Movie: Duelist, 형사, 刑事 (2005)World Region: Korea
Starring: Ha Ji-Won, Kang Dong-Won
Rating: 9/10
Visuals & Art Direction:10
Innovative Choreography: 10
Music Innovation: 9.5
Innovative Korean Fantasy Art Film
Plot: Namsoon, a detective for the government, is investigating a serious case of counterfit money. She's got a refreshing fiery attitude and combat skills to match. Sad Eyes is attached to Defense Minister Song as a shadow warrior. Sad Eyes's skill with a sword is breathtakingly beautiful. The counterfit money causes rampant inflation, plunging the country into turmoil. Namsoon suspects Song is behind the turmoil. Sad Eyes seems to owe a blood debt to Song and has worked for him for a very long time. Namsoon and Sad Eyes start to fall in love, but circumstances make it nearly impossible for their love to bloom and thrive. Really, the plot feels like a background for this film's unprecedented art and style that express normally subtle emotions so very well.
The stylized sword fights are exqisite art in themselves. Beautiful silent spaces are cleared for artistic style. In this film, there is a sword fight stylized as a passionate dance that is ineffably breathtaking. This is one "fight" that will go down in niche film history as a legend in itself.The sound is superb and innovative just like the other parts of this movie. The music is a creative and fitting mix of all different, mostly modern, styles. For example, the director chose an upbeat techno rock track for a scene of an infiltration mission at the Defense Minister's mansion. It surprisingly fits well in this period fantasy film. Or the director chose a French-Parisian sounding theme for a stunning art sword montage. During one fight scene, the sound effects of breathing and whipcording with each breath is invigoratingly expressive. Excellent choices and placement of SFX and music make watching this film a complete, ethereal experience. Some numbers on the soundtrack are haunting, drawing out the bittersweetness so skillfully that it feels like a stinging, weeping cut.
The director really seems to appreciate the beauty and import of silences so well. There was a scene between Sad Eyes and Song's eyes. They don't say a thing but, oh god do they express more than all the words in the world!
This is a flow movie--snapshots really pale at doing it justice. The fades are great, the camera angles rock, overlays are poignant, and everything feels innovative and fresh.
**Spoilers Follow**
It took me a while--actually two times of watching this--to figure out what was going on with Sad Eyes, to figure out why this movie tasted so hauntingly bittersweet. Song took Sad Eyes under his care at a very young age and tought him to use a sword. Sad Eyes works for Song because of this debt, and this film is partly about how Sad Eyes is trying to break free from Song. Sad Eyes thinks that Song has caused the turmoil for his own profit, and I agree. It gets harder and harder for Sad Eyes to work for Song because even though Song does say he loved Sad Eyes like a son, he keeps Sad Eyes under his thumb, on a really short leash as his deadly errand boy. And Song never calls Sad Eyes by his real name.
Sad Eyes decides he has had enough of Song, especially after he and Namsoon have met. He doesn't quite bring himself to kill the one man in the world he knows as "father," but in his own small ways he manages to bring Song's downfall. In doing this, he manages to break himself free from constricting circumstance and rotting ties--sometimes a little is a lot, but I was left with the feeling that it wasn't enough. Maybe that's for a sequel, or what the viewer creates in their imagination after the credits roll.
There was a quiet scene overflowing with emotional energy where Sad Eyes is targeting Song, and he actually passes Song the Japanese sword:Song: "Was it you?"
Sad Eyes: "Yes."
"It's been a long time since I called you by your name."
"Your name is...."
"My name is..."
"My name is..."
"What did you say your name was?
"My name is..."
I can't tell you how much I wanted him to say his name. I'm feeling this constricting pain in my chest, like, "Say it man! Declare yourself!" I wanted him to say his own name then slice Song down to the quick. But there's my crude Western sensibility trying to use a low-yeild tactical nuke when a skillful hand with a needle works all the same. Sad Eyes makes it possible for the law to bring justice to Song. Sad Eyes freed himself through small acts that had a huge ripple effect. He knew there were other ways than using his sword to free himself. And the man is an artist with his sword.
The way this film portrays the star-crossed love between Namsoon and Sad Eyes is stunning. Again, the director uses silences to make the viewer's heart cry along with the characters. There are some scenes where I can just seen how much Sad Eyes is hurting because of circumstances that have bound him to one man, to one house. And in the same moment, I can see how much he wants to break free and go to be with Namsoon
.
The director used a stylized red fade out to make it look like Sad Eyes died. And maybe he did. Maybe the flat Sad Eyes who wore black died and was reborn the moment he said, "Yes, it was me." In the moment he passed Namsoon Song's accounting book, in the moment he started to declare himself. Because he came back wearing a bright red hakch'angui full of energy and movement.
Namsoon thought she had lost him because they didn't get together after the counterfiting incident ended. The director and Namsoon's actress painted a superb picture of bittersweetness through her heartwrending torment after she assumed Sad Eyes had died. The viewer is nearly left not sure of whether he's still around or not since the end of the movie is seen through Namsoon's perspective. But they met up once or twice. And they danced together in their very own special way. I think that highlighting this bittersweetness draws the view into feeling the pangs of circumstances, circumstances that have so far made it very difficult for Namsoon and "Sad Eye's" love to blossom. But bittersweetneess moves people to change. I think Sad Eyes freed himself from Song and went off to find his own name. So there was a year or so where he was gone from the capital and Namsoon still lives. But he comes back. With a new, freer energy and that same sweet smile. She's kept his gift. She's been waiting and hoping. I'm sure that now their love will have a chance to bloom.
