3-Iron (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
It's quiet. It's weird. It's Korean. And it's good. A young nomad, Tae-Suk (Jae Hee), enters strangers' homes and dwells there for a night or two until the homeowners return. He doesn't steal, he simply lives there (does laundry, waters plants, fixes clocks, bathroom scales, etc). His lonely-yet-pleasant lifestyle changes one day when he enters what he thinks is an unoccupied home. Sun-Hwa (Lee Seung-yeon) is in a miserably abusive marriage & contemplates escaping with her intruder. '3-Iron', written & directed by Ki-Duk Kim, will either bore you or transfix you.
Tae-Suk has a unique way of breaking-&-entering his new homes. Every day, he tapes fast-food flyers on front doors. If after a day, no one takes the flyers down, he assumes that the occupants of the home are away on vacation. It's risky, but he makes it work. Because he is hospitable in his stay, & because he's not a home wrecker, the occupants don't even notice that their beds have been slept in, so to speak. But when he breaks into that house with a beat-up, bruised Sun-Hwa, their initial fear of each other soon turns to a silent, submission to each other. Her husband returns from work, Tae-Suk grabs a 3-Iron club from a nearby golf bag and begins to pummel golf balls at her husband. With him now immobilized, Tae-Suk & Su-Hwa escape to live a life of house-hopping.
Although the 2 main characters never speak to each other, a plot ensues & you'll never guess where the story goes. In their rebellion, Tae-Suk & Su-Hwa leave critically injured citizens in their wake, but they drudge on. One of their home occupancies goes awry, the police enter the picture, interrogations commence, jail sentences arise, but the movie still ends in an oddly contemplative and endearing note. And the writer/director doesn't explain what occurs in the very last scene. I liked the open-endedness of it; there are more questions to be answered. And all of this with minimal-to-no dialogue (quite impressive from a technical standpoint)! With no dialogue, their actions, facial expressions, & emotions are intensified as the movie progresses.
If there are negatives of '3-Iron', they'd be that the film is almost too delicate, too aloof. There's a very mystical, magical element to this film that develops near the very end. It forces you to either take what you're seeing for what it is, or allow a scenario where one of the main characters is probably an illusion, or a ghost. Either way, some passive viewers may find it all to be a bit too much. On a positive note, it's seems to be the Korean way to make imaginative, almost mysterious films; and they're unpredictable. What more could you want? BUT, the downside is that energy and excitement suffers where slow, budding beauty unfolds & flourishes. Either you're interested in this type of off-beat film or you aren't. I liked it; I'm happy I rented it. But I don't know that I'll ever see it again, either.
Tae-Suk has a unique way of breaking-&-entering his new homes. Every day, he tapes fast-food flyers on front doors. If after a day, no one takes the flyers down, he assumes that the occupants of the home are away on vacation. It's risky, but he makes it work. Because he is hospitable in his stay, & because he's not a home wrecker, the occupants don't even notice that their beds have been slept in, so to speak. But when he breaks into that house with a beat-up, bruised Sun-Hwa, their initial fear of each other soon turns to a silent, submission to each other. Her husband returns from work, Tae-Suk grabs a 3-Iron club from a nearby golf bag and begins to pummel golf balls at her husband. With him now immobilized, Tae-Suk & Su-Hwa escape to live a life of house-hopping.
Although the 2 main characters never speak to each other, a plot ensues & you'll never guess where the story goes. In their rebellion, Tae-Suk & Su-Hwa leave critically injured citizens in their wake, but they drudge on. One of their home occupancies goes awry, the police enter the picture, interrogations commence, jail sentences arise, but the movie still ends in an oddly contemplative and endearing note. And the writer/director doesn't explain what occurs in the very last scene. I liked the open-endedness of it; there are more questions to be answered. And all of this with minimal-to-no dialogue (quite impressive from a technical standpoint)! With no dialogue, their actions, facial expressions, & emotions are intensified as the movie progresses.
If there are negatives of '3-Iron', they'd be that the film is almost too delicate, too aloof. There's a very mystical, magical element to this film that develops near the very end. It forces you to either take what you're seeing for what it is, or allow a scenario where one of the main characters is probably an illusion, or a ghost. Either way, some passive viewers may find it all to be a bit too much. On a positive note, it's seems to be the Korean way to make imaginative, almost mysterious films; and they're unpredictable. What more could you want? BUT, the downside is that energy and excitement suffers where slow, budding beauty unfolds & flourishes. Either you're interested in this type of off-beat film or you aren't. I liked it; I'm happy I rented it. But I don't know that I'll ever see it again, either.