Another Public Enemy

Sequels are always tricky. On one hand, you've got to give people what they liked from the first film, but on the other hand you have to give them something else. It could be going bigger, with flashier special effects, action sequences, and just more in general. It could be a change in direction, with taking care to bring insight into characters that might not have been obvious before. As a fan of Public Enemy, the Korean action dark comedy, I was excited to see what would happen with Another Public Enemy. It takes an approach I'm not sure I approve of, it makes it respectable.

So Kyung-gu Sol is back as Gang - or Kang, in these subtitles - being promoted from inspector to prosecutor. He is, again, confronted with a rich man who believes he is above the law - Han, played by Jun-ho Jeong - though he is a bit less brutal with his murdering, and is mostly involved with a complicated money laundering scheme. In the new film, we see Kang have a newfound respect for the law and due process - though not so much respect that he doesn't step outside it frequently, especially at the end. As a result, he's a bit more respectable, but less funny and interesting, and less compelling to watch. The old crew is back, but they're not up to their old antics.

It's a case where I might actually have a different opinion if it weren't the sequel. The political maneuvering as Han tries to get people off the case is interesting, though he's a less interesting character than he might be. The attempt to sell off property in order to get rich in America is a lot less sinister than it might be, and Han just isn't that compelling of a character, being a one note bad guy overall.

Unfortunately, with the dialed up respectability the action is dialed way down, with the majority of the maneuvering taking place in offices as people talk politics. It's actually not a bad premise overall, but I felt disappointed by it, as it trades the original film's tension and intrigue with much less tense and much less intriguing moments.

Another Public Enemy isn't bad, per se, but I couldn't help but think that it had been neutered. It doesn't have the teeth it once did, and making Kang respectable makes his character less interesting overall. It makes me think that maybe sequels generally aren't a good thing, because you can't have the same thing twice, but if you deviate too far it ends up being a disappointment. Perhaps Public Enemy should have been left alone.

Public Enemy

Just when you think I'm talking about a recent Michael Mann picture, nope, that's a plural. This is Public Enemy, singular. As one might also expect from my obsession with Korea, which started long before this adventure, it's a Korean movie. It's also utterly, completely, amazing.

Truth be told, I was a bit worried when I popped in the DVD. First trailer? An ad for an Anime channel, seemingly bragging about how derivative all Anime is (several thousand gigantic robots! Hundreds of spunky magical girls! A billion kids with bad hair!). Second ad? An anime magazine, drowning in pastels and an unhealthy obsession with Japan. This is what they think people watching Public Enemy want? Derivative crap for people obsessed with Japan? Besides, this movie is Korean! Korea is not Japan! In fact, if one would to go by the quality of local cinema - and being somewhat obsessed with Korean cinema, I would do that - Korea is better than Japan. Though if one were to do that, Brazil would be the best country in the world, and that's not... accurate.

Another concern arose when I pressed play, and the default was an anime-quality dub. First off, dubs in live action? A definite no-no. I'm not one of those snobs when it comes to dubs in animation, but with live action dubs, the seams always show. Since we, as humans, can correlate the sounds coming out of someone's mouth to the motions, you can instantly tell something's gone awry. Not helping matters is that they got typical anime voices, which for some reason tend to be bottom of the barrel voice talent. Combined, you have a movie watcher scrambling to find the menu button.

But I forgive you, ADV, since once I got the settings in order and the movie proper started, I could see I was in for something interesting. When an hour was over, I was already wondering just how high in my all time lists of favorites it would be. In the last twenty minutes, I was literally on the edge of my seat. That never, ever happens. I can't remember the last time I was so excited to see what happened next I was nearly falling off the couch in anticipation.

So what is the story behind this 2 hours and 18 minutes of pure excellence? Well, in one corner, we have highly corrupt and extremely violent police officer Inspector Gang, brilliantly realized by Kyung-gu Sol. We meet him when his partner has killed himself, and he's being investigated for corruption. This is because he is corrupt, and has just stolen a proper crapload of cocaine from a group of criminals. In the other corner, we are introduced to Jo Kyu-Hwan - actually it's spelled differently in the film but I'm going by the IMDB - who is introduced as a likable family man who also happens to enjoy pleasuring himself in the shower. He's also played even more brilliantly by Sung-jae Lee, demonstrating unflappable calm and barely restrained anger. The scenes where he's trying to convincingly cry are absolutely amazing. Who do you think we're supposed to root for here?

From those introductions we start moving into the film proper, which can only be considered a black comedy/action picture. But, unlike many black comedies, this one is genuinely funny. Sometimes, it's absolutely hilarious, especially in every single scene where Gang has to do math. Gang's investigation of Kyu-Hwan is frequently fraught with difficulties, many of his own creation. While he might have a redemptive arc, he's objectively an ass. However, he's a likable ass, and you begin to feel for him as he gets steadily more obsessed with hunting down a man who he believes cut his face and made him get poo on his hands.

Helping his case is the fact that the audience knows from the outset that his suspicions are right. Our family man is quickly revealed to be not exactly a nice person, and our corrupt cop actually cares about the community as much as he enjoys beating up thugs. They're also presented roughly as equals in fighting style, which helps bring genuine tension to the action scenes. Almost as much tension as is brought to the table by the absolutely fantastic direction, staging, and everything to do with the action scenes. Director Woo-Suk Kang knows deep within his bones how to film a fight sequence, and he does some absolutely fantastic ones. The final battle is one of the all time great fistfights, I'm sure of it.

Seriously, I'm having great difficulty figuring out anything I wasn't absolutely enthralled by. Alright, if you have a crippling fear of naked men, you might want to be advised that, at the beginning of the film, we see a lot of men's butts. Of course, this could be a selling point for some people - Sung-jae Lee is very physically fit, and even gets a workout montage for all the ladies in the audience. It also doesn't start especially quickly, and the opening about what it's like to be police could be considered superfluous. But I'm just nitpicking because I don't want to say this is seriously the best movie I've seen in ages.

In fact, I'm stunned that there haven't been waves to remake this for American audiences. Americans love anti-heroes, they love it when wealthy psychopaths are beat down, and they love good old fashioned blackly comic action thrillers. Maybe American directors have secretly admitted they won't be able to top this, and there is absolutely nothing they could improve on. Seriously, while this isn't the best movie I've seen since starting this project - Z probably takes that - this is absolutely fantastic and everyone who enjoys a good dark comedy action thriller needs to see it now. Just ignore all that anime crap on the DVD, and be sure to switch to Korean w/subtitles.

Oasis

The DVD for Oasis shows a picture of two lovers embracing in a verdant field. Now, based on that image, one might predict a pretty romance starring attractive people. Like, for example, the Lake House, to use the most recent film on this little project to fit the mold. So, when the film opens with the most annoying man in the world wandering around, one is surprised at the very least.

Perhaps I should feel bad about saying that, since said most annoying man - played by Kyung-gu Sol - is supposed to be mentally challenged. Of course, that's not immediately apparent, as he's initially wandering around the city and trying to bum cigarettes and meals off of people. He also makes the most annoying sound in the world, the sound of someone with the sniffles. That awful "sucking crap up your nose" noise, which drives me absolutely insane.

It's an interesting tactic, making your main character so initially off putting. I suppose you're supposed to feel bad about disliking him, but since the performance isn't that good he comes off as more annoying than having genuine mental problems. It's also somewhat used to excuse his actions, which are frequently quite ridiculous, like introducing himself to the love interest - disabled with cerebral palsy and played by So-ri Moon - with attempted rape. Not a great way to make a character likable.

So we have the immortal story of two disabled characters who fall in love in slightly uncomfortable ways, given their introduction. And I can see why Sol falls in love with Moon, she's the only remotely likable character in the movie. While the other characters can be rightly annoyed by Sol, they shouldn't outright tell him their lives would be better off without them. His family is relatively decent, since it makes sense that they would be annoyed by someone that doesn't learn and is often in jail. I understand their frustration - I know a guy who has mental disabilities, and is frustrating in the same way, though that's at least partially because he's smart enough to know that it allows him to get away with stuff normal people wouldn't (though not smart enough to keep that fact to himself). Moon's neighbours set about doin' the nasty right in front of her, her brother uses disability cheques to live the high life while she lives in squalor, and Sol is the only one who is nice to her - apart from that whole messy rape business.

It seems to be about how disabled people are screwed over by society, but instead it just chronicles the lives of a bunch of thoroughly unlikable people and a girl with cerebral palsy. It's difficult to watch at times, not because of the disabilities on display (though Moon's attempts at being convincingly disabled can be) but because people are just cruel to each other for no reason other than to help the director make a point.

I get what he was trying to do, but he lacks one important thing, subtlety. Everyone's at the extreme, to the point where he deliberately tries to make characters hard to identify with. Living with people with these disabilities would be a challenge, but instead of trying to humanize these characters, they're just portrayed as pure evil, and hating the burdens thrust among them. Actual families with disabled kids are often frustrated by their antics, especially if their antics include criminal activity, but more often than not still care about the people. These people are all pitched as having no empathy, it's annoying.

There's something good here though, and that's So-ri Moon. She's got a difficult role to play, being both afflicted with cerebral palsy and also - in dream sequences - completely normal. If there's one character in the movie you can care about, it's her, and you really empathize with her wanting to live a normal life, and being completely unable. The way she dreams of being able to do simple things - like hitting Sol over the head with a bottle - and is completely unable to is heartbreaking.

If you could care about the characters, this might be a good movie, but with one exception, you just can't. They're too simplistic, they're too unlikable, and they're too difficult to care about. Make the families likable, and the male lead not attempt rape you've got a potential story. But by pitching the families as pure evil, using every opportunity to use and abuse their disabled relatives, it does not work. Subtlety can be the difference between a good movie, and one that borders on ridiculous. This one is on the ridiculous side.