Once Upon a Time in Myungdong

When you've made ninety-nine films in just over forty years, is it possible to continually remain original, come up with new ideas, and direct a film without simply going through the motions? Perhaps, but that unfortunately is not the case with Im Kwon-taek's centesimal-minus-one, Low Life. The film, which kicked off the 60 Years of South Korean Cinema retrospective at the Walter Reade Theater, traces the many rises and falls of Tae-ung (Cho Seung-woo) through the tumultuous 60s in the Myungdong district of Seoul. At the reception following the film, Filmbrain was chatting with a Korean film critic who likened the film to reading the table of contents in lieu of an entire book -- a very astute assessment. Low Life is similar, in structure at least, to films like Goodfellas and Once Upon a Time in America -- the life of a gangster over several years, and how societal and political changes affect the way they earn a living. But whereas Scorsese and Leone had those changes take a backseat to tremendous stories of greed and betrayal, Im's characters get lost amongst the ever-changing face of South Korea. This is actually quite frustrating, as there is tremendous potential presented in the first reel that is sadly never actualized. Tae-ung is a young man who has only one method of dealing with a crisis -- violence. Adopted as a teenager into a family that takes pity on him, he grows close with his new brother Seung-moon (Yu Ha-jun), a political activist, and sister Hae-oak (Kim Min-seon), whom he later will marry. While Seung-moon and Hae-oak head off to university, Tae-ung becomes a gangster, working directly for the gang leader Sang-pil. In this period, we see the fall of Syngman Rhee's corrupt government and the rise of General Park's military dictatorship. Finding life as a gangster too difficult under this new regime, Tae-ung turns his sights towards movies, and becomes a producer. This proves to be an even greater challenge -- what with having to share an actress who is concurrently acting in nine films, and dealing with pressure from the censors who claim his films are too sexually explicit, too anti-American, and too anti-government. Finding this an impossible career choice, he returns to gangsterdom, where he works securing construction contracts. This opens his eyes to government corruption, and by the film's end Tae-ung is a full-fledged businessman, albeit with questionable practices. To recreate the 60s, director Im had the production team build an elaborate set of over 64,000 square feet, and the end result is impressive, right down to the tiniest of details. Unfortunately, the look of the film (as well as the fine performances by all) aren't enough to make the film compelling. Too much detail is paid to the external forces -- we learn of the 1965 student riots, North Korean spies in Seoul in 1968, and the abolition of all democratic institutions by General Park in 1972. A very interesting history lesson, but the drama falls by the wayside. We keep waiting for Tae-ung's character to develop, but he never does. Given the radically diverging paths of the two brothers, one would have expected this to be a source of conflict, but that too never arrives. As his wife, Hae-oak (now a schoolteacher) goes from quietly tolerating Tae-ung's "career" (which often has him arriving home bloody and beaten) to finding it hard to stand by his choices, especially when his neglect becomes such that he meets her only to drop off his dirty laundry. What is interesting is how Tae-ung is seemingly indifferent to the changes taking place in his country -- as long as he can find a new angle, a way of making money off of whomever is in power, he's satisfied. If only this idea, in contrast to his brother who sacrifices everything in order to keep fighting the regime, had been better explored, the film would have been far more interesting. Instead, we find a fragmented story that just stops -- as if nobody involved could be bothered to go on. As mentioned above, watching Low Life is ultimately a frustrating experience. A film that looks wonderful, contains top-notch performances, is highly entertaining, but lacks the punch of many of the director's classic films from decades past.

Comments

[Adam Hartzell]

How was Kim Min-seon in this? She was excellent in MEMENTO MORI, but pretty unimpressive in everything I've seen her in since (A.F.R.I.K.A., MY BEAUTIFUL DAYS, and a strange, brief cameo in 2009 LOST MEMORIES).

[Filmbrain]

Adam -

I agree with you about Kim Min-seon. After such a wonderful performance in Memento Mori, she really seems to have landed bad roles. She is quite good in this film, though she doesn't have too much to do, which is a shame.

[Darren]

Low Life is the only film that I walked out of at Toronto. I think I lasted about forty minutes. I was just too irritated by the pacing and the tone of the film -- too many quick jumps from sequence to sequence with too little tying them together.

[phyrephox]

I briefly reviewed this on my site and pretty much agreed with you. The kineticism of the street brawls really surprised me. This also was the longest 99min movie I have ever see.

Did you get to see The Housemaid? An AMAZING film.

[Cubie]

Nashville...'you may say I ain't free. But it don't worry me.' An ending that is still revelant in today's political struggles.

[chris franklin]

Make a good Korean film, one that looks down at American Culture (a la as did the culture of 80's Japan) rather than one that does some kind of pale imitation with Koreans in "sabiro."

CF