(Movie Review) `Paju` examines female psyche through forbidden love, social disorder

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By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- A girl is convinced her brother-in-law killed her
sister. While halfheartedly investigating the mysterious death, she comes upon an
unexpected realization: That she is in love with him.
Through this simple narrative, "Paju" examines a girl's maturation and
contradicting emotions, drawing a realistic picture of modern femininity free of
the stereotypes often found in South Korean cinema.
Jung-sik (Lee Sun-kyun), suffering from the guilt that he caused a tragedy
involving his first love and her family, escapes to Paju, an underdeveloped and
desolate city just north of Seoul.
There he meets Eun-su (Shim Yi-young), whom he is briefly married to before her
death, and ends up living with her much younger sister Eun-mo (Seo Woo).
While believing her brother-in-law killed her sister for insurance money, Eun-mo
finds herself falling in love with him, the sole guardian and grownup in the
lonely girl's life.
A grim, foggy locale rife with its own contradictions and uncomfortable social
politics due to its strong military presence -- Korean, American, and North
Korean -- Paju acts as a perfect backdrop for the internal mess of the
characters.
Whether she liked it or not, filmmaker Park Chan-ok was once considered a "female
version of director Hong Sang-soo" for the male-centered portraits of society and
relationships in her debut "Jealousy is My Middle Name (2002)," despite her
gender.
In her second feature "Paju," the director appears to have rid herself of the
influence of her mentor, creating a unique film that proves her first success was
no fluke.
"I stopped (filming) because I could not make any more modifications to it," said
Park, who took almost seven years to complete her second feature, at the movie's
Seoul preview Wednesday. "I wanted to talk about emotions shared by two people
who are similarly alone."
While vividly depicting the girl's maturation, "Paju" also spends a great deal of
time tracking the changes in the male character Jung-sik.
A former democratic activist student, he strives to wipe out his guilt about his
first love as well as his growing emotions for his young sister-in-law by working
as a night school teacher and fighting with evictees against city development.
Through Jung-sik's life, the movie delves into the disorders in contemporary
South Korean society, creating a story separate, yet overlapping, with the
forbidden romance between in-laws.
The narrative is unkind to the audience at times, making some bold abbreviations
and often retrograding time sequence to follow the characters' emotions. As a
result, the film hoards up, throughout its lengthy running time, a mysterious
aura that resembles the gray background and the modern Korean society.
Actor Lee Sun-kyun appears to shine at his best in the film, breathing some
reality into Jung-sik, who could easily have become a dull character if someone
else played him. Emerging actress Seo Woo also delivers one of the most
believable depictions of conflicted female emotion put on film in Korea.
Invited to the Pusan International Film Festival's competition section New
Currents this year, the movie, with a running time of 111 minutes, will hit the
local theaters on Oct. 29.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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