It’s not surprising that director Park Chan-wook pursued lighter fare after his trilogy of revenge (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) but the story he chose is surprising through and through. The easy comparison is to call it a Korean Benny and Joon, with two loveable young cuckoos finding solace in each other. Beyond that simple premise it gets as crazy as its characters. Young-goon believes herself to be a cyborg and refuses to eat. She’s put in a psych ward where she licks batteries and talks to vending machines. Surrounding her are a cornucopia of wacked personalities constantly setting each other off. Their delusions and disorders are played to the max for laughs but a shared compassion saves them from outright caricature. They heavily contrast with Young-goon’s robotic behavior and wide-eyed weirdness. The biggest troublemaker of the bunch is Il-soon, an antisocial kleptomaniac who pilfers such unlikely things as manners and Thursday. Young-goon becomes his fascination and mission to save from starvation. 

The film bursts with color, energy, and whimsical fantasy scenes. It’s nearly schizophrenic with ideas. The tone is mostly sweet but punctuated with moments of extreme violence, both real and imagined. Chan-wook delivers as happy an ending as he probably can, even letting the heroine discover her (somewhat surprising) meaning of existence. It’s a farce for sure but no less engaging than his more serious work.

There are no comments yet. You could be the first!