NYAFF 09 Review: ROUGH CUT

[Our thanks to Charles Webb for the following review.]

In this Ki-duk Kim penned filmmaking drama, hot-headed actor Su-ta (Ji-hwan Kang) has to turn to charismatic gangster Gang-pae (Ji-seob So) to co-star in his latest film after injuring his latest co-lead. In exchange for appearing in the film, the gangster demands that the fights they perform be real – and that the outcomes not be constrained by the script. This intriguing premise had the potential to explore the connections between film and the realities they create but instead becomes something incredibly pedestrian by film’s end.

It should be noted first and foremost that the film belongs to Ji-seob So, who, in the final analysis has the meatier of the two roles. As a gangster who longed to be an actor he finds himself torn between the tumult inside his gang and a lifelong aspiration. The actor gets across so much with his mournful eyes, smiling not once during the film but communicating a great deal of emotion. Still, in spite of his electrifying performance he’s hamstrung by a role that puts him through the motions of generic gangster drama.

As Su-ta, Ji-hwan Kang gets the blustery, obnoxious side of celebrity correct, but he doesn’t come through the other side in any way appreciably changed. The actor - whether through lack of direction or his own interpretation of the role - doesn’t seem to earn any emotional change by the last scene of the movie.

Given that this is a movie about movies, Rough Cut feels so flat-footed both in the actual experience as well as the film within the film (whose shape viewers never get a sense of). There are some shallow observations about the nature of celebrity, with Su-ta being in front of the press for all the wrong reasons and concealing his girlfriend out of fear of bad publicity. It all seems so perfunctory and cobbled together from other, lesser scripts.

The director of the film, Jang Hun holds the camera squarely in place – that is to say there’s nothing visually interesting enough for viewers to remember after the fact. Ki-duk Kim has been responsible for several beautiful and incisive movies in the last few years. He has a way with emotion and things unsaid – his silences are explosive, cruel, gentle, and wonderful. This movie is loud, general and unappealing unlike any of the other films I’ve seen him associated with. I’ve had to check several times to see if he was responsible for this movie and learned that he also produced it.

The problem is that this movie has nothing to say. There are some broad parallels between Su-ta and Gang-pae (their relationships with women and their own self-image) but it all feels like the surface layer with nowhere else to go.

Review by Charles Webb.