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 here has been so many South Korean and Japanese gangster
films that they deserve a subgenre of their own – the Traditional Asian
Gangster films, which exists only from South Korea and Japan. Why lump them all
in the same category? For one, the South Koreans and Japanese share almost
identical ideas about what a “gangster” is. There are aberrations, of
course, but for the most part Traditional Asian Gangster films are notoriously
faithful to their conventions. Two of the most prominent tried-and-true you
should expect is a lot of slapping and physical abuse, and a hierarchy of boss
and underlings that relies on deference for tradition rather than anything
tangible.
Ki-duk Kim’s "Bad Guy" is about Han-gi (Jae-hyeon
Jo), a antisocial gangster and pimp who notices college student Sun-hwa (Won
Seo) while waiting at a bench one day. After Han-gi is beaten up by a group of
bystanders for attacking Sun-hwa with a kiss in front of her boyfriend, Han-gi hatches a plan to “turn out” Sun-hwa. It works, and Sun-hwa is added to Han-gi’s stable of
whores. As the days, weeks, and months wear on, Han-gi begins to express more
and more feelings for the reluctant Sun-hwa, who may or may not be warming to
the idea of being nothing more than what her Madame calls a “$50 whore.”
First of all, "Bad Guy" is not an entertaining movie
in so many ways. It’s not a terrible movie exactly; it's just not all that
entertaining. It doesn’t touch the heart, doesn’t make me think, and surely
doesn’t make me feel as if I’ve just sat through something worth 2 hours of
my life. Even at an hour and 40 minutes, "Bad Guy" is too long, too
meandering, and in the end, too pointless. Like many South Korean dramas, it
internalizes everything, and the process of “getting there” is a laborious
sequence of static events made even more laborious by the realization that “there” is
not worth reaching.
Written and directed by Ki-duk Kim ("Coast
Guard"), "Bad Guy" sometimes comes across as a chauvinistic South Korean man’s fantasy. Take, for
example, the movie’s main premise: Pimp Han-gi, realizing that he’s
hopelessly attracted to Sun-hwa but unable to show or even express his emotions
in any “healthy” manner, decides to abduct her and force her into
prostitution. She’s forced to entertain an endless stream of men (many of them
forced to resort to raping her) while Han-gi watches voyeuristically from the
other side of a one-way mirror. The reason for Han-gi’s inability to
consummate his desire for her is eventually revealed, along with an explanation
as to why Han-gi rarely speaks, but by that point I was just hoping this thing
would just end already. Writer/director Ki-duk Kim is obviously seeking to
explore the concept of “love” in all of its odd and strange forms and
reasons. It’s an interesting idea, but a terrible concept for a visual medium.
The chauvinistic underbelly of "Bad Guy" is further
advanced by Sun-hwa’s gradual acceptance of her status as a cheap “$50
whore.” Her attempts to escape are weak and unconvincing. Consider this:
Sun-hwa’s captors, Han-gi and two of his lieutenants, are not only without
weapons, but seems incapable of watching her every hour of every day. And yet
in the months that she’s in their custody, Sun-hwa makes an attempt to escape
only once! It goes without saying that Sun-hwa’s subjugation at the hands of
Han-gi and his pimps are whitewashed, as writer/director Kim wants us to just
“accept it without question.”
Unfortunately I had a lot of questions, like: Where are
Sun-hwa’s parents? Where is her boyfriend? She’s a college student who
disappears one day with 3 strange men in a jeep and no one bothers to come
looking for her? Where are the police? Is there such a thing as “Missing
Persons” in South Korea? And why doesn’t she just run away from the
display window where she’s supposed to attract customers and scream bloody
murder for someone to call the cops or help her?
In any case, "Bad Guy" has such a been-there,
done-that-hundreds-of-times vibe about it that I could predict almost
every single upcoming plot point. There is nothing original about the film,
and its flimsy, unbelievable premise didn’t help matters any. All the
Traditional Asian Gangster conventions are present, and all the female
characters act like mindless mannequins, existing for the purpose of entertaining
our male characters. To say that Sun-Hwa, a supposed college student, has as
much sense as the fake wigs she wears is an understatement.
The male characters, for that matter, are not exactly Einstein themselves.
Everyone has an I.Q. close to 50 and even less ability to make simple common
sense decisions.
Movies are a visual medium, designed to stir emotions with
its tapestry of images, sights, and sounds. "Bad Guy" is a lifeless
carcass, devoid of any passion, and perhaps that’s the whole point. If it is,
then I’ll gladly accept that “I just don’t get it” and move on to
something else. Pointless filmmaking for the sake of pointlessness has never
been my cup of tea.
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