How entertaining? ★★★★★
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 11 July 2016
A movie review of THE BACCHUS LADY. |
YouTube review:
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“Should’ve worn a condom,” So-young (Youn Yuh-jung)
When the opening scene has its 65-year old leading lady diagnosed with gonorrhoea, you know all bets are off. Director E J-yong is never one to be easily pigeonholed, in terms of stories and themes, bar the skill and sensitivity of creating well-rounded female characters. So-young is tragic and fascinating, among much else. To the point and difficult to read, Youn Yuh-jung’s performance compels.
When the opening scene has its 65-year old leading lady diagnosed with gonorrhoea, you know all bets are off. Director E J-yong is never one to be easily pigeonholed, in terms of stories and themes, bar the skill and sensitivity of creating well-rounded female characters. So-young is tragic and fascinating, among much else. To the point and difficult to read, Youn Yuh-jung’s performance compels.
Back to that sexually transmitted infection reveal… At the same clinic a woman, Camilla, arrives and claims the doctor is the father of her five-year old son, Kang Min-ho (Choi Hyun-jun), who is half-Korean, half Filipino and only speaks the language of his mother. The physician, a knave, clearly responsible due to his reaction, denies parentage, leading to the mother stabbing him in frustrated anger. Not a life-threatening wound, she is arrested and separated from Min-ho, who runs off. Later, a nurse at the surgery, when discussing the incident, demonstrates disdain at the mention of the callous doctor. Such societal double standard is only part of the contempt the film quietly exudes. Vitriol, on behalf of those at community fringes dismissed by the wider population, bubbles under the surface.
So-young finds Min-ho, and while superficially irascible, her warm heart takes him in until it can be decided what to do. Caring for an illegal immigrant child is one of the many humanistic strands running through the runtime.
It is not as if So-young is a wealthy retired granny who can afford the time/money to look after a homeless child. The movie may have the initial feel of Charles Dickens, but there is no ‘Oliver Twist’ idealised denouement. You see, our protagonist is a retirement-age sex worker. Her and her colleagues are known coyly as “Bacchus ladies”; they ostensibly peddle an energy soft drink known as “Bacchus”, but actually offer old men sexual release. The damning observation is of the 11th richest country devastatingly lacking in welfare safety nets.
In a scene where an old friend of So-young, Song, lies in a hospital bed incapacitated after a stroke, whose family barely offer any care, demonstrates the disintegration of inter-generational relations; merciless modern avarice and selfishness has stepped in. This new society is caught between the worst of two worlds: new Western indifference and old Eastern patriarchal conservatism. When Song begs So-young to euthanize him, THE BACCHUS LADY goes into an even tougher place. MILLION DOLLAR BABY-esque self-determination analysis is tied to the hypocrisy of civilisation, punishing the act while at the same time offering little choice to the poor/infirm/crushingly lonely. The lead becomes an angel of mercy, each request used to illustrate a different tragedy and injustice. There is no PRETTY WOMAN, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA rescue.
Do not worry that the narrative might be too overwhelming. Positivity comes in the form of her neighbours that live in a courtyard idyll. Tina (An A-zu) is the generous transgender landlady, Do-hoon (Yoon Kye-sang) is a one-legged tenant with a prosthetic, and a friendly black lady, Adinolum, all reside with So-young. In less skilled hands, there might have been accusations of demographic box-ticking, but here the characters are fully formed, lovingly created as well as being cyphers; an impressively progressive and diverse neighbourhood portrayal.
THE BACCHUS LADY addresses the problems facing the world’s ageing population: Poverty, neglect, dignity and suicide. The film intriguingly spans all the way to the year 2019, and then departs on an emotional sucker punch.
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