3-IRON (Bin-jip)
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Sony Pictures Classics
Grade: B+
Directed by: Kim Ki-duk
Written by: Kim Ki-duk
Cast: Lee Seung-yeon, Jae Hee, Kwon Hyuk-ho, Joo Jin-mo,
Choi Jeong-ho
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 3/28/05
Do you remember what safety precautions to take when you're
going away for a couple of weeks, leaving your apartment or
home empty? Yes, you keep the bedroom light on, you don't
put a "We're away on vacation" message on your voice mail,
and you make sure to suspend newspaper deliveries for the
time you're away. Hopefully, the bad guys will think you're in
residence. There's a way around this, though. An enterprising
housebreaker can put menus on doors, block after block,
returning the next day to check out which papers have not been
discarded. The stranger enters the house and empties the
contents.
Something similar happens in "3-Iron," an arty, partly surreal,
though fully accessible new film from Kim Ki-duk. Kim's
"Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring," which opened not
long ago, is a colorfully lush, meditative peace about an old
monk who lives in the middle of a lake and teaches his young
son the trade. "3-Iron" is beautifully photographed as well,
featuring two lead characters who say not a single word to each
other until the story's end. (Perhaps that's a good way to
prevent arguments in a marriage: it works for these two.)
Kim's story opens on young Tae-suk (Jae hee) who, despite his
charm and good looks is a lonely fellow with a strange hobby to
relieve his feeling of emptiness. He attaches commercial
notices to doors around a well-to-do neighborhood, presumably
on the outskirts of Seoul, returns the next day on his bike to
ascertain which papers have not been removed, then picks the
front lock and enters. He's not a bad guy at all. Stealing
nothing, he instead fixes whatever is broken–scales, clocks,
radios–washes the absent tenants' clothes, takes a shower and
sacks out for the night. On one of his excursions he enters the
well-appointed home of an attractive woman, Sun-hwa (Lee
Seung-yeon) who is victimized by an abusive husband, Min-Kyu
(Kwon Hyuk-ho). The woman, who is home but hiding, secretly
watches the man fix her scale and makes her presence known
only when Tae-suk has gone to bed for the night. By listening
to a phone call she receives from her husband, he realizes that
she is being abused and is determined to save her.
As with "Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...and Spring," director
Kim is concerned with digging into the human psyche to see
what lies beneath the surface. He discovers violence within the
home of a man with a lovely wife, a fellow who drives a Beemer,
wears bepoke suits, and dresses for bed in silk pajamas. He
discovers considerable violence, as well, where you'd expect to
find it: inside a police station and within a jail cell.
Though Sun-hwa and Tae-suk say not a word of dialogue to
each other until the very end of the 95-minute film, Kim is not
being pretentious. He knows that silence can often reveal far
more about human nature than mere words, or to go a step
further, he hints that when a man and a woman are on the same
page, there is no need for talk. This is true at least during the
moments of ecstasy that find them on a prolix "date" involving
the breaking in to several houses where the residents are on
vacation and leaving the houses in better shape than they had
been. In one instance, for example, they discover a dead man
in his living room, his small dog sitting anxiously by his side, and
does for the poor fellow more than his own son might have done
for him.
The title, "3-Iron," refers to a golf club used by the hero of the
story to pelt the abusive husband, that particular iron being
significant for the tale in that the 3-iron is the one that's rarely
used. Kim does not elicit a Panglossian ambiance: he is aware
that there is cruelty in the world. Despite the violence both
within the home and within institutions such as prison, he has
hope for humankind, particularly since a man who appears
barely out of his teens is able to restore a victim's energy and
happiness, if not for all time, then for at least the moments they
spend wordlessly together. "3-Iron" was shown at festivals at
Sundance, Toronto, Venice and Valladolid, an ethereal work
that will find an audience attuned to its lovely, meditative spirit.
Rated R. 95 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com
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