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3-Iron Reviewed by Ratana Ngaotheppitak, SDAFF writer Kim Ki-duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring) brings a new masterpiece, 3-Iron to the big screen. 3-Iron was the winner of four awards at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. The film is hauntingly beautiful. There is almost no dialogue, even between the two main characters. The plot centers around a nomadic motorcyclist, Tae-suk (Jae Hee), who spends his days putting flyers up on people’s homes and later breaking into the ones where the flyers were not removed. He believes them to be empty. Tae-suk lives there for a couple of days, playing fixer-upper and maid, leaving the home in a better condition then when he first arrives. The story begins when fate throws him against an abused housewife, Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon).
There are stories that are best told through silence and Kim Ki-duk fearlessly makes use of this idea. Many times Asians are stereotyped as the “silent race” and 3-Iron takes that idea and flaunts it. The lack of dialogue while noted, does not detract from the film. Sun-hwa and Tae-suk speak to one another through their body language. Lee Seung-yeon is an amazing actress; her eyes speak volumes. We follow the couple as they grow comfortable with each other. Sun-hwa’s gentle nature shines through and proves it is an even greater evil that she was tortured at the hands of an abusive husband. Entire scenes repetitiously follow Sun-hwa and Tae-suk washing laundry, eating in silence, and posing for pictures in the homes of strangers. That is both a courageous and dangerous leap to take because the recurring scenes can be tedious and lose the audiences’ interest. Kim Ki-duk effectively drives home the goodness of the couple, their gentle demeanors and also the comical situation they find themselves in; two good citizens resorting to breaking the law only for survival. However, as a member of the audience, I believe we are intelligent enough to understand these things the first time. Having a length of the film ritualistically staging the same exact scene, only in different houses is very slow paced. The film picks up when the couple is inevitably caught. Tae-suk is arrested and Sun-hwa is sent back home to her husband. At this point the film takes a turn and Kim Ki-duk brings his imagination to the surface because the plot takes a twist into impossibility. But this is the impossible dream that we are rooting for to help break Sun-hwa out of her husband’s control, and free Tae-suk from prison to reunite these soul mates. Kim Ki-duk poses the question of whether we exist in dream or reality. The ending takes a mystical shape. The beauty of this ambiguity is that we are allowed the freedom to either believe or doubt what is happening. The impossibility of such an ending is what makes it especially poignant. 
3-Iron opens Friday, May 13, |
11TH FILM FEST OCT 21-28, 2010
