Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

Bad Guy

2001, Movie, NR, 100 mins

Bad Guy: Review

BAD GUY
starstarstarstar
Not long after ferociously talented South Korean director Kim Ki-Duk induced vomiting in festivalgoers with THE ISLE (2000), but before becoming a critic's darling with the gentler SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER... AND SPRING (2003), Kim crafted this unusual love story between a mute, lovesick thug and the virginal young woman he shanghais into prostitution. While not quite a dose of cinematic ipecac, it most definitely requires an open mind. The life of 21-year-old college student Kim Sun-Hwa (Seo Won) takes an unforeseen detour the day she's approached in a Seoul park by Han-Gi (Cho Je-Hyun), a hardboiled pimp with a nasty scar across his throat. Transfixed by Sun-Hwa's chaste beauty, Han-Gi assaults her with a long, hard kiss on the mouth. Sun-Hwa's boyfriend and a group of passing soldiers manage to fight him off, but Han-Gi isn't done. A few days later, one of his goons (Kim Yun-Tae) follows Sun-Hwa into a bookstore and plants a wallet full of cash where she's sure to find it. Unable to resist temptation, Sun-Hwa pockets the money and is immediately chased down by the wallet's "owner," who claims she's robbed him of $10,000. He threatens to call the police and forces Sun-Hwa to sign for a loan using the only collateral she has — her body. If she doesn't come up with the payment in seven days, she'll have to leave her old life behind and go to work for Han-Gi. A week later, virtuous Sun-Hwa is a virtual prisoner in one of the storefront bordellos that line the city's tawdry red-light district. She at first refuses to solicit johns and even convinces Han-Gi's other sidekick, Myung-Soo (Choi Duk-Moon), to help her escape. But the plan fails and the by-now fully degraded Sun-Hwa has begun to accept her fate, still unaware that Han-Gi secretly watches her every move from behind the two-way mirror in her room. He's more than just a voyeur: He's fallen desperately in love. It's a scenario right out of Sade, but with one crucial difference that will probably make this film unacceptable to most audiences: It's meant to be a romance and, for better or worse, it is. Even more problematic, Han-Gi and his goons treat one another with a sense of honor and affection that render them close to heroic, and the undeniably powerful bond that ties Sun-Hwa to her captor can't be explained away by simple-minded psychologizing. Beautifully shot and lushly scored, this may be one of the least P.C. love stories ever filmed. But it's one of the most deeply felt. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Are You Watching?
Bad Guy
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. Days of our Lives
  3. Young and the Restless
  4. Modern Family
  5. So You Think You Can Dance
more top videos