Director: Park Chan-wook
Starring: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il
Country of Origin: South Korea
When a sleepless detective scales a peak of infatuation with a murder suspect the descent is mired in waves of melancholy.
Respected by colleagues but dissatisfied by his weekend marriage Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is tormented by unsolved cases and keeps pictures of his failures on a gruesome wall collage.
Detached from his wife Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun), who works in nuclear power plant in Ipo, the Busan detective becomes smitten when investigating the murder of a retired immigration officer.
The man who marked his initials on everything, including his younger Chinese wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei), is discovered at the bottom of a mountain near South Korea’s second largest city.
Covered in bruises and with a scratch on her hand, all the signs point to Seo-rae as the perpetrator. She displays no emotion and even suppresses a laugh in a peculiar interrogation which resembles a date. Hae-jun orders expensive boxed sushi as the pair somberly eat like strangers going out for the first time as interview room cameras record each intense interaction.
The detective gazes longingly as he stakes out the suspect. First in her apartment and then at her job as a carer for elderly women. He is so besotted he envisions himself beside the woman who is presumed to have killed her older husband.
However Seo-rae, who avidly watches Korean dramas while living as the lead in her own mystery show, conducts a parallel investigation as she plays detective by secretly following him.
Hae-jun’s obsession intensifies despite uncovering crucial details which implicate his new found love.
Their relationship is cloaked in a veil of gloomy subterfuge as director Park Chan-wook gradually adds more missing pieces to the unfinished jigsaw.
Even when together they seem separated and just when one wave of the narrative comes to shore another emerges.
It’s spellbinding and sometimes perplexing as the strands of the story don’t always converge. Yet a chillingly lucid finale leaves no room for dubiety.
The sea of distance between the two protagonists is expressed in lavish visual motifs as the camera is placed in unfamiliar vantage points.
The altered perspective captures images framed by the metal edges of a fence, from a blood soaked pool and even from the eye of a dead fish in a busy market.
We observe Hae-jun through a mobile phone screen as each angle seems to reflect his increasingly deteriorating state. His judgement impaired through a damaging lens of desire and chronic insomnia. He wakes up 47 times a night and constantly uses eye drops in a futile attempt to find clarity when the situation is hopelessly unclear.
While the enigmatic Seo-rae is shrouded in a permanent cloud of anguish as she deceptively uses hair extensions to alter her appearance.
A few light moments pierce the darkness as frustrated younger colleague Soo-wan (Go Kyung-pyo) is strapped to his boss’s back like an helpless baby as the cops are hydraulically hoisted up the mountain to reenact the crime. Hae-jun botches an attempt at cooking Chinese food which even forces a smile from Seo-rae. The persistent questioning of inquisitive young cop Yeon-su – played by real life comedian Kim Shin-young – breaks the tension in the second act when he finally joins his wife in Ipo but ends up being bitten by a snapping turtle in a small-time animal robbery case.
Although rich in symbolism and visually radiant, it’s the stunning performances of the leads that shape a multi-layered epic.
Park Hae-il is captivating as he depicts a genuinely decent man bound in a wide awake coma in a fruitless search for an unreachable love.
Tang Wei dazzles as the mournful femme fatale hiding behind insufficient Korean and a harrowing backstory.
They illuminate a provocative masterpiece from a director at the very top of his craft.
Stephen Kasiewicz 