previously published on Asian Movie Pulse
Have
we ever wondered why it seems that bad things happen only to good
people? Is it that we do not notice bad things happening to bad
people and we write it off simply as karma? Or is it that the
suffering makes a person look better in our eyes than he or she
really is? The truth probably does not have anything to do with the
two theories, because people, good or bad, suffer for completely
different, realistic reasons: bad decision they have made or simply
bad luck. "Wonderful Woman", the ninth film of the South
Korean filmmaker Jeon Kyu-hwan, is exactly that: a film about
a woman having to endure some harsh life conditions. It premiered
internationally at 23rd edition of Black Nights Film Festival in
Tallinn, Estonia in Signatures section dedicated to established
arthouse filmmakers.
In
the very first scene, our heroine, played by Ahn Min-Yeong, is
pretty much diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The good news is that it
is diagnosed early, so it is operable and her chances of full
recovery are very high, with a proper care. The trouble is, however,
that her life is not very predictable, as she works in a massage
parlour that got temporarily locked down because of prostitution, she
has no savings and no luxury to take some time off.
The
additional trouble is that she has to attend the wedding of her
daughter whom she left when the latter was a teenager and in order to
do so, she has to track down the husband she has not seen for ages.
She has the urge to make things right, for her wrongdoings and also
for her husbands who gambled away all of their property and left them
without means to survive. So our titular heroine is being drained
physically, emotionally and financially and her time is ticking
away...
After
experimenting with genre cinema lately, Jeon has got back to his
roots in socially charged dramas along the lines of his early Town
trilogy. In the hands of a less tactful filmmaker, "Wonderful
Woman" could easily earn the label of a "misery porn"
film, but Jeon knows very well how to induce the maximum of viewers'
emotion without being exploitative or sentimental. As a screenwriter,
he is very aware of his heroine's flaws and as a director and a DoP
(he handled the camerawork himself, sometimes resulting in
unnecessarily shaky long hand-held shots), he decidedly stays with
her for the whole 97 minutes of minutes, offering a view to her life
and providing understanding.
On
her part, Ahn Min-Yeong is exceptional in her role, brave to no
limits to present herself in an emotionally open way, keeping her
composure, rarely missing the step and not even slightly overdoing
her part. Her presence is simply magnetic and she carries the film on
her shoulders almost effortlessly, making it a must-see for fans of
Jeon's work and enthusiasts for arthouse cinema with socially aware
side to it.
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