BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY Korean Limited Edition DVD review
Yet another Korean Limited Edition DVD falls into my grubby little paws, and again it's a thriller by a first-time director who also wrote the script.
But there all similarities end. For starters "Beautiful Sunday" wasn't a success at the box office, and its very nature is different. It isn't just out to entertain you with a thrilling story but aims for the heart with deadly seriousness. The film doesn't totally succeed in finding it's target but it scores major points for ambition, especially for a first effort.
So what is it about?
For once the distributor's blurb is so spot on that I'm going to let it do the talking. It's about 90 % correct which is just the way I like it!
Faced with mounting hospital bills for his comatose wife, detective Kang (Park Yong-Woo) arranges for a portion of the wares from a drug bust to end up in a rival gang's hands in exchange for a cut of the profits. Kang is willing to do anything to get the money he needs, but the crossed gang is equally determined to recover their stolen goods. In another part of town, Min-Woo (Nam Gung-Min) and Su-Yeon (Min Ji-Hye, The Fox Family) meet in a bookstore, fall in love, and get married. What seems like a happy ending derails when Su-Yeon discovers that her loving husband is the same man who raped her one night in a dark street. For these two desperate men who have erred in the name of love, crime only leads to more crime as they try to confront their wrongdoings.
What happens when their paths cross one beautiful Sunday?
What indeed? Well, seeing as how the first ten seconds of the movie show one guy taunting the other to shoot him, you can be sure it isn't going to be "flower arranging".
Read on...
The Plot:
I really have nothing to add to that blurb above. It creates the correct mindset needed to watch this movie, and telling more would be spoiling things.
The Movie:
This is the second time this week that a Korean first-time director surprises me with the overall slickness of his film. It looks gorgeous and the nice action scene which starts the opening credits is fast and ferocious, making me think I was in for a fun movie.
Quickly though it became obvious that the concept of "fun" does not have a place in the lives of these main characters. The beginning shows detective Kang and Min Woo making terrible mistakes, and the rest of the film is spent having them pay for it. Their two storylines are intercut but not intertwined, so we switch between characters but they're not exactly part of the same story. By the time they finally meet, both mad with guilt and stress, they have lots to discuss about each others failings.
I'm not kidding either: if ever I'll feel bad, I'll just think back to these characters and remind myself that maybe I'm not so screwed after all. These people may live in a bright and slick-looking universe but their existence is tortured, dark and leaden.
So instead of going for entertainment this film tries to tell you an Important Message . It's about guilt for being part of an unforgivable crime and the impossibility of redemption, no matter how good a person you'll be the rest of your life. Unfortunately it tries to do so using a combination of relentless melodrama and cartoonish stereotype which harms the film in no small way.
Especially the double-crossed gangsters are evil, evil, EVIL! Which makes it all the stranger that nobody seemingly expects any retaliation from these thugs, and we as viewers are expected to be shocked when it happens. Why? There's no need to make them so over the top vile as I think double-crossed drug dealers would retaliate anyway, exceptionally evil or not. The fact that a distinction is made between evil gangsters and not-so-evil gangsters is a doubtful one in any case, but if you do use it at least make the double-crossed guys the good ones. That wouldn't have harmed the story, unlike this bunch of looneys.
As for melodrama, expect the worst possible thing to happen in any dramatic situation and the movie suddenly becomes very predictable. You expect director Jin Kwang-Gyo to start playing with these cliches a bit, but he doesn't: he just uses them.
No doubt the good intentions are there but because of the cliches the end result comes closer to "Daisy" than to "Oldboy". It doesn't help that when I was proofreading this article a masthead popped up for "Lady Vengeance", a movie which tackles these same issues far better and manages to be very entertaining at the same time.
Which doesn't mean there is nothing to like in "Beautiful Sunday". As said, there is nothing wrong with the production values as it looks like Jin Kwang-Gyo was given a big bag of money to play with. The film also features quite a nice and haunting music score, so you often have something to listen to. What little action there is is filmed good, and the finale when the two men meet is a joy to watch even though it is a bit too slow at the start. The good part lasts very long and builds up tension, all the while explaining plot points in both storylines, and it brings out some stellar acting from both of the leads.
Also, I was especially impressed with the rape scene in the beginning. It will leave exploitation fans disappointed for not showing anything at all, yet leaves no mistake about the emotional devastation involved for both participants.
The build-up to that even comes dangerously close to explaining why Min-Woo rapes the girl, showing the mix of lust, awkwardness, anger and the realisation that this is probably the closest he'll ever be to her. No woman deserves to be raped of course but in this case she already acts as a rape victim when nothing has happened yet, and this plays some part in turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But, and this is very much stressed by the film as important, that doesn't exonerate Min-Woo in any way and he fully realises that afterwards. This part could have so easily gone wrong but Jin Kwang-Gyo and both actors all score points here with a difficult scene done very well.
On the subject of acting: it's mostly good throughout the movie but it's a mixed bag. Some supporting characters are paper cutouts and are played as such, but the main characters all have more difficult roles and mostly manage to pull it off though.
Min Ji-Hye as Su-Yeon acts human enough to avoid becoming too angelic. Park Yong-Woo plays each of "stressed out", "tough" and "dead tired" really well, but all at the same time becomes a bit much in one or two points. It doesn't help that the script gives him a couple of very awkward moments.
Nam Gung-Min is very impressive though as Min-Woo, shifting when needed between innocent, creepy and dangerous seemingly without effort. Unlike his counterpart he gets untarnished through the most melodramatic parts of the script, no small feat I assure you.
As said earlier, the finale gives both of them moments to shine and they fully use it. Shame it gets a bit spoiled by an epilogue which is so over the top über-dramatic that it almost becomes funny.
Conclusion:
Watching "Beautiful Sunday", you get the impression that Jin Kwang-Gyo desperately wants to be Park Chan-Wook. And let's be fair: you could take a worse example.
But the total absence of any levity, coupled with shallow patches in the characterisation, makes this movie too heavy for it's own good. It obviously wants to hit its mark so badly but for that to happen you need to make the audience care a bit more than happens now.
That doesn't mean this film is a total failure: as a first effort it's certainly a fine achievement. It's just that its flaws make it fall short of true greatness, which is a damn shame as you feel that with a slightly better script it would easily have reached it.
On to the DVD:
KD-Media has released this film as a two-disc Limited Edition, in a standard Amaray with a nice iridescent slipcover. Like I said, nice, but does this mean the era of the huge pimpin' Korean packaging is over? For shame, I haven't seen one of those in months!
The discs themselves are nicely loaded with extras though, so I shouldn't complain too much. Well, barring the usual: no English subs on the extras. sigh...
Disc one contains the movie, with an unsubbed commentary by the director and his three leads (yes, Min Ji-Hye counts). It also contains an after commentary, and I still haven't figured out what that is because I don't speak Korean.
Video is sharp and features none of the excessive tinkering which messed "Paradise Murdered" up a bit. This film features a nice soundtrack and the Dolby 5.1 fully demonstrates it. Subs contain quite a bit of errors, but nothing that makes the movie incomprehensible.
Disc two is loaded, and here are the contents:
Making of: Twenty-odd minutes of talking heads interspaced with some interesting look at how they shot the rape (it actually shows more than the movie, but is still refreshingly decent).
Action Scene Featurette: The opening fight and some other stuff, explained really well. You get a good impression about the huge amount of preparation which goes into such a thing. It pays of though: the scene is a good one, with imaginative use of a guitar.
Outtakes: The bloopers. Flubbed lines during emotional scenes are funny in every language. But this part also shown that skinny-looking Park Yong-Woo is actually freakishly muscular when he takes his shirt off, and the funniest bit concerns the problems surrounding fitting the whole crew in a very small inside location.
White Day Event: A look at a marketing event for the movie.
Deleted Scenes: There are a few interesting things here: some scenes show traumatic events in the past of the rapist. It's good these were left out though, as the movie is already overdramatic as it is. Other scenes hint at an earlier connection between the two men, but this would likewise have spoiled the movie. The final exposition is fine where it is now: at the end.
Fan Meeting: An interview between a fan and Park Yong-Woo, with both acting delighted.
Music Video: This movie has a haunting soundtrack, but you wouldn't guess it from this song.
Theatrical Trailer: Good one, doesn't spoil too much.
Photo Gallery: Totally unnecessary, as it consists only of stills of the movie. I have a "pause" button on my remote and know how to use it, so this served no purpose.
All in all a nice set of extras. Some are fun, some interesting and some fluff, but fans of the movie should be satisfied with this solid release.
