Korean auteur Kim Ki-Duk is on a remarkable roll. While I find his early work inconsistent and best and rather mean spirited at worst his more recent films – Samaritan Girl; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring; 3 Iron – are simply spectacular. So what do you do when your last three films have earned you massive praise world wide and netted you a handful of major international awards? Well, you keep going with what works. While a major plot hole breaks the film's internal logic at the mid point and keeps it from reaching quite as high as 3 Iron, The Bow is clearly the work of a master at the top of his game, a stylistic companion piece to 3 Iron that rounds out a thematic trilogy with Samaritan Girl and Spring, Summer.
The Bow continues Kim's often troubling, complex exploration of morality, picking up fragments of ideas and textures from both Samaritan Girl and Spring, Summer. It tells the story of an old man, somewhere in his sixties by the look of him, who ‘found' a six year old girl ten years previously and has been raising her on his ocean-moored boat for the past ten years. When she reaches the age of seventeen the old man plans to marry her. The two lead characters – both unnamed – live a quiet, isolated, completely non-verbal life on the man's boat where the girl's only contact with the outside world comes in the form of men who charter the boat for fishing trips. The old man ferries these clients to and from shore, the girl never leaves the boat.
If you find the premise a little troubling, a little uncomfortable, that's good. You should. There's something vaguely incestuous about the relationship and it immediately raises a handful of difficult questions. What sort of man confines a young girl away from society, raising her from childhood for the purpose of later marrying her? Where does one ‘find' a girl to raise in this fashion in the first place? And why on earth have none of the men who have chartered his boat for years – and who clearly know about the strange relationship – never bothered treat these questions as anything more than a curiosity?
While it would be simple for Kim to demonize the old man his morality is more complex than that, the questions he wants to raise more subtle. While the bizarre nature of their relationship is unsettling through outside eyes there is no denying that the girl seems perfectly happy with her life in the early going and there is also no denying that the men from the outside world who use the remoteness of their location as an excuse to attempt rape come off looking far worse than the old man. Kim, at least at first, seems to be suggesting that while their living arrangements are certainly unusual and possibly immoral they are certainly no worse than what too often passes for ‘civilized' behavior. But you know what they say about ignorance being bliss …
In the opening of the film the girl knows nothing but the ocean, the kindness and protection of the old man, and the crude gropings of visiting fisherman. She is quietly, radiantly happy, imbued with an elemental, otherworldly beauty that comes from the pure simplicity of her world and her life. But that changes when a fisherman brings his teenage son who takes an immediate interest in the girl. He shares his music with her, talks about life on land, and – most importantly – asks why she has never been there. As she realizes that there is another whole life out there that she has been denied doubt begins to creep in, doubt and resistance …
As with all of Kim's strongest work The Bow is strikingly poetic and minimal, built with grace, beauty, and striking imagery. The film is set entirely in the confines of the old man's boat – the limits of the girl's known world – and Kim puts his small water borne setting to just as striking use here as he did the floating temple of Spring, Summer. The camera work is beautifully rhythmic, following the movement of the ocean. The bow of the title is a central, omnipresent, multi faceted image. At different times it is used as a weapon to protect the girl from harm as well as a weapon to control her. It is used to tell fortunes and, strikingly, it is frequently restrung and played as a musical instrument. The central pair function entirely without speech – the only dialogue in the film comes from the charter fishermen – and Kim again proves himself an absolute master of communication via looks, action and posture. And once again Kim proves himself brave enough to ask difficult questions without feeling the need to give definitive answers: the film's ending is wide open to interpretation.
There is one major flaw with the film – one that I can't get into specifically without veering into major spoiler territory – but that one mis-step ends up being a minor irritation rather than a major deal breaker. The Bow may not reach quite as high as 3 Iron but for a beautiful, complex, conversation starter you really can't go wrong with any of Kim's recent films. Highly recommended.