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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 30 October 2014
This article is a review of HAEMOO a.k.a. SEA FOG.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“See you back on the golden shore!” Subsection Chief Kim (Yoon Je-moon) to Captain Cheol-joo (Kim Yoon-seok)
Women on board are bad luck, so believe the old hand fishermen. Of course, that means the superstition is going to be challenged. Other than that, attempting to predict the outcome of a film involving Bong Joon-ho is a game one happily loses. Modern maestro Bong has stepped out of the director’s chair and made room for his MEMORIES OF MURDER co-writer, Sim Seong-bo; instead taking on producing and co-writing duties. As a debut it is almost unfair to compare, but his colleague’s body of work looms large. SNOWPIERCER is fresh in the memory.
Women on board are bad luck, so believe the old hand fishermen. Of course, that means the superstition is going to be challenged. Other than that, attempting to predict the outcome of a film involving Bong Joon-ho is a game one happily loses. Modern maestro Bong has stepped out of the director’s chair and made room for his MEMORIES OF MURDER co-writer, Sim Seong-bo; instead taking on producing and co-writing duties. As a debut it is almost unfair to compare, but his colleague’s body of work looms large. SNOWPIERCER is fresh in the memory.
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As THE HOST added imperialism commentary to the monster movie, and MEMORIES OF MURDER shone a light on corruption amid a precision-tooled police procedural, HAEMOO injects economic observations into the modern film noir.
October 1998, creaking fishing vessel, Junjim, doesn’t waste time nearly dragging one of its crew into a malfunctioning winch. The audience is duly primed. Back on land, Captain Cheol-joo, played by Kim Yoon-seok, who usually delivers male swagger (THE YELLOW SEA, THE THIEVES, WOOCHI: THE DEMON SLAYER), has humiliation heaped: Spiralling debts and walking in on his wife unapologetically cuckolding him. Now homeless too, desperation causes him to enter a shady deal: From piscator to people trafficker. Shady businessman Yeo Sang-goo (Jo Deok-jae) hands Cheol-joo a wad of cash, and seals the deal with a gold watch; all the while eels float around in a fish tank – slimy imagery precursor.
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No democracy, the crew are not consulted. Brief introduction is not enough for us to be intrigued by them. And that’s what is going to stop HAEMOO reaching top-notch genre status.
Immigrants illegally smuggled into South Korea is the mission. Ship to ship transfer is undertaken in a perilous storm, the standout sequence. Pretty female passenger Hong-mae (Han Ye-ri) drops into the water and would be collateral damage if not for grand-mamma’s boy Dong-sik (Park Yoo-chun). Twenty-six years old and innocent, he is the humanity among the half-dozen crew – hardened ambivalence at best, deviance at worst. Descent into amorality would be gripping and tragic if we actually knew them; reminding of Kevin Bacon’s in HOLLOW MAN – already an egoist, his transformation is not as revelatory as it should have been.
Having women on board is a touchpaper, but the lack of mutual trust between human cargo and crew is of larger issue. HAEMOO about-faces unexpectedly.
A mildly disappointing experience – potential is squandered for typical genre thrills – is elevated by the final images. Hollywood would likely have assuaged an uneasy audience. South Korean cinema when firing on all cylinders has no interest in mollycoddling.
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