PSIFF Report: Korean Backlash -- Notes on Lady Vengeance, Welcome to Dongmakgol, and The Bow

Excellent reviews, Peter. I was overwhelmed on seeing the first installment of the Vengeance trilogy and I was even more surprised by Lady Vengeance, esp. after reading so many lukewarm reviews. I hope it gets the attention it deserves when it hits our shores. At the other end of the spectrum, I guess I'm too cynical to appreciate Dongmakgol's message of love and peace, though there certainly is no lack of eye candy on display. Re: backlash, Do you think the answer lies in more co-productions with Japan, China, et al?

BFI recently posted a very interesting article the violence in Korean cinema, as well as some possible historical and social reasons. It's a very interesting read, and while it doesn't quite redeem Lady Vengeance for me (I thought it was the weakest of the three movies by far), it does give some food for thought.

Very Interesting article indeed, by Kaiju Shakedown's own Grady Hendrix...Excellent survey of Korean cinema for the initiated or unintiated alike...

There is one small error in the piece, It was Rex Reed which made the Kimchi/Earthenware Pots comment, not Andrew Sarris.

Ah freak. Totally forgot about this event....though I'm kinda surprised I didn't see anything about it in leading up to the event.

There are few enough film festivals in the Southern California region as it is.

Don't get me wrong--I love Grady, never miss Kaiju Shakedown--but his brief survey of violence in Korean cinema, "Vengeance is Theirs" is a tad too glib for the uninitiated. His tongue-in-cheek portrayal of "Welcome to Dongmakgol" as a "goofy culture-clash flick about the Korean War" and his dismissal of "A Tale of Two Sisters" as a "mutated take on the J-horror wave" are not to be taken seriously. But then again, readers of the slightly stuffy British journal Sight and Sound probably know that.

Actually, the piece being of a look at the forest, not the trees, overview and western perception...I many not agree with some of his so-called glib remarks, but it more than gets the job done...It's opinion after all, not fact!

Certainly worth a look for anyone following, or looking to follow the S.Korean wave since 2002 or so..

"Actually, the piece being of a look at the forest, not the trees, overview and western perception...I many not--Quote, Kirk

Ohhh, I get it now, Kurt--it's about Western perceptions of Korean cinema...and that it's o.k. to cut down a few trees 'cause were lookin' at the forest...

Grady is worth reading because he is usually perceptive as well as highly entertaining. His passionate defense of underappreciated works like "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" and his recent bashing of "Zenda" prove however, that he doesn't have to be either witty or clever to get his point across.

Anyone familiar with Korean cinema knows that "The President's Last Bang" is much more than just a political satire & that "Welcome to Dongmakgol" is not merely "a goofy culture-clash flick." If those and other similar statements were read in all earnestness by a neophyte, he would surely be missing out on some of the best cinema has to offer today. My points are:

1) Grady's work is usually perceptive & highly entertaining
2) Grady's writing does not depend on cleverness to be effective
3) Cleverness gets in the way of good judgement in the BFI article

Hey - thanks for the comments. I'm still red over the Rex Reed/Andrew Sarris mix-up. I totally get your point about sounding glib, but quite honestly it had more to do with word count than with dismissing the movies. I actually like TALE OF TWO SISTERS quite a bit, and I think calling it a mutated take on the J-horror wave isn't as dismissive as you do. I have a lot of respect for what Kim Ji-Won did with that film, especially the way he actually finds an emotional center in the last scene, something that I think way too many recent horror movies are sorely lacking. Unfortunately, any comments I had on TALE had to be put on hold (I talk about it a bit in an earlier FILM COMMENT article) because I just didn't have space to do much with it and still do justice to what I'd been hired to write about (SYMPATHY and BITTERSWEET in particular).

As for DONGMAKOL - I know a lot of people like it but it just didn't appeal to me at all. The only reason I even mentioned it was to contrast the overseas excitement in 2005 for SYMPATHY FOR LADY V with the fact that a rather mainstream, non-extreme movie was actually what was doing big business in Korea at the same time. I think among distributors the perception of Asian cinemas is way different than the reality. I wish a US distributor would take a chance on any number of excellent Korean movies that don't fit the genre mold: CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST, JSA, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE, and so on.

nice work as always, Grady.

I wonder, is the Lady V review by Tony Rayns? Last time I was subscribed to the mag, he was the one who would review Korean movies, usually.