Modern Tragedy: The Dark World of PARK CHAN-WOOK

The dark world of Park Chan-wook is a far cry from the recent explosion of pop culture to emerge from South Korea in recent years, whether it be K-pop or K-Dramas. His films are twisted reconstructions of greek tragedies, art films with their DNA soaked in exploitation cinema; and enigmatic fusions of genres, mixing the best that European and Asian art has to offer.

Raised in a devoutly Catholic family and son to an architect and poet, it seemed as if Park Chan-Wook was destined for a career in some form of creative field. However Chan-wook’s eventual education and journey into the world of cinema began in a more unconventional place; as a student of philosophy at Sogang university, where his love for art and in particular art criticism began. Disappointed with his university department’s focus upon analytics and its seemingly disregard for aesthetics, Park Chan-wook forged his own path, starting a cinema club called the “Sogang Film Community”, publishing numerous articles on contemporary cinema. Upon graduation he intended to pursue a career as an art critic but after seeing Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock he found that he had to become a filmmaker one way or another.

After achieving only moderate success with his first two films The Moon Is…the Sun’s Dream and Trio Chan-wook, in a funny turn of events, impersonated his film critic friend and wrote a largely positive review, praising his debut feature in an attempt to boost its reputation. This prankster nature, and disregard for the establishment has gone on to be an aide in his ascent to artistic triumph.

In fact it wasn’t until he released his third movie, the politically charged thriller Joint Security Area that his fame began to skyrocket. The film would go on to become one of the highest grossing features in Korean film history. Lauding huge praise from international filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino who went on to include it in his list of favourite movies to be released since he started making movies.

From this success he was granted a degree of creative freedom that allowed him to indulge in some of his deeper interests, resulting in the gut wrenching and hard hitting vengeance trilogy of films. These films explored the often emptiness and futility inherent with the act of revenge and the abyss of darkness that engulfs all the characters who attempt to embark upon this journey.

Old Boy is considered to be one of his greatest films, while certainly his most well known. It is his moralistic tale of the futility and pointless nature of revenge. No more exemplified than in the gory story of Oh Dae-su. Trapped in a room for 15 years, the main character embarks on a journey of violence, through teeth extracting torture scenes to hammer-wielding brawls. It’s a high intensity, dark, surrealistic masterpiece that leaves its viewers reeling upon the final close of its curtains.

In interviews Chan-wook states that the foolish nature of revenge is evident even to a small child. That to go through with an act that aims only to harm someone due to past pain, will inevitably lead to tragedy, tragedy of ancient greek proportion. While Chan-wook believes one should aim to focus on the here and now, and try to live in a beneficial way, he understands that it is only human nature to stray down these dark paths.

“Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn’t act on it.”

— Park Chan-wook

This theme of vengeance is further explored in his 2005 follow up Lady Vengeance. A twisted story of revenge played out by a woman framed for the murder of child. This story focused less on the nature of revenge this time but rather more on the people who commit the act. In a weird spin on things, rather than overtly be condescending and moralistic in nature, the film explores whether or not those that have been wronged, are entitled to some form of karmic playback. Should the victims be allowed to inflict an equal measure of pain back to the offender, like a sick, cathartic release?

Sex plays an important role in his movies, often as an instrument of warfare, a dangerous weapon to inflict harm on others. In his 2016 film The Handmaiden, the erotic literature of Japanese culture is used as a cage to imprison the character of Lady Hideko. Forced from a young age to recite the erotic novels from her uncle’s collection, her conception of sex is seen from a warped point of view. Her outer persona is naive and child-like but it hides a shrewd and cold mind; a woman who has been reduced to an object of male fantasy, which makes the subsequent shifts of power that resonate through the movie all the more powerful.

“Basically, I’m throwing out the question ‘When is such violence justified?’ To get that question to touch the audience physically and directly - that’s what my goal is. In the experience of watching my film, I don’t want the viewer to stop at the mental or the intellectual. I want them to feel my work physically. And because that is one of my goals, the title ‘exploitative’ will probably follow me around for a while.”

— Park Chan-wook

For a director who is known for his dark subject matter and grisly gore infested scenes, Park Chan-wook is no stranger to sprinkling shavings of black humour throughout his filmography. Playing the audience like puppets on strings, teasing them one moment with horrific violence only to alleviate the tension with moments of humorous levity. This is perfectly exemplified in his film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which starts off with a scene of four male housemates, ears pressed against their bedroom wall, simultaneously masturbating while listening to the moans of their neighbour. The camera pans revealing the surprising truth that the moans are not that of pleasure but are in fact of a woman struggling with pain, desperately in need of kidney transplant.

Park Chan-wook is one of those rare directors who has managed to craft a distinctly unique style, by blending elements from a variety of genres without being haphazard and unfocused. He draws from literary influences such as greek tragedy, remixing these tales without seeming contrived and balancing his interest in both western and eastern cultures. He is a gift to the world of cinema, and is one of the major driving forces in this surge of impactful films to emerge from South Korea in the past couple of decades.

FOLLOW GATA Magazine

CinemaJames Elliott25 July 2021