour, without ever overstepping the film's warm and light-hearted entertainment raison d’être.

Throughout 'Miss Granny', Mal-soon (regardless of whether she is her older or physically younger self) repeatedly asserts the importance of her past sacrifices to the success of her son and the happiness of her family, often feeling (from an outside perspective) as much of an effort to convince herself as make her family realise her undertaking was worth the difficulties caused, and her present day indulgence in a singing career as the front-person of her grandson's band - which she had to forfeit in her (original) youth - serves to allow Mal-soon to compare what was with what could have been in her life and gradually come to understand what is truly important to her.





And speaking of Mal-soon's grandson's music group, though certainly not the strongest element of 'Miss Granny' it does nonetheless work well. Clearly, partly an effort to attract both younger and older viewers (and even unite them) in its depiction of a Kiss-like glam metal band who become pop stars (to a degree) playing songs that feel contemporary with a traditional tint and lyrics, it greatly underlines the 'light-hearted entertainment' element of the film in a fairly amusing (and even somewhat cheesy way) as well as, as already mentioned, serving as one side of Mal-soon's cathartic character arc. Mind you, whether any diehard heavy metal fans would be able to accept the ease (and speed) with which the group switches from loud, amp distorted rock and garish make-up (again reminiscent of glam metal band Kiss) to strummed melodies within a wholesome, family friendly and wholly pretty ensemble is another question entirely.

All in all, 'Miss Granny' uses an intelligent script and well written dialogue to ensure it successfully stands as quality Korean comedy at its very best and though a film such as this is first and foremost light-hearted (and indeed light) entertainment, it also successfully makes a point of subtly asking "If you were given the chance to change the things you have (or haven't) done in your life, would you?" And that's a question that ultimately bears thinking about for each and every one of us.




As a final point on the idea of Korean film lineage, to my mind the detailing of the gradual understanding Mal-soon's family come to have of both her life and the sacrifices she made for them follow a similar vein to that found in a number of - again classic, though more serious - Korean films over the years and even though the time slip elements of, for example, 'My Mother the Mermaid' or even the dual timeline of 'The Classic' are not specifically present in 'Miss Granny', it could be said that this elderly lady (a woman of the past) finding herself as a young woman of today is indeed just such a time shift, at least in a manner of speaking; certainly enough to bring both the aforementioned films to my mind during the final, somewhat more serious and melodramatic segments of Hwang Dong-hyeok's accomplished comedy.


Of course, in a film such as this, the believability that a character is really who they claim to be is utterly vital to its success and though the entire movie cast in this case give accomplished performances throughout, Shim Eun-kyung (as 24-year-old Mal-soon/Oh Doh-ri) absolutely owns 'Miss Granny' from the first frame in which she appears to the very last. So accomplished and pitch perfect is Shim Eun-kyung's portrayal as an old woman in a young woman's body (as difficult and seemingly impossible a portrayal to give credibility to as almost any you could mention) that viewers will easily come to accept the premise without doubt or questions. In fact, if you were to sit down and watch specific scenes in which 24-year-old Mal-soon repeats vocal statements and facial expressions made earlier by her 74-year-old counterpart/self you could almost start to believe that there is a familial relationship between actresses Shim Eun-kyung and Na Moon-hee.
From her first roles in films as a child actor, Shim Eun-kyung has repeatedly shown herself to be an actress of exemplary burgeoning talent and her performance in 'Miss Granny' quite simply shows her continuing career powering from strength to strength to strength.

 

 


Summary:

While 'Miss Granny' is wholly light-hearted (and indeed light) entertainment at its core, it nonetheless contains aspects utterly inherent to classic Korean comedies over the years and elements that speak of a number of hugely influential films; all adding up to an intelligently written, genuinely funny film that stands as an example of quality Korean comedy at its very best.

 

'Miss Granny' (수상한 그녀) / 2014

Directed by: Hwang Dong-hyeok
Starring: Shim Eun-kyung, Na Moon-hee, Park In-hwan, Sung Dong-il