Korea Path

[trevor826]

Mulgogijari (2000) Pisces

Directed by Hyung-tae Kim

Starring Mi-yeon Lee (Addicted), Woo-jae Choi (Phone), Ji-hye Yun (Whispering Corridors)

Where do you draw the line between love and obsession?

Ae-ryun (Mi-yeon Lee} owns a video store called Sad Movie, she loves French films and has a thing about Kurt Cobain. Dong-suk (Woo-jae Choi) is a singer/songwriter and shares the same tastes, they form a friendship based on their mutual interests.

Dong-suk is also a bit of a depressive, he can’t seem to get a recording contract no matter how hard he tries and ends up getting drunk and reeling off quotes about how “You can get anything you want in life as long as you want it enough”. This is the sort of talk that Ae-ryun needs to hear, she knows that he has a long time girlfriend but tries to make a move on him, although flattered he tells her that all he wants is friendship, nothing more.

What started off with the air of a gentle romance turns into something a little darker, Ae-ryun’s nature takes over, she’s taken his drunken comments to heart and is determined to win him over. Feelings that appeared to be genuine and warm become obsessive and deceitful causing friction in Dong-suk’s relationship.

The plot takes an even bigger twist towards the end, which makes you re-evaluate everything that’s gone before adding an extra dimension to the story.

This film belongs to Mi-yeon Lee, an excellent performance as a woman obsessed, the other actors are fine but she dominates the film. This is no bunny boiler and at the end you feel sorry for all the central characters that things work out the way they do.

I have to mention Woo-jae Choi’s singing, it’s dire! No wonder he cant get a recording contract in the film, others may disagree but I didn’t like his singing voice or his music.

Overall then, not an essential film by any means but a very different treatment in comparison to the way Hollywood has presented this type of obsessive love drama.

Cheers Trev.

No BBFC rating but I’d put it as probably a 15.

Region 3 dvd available from several suppliers