Korean Movie Review: 가족 (A Family)

[hlwar]

After getting out of prison, home is the last place Jeong-eun wants to go. Returning to a rocky relationship with her father and finding her old life hard to escape, she discovers family may be what's most important now.

"Gajok"
Release Information:
Directed by: Lee Jeong-cheol
Released by: Tube Entertainment (2004)
Running time: 94 minutes
Genre: Drama | Family

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Synopsis
Having a rebellious spirit, young Jeong-eun (Su Ae) has never gotten along with her father (Joo Hyeon), always enraged at his strict treatment of his children and abuse of their mother. She blamed him for their family's hard life. Home was the last place she wanted to be, but after being in prison for two years on charges related to a gang stabbing, Jeong-eun finds herself released on parole and back in her hometown.

Devotion to her little brother, Jeong-hwan (Park Ji-bin), and wishing to hold a memorial ceremony for her mother (having missed her funeral while in jail) leads Jeong-eun back home, but her father, a gruff fish-monger, is less than welcoming. Jeong-eun bitterly explains that she has no intentions of staying, having been given a job at a hair salon as part of her work release. She plans on turning her life around by opening her own beauty parlor somewhere else, far away.

However, her father's harsh rejection of her causes Jeong-eun to seek out her old gangster friend, Park Chang-won (Park Hee-soon) for support, not knowing the two years has completely changed him into a professional crime lord. Seeking to claim compensation for taking the fall for the gang and going to prison, she finds him at his local night club. But ruthless Chang-won gives Jeong-eun anything but a warm welcome, instead threatening her and her family for money which went missing after the incident, money Jeong-eun knows more about than she lets on.

Knowing the dire consequences that await her and her family from Chang-won's spiteful wrath, Jeong-eun finds herself torn. Her life changes even more after her little brother tells of their father's illness. Jeong-eun learns that, despite everything, family matters most. But does her realization come too late?

Trailer

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Review (Spoiler Warning)
A Family was the award-winning debut film from director Lee Jeong-cheol, who adapted incidents from his own childhood into the heart-warming, cruelly realistic story invoking a passionate family drama that's sure to touch even the harshest of film fans. Needless to say, it is a wonderful movie!

What really struck a chord with me first was the father-daughter relationship, how their father basically ignores the existence of his criminal daughter, no doubt finding her childishly stubborn and reckless. He seems beyond attempting to get involved with her life, bluntly speaking to her and attempting to drive her away. Jeong-eun takes his behavior as callous and selfish, wishing to break away from his cold household anyway. Yet their undeniable connection ultimately keeps them together, but miserable in their misunderstanding of each other. The tension in the atmosphere is one of unspoken secrets and thoughts, of a daughter desperately crying out for parental support and a father misinterpreting her emotions and words.

I felt a strong relation with Jeong-eun, having had much the same emotional experiences, and I do think many will also feel the same. It makes her dilemma and her resolve to have a new life of her own-yet somehow unable to do so-all the more real and engrossing. Su Ae, although at the time a relatively young, new actress, has such a mature demeanor and a dramatic presence that she simply shines, and her manner of speaking and voice is commanding-she is absolutely beautiful, and I couldn't imagine any other actress in this role! She truly makes you feel for the characters and story. K-drama fans will recognize her from the fantastic sageuk (historical) series Emperor of the Sea.

The main connection in this family, because of the messed up emotions, was happy-go-lucky Jeong-hwan, still too young to understand his older sister's anger and their father's silence. You know he senses the tension between them, but that doesn't stop him from innocently asking Jeong-eun be nice to their Dad. Jeong-eun feels like she needs to protect Jeong-hwan from having a harsh childhood like her, while their father would rather see Jeong-hwan go to school than be like his older sister in a gang, which is why he lied on her behalf, saying she merely went to Japan to study, not sent to prison.

Joo Hyeon is a veteran actor, and although I felt he was overshadowed by Su Ae, he definitely had the look and heart to play the role of the resentful, ill father. We learn through the character Byeong-chun, a family friend (and doctor) that he had to withdraw from the police academy because of going blind in one eye. Now being old enough to understand, Byeong-chun reveals to Jeong-eun the secret of what happened. He pleads with her to understand her father's situation and his relationship with his family, especially after she finds out about his chronic leukemia.

Jeong-eun is angered no one told her about her father's illness, and even more angry her father didn't ask her to take the test, to see if she'd be a match for the bone marrow transplant, though little Jeong-hwan was already tested. Feeling rejected, Jeong-eun feels like Byeong-chun is trying to guilt her into taking the test. Yet in the end she does, silently seething about the whole situation; it is indeed hard to think your own parent would rather die than ask you for a favor, especially something as life-threatening as this.

However, before leaving the hospital, Byeong-chun does one last thing to make her understand and reflect on her father. He hands her an envelope of old photographs, showing her young father and mother, and her as a baby with her Dad doting on her. Photographs of a happier time. At first, I found this to be totally unfair to poor Jeong-eun, that they place so much more guilt on her. But, in retrospect, this moment helped to break a near lifelong silence between father and daughter and open her mind up to finally understanding his moody behavior.

If you liked the drama in The Way Home you will appreciate this much more devastatingly torn family. However, A Family is not as slow paced as the aforementioned, and in fact I relate A Family to a sort of feminine version of Friend, which also tells the twisted relationship between gangster friends. This film draws its engrossing action sequences from the same emotional source.

Once again Park Hee-soon (Antarctic Journal) proves he can master any personae as he plays Chang-won. The character seems a friendly enough guy, trying to fit his elite status yet still remaining youthfully lazy, and Park does a brilliant job at making you dislike him. From his haughty presence to his oily charm, he is a truly heartless Boss whose only concern is getting his own way. He is reminiscent of a schoolyard bully and one does wonder how Jeong-eun ever got involved with him. Possibly as a protector, dare I say, a father figure, since she was so readily accepting of going to jail on his behalf-since it was actually Chang-won who stabbed the rival gang member.

Although loyalty in a gang definitely only goes so far, and having enough foresight, Jeong-eun does indeed steal money from the gang, making it look like a rival robbery. I suppose she figured her stay in prison would be long enough to have the incident fade away, but then making the mistake of confronting Chang-won again later and adding fuel to the fire.

Despite her father's heartless attitude, he knew all too well her involvement in the gang-enough to know she only returned home to find her stolen money. He tells her to take it and leave, to open her shop and get away from the gang. I do get the sense Jeong-eun believes her father thinks that she is incapable of change and would forever be a delinquent, which is probably what drove her to see her old friends; in her mind the punks were in the same boat and understood her better. And a bit of selfishness, too, demanding money without thought. One might say she was digging her own grave, and I think she knew it, afterwards.

This gave an even more desperate scenario to an already building tragedy. Now faced with his daughter's dark past returning to potentially ruin her attempt for a new life, her father tries to be fatherly by taking matters into his own hands. He pays back the money, which only infuriates his daughter more for butting into her life. She tries to settle things with Chang-won, who has a new proposal for her-to sleep with the police commissioner in order to maintain criminal silence from the cops.

All of this boils down to one final decision for the daughter and the father, that ultimately changes the mundane course of both of their lives. I'm still torn as to think if this family drama had a happy or sad ending. But I do know I cried so much!

This movie is superbly acted and directed, wonderfully filmed and scripted, paced not too long, yet not at all slow, with music that was well fitted. Still, all of that biz glamour is meaningless in the end, because it is the characters and story which make this a brilliant movie! Definitely see A Family!!

(Originally published as nozomu_bunny to korean_cinema circa 2006.)