Myung-ja (Yun Yeo-jong), a schoolgirl traumatized by the loss of her “father”, is coerced by her mother into working as a barmaid in order to help put her older brother through college. The inexperienced girl falls into the hands of the shrewd proprieter and madam (Park Jeong-ja). At the club, Myung-ja is introduced to Mr. Kim ( Nam Gung-won), a customer suffering from impotency and henpecked by a domineering wife. When the middle-aged man consents to make the teenager his mistress, a vicious and often bitingly humorous battles ensues between the two women. Not since the Japanese Angel Guts series have I seen a film as audacious, inventive and perverse as this one, with its frank portrayal of the cannibalistic relations between the sexes. Perhaps the film’s most famous image is that of the sex scene on a glass floor covered with colored candies. Yoon is wonderful as the feisty Myung-ja, as is Nam Gung-won as the fumbling Mr. Kim.
Of the four films included in the set, this transfer suffers the most from every imaginable sort of damage—fading, dirt, scratches and shifting color balance—in addition to the added distraction of burned-in Spanish subtitles.
English subs included in the subpack for both the film and the second audio track (commentary track by Kim Young-jin (film critic) and Bong Joon-ho (director, The Host)).
Extras:
Kim Ki-young on Kim Ki-young (1997) 35 minutes
This featurette, made on the occasion of the retrospective at the 2nd Pusan International Film Festival, was shot in the director’s home and is divided into eight themes:
I) Reflection of Contemporary Images: Kim Ki-young’s Filmmaking
II) To Hate Ideas and Ideology
III) Cult Film? To Show the Truth
IV) Main Theme: Women and Family
V) To Anticipate Women Dominating Society
VI) Criticisms on the Completion Quality of His Latter Films and His Answer
VII) Depth, Kim Ki-young’s Space Design
VIII) Critical Interest in Kim Ki-young’s Films
Kim talks about the influence Greek plays and Ibsen had on his scriptwriting; his dislike of ‘ism’s’ and ideologies; and his dislike of clear-cut endings, among many other things. Kim seems relaxed in the comfort of his home, taking puffs on his pipe as he delivers his answers, which he appears to be reading from a prepared manuscript.
