How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 26 May 2015
This a movie review of THE SHAMELESS. |
“I’m sorry Hye-kyung, I killed Hwang,” Park Joon-gil (Park Sung-woong)
The second sentence uttered in a crime drama about emotional evisceration. Early striking tracking shots towards the crime scene of said murder, and an action sequence, suggest an atmospheric thriller that never materialises. Overly long and poorly paced, THE SHAMELESS, in the hands of a Bong Joon-ho, might have been something special. As a character study one can admire a different tack taken in a genre chock full of product, and therefore needing constant reinvention to keep from ennui. However, shorn of attention-grabbing stylistics the script is not enough.
The second sentence uttered in a crime drama about emotional evisceration. Early striking tracking shots towards the crime scene of said murder, and an action sequence, suggest an atmospheric thriller that never materialises. Overly long and poorly paced, THE SHAMELESS, in the hands of a Bong Joon-ho, might have been something special. As a character study one can admire a different tack taken in a genre chock full of product, and therefore needing constant reinvention to keep from ennui. However, shorn of attention-grabbing stylistics the script is not enough.
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Criminal enforcer Joon-gil has murdered a man the audience never meets. Motivation is extrapolated: Hwang was threatening his lover, Kim Hye-kyung (Jeon Do-yeon – excellent as always). Now hunted by his former employer, a shady influential corporation, Jay Investment, which has the ear of the corrupter elements of the police force, the authorities also want him. Detective Jung Jae-gon (Kim Nam-gil) is assigned. Not bribable, but also with a reputation of going beyond the strict rule of law, Jae-gon tracks down Joon-gil. The first of only two action sequences unfurls excitingly. Cop fear of the suspect means an unusual attempt at subduing, which goes wrong and Joon-gil escapes. (Such a precipitous capture of course would have resulted in a very brief movie.)
The rest of the runtime is Jae-gon going undercover; primary appearance transformation: Swapping sombre cop shirt to gaudy underworld fashion. Such lazy and cliché sartorial choice wordlessly demonstrates disdain for the culture he has entered. Lone wolf pursuit of target is wise not to compete with the likes of THE CHASER; instead THE SHAMELESS is more interested in the moral bankruptcy of society. No one met in the 118 minutes is sans tarnish. Working in the film’s favour is the condemnation of pervasive misogyny.
Realising the best bet for Joon-gil’s arrest is to come into the circle of lover Hye-kyung, Jae-gon commences work at the latter’s downmarket hostess bar. In a more tedious flick, a sentimental love story would emerge. Cynicism and jaded leads allow their world-weariness to soak into the atmosphere. In a perennial Noh play, the mask of steeliness is rarely allowed to slip. Who will break first is a plus of the plot.
Pessimistic population evisceration needed to be taken up to another level.
1980s Hollywood is mercifully given a wide berth, though a shame mid-2000-era South Korean cinema is not embraced.
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