The Best Korean Movies of the Decade: 20 –> 16

The countdown continues!

A quick recap:
25: The Host
24: Searching for the Elephant
23: A Tale of Two Sisters
22: Samaritan Girl
21: Our School

20) 200 Pounds Beauty (2006)
Directed by Yong-hwa Kim 

The theme is tiresome – an ugly duckling becomes a swan. In 200 Pounds Beauty, the motif is taken a step further by examining how plastic surgery functions in Korea (one of the countries with the highest amounts of plastic surgeries in the world), but the similarities between American and Korean perceptions of female beauty are surprisingly similar.

Hanna is an overweight young woman with an amazing singing voice. She actually does all the singing for pop-sensation Ammy, a beautiful model that can't hold a tune. Both women have a crush on the manager, a young man that tries to maintain a good relationship between Ammy and Hanna who find themselves in egotistical conflict. After Hanna is harassed to the breaking point, she decides to have massive plastic surgery. Interesting enough, she firmly believes that she doesn't want it to be more beautiful, but instead to be seen as human -- a person that deserves a shot at love and self-esteem.

After the surgery and a year in seclusion, Hanna fashions a new identity and auditions to be Ammy's "backup" singer. The executives are so enamored with the new Hanna that they offer her a contract and career, unaware of her true identity. The story picks up as Hanna tries to maintain her new person, fighting against Ammy desperately investigating the whereabouts of old Hanna in an attempt to makeup and release a new album.

Many themes of this pseudo-comedy will be recognizable to American audiences. Even though Hanna is convinced that beauty isn't everything, the only reason she is given the opportunity is because of plastic surgery, completely ignorant to her personality. Hanna also tries to distance herself from other pop stars by lying and making a big deal about how she is "naturally" beautiful, an obvious stab at Ammy. The film diverges from traditional American beauty-is-on-the-inside movies by Hanna adopting her new identity as her "true" self -- only confessing her real name and supplying an old picture, but still trying to stay a pop-star, subject to all the shallowness that sex sells. This is an excellent character choice because it is easy and obvious, allowing Hanna to be a flawed and impure protagonist. Even though she realizes that the reason she is famous is undeniably due to her plastic surgery, she enjoys the success, as the audience would expect. And the audience doesn't want to fault her for her choice, even though we recognize how fake she becomes. The film ends cynically with Hanna's best friend, a very average-looking woman, requesting the same full-body surgery that Hanna received. This is recognition that as much as society says that beauty is on the inside, we're really just deceiving ourselves.

This is a genre-blending movie that starts as a comedy and becomes a drama. It is very accessible and entertaining because it mirrors and confirms American perceptions of the celebrity culture. Korea celebrity culture is very much like ours, with criticisms of bands singing through computers and the obsession with finding the next Britney Spears. Divergent enough, the film is also unapologetic by refusing to hammer us with beauty-is-on-the-inside fortune cookies. So the viewer will have to look a little closer to see the real moral of the story.

On Amazon: 200 Pounds Beauty (Standard Edition) DVD (please note this version looks like the Chinese release, but has English subtitles)

19) Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (2004)
Directed by Je-gyu Kang

Americans are familiar with the story during the American Civil War when two brothers find themselves shooting each other on the battlefield. We're now 150 years removed from the situation, but the Korean Civil War is still fresh in the minds of many Koreans. And by the nature of how the Korean War unfolded, it was not unsurprising for two brothers to be forced to fight against each other. Even today, every few years as relationships thaw between the two Koreas, families can see each other for the first time since 1953, spend a few days together, then fall back to their respective countries. Tragically, the story of Taegukgi is much more real than a simple movie.

Two brothers, on the eve of war, are innocently living a pretty good life in Seoul. The Japanese finally left five years earlier and the politics of sudden division didn't seem to weigh heavily on their minds. When the North Koreans suddenly attack, the elder brother Jin-tae is conscripted into the army as he is walking on the street. As Jin-seok tries intervene, he becomes conscripted as well. After the first battle and near death, Jin-tae asks his superiors how he can save his younger brother from future warzones. Jin-tae is told that if he earns the highest medal in the South Korean army, similar to the Medal of Honor, his brother can go free. This causes Jin-Tae to start volunteering for the most dangerous missions, earning him high distinction as a fearless and brave fighter.

The Korean War was a seesaw for the first year. The South Koreans were initially hammered back to the southern coast, but with American help pushed the North Koreans up near the border with China before the Chinese entered the war and fought back. With so many changes, the true atrocities of war came to light. Specifically, the North Koreans would only give food to civilians if the people signed up as members of the Communist Party – a list that became a death sentence when the South Koreans came back and looked for "traitors." Jin-tae's fiancée is on the list and subsequently killed by South Korean forces before his eyes. His attempts to save her send both him and his brother to jail as suspected North Korean spies. Fearing execution, Jin-Tae escapes and joins the North Korean forces, convinced that Jin-seok has died in an attack that destroyed the jail. Jin-seok's lucky survival allows him the opportunity to reenlist with hopes of confronting his brother to stop fighting and return home.

In America, the Korean War is often called The Forgotten War. This is because American veterans received such small amounts of recognition upon returning and history positioning the Korean War between World War II and Vietnam. But for Korea, it has been the defining war of their history, dividing the country for the first time in roughly a thousand years. The present day effects are still observable as mentioned before – South Korea still regularly asks for the repatriation of POW's captured during the Korean War, which the North finds "impossible" to confirm if those prisoners are living or dead. The scars of the Korean War exist beyond what many people fathom.

Taegukgi is the Korean War from the Korean perspective. The experience of Jin-seok and Jin-tae is consistent with memoirs and stories from the war, lending credibility to believe the representation of war is accurate. As a small compliant, the only reason this movie isn't rated higher is because Jin-tae becomes almost super-human, a celebrated hero for the two sides he fights on, possessing a Napoleon aura that shifts the entire battle. I've never read an account of a battlefield hero as strong, frightening or consequential as Jin-tae becomes in Taegukgi. For me, it was slightly distracting and unbelievable in an otherwise historical movie.

Notwithstanding, the horrors of war and accurately represented. Remembering that the Korean War begins only five years after World War II, the fighting and cruelty is very similar. This movie is entertaining, loud, bloody, but insightful. Watching a South Korean account of the Korean War is interesting on its own, but also the movie's refusal to paint the South Koreans as innocent victims contradicts 50 years of textbook propaganda. A war movie about just wanting to escape and return to normalcy is great to watch, especially because nobody is innocent in a war tainted in national guilt.

On Amazon: Tae Guk Gi - The Brotherhood of War

18) Forever the Moment (2008)
Directed by Soon-rye Lim

Sports movies aren't really meant for women. This isn't to be sexist, but take a look at many of the sport movies and see the role that women play: romantic interests, sex objects, rewards for victory. Sports movies mostly are made by men for men. There are a few exceptions, but really give it some thought -- why do movies so rarely depict professional women teams or athletes?

So it's a tough sell to convince you to see Forever the Moment, a sports movie about a woman's Olympic team. On top of that, Forever the Moment takes one of the worlds most obscure sports – handball –  and tries to convince you it's worth your money (don't lie, you thought I just made the sport up on the spot). It seems like a huge gamble to earn money with a movie like this.

Amazingly, the gamble pays off. And despite being a great movie, it might even interest you to learn more about the handball sport (but you will probably be bored reading the Wikipedia entry...at least the movie made it look fun!). The movie is a fictional story of the true event where the South Korea woman's handball team found themselves playing for the gold medal in the 2004 Olympics. In the Olympics, Americans are usually complacent about many of the events, unless there is a historical first or compelling narrative. For South Korea, any event with a Korean competitor, no matter the sport, receives national attention (as a funny side note, I was in Korea during the 2008 Olympics and watched more Olympic ping pong that I ever imagined. I only saw Michael Phelps on TV once, a few minutes after he won his final gold, before the coverage switched back to Olympic badminton). Therefore, when the woman's team was competing for gold in handball, the sport suddenly became the national front page.

The fictional movie follows several women as they come together to form what becomes the national handball team. Most of the women avoid the two typical sports classifications found in sports films: the fading legend and the promising newcomer (they are in the movie, but in supporting roles). The women are mostly a little older than what would be expected for Olympic athletes, some have families, some work in grocery stores, some are dirt poor but they all share handball. Nobody is famous since the country doesn't really notice handball athletes. A coaching crisis suddenly opens up the position that is filled by a Korean coach in Japan. But the divisive nature of her coaching causes a problem with the team. After internal strife, a new male coach is brought in, firmly believing that the European strategies for handball are the only ways to make the team competitive. This causes even more conflict in the team between the old guard and new -- and between the male coach with his female athletes.

Despite the cliché sports montages, the movie becomes much more adventurous about the ability sports possess to bring out the best in the participants. With little precedent and an apathetic country, the women have nobody to play for except themselves. Their home lives are nothing like what we would expect from Olympic athletes, which is amazingly encouraging for the rest of us. In much the same way the Dodgeball movie caused sudden interest in the game (do they really have professional dodgeball tournaments?), Forever the Moment shows the audience a sport and sport culture we’ve never seen.

This movie is entertaining, pure and simple. It is ranked 18 because the movie is enjoyable and should be watched by sports enthusiasts hungry for something new. The personal stories of the characters, coupled with their arch as the movie progresses, allow the characters some good development. The film also floats between sports movie with interesting characters and drama portrayed against a sport backdrop. The constant conflict between former female coach and male coach, the problems with new strategy verse old, the difference between veterans and rookies keeps the viewer interested to see what combination will work best. And after the movie finished, I tried to see if America had a handball team, but I lost interest before I found the answer.

17) Il Mare (2000)
Directed by Hyun-seung Lee

The American remake, The Lake House, was widely criticized. Please don't take the quality of The Lake House to be a reflection on the original Korean. The story is nearly identical to the American version: a mysterious mailbox allows two people living at different points in time to communicate. Although I didn't see the The Lake House, I read about the cliché love story – which is the exact opposite of Il Mare. Alright, I'm done mentioning the American remake!

Il Mare is about two characters corresponding and sort of falling in love through the magic mailbox. Eun-joo, a young woman, discovers that the man she is corresponding with, Sung-hyun, lives two years in the past. They exchange several letters getting to know each other before it dawns they live at different points in time (what, that isn’t your first assumption when you get weird letters in the mail?). Through their correspondence, they start to fall in love, realizing that despite being permanently out of touch they can still creatively plan romantic situations. For example, Sung-hyun asks a restaurant to keep a bottle of wine for two years to serve the woman who specifically requests it. After reaching the limit for how they can interact, they craft a plan to try and meet a week later for Eun-joo, two years and week for Sung-hyun. But Eun-joo is surprised when he doesn’t show up. In their letters, Sung-hyun is baffled why he forgot (forgets?). In her depression, she asks Sung-hyun to stop her fiancé from traveling to the U.S.A., where he meets a new woman and gets married in the future for Sung-hyun, by Eun-joo’s past.

One of the greatest strengths of this movie is that you really care about the character struggles. Given the strange hopelessness of them actually ending up together, we're left hoping they just find someone to help each of them become content. In a love story, it's odd that the audience reaches the conclusion that all is lost, so they should just give up. Contrast this with formulaic romances: whatever force is preventing the relationship is the movie's antagonist, be it parents/exes/class/wealth/etc. The antagonist for Il Mare is time itself. Time is manifested in two ways: the practical, insurmountable force that won’t let them come together, but also in the differences between Eun-joo in her time and Sung-hyun’s. The past Eun-joo isn't aware of the correspondence and in a happy relationship with her fiancé. Since Sung-hyun doesn’t know where he is in Eun-joo’s time, they are perpetually distanced. Some of the loudest themes regard hope for the future contrasted with longing for the past, overcoming loss and grief, collective loneliness, among others.

This movie is ranked 17 based primarily on entertainment. The characters are interesting and engaging -- the movie keeps us involved throughout the film. The implausibility of the situation could be distracting for those time-travel enthusiasts, but just like how Back to the Future had inconsistencies, they could be ignored for a good movie. Il Mare can oftentimes feel like the audience is involved with trying to crack the puzzle preventing Eun-joo and Sung-hyun from coming together. I think this involvement is fun because we learn about the constraints of the mailbox as the characters learn. We also learn what works. I found myself trying to think of solutions or ways for the characters to find each other, which when realized, showed me that the movie succeeded in drawing me in. Hopefully, as you watch Il Mare, you’ll find yourself in the same boat.

If you’ve been watching the other linked trailers, notice how similar they are to American movies. Taegukgi is the perfect illustration. But with the Il Mare trailer, you can see a very sharp contrast between it and The Lake House, which I will link here despite asserting I was done talking about it. I’m only doing this because I really really really want to convince you that American remakes almost always reject the soul of the original. The Il Mare trailer isn’t the most exciting, but it tries to show the viewer Il Mare possesses more soul than a rigid romance. If you watch The Lake House trailer, ask yourself what makes it different from any other romance movie you’ve seen.

On Amazon: Il Mare (Two-Disc Special Edition) (This was the only version I found in stock with the original spoken Korean, English subtitles and region 1, able to play on North American DVD players. However, I didn’t read through all the comments, which may provide more details).

16) Sunny (2008)
Directed by Jun-ik Lee

I always enjoy looking at historical events through the eyes of unfamiliar cultures (WWII through German eyes in Das Boot, Japanese eyes in Letters from Iwo Jima, Taegukgi three reviews earlier). So when I heard Sunny was taking the Vietnam War from the Korean perspective, I was already excited to see what the movie would say. And I wasn't disappointed. In addition to a new way of looking at Vietnam, Sunny grants the audience a female viewpoint.

Soon-yi, a recently married woman, finds her life depressing. Her husband, Sang-gil, is serving his mandatory military service, leaving Soon-yi in the care of her in-laws. Consistent with Korean tradition, the in-laws are pressuring Soon-yi to give them a grandchild. The problem is Soon-yi’s marriage is distant and impassionate; Soon-yi and Sang-gil really don't love each other. After a fight breaks out in the barracks between Sang-gil and another soldier who reveals that Sang-gil has been having an affair, the two soldiers are given an option to face "detention" or serve in Vietnam. Sang-gil chooses to go to Vietnam, to the bewilderment and anger of his parents who hear the details after he leaves. The parents, in turn, blame Soon-yi for driving their son away to war since she was unenthusiastic about monthly “visits.” After her mother in law harasses Soon-yi with guilt, she agrees that she will go to Vietnam to bring him back. 

Soon-yi discovers that her attempts to reach Vietnam will be hard. Understandably so, the military isn’t too willing to let family members try to coerce soldiers to desertion. Lucky for her, she finds a traveling band chasing fame and fortune that needs an attractive female lead singer to entertain allied forces in Vietnam. Shy and mild Soon-yi transforms into "Sunny," a sexy and attractive face for the band. Her transformation is slow as she appears uncomfortable and embarrassed singing American music in broken English. But with constant training and reinforcement from her band, she eventually shines as a standout performer. Soon-yi keeps her eyes open for her husband, but starts to look happy on stage, leading soldiers to pay money just to dance with her. Her home life was constrained by social norms, locked in a loveless marriage, but as a sex symbol for soldiers she blossoms. Up on stage are the rare moments when she looks happy. Hearing her rendition of American songs can also provide a smile for audiences familiar with Credence Clearwater Revival music. As with The Host, Sunny also uses western actors with skill. There are few cringe-inducing moments of awkward dialogue in English, but those moments happen late in the film (it makes me wonder if actors speaking another language in American films are as bad when heard by native speakers).

The film also portrays a conflicted image of love. Through Soon-yi's journey, we see the internalization of her inner conflict through the explosive scenes of war. She is single-minded in her goal when the movie starts, but drifts as she becomes more popular. We also understand that when she does find her husband, her career as an entertainer is virtually over. After all, she is traveling with three men and spends her shows teasing the soldiers with newfound sexuality. If she finds Sang-gil, the audience and Soon-yi realize that she will return to her in-laws' home. She will regress to her days as a conservative homemaker; the days she was miserable. And when she has children, the audience assumes that the mother in law will be persistently hovering around the upbringing of the child, enough to drive even the most patient person crazy. As we watch Soon-yi grow, we also realize that this is probably the freest she's ever been in her life, free to do something she wants, even though she was coerced to start her journey. If the audience sees the doomed quest through this lens, we're confused how we want the film to be resolved. No matter what happens, the ending must be bittersweet.

This film is ranked 16 because of entertainment. The action and drama associated with Soon-yi's journey do well to justify this movie as exciting. Soon-yi's doomed quest reveals the depth of her characterization, which contrasted against her life back home, forces the audience to sympathize with her. We do want her to find her husband because that's her goal, but perhaps deep down we want her to fail and see where she goes free from obligations and duties. The explosions and gunfights are very similar to American war films and for that reason will help maintain the flow that sometimes gets snagged. Soon-yi is an interesting character, as are the opportunist band members, that help solidify her innocence that she somehow manages to maintain.

As a side note, Sunny is also known as You’re in a Far Away Nation. I prefer the latter name, but had better luck finding information searching Sunny. If I can find a U.S. release, I’ll adjust the name and provide better links.

Later this week, I’ll have 15 –> 11 ready to go!