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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Miracle in Cell No.7"

Lee Hwan-gyeong's colossal hit "Miracle in Cell No.7" boasts an impressive cast, captivating cinematography, and a touching tale that Korean cinema will struggle to forget. Released late in January, this heart-felt drama managed to keep itself in Korea's top ten all the way to April! Its eleven weeks in that list saw it ease past the 12 million admissions mark, making it the fifth Korean film to do so since Lee Joon-ik 2005 drama "The King and the Clown". Standing proud as the third highest grossing Korean film, "Miracle in Cell No. 7" is definitely a must-see for all Korean cinephiles, but it's by no means perfect.

Yong-goo (Ryu Seung-ryong) is a mentally handicapped single farther who, after being coerced into admitting to a crime he didn't commit, battles Korea's legal system to hold onto his adorably cute and bright young girl (Kal So-won as Ye-seung). After being caught at the scene of another young girls accidental death, Yong-goo is manipulated and bullied by the investigating officers into stating his guilt in order to protect So-won from further suffering. The Korean judicial system expels little effort in validating his claims of guilt (physical and forensic evidence for example), and soon Yong-goo finds himself sharing a jail cell with some lively inmates who, at least initially, scold him for his despicable crimes against the young girl. Yong-goo's innocence is never really up for debate here, and soon even the prison's guards become sympathetic to his single desire to be with his daughter.

"Miracle in Cell No.7" premise may seem familiar to many as Yong-goo's own intellectual impairment is knowing paired with his daughters above-average abilities. Yong-goo's mental predisposition is given little attention within Korea's legal proceedings, and he is instantly frame as a helpless victim of a corrupt and distressingly swift legal system. After his inmates' initial, rather court-like, knee-jerk reaction to his crimes, they all come to realise his innocence and scheme to reunited him with his daughter wherever possible. So-won is smuggled in and out of their cell, but their plans soon require that Yong-goo prove his innocence if their little family is to remain in tact.

The story itself is beautifully presented, and much of the film's visual seductiveness has to be credited to Lee's cinematographer Kang Seung-Ki. As the film flickers by viewers will be hard-pressed not to take note of the aw-inspiring eye-candy Lee has constructed through his interesting use of depth, as well as some seriously sharp composition and framing. The quality of visuals in "Miracle in Cell No.7" is undeniable and is a significant part of the film's enjoyment. However not all was glitter and sunshine as the post-production got carried away a little with some of film's more melodramatic moments. Scattered throughout "Miracle in Cell No.7" are a distracting number of techniques that force, rather than suggest, the strong emotionality the piece was clearly aiming for. Constantly viewers will have to suffer through heavy-handed sound effects, speared-headed by an excessive sprinkling of magic stardust that torments the ears more often than was required. An overabundance of slow-motion shots also impaired the film's pacing, again bombarding the spectator with a definitive reading of events.  The ' magic ' of the film's message was thus given a visual overdose, hitting the viewers hard over the head with its magic wand instead of letting the narrative tell its own story.

While the premise and majority of this tale's telling was enough to secure enjoyment, viewers should be reminded to leave all logic and reason at the ticket booth. Cinema, unavoidably and unashamedly, requires one to suspend their disbelief in order to fully invest in the onscreen action, however here such processes were really put to the test. The narrative speed at which Yong-goo's new prison life meets his daughters outside one occurs at breakneck speeds, as if sutured together by a drunk surgeon with somewhere else to be. The film progresses at such a rate that little time is given to details such as the court proceedings or Ye-seung's new foster situation; areas on which a deeper appeal to the film's emotional intent should have rested. 

One's sympathies towards this mentally handicapped individual caught up in legal prejudices would have greatly benefitted from spending more time on the legality of his supposed crimes. Instead, those details were whimsically addressed much later in the film at the expense of cohesiveness and in service of the film's inevitable climax. Similarly, Ye-seung's life, outside of that with her father, is touched on so lightly that characters and motivations were reduced to singular subjects in service of the film's monolithic aspirations. The result of such decisions actually plays counter to the film as a whole. Ye-seung, for example, is not suffering from being away from her farther, and Yong-goo is actually shown to enjoy the companionship of his cellmates, and prison life in general. Where is the conflict outside the singular notion of reuniting these two? Indeed their love for one another is great cinematic fodder, but it is the richness and depth surrounding it that the film failure to imagine or fully consider.

"Miracle in Cell No.7" is brimmed with gorgeous images, an attractive visuality that embraces the medium's primary senses to great satisfaction. As picturesque as the film is, its patchy narrative and questionable development detracts from the overall quality of the piece. The film's light humour and indulgent (mostly audio) accenting are cringe worthy at the best of times, saved (or perhaps concealed) only in parts by its likeable cast and their presentation on screen. Despite the film's lack of narrative tact and its clumsy sugary servility, "Miracle in Cell No.7" still walks away as a charmer and a definite must-see for Korean cinephiles.

 

~ C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com)

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