In the West, a number of Korean filmmakers have become well-known, among the most prominent of which is Kim Ki-Duk. This is despite the fact that Kim is not well-received by either critics or audiences in Korea itself. But because of his international reputation, he has continued to make films. Although I think Kim Ki-duk is a fraud and one of the most overrated directors in the world, the fact that his films get distribution would not really bother me if it didn’t also limit the availability of much more talented directors. But, unfortunately, given the current marketplace, it does. In my opinion, the real provocateur of Korean cinema is not Kim, but rather Jang Sun-woo, who has been inactive since the critical and financial disaster of his 2002 film RESURRECTION OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. Unfortunately, Jang’s work is mostly unavailable, with a couple of exceptions: LIES, his only film to receive wide DVD distribution in North America, and ROAD TO THE RACETRACK, released on DVD as part of the Korean Film Retrospective series. Two of his most well-known works, A PETAL and TIMELESS, BOTTOMLESS BAD MOVIE (aka BAD MOVIE) remain very difficult to find. There was a Jang retrospective last year at the Chungmuro Film Festival, so hopefully his whole oeuvre will eventually become as widely available as the other New Korean Cinema auteurs.

Jang Sun-woo does share some similarities with Kim Ki-duk in being very controversial within Korea, especially in his depictions of sexuality. The crucial difference is Jang’s ability and willingness to engage with the social dimensions of sex and violence, rather than Kim’s often crude essentialism. A PETAL was one of the first Korean features to deal with the historical trauma of the 1980 Kwangju massacre; BAD MOVIE used a mixture of documentary and fiction to show the lives of teenage runaways and homeless men in downtown Seoul; and LIES dealt with the socially taboo, S & M relationship between a 38 year-old sculptor and an 18 year-old student. LIES is Jang’s most well-known and easy to find film, available both in a Region 3 Korean release and a Region 1 DVD by Fox Lorber. I saw LIES last year at Chungmuro and think it is a masterpiece. You can read my review here. However, it is an extreme and explicit film and certainly not for everyone. But it is the type of genuinely subversive art that Kim Ki-duk can only dream of making.

The earlier ROAD TO THE RACETRACK is a much different film than the more experimental work Jang would eventually make. But it does feature some similarities. It is based on a novel by Ha Il-ji, who also wrote the screenplay, and most of Jang’s later work would be novelistic adaptations as well. And like LIES, the two main characters are not named, going simply by R and J, a modernist technique derived from the new novelist and later filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. The story revolves around R, a married man who has just spent many years in Paris finishing his PhD, and his relationship with J, who he lived with in Paris and who also completed her doctorate with R’s help. Upon returning to Seoul, he wants to re-kindle this sexual liasion, but she is reluctant. Most of the story revolves around R’s frustration with both having sex with J and with getting a divorce from his wife. Jang’s style and method of satire here are both quite subdued, and this is a far less self-reflexive work than films like BAD MOVIE or LIES. The distance provided by the film are much more in terms of the satirical treatment of these very shallow, pseudo-intellectual characters combined with the distant framings to which Jang will often cut.

The most overt use of this technique comes during the second of the seemingly endless conversations between R and J that take place in a car. During this sequence, while R is giving another long-winded monologue trying to persuade J to accept his point of view, Jang performs a camera movement away from him and to the city and social world happening outside their window.

It is interesting here to contrast Jang with Hong Sang-soo, since on the surface this story seems very reminscient of Hong’s films and is even a possible influence (there is also the actor who plays R, Moon Sung-keun, who would have a large role in THE VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS). Hong’s style tends to be more straightforward and simple in terms of composiiton, with less self-consciously distancing devices. This is because Hong’s works are much less about blockages than Jang. In ROAD TO THE RACETRACK, there is the consistent delaying of sexuality, and even of the explicit depiction of nudity, throughout the film.

This acts as a metaphor for the broader view of sex in Korea circa 1991, and offers an interesting snapshot from our current situation. It is certainly no accident that the characters were lovers in Paris and now face various blockages back in Korea. For Jang, sex, that seemingly most “natural” of acts, is always socially inscribed. 1991 offers a transitional phase in Korea’s attitudes. There is still much discussion of women’s viriginity and the problem of a woman who is not a virgin getting married. But, there are no women in the film who are virigins when married, including R’s wife and R’s sister. Moreover, this seems less an actual concern of any of the characters in personal terms, even amongst the older characters. Rather, it has become merely symbolic. Today, the same hypocrisy continues and lingers, but is less and less an actual concern. Even its symbolic power has started to fade.

Overall, perhaps the weakness of ROAD TO THE RACETRACK, and what keeps it from being in the same class as LIES, is that there is too much distance and not enough passion, not only in terms of the characters but in terms of the filmmaking. The audience never really feels the emotions of these characters and their motivations. This may be because Jang views them with too much contempt and perhaps does not believe anything they are doing has any authenticity. But, there is an exception to this, a rather long sex scene, without any real nudity but nevertheless fairly explicit, that occurs near the conclusion.

This scene stands out dramatically from the rest of the sequences, both in terms of technique (many close-ups) and in terms of the characters. Jang seems to believe on some level in the ability of sexuality to reveal something truthful, and this is perhaps why he returns to it as his subject matter. But it is also just a brief utopian moment that will soon pass, and the characters will return to the same place as they began.

For anyone interested in reading more on Jang Sun-woo, there is collection of material published as part of the Korean Film Directors series, written by Tony Rayns. It is available from Seoul Selection.

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