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the proverb goes, there's nothing more dangerous
than a mother determined to save her endangered
young. But even more dangerous than that? A
grieving mother with nothing left to live for
except revenge. The kind of bloody, "best
served cold" type of revenge that will make
you squirm and at the same time cheer her on
because you know her cause is righteous. That is
the premise of writer/director Eun-jin Bang's
"Princess Aurora", a revenge picture
from
Korea
, the second such film in as many years. The
other, similarly themed effort is, of course, Park
Chan-wook's highly anticipated "Sympathy
for Lady Vengeance". Bang's "
Aurora
" arrives without nearly the fanfare of
"Vengeance", which is a shame as this is
a quality movie worthy of equal recognition.
"Princess Aurora"
stars the versatile Jeong-hwa Eom as Jung
Soon-jung, a woman bent on vengeance. Simply put,
there is a list of people Soon-jung needs dead,
and she's going to make them dead one way or
another. The film opens innocuous enough, with
imported car saleswoman Soon-jung driving to the
mall, where a happenstance meeting inside a
bathroom brings her face to face with an abusive
trophy wife. No sooner does the woman retire into
a bathroom stall does Soon-jung strike, claiming
her first victim in a sudden and shocking splash
of blood and violence. Enter detectives Oh
(Sung-keun Moon) and Jung (Oh-jung Kwon), two men
on opposite ends of the spectrum. Jung is young
and ready to take on the world; Oh is older, and
ready to retire and become a pastor.
Slowly but surely, we become
aware of a connection between Detective Oh and
Soon-jung, a relationship irrevocably altered by a
shared traumatic experience exactly one year ago.
While Oh has turned to religion for salvation,
Soon-jung is not so willing to let go. This past
relationship continues to haunt Oh as the bodies
pile up, and it becomes increasingly evident that
his ex-wife is the culprit. Will Oh use his
knowledge of Soon-jung to catch her, or will she
use it to elude him? And does she even want to be
caught? By the amount of clues she leaves behind,
including a Princess Aurora sticker at every
killing, we're not so sure…
To forcibly keep the audience
in suspense, writer/director Eun-jin Bang cheats
by refusing to tell us the identities of the men
and women on Soon-jung's death list. The answers
are eventually revealed in the film's final 20
minutes (including a plot twist that should be
readily obvious to the more observant in the
audience). For the longest time, we are left to
wonder why Soon-jung is targeting these seemingly
disparate strangers (a kept woman, an abusive
step-mom, a ne'er-do-well son). Bang's decision
pays off, as we wait with bated breath for the
answers. Through it all, we continue to accept
that Soon-jung is justified in her killings, if
only because she just doesn't look…insane.
What keeps "Princess
Aurora" from slipping into cheap exploitation
is measured direction by first-time
writer/director Eun-jin Bang ("301/302"),
a former actress who shows good command of the
cinematic tools at her disposal. The film's only
real shocking moment comes early, when Soon-jung
ferociously pounce her victim in the mall
bathroom. And while the rest of "Aurora"
is nowhere near as bloody, that initial burst of
shocking violence sets the stage for the movie's
unpredictable nature, as if Bang is telling us
that anyone, at anytime, can become one of
Soon-jung's victim. The fact that Bang refuses to
give us quick answers as to why these people are
being targeted makes the mystery all the more
engaging.
The primary reason why
"Princess Aurora" works as well as it
does is because of the tour de force performance
of star Jeong-hwa Eom ("Mr.
Handy"), who continues to prove herself
an amazingly versatile actress. Eom's Soon-jung is
a woman filled with rage, but you wouldn't know it
to look at her. The exterior façade that she
allows others to see in public hides seething
anger, uncontrolled violence, and most of all, a
shattered soul. She is, without question, a
destroyed woman trying to take as many of those
responsible with her as she can before the
inevitable end. All the credit in the world goes
to Jeong-hwa Eom, who singularly carries, as well
as make "Princess Aurora" more than the
material.
This brings us to the script,
which is excellent when it focuses entirely on
Soon-jung's quest, but falters when it has to
bring others into Soon-jung's world. There's
"Tube"
star Oh-jung Kwon's Detective Jung, who is
initially written to be a major part of the story,
but ends up doing little more than running about
in the background. Also open to debate is the
South Korean police's seemingly ludicrous
policies. When it's revealed that Oh is the
ex-husband of a serial killer still at large, Oh's
superiors have no qualms about letting him remain
an active participant in the investigation. And
then there's a gratuitous sex scene early in the
film that seems to be entirely devoid of any
purpose whatsoever.
Overall, "Princess
Aurora" is one of the better cop thrillers
you'll find out of
South Korea
at the moment. It's not a procedural in the
traditional sense, and if anything the film seems
clueless about real police work. Not that it
matters, because writer/director Eun-jin Bang has
fashioned a fantastic debut film buoyed by a
powerhouse performance from star Jeong-hwa Eom as
the film's serial killer with a cause. In a year
of mediocre romantic comedies, derivative ghost
stories, and tedious melodramas, it's a wonder the
Koreans still know how to make such an effective
and entertaining thriller, much less two in the
same year -- Bang's "Princess Aurora"
and Park's "Sympathy for Lady
Vengeance". |
