Green Fish

I purchased this movie after reading some of the very positive reviews found on this site but what a disappointment it was. It is not that the film is terribly bad, it's simply one of the many stories focused on innocent people entering the gangster world and their struggle to remain true to themselves and what they stand for in life.

GREEN FISH, just simply is not very unique or particularly moving. Yes, there are a few subplots and themes that make you want to follow the story and promise it to be an interesting one, but somehow, I feel the narrative does not gather the strength that it could have achieved to make it a remarkable story. At this stage and age it is very difficult to exploit the exploited, and a simple change of setting does not work miracles. If there is something that works well for the film, it must be the character insight, however, this does not make up for all of its weaknesses. In all, not a bad movie but I would not really recommend it as enthusiastically as others have done. Korean cinema has much higher quality representatives than this one.

Lee Chang-Dong's movie have common themes I have noticed as I move backwards through his oeuvre. Male protagonists romance story tied up in a class system or one hierarchical social structure or another. Its about the indignation and class struggle, being mislead by the bright lights, whether it be women fame or fortune. The good are seldom rewarded and success is not won by having principles. Its more like a 'dogme 95' movie than a hollywood affair. Its not overly violent and the overall tone is kinda light considering the bleak outcome of the story, conveying the absurdity of life rather than looking at it in a nihilistic way. City scapes contrast with rural city outskirts as do the inhabitants; this again puts it in similar ground to his latest movie Burning, which has alot in common with this one in many thematic ways. I would say that his fim making skills have grown and Burning was better, the cinematography for one thing is superior in the latter.

Lee Chang-dong's debut film reflects a changing Korea, one where apartment high rises have sprung up in the outskirts of Seoul while a young man has been away for his compulsory military service. He's as powerless to stop it as he is to stop the assault of woman on the train he comes in on, and that's one of the themes here, powerlessness coming along with the loss of innocence in a Korea that dehumanizes as it modernizes. He can't get a decent job and he can't stop his family from devolving into chaos, with one brother drinking too much. He's soon sucked in to a gang with a rigid power structure, more than once having to just stand there and take physical punishment, though we see that even "big brother" has a "big brother," making one wonder where the hierarchy ends. The film is well made and almost certainly more meaningful to Koreans in the late 90's, but to me it was dreary and uninspiring, with too much emphasis on the gangster element, even if it was nice to see Song Kang-ho in just his second film. I could have done without the chicken beheading though.

This is director Lee Chang-Dong's first film (of three) and the third that I've seen after his well-made films Peppermint Candy and Oasis. It's a story of a young man who is recently discharged from the standard military service that young Corean men are required to serve and finds that life, or the real world, is a lot harsher than his idealistic self would've expected. He soon finds himself dragged into the Corean underworld out of necessity and finds his idealism and the idealism of all those around him at odds with reality.

In a greater sense, this film is about the constant struggle between chasing your dreams and dealing with the harsh reality. All the primary characters, the mob boss, the female lead and the protagonist all have their dreams and ambitions (building a great property from the ashes of his youth, escaping the prostitute's life and living a normal one, owning a restaurant with his family), but are struck by the world's reality, which forms itself as an enemy mob, the mob bosses' controlling nature and the young protagonist's dysfunctional family.

It's a study of the nature of the relatively modern world (of Corea) and the inevitable clash of youthful idealism and experienced reality. And it doesn't take too many sides either, although the ending does seem to show that action, and sacrifice, even unintended, is what's necessary to keep yourself from being beaten down by reality.

It's a slowly-paced art film with quiet but contemplative character development, modest acting and capable directing. Directer Lee still hasn't fully gained a strong grasp of storytelling yet as a director at this point as the film as it's sometimes difficult to make out why anything's happening in the film, but the potential shows as well, with honest characters and patient development. A good start, but you can see the Director side of Lee Chang-Dong really start to pick up with his later films. It's decent. 7/10.

I see this as a film about how hard it is to do the right thing in the complex modern world. Makdong's family used to own acres of farmland that are now covered in ugly apartment buildings and now they get by selling eggs to the residents. All Makdong wants to do is make this easier for his family and in the process he becomes a gangster just to get by. Even the gangsters are between doing the right thing and doing what they must to survive. Makdong's "Big Brother" likes to think of himself as different from the other thieves and killers that make up the underworld but in the end he is no better.