2016
South Korea
Spirits' Homecoming
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The Dick Clark Productions vibe is unfortunate, as is the fact that S Korea apparently doesn't want to put muscle and talent behind telling the story. After watching it, I read (presumably) the review where the guy more or less said that the film is a disservice to the women and the story because it's poorly done. Yeah, weird gripe, but I agree with some of the points he made on his way to that conclusion (which he seemed to have before seeing the film). Zhang Yimou did make this film--with cinema gravity, and arguably the first Caucasian who isn't an idiot. I've seen the handful of films made about the "Nanjing Massacre" and they all, mostly, rose to the occasion. City of Life and Death is a great film. South Korea should man up and do this right. But ... different cultures, different balances of power. I can't recommend the film even grading on a curve. It's amateurishness is distracting and distancing. Having said that, however, after the moving experience of City of Life and Death I did think: "Or, you could just read the Wikipedia article". Summary: Two Korean girls, Jung-Min (14) and Young-hee (15) are kidnapped by the Japanese Imperial Army and taken to a 'Comfort Station' in China. There, they join other kidnapped girls in serving Japanese soldiers as sexual slaves known as 'Comfort Woman'. By the end of the war, only one of the girls survives. Decades later, an elderly lady attempts to reunite with the spirit of her lost friend. Inspired by the testimony of Kang Il-chul. |
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