From
Wikipedia it states that “the Pieta is a subject in Christian art depicting the
Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture” and
most often posed like in the poster for the film seen above. Put simply it is a mother sorrowfully holding
the body of her lifeless son which goes a long way to describing what Kim
Ki-Duk’s 18th film, “Pieta”, is about as it is a story that largely
deals with the connection between mothers and their sons. After a self imposed three year break from
filmmaking, Kim Ki-Duk returned in 2011 with a couple of experimental features,
“Arirang” and “Amen”. Both of these are
minor efforts compared to past work from this exciting director, but his latest
film sees him finally return to narrative filmmaking and proves that he has
lost none of his brilliance during his sabbatical.
Central
to the world of “Pieta” is Gang-Do, a violent and sadistic loan shark who has
quite the interesting scam. He lends
money to desperate workers in the industrial town of Cheonggyecheon, where he
charges ten times the interest of the initial loan, while at the same time
forcing the worker to take out an insurance policy in case of any
accident. If payment is unable to be
met, Gang-Do returns to cripple the worker and claim the insurance money to pay
off the debt owed to him. Gang-Do is a
cruel person and has no problem crippling a man for life over a minor debt of a
couple of grand. It is obvious that
there is a lot of anger in Gang-Do which could be due to the fact that he feels
that the world has given him nothing, as he grew up an orphan in life. Gang-Do continually goes about his daily
business destroying people’s lives with unwavering ease until one day he
notices a strange, older woman following him.
No matter what he does to her, she will not leave Gang-Do alone. Eventually the woman confesses to being Gang-Do’s
mother, Mi-Son, who has returned to her son’s side asking for his forgiveness
for abandoning him when he was just a child.
At first, Gang-Do wants nothing to do with the woman, and tries
everything to get rid of her (including some quite violent means) but when he
finally realizes that she is not going anywhere, he stops resisting and accepts
his mother’s forgiveness and begins to let the woman into his life. Suddenly with love in his life he sees the
world with new eyes and a different perspective as he begins to realize all of
the pain he has caused around him, and tries to go about finding redemption for
his past crimes and sins.
Right
from the opening frame of “Pieta”, it is obvious that we are watching a Kim
Ki-Duk film. Just the look and feel of
the film gives the distinct feeling that this is a film that could be made by
no other. For a director we were so used
to receiving a new feature from every year, the four years between “Dream” and
“Pieta” was an incredibly long wait, but the wait was definitely worth it
because “Pieta” is easily one of Kim Ki-Duk’s very best films. It is like the time off he took has re-energized
the man and he is now ready once again to attack the world of cinema with his
unflinching eye towards society. None
too subtle is the fact that Ki-Duk is attacking capitalism, or extreme
capitalism, in his latest film as we are forever witness to the debilitating
effects that money has over people’s lives.
He makes no bones about exposing just what people are willing to do or
sacrifice in an attempt to own the smallest sum of money if just for a fleeting
moment. This theme is so enforced in
“Pieta” that you could say that money, or the evils of money, are almost like a
third main character in the film. Ki-Duk
is obviously disgusted at the lengths people will go for money as well as how
far they are willing to exploit others and from his eyes he believes that most
of the world’s problems come from this. There
is a scene in the film when Gang-Do asks his mother “What is money?” and her
reply is “The beginning and end of all things”, which she follows up with
“love, honor, violence, fury, hatred, jealousy, revenge and death”. This basically sums up Ki-Duk’s feelings on
the whole subject.
The
other two characters are obviously Gang-Do, played by Lee Jung-Jin, and Mi-Son
portrayed by Jo Min-Soo. Both are
relative newcomers (I have seen neither in anything before) and both are
excellent particularly Min-Soo who has an incredibly complex role which is
exposed more as the film goes along. I
must admit I thought it was slightly amusing that they had to add a thin line
of dark eye-liner to Jung-Jin to give him an even darker appearance but he is
brilliant at pulling off the fact that this man is incredibly cold, almost as
if he has no heart at all. He never
flinches causing such pain on strangers; in fact you feel he revels in it even
though he does not outwardly emote this.
Once his mother enters the picture Jung-Jin is able to soften up his
portrayal of Gang-Do slightly as we see his lost childhood start to reverberate
through him. There is a scene midway
through the film when Gang-Do and his mother go out together and he really is
like a little boy, not the violent thug we have witnessed previous. By the end of the film we even witness this
once deplorable man show affection towards another human being.
Jo
Min-Soo in my opinion has the much tougher role in “Pieta” because it is so
internal. She has limited dialogue but
emotes so much through her eyes which are very almost always full of
tears. It is obvious that she feels an
immense sadness and incredible guilt over what she is doing and what has
happened past, but she needs to see this through and find redemption for
herself and her son no matter how painful it is. Min-Soo is at her finest during her final
scene as she is full of complex and contradictory emotions but pulls it off so
extraordinarily well. I must say that I
really like the way Kim Ki-Duk shot the scenes featuring Mi-Son because he uses
a lot of close-ups with this character which is appropriate due to how much of
the scene is usually played out over her face and her emotions. He always chooses beautiful angles however
making the painful image of a crying mother look so beautiful. I cannot forget to mention just how great the
chemistry was between the two leads either.
From a
visual standpoint, I thought that the film was outstanding, particularly with
the production design. I loved the use
of the colour red used throughout Gang-Do’s apartment which contrasted
beautifully with the darkness of his world.
As I mentioned earlier, Kim Ki-Duk’s frame compositions were just
beautiful without ever drawing attention to themselves, and Jo Young-Jik’s
cinematography complemented the dark and shadowy world. I particularly loved the representation of
Cheonggyecheon’s slums, it was a world that felt lived in, it felt raw and
dirty and also, it was a place that I am not used to seeing in South Korean
cinema. My only issue in regards to the
look of the film was every now and then Kim Ki-Duk would employ the use of a
fast zoom technique that would turn, for instance, a two-shot into a single
close-up. For me, I found this technique
to be very amateurish and tacky and would have preferred the use of editing to
achieve a better result as the zoom effect often distracted me and took me out
of the film.
Being a
huge fan of Kim Ki-Duk, I am well aware of how brutal his films can be,
particularly with regards to the violence often presented. It comes as a shock to find how restrained
Ki-Duk is with “Pieta” and its depiction of violence. The majority of it is implied and takes place
off camera, however this never takes away from the fact at how brutal it all
is. In fact for the majority of the
first half of the film, there is little joy to be had, with the tone of the
film being incredibly dark that it almost drowns in its own pessimism. There is little hope in “Pieta”, at least
initially, and yet amazingly through all the darkness Kim Ki-Duk has managed to
find a couple of moments of almost slapstick comedy in the film. These moments come from nowhere but actually
have a real-life quality to them that you cannot help but laugh. Once the mother enters the film and Gang-Do’s
life, the slightest sliver of hope enters the film and it is not as heavy going
as the first half of the film, as it begins to change into a psychological
examination of a man re-evaluating his life and actions within it.
Overall,
I found Kim Ki-Duk’s “Pieta” to be a great film; it is so good to have him back
making movies again. It is definitely a
dark and troubling film, but it is full of depth that makes it a worthwhile
watch. “Pieta” recently won the Golden
Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, which is the festival’s top prize, so it
appears that Kim Ki-Duk is back in a big way.
As seems the norm with most films I review, this film may not be for
everyone because it has some quite disturbing and controversial scenes within,
but if you are a fan of brave cinema you should find “Pieta” extremely
worthwhile. While I found the finale to
be a little too protracted and his point about the “evils of money” being none
too subtle, “Pieta” is still a fantastic film and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
4 Stars.
