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had my doubts about "Hanbando" from the
very beginning. It was clearly a nationalistic
film, the sort of patriotic movie that exploits a
very current situation in order to grab an
audience. In this case, the issue is the
continuing confrontation between
South Korea
and
Japan
, something that has been going on for decades
between the two countries. "Hanbando" is
directed by Kang Woo-Suk, whom some may remember
for his very entertaining film "Silmido,"
a true story about Korean soldiers secretly
trained to assassinate the North Korean dictator,
but who ultimately were killed and forgotten by
their own government. While I loved
"Silmido" and enthusiastically
introduced it to others, I must admit that Kang
has been developing a bad habit of late, in that
he is producing films that are just too darn long
and dull. "Another
Public Enemy" is a prime example of a
simple story stretched into 2 and a half hour. The
same happens here with "Hanbando".
"Hanbando" is about
the desperate search for the real Gukswei, a
government stamp that approves important
documents. Supposedly, the previous Gukswei used
to approve so many documents that benefited the
Japanese government for the past few decades was
fake. The real one was concealed by one of our
past king before he was poisoned by the Japanese.
By finding the real Gukswei, the Korean
government can regain control over the informal
Japanese occupation that is still happening today,
only with less violence and more financial debt
issues.
If you don't follow any of
this, it's okay, as the story is not all that
interesting. There are a whole bunch of
characters, including the Korean president, an
obsessive historian, and at least a dozen others
thrown into the mix. It's not too hard to figure
out who these people are, as they are played
by recognizable actors, but the real problem is
the fact that "Hanbando" is just so darn
boring. People continue to talk in rooms again and
again to the point where you just want some kind
of action to move things along. There's only one
scene that qualifies as action, and it's
pathetically short.
Otherwise, nothing seems to
ever happen in "Hanbando". Take the
sequence where battleships are deployed at sea to
prepare for a possible war between
Korea
and
Japan
. There is an entire segment in which the
President speaks directly to the commander about
their difficult situation, after which the
commander declares his undying patriotism for some
agonizingly long minutes. In the end, the
battleships end up doing absolutely nothing.
Point is, despite the issues
addressed in the film that are guaranteed to add
fire to the already serious anti-Japanese
sentiment in current Korea, watching people
constantly talk is just not all that fun. And
someone has got to tell director Kang to hire an
editor that knows how to cut down a movie.
"Hanbando" has no business being as long
as it is. On the flip side, the ending is too
abrupt. However, one nice editing technique I
noticed was the film's juxtaposing of the past and
the present during conversations. By the way, what
is it with Kang's movies never having a female
character, or at least a proper one?
Foreigners will have even a
harder time enjoying "Hanbando", as its
patriotism is all that really makes it somewhat
watchable for the Korean audience. It's all about
stirring up Korean nationalism, but unfortunately
I didn't really buy any of it. I'm as patriotic as
they come, but this is ridiculous. If people want
to see a Korean political film done right, check
out "The President's Last Bang." It's
filled with priceless moments of dark comedy,
something this movie could have used more of.
Also worth noting is
"Hanbando's" portrayal of the
pro-Japanese faction, which is very negative, and
is an obvious way of avoiding any bad word of
mouth within the Korean community. However, I
actually found the pro-Japanese faction to be more
reasonable, despite the filmmakers' best attempts.
After all, they are only looking at the modern
world realistically in declaring that
Korea
needs
Japan
economically; the main characters are people who
are too preoccupied with history to care enough
about what is happening in the real world.
Simply put,
"Hanbando" bored me to death. The
filmmakers spent so much money on production
values and CGI, but forgot to make their film
involving. The locations look very nice and
expensive, but they do nothing for the film's
entertainment value. "Hanbando" is
easily the most boring and pointless film I've
seen all year, and the fact that it's making so
much money in
Korea
only adds salt to the wound.
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