Korean film Bad Guy was released with a huge controversy and calls for a ban or at least censorship. It’s fair to say that understanding the reasons as to why such calls were made are plain and obvious to see. What’s most interesting is that perhaps the director was convinced of the legitiamcy of the film, that is is plausible.
A man forces himself upon a girl, by kissing her in public. As far as the girl is concerned he’s assaulting her, and it’s only when the crowd gathers that he stops. She demands an apology but he walks away, only to be stopped and beaten by soldiers who just happen to be in the vicinity. The girl spits on his bloddied face and walks off with her boyfriend in disgust.
As revenge, the man frames the girl in a pick pocket scam, tempting her to steal. Selfish greed prevails, and she’s caught, with the victim forcing her to choose between going to the police, or to a loan shark to pay him off. She agrees to the loan shark, only to find that her collateral is that of her body. So the girl is forced into prostituion, working in a brothel where the man is a pimp, and she is whore.
This is when things go a little awry. Hang-gi, the pimp, always watches her being dehumanised and humiliated by clients, having lost her viriginity in brutal fashion to a customer. She wanting to have lost it to her boyfriend, only to have him beaten up and her taken away. Thing start to become less convincing as the director and script writer attempt to convince the audience this is going to become a legitimate romance out of torrid circumtance.
There is the theory of Stockholm syndrome where individuals in a dangerous situation held captive by their captor develop and affinity and bond of trust and friendship. You could argue it’s the same here. The difference between the two, however, is that the affinity developed is often through give and take. In this film, the girl is continually abused, kidnapped, mistreated and made to feel as though her very existence is to be an object of sin. From this, somehow, we are given the illogical step that she will thank the pimp for all he has done, even when she discovers this was a motive of revenge.
A side story also develops, which is slighty odd in that it suggests that the girl who he kidnaps, coherses and pimps is strikingly similar to a girl who was in love with, or was related to him in some fashion. No explanation is given, per se, but I guess you have to come up with your own conclusions. It’s possible that Hang-gi is actually imagining most of what has happened, or that he’s reverting back to some lost memory. Just when you think it ends, it extends further, to show that the two have bonded, and feel it’s ok to sell her body to any man willing to offer a few dollars.
The film has been described as a high quality, gritty drama. For me it’s a low-fi, shoe string budget film with little in the way of convinction with more holes in it’s plot than swiss cheese. Why doesn’t the boyfriend report the incident? What about the girl’s parents, aren’t they interested in where her daighter is? Her friends? Colleagues? Teachers? It seems no one bothers to file a missing person’s report. Add to which, incidents which occur with violence, often result in recovery that Wolverine of X-men would be envious of. This is all without the aid of mutant genes.
Bad Guy has to be credited for trying something different, for daring to challenge, and I don’t know why feminists felt the need to be up in arms about the treatment of the female. It is a film after all, and some of it is a half truth that does go on. What’s curious is that if the director wanted the story to be realistic, then he offers little reason for the realism to be acceptable. Hang-gi watches for many days and weeks the girl’s brutal abuse and degeneration into a submissive, brainwashed, obediant dog. Never having helped her, or come to her aid in truth, yet she still feels some sort of affinity with him. It’s stupid, really, with little context and as such no basis for reality.
Covering issues such as prostitution, loan sharking, murder, betrayal and rape of humanity from individuals, it’s strange that the film offers a snapshot of only the most brutal of moments. It is tender in places, but this is as far fetched as the romanticism that it fails to engage. Hang-gi doesn’t talk throughout the entire film, until he has one line towards the end which results in a squeaking hilarious moment. I had assumed the character was dumb, but it’s revelation was so inappropriate and poorly handled that you can only laugh.
A series of moments, and repetition of abuse and violence, and more repetition, rinse and repeat. It’s like watching a wash cycle, which offers no variation, a slow plodding pace and little in the way of entertainment. It’s potential for being a good film was there, but it seems the creators decided to jack the potential in favour of controversy. Poltically incorrect, of course, but without context or merit, which simply provides cheap thrills for the often easily shocked audiences.
Verdict: Not quite trash, but with few redeeming features and a plot that has no logic, it’s pretty close to being in the bin