Wednesday, May 11, 2005
3 Iron
huh? Golf (club)? eh... yeah, kinda.... it's also the title of a south korean movie that i caught recently.
to my movie buddies back home, i do attend film fests, still part of my 'ritual'. so u guys can rest assure that i won't lose my sanity!!
let me attempt to summarise the movie plot before sharing my thoughts.
it's about a young college student who distributes restaurant flyers (to households in the neighbourhood) part-time. He has this 'habit' of sneaking into the empty houses he come across and make himself really at home - sleeping on the owners' bed, watching TV, even eating food from the fridge. but in return, he tidies the houses, washes the owners' clothes and even help fix whatever is broken in the house. one day, an empty house (or so he thought) that he entered has an abused wife who ended up leaving with him. As they go around 'enjoying' other's house, they even helped buried a neglected father who died without anyone knowing. Eventually, they were caught. Our hero was put in jail while the abused wife returned to the husband.
ok, my summary is probably doing the film an injustice, big time. it seems so 'pointless' - what exactly is the film about? has it anything to do with golf?
golf (balls and club) - yes, it is the instrument of violence in the movie. when our hero decided to teach the abusive husband a lesson, he whacked a couple of golf balls right into his (the husband) balls (Ouch!!), using a 3 iron. the husband later took revenge doing the same thing after bribing the police to take matter into his own hands.
so what is the movie trying to depict? my 2 cent worth -
1. our hero goes round fixing things in the houses he found broken, including the relationship between the husband and wife, and the unfilal children and the neglected father, although this was too late.
2. the whole 'concept' of the college kid sneaking into empty houses and making himself comfortable - a sense of escapism... isn't this something that is in all of us? that's why we love movies that have 'live happily ever after' ending.
3. when our hero visited the battered wife though he was supposed to be in jail, it brings out this whole phenomenon of real vs virtual. what is it that is real in our lives? aren't many things a matter of perception - how we (choose to) see them?
4. when in jail, the college kid constantly tried to 'hide' from the prison guard; leaving him so paranoid that the prisoner has escaped. the guard would hit our hero very hard for playing such tricks. this clearly showed his sense of insecurity. He should have confident that it was not possible for the kid to escape. yet, each time when the prisoner cannot be spotted thru' the door window, he got worried. seeing the guard panic each time only excited our hero to come up with more innovative ways of 'hiding'. a metaphor that presents the fears in us - most of the time unfounded. if only we have a grasp of the big picture, we should be confident. otherwise, the fear manifests.
the last 5 -10 min of the movie - is the gist of it for me. though somewhat funny, it brings out the whole profound question of what does 'living' means to each one of us.
you will appreciate this movie much more after thinking about it. thanks to my fren who watched with me. the fact that we talked about it after that let me saw beyond the plain view.
if it starts screening back home, go catch it. it's cool.
to my movie buddies back home, i do attend film fests, still part of my 'ritual'. so u guys can rest assure that i won't lose my sanity!!
let me attempt to summarise the movie plot before sharing my thoughts.
it's about a young college student who distributes restaurant flyers (to households in the neighbourhood) part-time. He has this 'habit' of sneaking into the empty houses he come across and make himself really at home - sleeping on the owners' bed, watching TV, even eating food from the fridge. but in return, he tidies the houses, washes the owners' clothes and even help fix whatever is broken in the house. one day, an empty house (or so he thought) that he entered has an abused wife who ended up leaving with him. As they go around 'enjoying' other's house, they even helped buried a neglected father who died without anyone knowing. Eventually, they were caught. Our hero was put in jail while the abused wife returned to the husband.
ok, my summary is probably doing the film an injustice, big time. it seems so 'pointless' - what exactly is the film about? has it anything to do with golf?
golf (balls and club) - yes, it is the instrument of violence in the movie. when our hero decided to teach the abusive husband a lesson, he whacked a couple of golf balls right into his (the husband) balls (Ouch!!), using a 3 iron. the husband later took revenge doing the same thing after bribing the police to take matter into his own hands.
so what is the movie trying to depict? my 2 cent worth -
1. our hero goes round fixing things in the houses he found broken, including the relationship between the husband and wife, and the unfilal children and the neglected father, although this was too late.
2. the whole 'concept' of the college kid sneaking into empty houses and making himself comfortable - a sense of escapism... isn't this something that is in all of us? that's why we love movies that have 'live happily ever after' ending.
3. when our hero visited the battered wife though he was supposed to be in jail, it brings out this whole phenomenon of real vs virtual. what is it that is real in our lives? aren't many things a matter of perception - how we (choose to) see them?
4. when in jail, the college kid constantly tried to 'hide' from the prison guard; leaving him so paranoid that the prisoner has escaped. the guard would hit our hero very hard for playing such tricks. this clearly showed his sense of insecurity. He should have confident that it was not possible for the kid to escape. yet, each time when the prisoner cannot be spotted thru' the door window, he got worried. seeing the guard panic each time only excited our hero to come up with more innovative ways of 'hiding'. a metaphor that presents the fears in us - most of the time unfounded. if only we have a grasp of the big picture, we should be confident. otherwise, the fear manifests.
the last 5 -10 min of the movie - is the gist of it for me. though somewhat funny, it brings out the whole profound question of what does 'living' means to each one of us.
you will appreciate this movie much more after thinking about it. thanks to my fren who watched with me. the fact that we talked about it after that let me saw beyond the plain view.
if it starts screening back home, go catch it. it's cool.
# posted by nic @ 1:05 AM 
