Wednesday, January 14, 2009

HMT 329: FORENSIC???

Arang (2005)

Detective So-Young (Song Yoon-Ah) and her rookie partner investigate a murder where the autopsy reveals the victim was killed from the inside. The death, and several others, are connected to a drunken brawl ten years ago where a barman died and his girlfriend disappeared. Is the girl's ghost finally getting revenge or is this a case of blackmail between rich brats who share a horrible secret.
The Legend of Arang is a Korean folk story about a girl who died during an attempted rape and her ghost's deadly visits to the local police which ceased only when a new inspector solved her murder. It's handy to know that since, for Westerners, the title seems to be a random collection of letters. The average Korean viewer would be aware of the story. He'd also be able to read the legend which pops up as text before the end credits. Unfortunately, that section is left un-subtitled so I was forced into research. No matter, since once that's all made clear, you'll see how pointless it is.
The film's only connection to the legend is rape. Arang is about rape. Everyone's either committed rape, been raped, watched a rape, is guilty about rape, or makes obnoxious comments about rape. That's not unusual as a majority of the Korean films I've watched have featured rapes. Since I've seen primarily Korean horror films, I'm not ready to say what this means, but I am beginning to feel concerned about their collective psyche. Perhaps the next few I find will have happy, unmolested women. That'd be nice. But I digress.
Arang his being sold as "CSI meets Ju-On" which is accurate provided you've never seen either of those and use "CSI" to mean anything with a cop and "Ju-on" to mean anything with a ghost. Arang lacks the forensic work and camera tricks of the TV show and the scares of the movie. However, as a non-CSI cop buddy pic, it's pretty good. So-Young is a strong, though feminine (as the director likes to point out) character that somehow manages to tip-toe just beyond the stereotype, and her interactions with her partner make them both come alive. Character-wise, this is good stuff, but their actual investigation leaves a lot to be desired. The major clues come like magic or the pronouncements of an idiot savant.
Partner: "Everyone has something hidden."So-Young (paraphrased): "Hidden? Hidden. Quick turn around. We have to dig up a dead dog and check its stomach for a video tape!"
Really? I was taken aback by the quick burying of a dead dog at a crime scene when poison may have been involved, but this sudden desire to grope its innards comes from nowhere.
The ghostly shenanigans aren't bad. There's nothing creepier that a pale young woman with bleeding eyes, except a child with bleeding eyes, and we get both.
What doesn't work is the combo solution. First time writer/director Ahn Sang-Hoon wants a straight cop drama and a ghost story simultaneously and flubs both. Neither of his two endings explain what went on before and they contradict each other. The supernatural stuff works better because it doesn't need to make sense, but the rational conclusion has to be believable, and it isn't. There's a drug involved that... Let's just say no drug can do what this one can. Once we get to the big, non-ghostly reveal, the film puts on the breaks. It didn't help that I worked it out forty-five minutes earlier (and hoped that I was wrong), but worse is that we no longer see things through So-Young's eyes. We should have been shown only what she worked out of the events of ten years ago (this is a detective film after all). Instead, we get far too many flashbacks from a different perspective, giving us way more than we need.
Arang could have been an entertaining retread of better ghost films, with the twist that it's told from the point of view of the cops, not the victims. Instead it is a nonsensical melodrama with a pair of spirits that serve no purpose.






Arang
Theatrical poster
Hangul
아랑
Hanja
阿娘
Directed by
Ahn Sang-hoon
[1]
Written by
Ahn Sang-hoonJeong Seon-juLee Jeong-seobSin Yun-kyung
Starring
Choo So-yeongJeong Won-jung
Kim Ok-binLee Dong-wookLee Jong-suSong Yun-ah
Editing by
Ko Im-Pyo
Distributed by
Lotte Entertainment
Release date(s)
June 28, 2006
Running time
97 minutes
Country
South Korea
Language
Korean

Cast
Song Yun-ah... So-yeong
[2][3]
Lee Dong-wook... Hyeon-gi
Lee Jong-su... Dong-min
Kim Hae-in... Min-jeong
Chung Won-joong... Kim Ban-jeong
Lee Seung-cheol... Jo So-jang
Choo So-young... Su-bin
Jeon Jun-hong... Jeong-ho
Ju Sang-uk... Jae-hyeon
Lee Seung-ju... Ji-cheol

5. husna

17. najwa

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