zaterdag 26 oktober 2013

Bedevilled (2010)

Genre : Horror/Crime
Country : Korea

Cast :
Ji Sung-won : Hae-won
Seo Yeong-hee : Kim Bok-nam
Jeong-hak Park : Man-jong

Director :
Chul-soo Jang

Summary
Hae-won is a beautiful single woman in her thirties who works at a bank in the Seoul city. She leads a busy life until she becomes a witness to an attempted murder case, and at the same time, things get complicated at work. When things get out of hand she is forced to take a vacation so she heads for 'Moodo', a small undeveloped island, where she had once visited to see her grandparents. And where she had befriended a girl named Bok-nam who stills writes to Hae-won asking her to visit despite the fact that Hae-won never bothered to reply. Upon arriving at the island, Hae-won is shocked to see everyone treating Bok-nam like a slave. As practically the only young woman on the island, she is a plaything for all the men and a free laborer for the women. Sick of all the inhumane treatment, Bok-nam had tried to escape the island several times in the past but had failed each time. She begs Hae-won to help her escape the place, but Hae-won remains indifferent not wanting to be involved in ...

My opinion

Korean schizo flick
Original title : Kim Bok-nam salinsageonui jeonmal

My conclusion is that I was staring practically 90% of the movie to the bottom of the screen. My lack of knowledge of the Korean language made me look at the subtitles all that time. Something I almost never do while watching a movie.

The film itself wasn't that spectacular anyway. The story itself is filled with emotions. A psychologically and physically abused woman on an island with a retarded probably by inbred stricken family. A city girl who goes on a mandatory vacation and visits the island again. Her grandparents lived there and she met a girl called Bok-nam there in those days. She notices however that Bok-nam is a plaything in the hands of the men and a willing slave for the older women. The cry for help to get her out of that situation, stays unanswered. Hae-won reacts quite indifferent. The situation tilts when Bok-nam's daughter is killed in an outburst of rage of the husband. This is the start of a killing spree where no one is spared.

Visually it looks alright. The surroundings and atmosphere on the island. The two women act amazingly well. These are strong character roles that touch the viewer emotionally. The rest of the cast are balancing between "not very bad" to "terribly bad". Especially the men sometimes play a truly abominable bad role. The massacre is quite soft and feels a bit outdated. The images reminded me of "The last house on the left" from 1977. Not in terms of content but in terms of the visual aspect.

I wouldn't call it Horror. It's rather a psychological thriller in which the end it is totally over the top and fairly nonsensical. All in all, not a movie that blew me away by or impressed me.