expected a much more interesting film honestly.
if anything, the historical context, background but eventual conflict feels very much like an after thought even tho the whole film relies on it.
song kang-ho, lee byung-hun and lee young-ae give great performances when they don't speak english but thats the thing, half of the time they do speak english and then the bad part of the performances start to happen. if anything, it distracts from the fact the film is about identity, nationalism and other stuff.
maybe i myself lack historical knowledge but its much less sympathetic towards both sides then i thought it would be. to be fair, park chan-wook is not sympathetic with his characters most of the time but here i think it should've been neccesary to complete its themes of nationality, identity and ideologies boiling up inside everyone around us and how it divides us. its much more interested half the time in portraying north korean as cartoonishly evil and brainwashed people and im not arguing if they are or not but it also doesn't feel like a fair thing, especially since lee byung-hun's character feels much more brought into a sympathetic light which is good, he's someone tragically traumatized but that light is only one way and i feel song kang-ho's characters feels much less like an actual character and more so just an ideology which is fine but presenting him like he's a character, thats where i have a problem with. before i say more no, im not saying its wrong for a KOREAN director to talk about his history or culture or ideologies playing inside both the sides of his country but it all just feels so weakly written.
the movie fails the make the female lead compelling in any shape or form which irritates me, its expected of early park chan-wook considering he wasn't really great at writing female characters which most directors aren't but thats just an lame excuse, woman aren't sub humans. and ultimately she doesn't connect to both lee byung hun and song kang-ho's character in identity and nationality enough which i find so strange, there feels almost no tension in her roots as a swiss korean. dissapointed but its directed decently enough.
there is a small friendship blooming between song kang-ho and lee byung hun's characters throughout the film but is always shut down due to nationalism that divides us....but it never felt like chemistry, it never felt like there was so its hard to care about it.
(watch my film:
the grievance of the day: https://boxd.it/eD8Suj
summer walk: https://boxd.it/ewenRP )
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