It was very hard to make any sense from this film. Take the use of 3-d which shows everything in clarity but doesn't really involve us any deeper in the events. We are shown two fishermen, with the idea that we the audience are like the fishermen and the fish - the hunter and the hunted. There is a husband, who is looking for his wife, who has become a Shaman. Then there is a man playing a detective, he seems more of a drifter and exists mainly to provoke the main character to feeling anger. The cinematography is nice but its the only point of interest. I think that Park Hing Min needs to consider what kind of story he would like to tell before starting to make his films. Committing to a good script would help as well.
3 Reviews
Promised a lot but failed to show us anything interesting
JvH4828 October 2012
I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012. The announcement text contained many promises, but none of these became true. We saw a lot of symbolism, all of these probably meaning something, but they lost me in the process. Take for example the restaurant scene (a "dream" according to the announcement), and the ample usage of mirrors (intentions went past me).
About the 3D: It was made much too explicit. It starts with the police officer knocking on the car window in the opening scene, to lecture our main character about speeding. Apparently we see here someone showing off a new gimmick, like we had with stereo sound when that was a new phenomenon in the 1960's. Unlike what the director told us in the final Q&A, it does not make focus stronger, nor does it emphasize what the director wants emphasized. It rather distracts from the real contents.
I was hoping that the final Q&A with the director would reveal something interesting, as I failed to derive any from the film itself. Alas, it did not add anything useful, but I'll try to recall some quotes. The two fishermen we repeatedly see sitting in a boat, got no reasonable explanation. It boiled down to the statement that viewers can be fish as well as fishermen (my interpretation: hunters as well as prey). The story originates partly from Korean folklore, ánd has partly been made up for this film. It basically starts with a wife who looses a child, leaves her husband subsequently, and converts to shamanism beliefs. What can her husband do? Yet, according to the director, what happened is not important, since life is full of uncertainties.
All in all, I could not make anything out of these "explanations". Until today I liked most Korean movies and I hope to see better ones in days to come. This one is a definite setback, but I won't generalize and keep an open mind for further products from Korea.
About the 3D: It was made much too explicit. It starts with the police officer knocking on the car window in the opening scene, to lecture our main character about speeding. Apparently we see here someone showing off a new gimmick, like we had with stereo sound when that was a new phenomenon in the 1960's. Unlike what the director told us in the final Q&A, it does not make focus stronger, nor does it emphasize what the director wants emphasized. It rather distracts from the real contents.
I was hoping that the final Q&A with the director would reveal something interesting, as I failed to derive any from the film itself. Alas, it did not add anything useful, but I'll try to recall some quotes. The two fishermen we repeatedly see sitting in a boat, got no reasonable explanation. It boiled down to the statement that viewers can be fish as well as fishermen (my interpretation: hunters as well as prey). The story originates partly from Korean folklore, ánd has partly been made up for this film. It basically starts with a wife who looses a child, leaves her husband subsequently, and converts to shamanism beliefs. What can her husband do? Yet, according to the director, what happened is not important, since life is full of uncertainties.
All in all, I could not make anything out of these "explanations". Until today I liked most Korean movies and I hope to see better ones in days to come. This one is a definite setback, but I won't generalize and keep an open mind for further products from Korea.
Bonkers but brilliant
ana-6652714 November 2016
After reading the reviews I thought this would be rubbish but what the hell, my friend and I thought it would be funny and boy, were we pleasantly surprised! It is undoubtedly slow but it more than makes up for it in the end and the way it plays with the plot, characters and its cyclical nature is nothing short of genius. There is a sense of satisfaction at the end although some of it is confusing and I think that's what the director was trying to convey: While we try to make sense of life, we can't make sense of everything and sometimes you just have to accept that and go with the flow. If you're unsure about seeing this, don't be and go with that flow!
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