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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Pieta"

A general rule of movies is that no matter how violent, sociopathic, or outright hostile to other human beings our masculine hero is, the fact that he's very good at beating people up always guarantees that he has some friends somewhere. Sure, he might need to soften up a little. Maybe get a love interest to show how he's really sweet on the inside. Besides, his ability to beat people up is pretty cool. Even villains are often viewed in a positive light by the audience thanks to this.

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"Pieta" takes a vastly different take on this genre staple. Lee Jeong-in plays a brutal debt collector whose ultra-violent tendencies don't make the audience admire him in even an abstract way. They just inspire a lot of pity. That we're watching the daily life of a very pathetic man is obvious from the beginning, when we see him in bed doing that act which lonely men are often wont to do. When he starts "talking" business, the superiority rings hollow. Sure, he can brutalize people. Is that really all he's good for?

Enter a mysterious woman claiming to be the long-lost mother. Here, too, there's nary a touch of romanticism at play. Our hero, rather than make any kind of meaningful realization about the flawed way he lives his life, quickly treats his mother in the same repulsive vein. The disturbing part is that while it seems like this to us, to him this is actually something approaching genuine love. From the twisted perspective he understands it, anyway.

Feel-good genre undertones state that true love conquers all and solves most problems in pretty much the same way. "Pieta" correctly realizes that for a certain kind of person, one who literally has no concept of what love is actually supposed to be at all, there isn't going to be any romantic realization. Our lead has to interpret this thing called "love" in the same twisted vein that he approaches every other facet of his life as he knows it. Watching "Pieta", I fully understood why that old phrase "I can change him", is so deservedly mocked. Change him into what? There's definite character development in this film- from one twisted gnarl of life to another one that's maybe marginally better. This failed reformation isn't pleasant to watch, and it's not supposed to be. It's a reflection of a certain kind of person rarely seen in film, and while "Pieta" is often discomforting to watch, getting some understanding of this kind of person is well worth the effort.

Aside from being mentally unsettling, viewers should be warned that "Pieta" is often viscerally uncomfortable as well. There are multiple scenes that, were I to describe them here, might make you feel sick just seeing them in print. While I certainly winced, I never really thought I was seeing much that crossed the line. Exotic nature of the violence notwithstanding, this is still the same basic brutality that in most given weeks at the multiplex will be glamorized somehow. Personally, I appreciate having the reminder every once in a while that protracted engagement in this kind of behavior screws people up in ways that can't be fixed in a two-hour runtime.

"Pieta" is directed by Kim Ki-duk and features Jo Min-soo and Lee Jung-jin

Review by William Schwartz. William Schwartz is an American currently living in Gyeongju, South Korea, where he studies Korean and themes in Korean media.

 

Available on DVD from YESASIA

DVD (First Press Limited Edition) (En Sub)

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