Review: Eunuch, 1968

Eunuch is extremely shocking and sensational considering it's a Korean classic film in 1960s. It was remade as the same title in 1986 by LEE doo-young.

I say, it is one of the  SHIN Sang-ok's masterpieces. Why? The plots unfold the secret events in Palace keeping tensions and conflicts. It melts desire, lust, trick, power, betrayal as well. And the relationship in characters is subversive, it reveals the contorted lust of King, royal,  eunuchs, concubines.    

It stars Shin Sung-il, YOON Jung-hee, DO Gum-bong, Nam Gung-won, etc., They were the best actors/actresses in the time. Especially, you need to pay attention to YOON Jung-hee' acting, she was the heroine  of The Poetry, 2010 by LEE Chang-dong.   

I wanted to watch Eunuch before I view Concubine, 2012 because someone says it is actually a remake of Eunuch. 

Jung-ho becomes eunuch following his love, Ja-ok. He was castrated by her father who wants Ja-ok to become concubine and have a King's baby. What he wants is the power using his daughter.

While Ja-ok is sleeping, an old concubine comes to her room to kiss and...  It shows a depressed sexual desire of concubines in Palace. It is quite unimaginable there is a homosexual scene in 1960s and in historical drama. 

The King have sex with Ja-ok, and order Jung-ho to stay in the next room. Ja-ok knows her love is there. Jung-ho has nothing to do without hearing her screaming. It is very cruel.  

The king knows Ja-ok's father sends her for power, he takes her maid instead. The maid holds her head high, becomes arrogant. Meanwhile, the King's mother is pregnant.... 

The leader of eunuch helps Jung-oh and Ja-ok escape because he is touched by their true love. 

They escape from the palace, and live happy. But it does not last long. She has a king's baby. He forces her to abort it but she denies it. King's warriors chase them and kill him.  

Ja-ok pretends to love the king, and she kills him while they make love. She suicides too. 

Review: Young-ja's Heydays, 1975

Korean People faced a rapid industrialization without any preparation in 70's. They rushed up to the capital city for job and money. The monstrous city exploited and ate their souls and bodies in cheap prices. Young-ja was the names of Korean people's daughter, sister and mother lived in the period. It reflects the miserable circumstances in the times. However, director made Young-ja a cheerful and delightful character.

The title is a heavy satire of her series of inevitable misfortunes or maybe Chang-soo's devoted love makes her feel heydays.

Just finished military service, Chang-soo encounters his first love, Young-ja in a police station. He is surprised that she becomes a prostitute. What is worse, she lost one arm by accident.    

Young-ja and Chang-soo were respectively a housemaid and an employee in the same house. She was very innocent, come to Seoul to support her sick mother and siblings. Chang-soo loved her and confessed it, but he had to leave her for the military service, and said "Wait for me". However, she lost her virginity by a bad son in the house, and was kicked out with a little bit of money. She relied on her friend working as a prostitute.

She works as a waitress, a sewer and a bus conductor because she doesn't have any skill. Unfortunately, she lost her arm while working as a bus conductor by car accident.

Chang-soo works day and night at a public bath, and he spends all for her, not to  receiving clients.

He takes care of her very much, but she leaves him because she thinks she is a obstacle for his future.

Years later, Chang-soo runs his own tailor's shop. And he finds her living happily with a crippled husband and a baby.

Review: Over My Dead Body, 2012

The Korean title sounds like it is a zombie movie, but it is about an unexpected happening to a dead body. Comedy is a very difficult genre for directors to make it a long feature film. Too much obsession for a big laugh makes it exaggerate too much, but Over My Dead Body is earnest and pleasant not losing fun and laugh. The film is bristling with winks and whimsy, and it  is very good in terms of plots and directions.

It stars KIM Bum-soo, KIM Ok-bin, and RYU Seung-bum. Bum-soo's acting is good, but Ok-bin's weak even though she wears skeleton accessories.    Seung-bum plays a good role in this film. I remember his goose-bump acting as a corrupted prosecutor in The Unjust, 2010.    

  

A CEO of bio company steals a chip hiding it in his arm, makes his firm bankrupt and tries to sell to a foreign country. The union demonstrates against it, but the senior researcher  is hit by a car and hospitalized. The CEO is killed by his man, Steve, who will hold a funeral in US to take the chip. 

Dong-hwa, sister of the senior researcher and Hyun-chul, junior researcher plan to steal the CEO's dead body and ask for ransom because hospital expanse is needed. They don't know about the implanted chip.

Policemen appear when they are about to call and ask money. The stolen body is in the back seat, smelling bad. The corpse gets up and they deflect the danger. It is Jin-oh, a mysterious, unpredictable, comic guy. They become a team for the ransom. 

Steve chases them, the national intelligent agency investigates undercover. It becomes complicated. 

  

The trio manage to succeed, taking money and the chip. Agency catches them. They donate it and the senior researcher successfully invents a new medicine.

 

Review: The Taste of Money, 2012

The Taste of Money was invited by Cannes this year, the first invitation to Sang-soo IM was The Housemaid.  The Cannes must have expected more developed one. My

impression is that it could not go more than the Housemaid. I think critics thought the same way. There are too many unnecessary fresh exposures to describe their decadence. 

Eun-yi worked in the wealthy family and killed herself in the Housemaidi this time Young-jak, a secretary, went through the same abnormal and eccentric family.

The film shows a mountain of money in the introduction. It overwhelms the common audience. It is as if the director will show the taste of money we never tried it before. Is  it going to be sweet or bitter? A suitcase packed with money hands over a government official to cover up his son's financial crime, illegal inheritance.

        

They have a conversation on business, economy, government etc. Money is the main topic. YOON's hand goes inside the skirt of a housemaid. 

Inside the huge mansion, BACK notices her husband YOON has a sex with the housemaid. She has a secret CCTV system, which implies she is a de facto ruler in  the house.

BAEK warns the housemaid, Eva. She can accept her husband's affairs but not in her kingdom.

 

BACK almost rapes YOON's secretary, Young-jak JOO. He feels humiliation which cannot erase through bath and lemon. YOON's daughter, Na-mi and Young-jak have good emotion, but the sex makes him distant.

YOON decides to leave for the Philippines with Eva saying, "I will put on a diaper soon let me go."  However BACK doesn't, she kills Eva. YOON follows her killing himself in the bath.

Young-jak quits, and he and Na-mi fly to the Eva's family with the Eva's coffin.