Sopyonje (Seopyeonje)

Release Year: 1993

Director: Kwon-taek Im

Review: Passion is important in life.  But when passion overtakes living, has it gone too far?  In 'Sopyonje' passion is certainly on display.  In South Korea there is a cultural type of singing called pansori, a highly emotive usually pain ridden, type of singing most aptly compared to blues.  The film focuses on a trio of pansori performers.  An old highly acclaimed pansori singer, Yu-Bong(Myung-gon Kim), and the two children he has raised Songhwa(Jung-hae Oh) and Dong-ho(Kyu-chu Kim).  He is obsessed with forming them into great pansori performers, often being cold, cruel and oppressive.  They live a poor existence as nomads, traveling from village to village barely surviving.

Despite Dong-ho's pleas, Yu-Bong does not let up on his cruelty.  He believes that to be great at pansori, one must suffer.  He will stop at nothing to ensure perfection out of the children.  It becomes too much for Dong-ho, who flees the family hoping to escape the cruelty and the poverty.  He tries to persuade his sister Songhwa to come with him, but she refuses to leave.  He has chosen that his life is not worth the pain that the pansori reciting is causing.  Not even losing his sister, the only person he is close to, is enough to keep him there enduring the miserable existence their father has created for them.

The majority of the movie is told in flashback form, where the present day Dong-ho is searching for his sister after learning of their fathers death.  He learns with horror that after his departure his father blinded his Songhwa in order to keep her in his control.  The real reason however is even more disturbing.  In order to recite pansori convincingly there must be true grief.  Even after losing her brother Yu-Bong saw this was missing in her singing, so he blinded her in an attempt to push her towards true sorrow and thus perfection.

There is an obvious correlation between Yu-Bong and any over bearing parental figure.  For every elementary basketball team there is a parent that is just a bit too involved, and a bit too hard on their young athlete.  While Yu-Bong's case is much more extreme, it is sadly not something that is unimaginable.  In Yu-Bong's youth he was a great pansori reciter.  He was on his way to becoming perhaps the best ever before he was exiled.  By forcing his passion on his children, he is able to live through them.  Only they would never be good enough for him.  He would never be satisfied with what they could perform because they were not him.  He sacrificed their livelihood in a futile attempt to save his own glory.

Director Kwon-taek Im is a well known and respected Korean filmmaker, who is known to make films deeply rooted in Korean culture.  Just like I felt when I viewed 'Festival', I feel there is a lot of meaning I am missing out on because I'm not part of this culture.  Kwon-taek makes films steeped in tradition, and while I can appreciate this I felt like an outsider looking in and never really felt apart of it.  He also takes his time.  There is not a whole lot happening in the film.  While the pansori is beautiful, it is featured extensively, and makes up the better part of the movie.  It did begin to get old and I felt myself getting restless wanting the story to move along rather than listen to yet another pansori recital.

Despite the missed cultural references and the slow pacing, it is undeniable that this is a beautiful film.  The framing is immaculate and the imagery is used to enhance the emotions, perfectly balancing the haunting pansori.  There are some powerful scenes which say so much without saying a word.  One of the great things about pansori is the emotion conveyed and as such its a wonderful tool for expressing the emotions of a scene.  I did feel this was used too much as a crutch and as highlighted earlier it did get a bit stale.  It's beautiful, and at times very moving film, but I didn't get enough out of it to justify the slow pace.
Rating: 3/5

Three Colors: Blue (Trois couleurs: Bleu)

Release Year: 1993

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Review: The first in Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'Three Colors Trilogy'.  Each of the color trilogies takes on the mood of the color in the title.  In 'Blue', the color symbolizes liberty; being completely free from restriction or control.  Juliette Binoche stars as Julia, a grieving recently windowed wife of a famous composer.  Unable to deal with the grief of the death of her husband and child she attempts to erase any memory of them and her former life by cutting herself off from everyone and everything in her past.

The first thing that is noticed while watching the film is how beautifully its shot.  A dark, solemn tone is cast throughout while Julia grieves.  Kieślowski subtly uses visual cues to give insight on themes.  Several times, we are brought into the first person perspective, seeing the world through Julia's eyes, and her view is distorted. Blurred by her injured eye, a memento from the accident,  it is a reference that Julia's outlook is warped as she is overcome by a tragedy.  And of course there blue elements in nearly every shot, as a constant reminder of the overarching theme.  

While the visuals are themselves stunning, what adds to the atheistic even more is the use of editing and music to reveal the torments of Julia.  Accompanying the movie is a beautiful score by Zbigniew Preisner.  The music is an important element given that an unfinished piece of music is the main plot point driving the film.  More importantly, the score serves to haunt Julia, almost acting as her husband's ghost.  Every time she encounters something to remind her of her past, she is overcome with his music.  To bolster this effect even further,  several times Kieślowski cuts to black with nothing but this music playing, really ripping through the scene, giving a jolt, just like Julia is experiencing.  While a small element, it adds an immeasurable amount to identification with Julia's pain.

The central theme of liberty is explored through a tragic, seemingly insurmountable, loss.  Julia thinks she has lost everything, and can no longer go on living.  Realizing she also cannot kill herself she resigns to trying to deny herself any thought of her past life, freeing herself of the pain and remorse.  She has enough money so that she does not have to work.  There is no reason why she could not accomplish her goal of cutting herself off from humanity.  But Kieślowski questions if it is possible to really live freely.  Slowly she is sucked back into human relationships, which she so desperately wants to avoid.  She cannot help but let her old personality leak out.  No matter what her intent was, she really was not free to live her life as she wanted and leave her past behind her.  'Blue' is often described as an anti-tradgedy, which is exactly what it is.  Life will not let Julia slip into a tragedy despite her best efforts.  There are several shots of a television showing an old man bungee jumping, a metaphor for life.  Life is elastic, with ups and downs and there is no use fighting against the force at work. There is no total freedom.  Despite Julia's intent not to go back to her old life, not to make new relationships, life pulled her back.  A tragedy might be central to the plot, but in every sense this is an uplifting film.

One of the remarkable things about 'Blue' has to be Juliette Binoche's performance.  It is every bit her film.  Kieślowski had paired away a lot of the original dialog leaving only the essential bits in.  What is left is very powerful, but subdued.  After my first viewing, I was uncertain if I really enjoyed Binoche's performance.  It seemed like the entire film was a close-up of her face in different stages of depression.  This, of course, is not true, but it took a second viewing for me to appreciate the nuance to her performance.  She remains very restrained, giving subtle, but powerful insight into her characters grief.  There is a moment where Julia gives a smile, and there is something striking about that smile that hits you because Binoche made you earn it.  She manages to play her role without being overly depressing, playing a woman sapped of emotion without losing her hint of humanity.  When she smiles, that humanity bursts out and the brilliance of her performance is clear.

'Blue' is a magnificent film.  Kieślowski deconstructs a person's grief and reveals a truly moving story.  As much restraint as it shows,  it none the less sizzles with beautiful imagery, music and humanity.
Rating: 5/5

Manhattan Murder Mystery

Release Year: 1993
Review: Not one of my favorite Woody Allen films. The plot is intriguing, but where the dialog and character chemistry generally hold Allen's films together, I felt this movie lacked both. I found Diane Keaton to be incredibly irritating the entire film and the endless bickering between her and Allen to be annoying rather than endearing.
Rating: 2/5