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 yphoon",
the latest effort from "Friend"
director Kwak Gyeong Taek, was very much a
flagship release for the domestic South Korean
market, having the highest budget in the nation's
history and having been shot on various locations,
including Pusan, Thailand, and Russia with a
partly international cast. Unfortunately, despite
being a deeply personal and uniquely Korean film,
based upon and shot through with the tension
resulting from the conflict between the North and
South, it flopped at the box office.
The plot follows Sin (Jang
Dong Gun, who also played the lead role in
"Friend"), a North Korean who as a child
attempted to defect to the South with his family
but was betrayed, resulting in the deaths of his
parents. Plotting genocidal revenge, Sin takes up
with a group of Thai pirates, and steals a
U.S.
ship carrying nuclear devices which have been
secretly manufactured in
Taiwan
. He is pursued by Kang Se Jong (Lee Jeong Jae,
also in the 2000 romantic hit "Il
Mare"), a naval officer who attempts to
bring Sin to justice, though who gradually comes
to understand, and even sympathise with his foe.
Although from the above
synopsis "Typhoon" may sound like a
simplistic thriller, it is actually a complex and
densely plotted affair, which gradually reveals
its secrets after a bewildering first act. The
film does tend to jump around a great deal, with a
large supporting cast of minor characters and with
the action taking place in a number of different
countries, though once things settle down, this
works well, giving the proceedings an almost epic
feel. Although it does fall back upon what is a
fairly unconvincing plot device, which seems to
have been included mainly as a set up for the
climatic scenes, the film is for the most part
intelligent and gripping.
But it is not too hard to see
why "Typhoon" failed to set the box
office alight, in that it is a fairly dark and
depressing film, and far from the
Hollywood
style blockbuster many may have expected. Although
it is similar to previous Korean hits such as
"Sil
Mi Do" and "Taegukgi"
in that it focuses on the conflict between North
and
South Korea
as represented by the two protagonists, it treats
violence and bloodshed as an inescapable,
disastrous outcome, and thus acts more as a
guilt-soaked tragedy or cautionary tale. The film
has a bleak, nihilistic view of governments of all
countries, particularly those of South Korea and
the U.S. (who are, as usual, portrayed as
hell-bent on simply blowing everything up to solve
problems), with politicians being held responsible
for the suffering of the Korean people.
Director Taek spends most of
the film exploring the character of supposed
villain Sin, with numerous flashbacks depicting
his ordeals and the sad fate of his family. The
problem comes with the fact that his is the only
fully fleshed out role in the cast, and so the
viewer naturally comes to sympathise with him,
especially since the nominal hero Kang is a blank
faced and indistinguishable robot who mainly just
follows orders and spouts the odd line of
patriotic dialogue. This does leave the viewer in
a fairly uncomfortable position, since, despite
his undeniable humanity, Sin is quite obviously a
homicidal psychotic with a frankly daft nuclear
scheme.
As such the film is devoid of
the usual heroics, and Taek wisely eschews
explosive action and shoot outs, opting instead
for slow but intense espionage scenes and sudden
bursts of violence. This does make it rather slow
moving at times, and it does feel somewhat
overstretched. Though never dull or boring,
"Typhoon" is likely to disappoint those
expecting a different type of film. In a way, the
fact that its high budget has been highlighted is
something of a misnomer, as most of the money was
probably spent on shooting in different countries,
rather than on pyrotechnics or special effects.
However, this actually works
in the film's favour, as it is questionable
whether the subject matter would have lent itself
to brain dead bravado or exploitative
entertainment. As it stands, "Typhoon"
is a moving, genuine film which attempts to make a
very personal case for the suffering caused by the
North-South Korean divide, and more generally, by
governments and politicians the world over.
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