Typhoon
Director: Kwak Kyung-taek
Year: 2005
Production Company: Zininsa Film
Running Time: 125 minutes
Typhoon was one of the most anticipated films
of the year with enough hype to sink a battleship. It not only had the
biggest budget of any Korean film in history but also had the director
with one of the biggest hits (“Friend”) on his resume. With an opening
weekend of over 3 million ticket sales it looked like it would easily be
the biggest box office hit of the year – and then all of a sudden everyone
stopped going. Negative word of mouth stopped the film in its tracks and
it only sputtered to a little over 4 million in total tickets sold.
In this case, the word of mouth was right on target.
This film is emotionally as flat as road kill no matter how hard the director
attempts to inject vast amounts of pathos into it. And does he ever try
– even right through the end credits he is still pumping away, but none
of it works – it just feels cheap and manipulative and you can see through
it a mile away. Even the usually formidable letter to mom before the big
mission has you impateintly rolling your eyeballs. To some degree Kwak
is trying to replicate some of the emotions that made “Friend” such a big
hit, but while it seemed to work in that film duplicating it here is stretching
things beyond the breaking point (though in truth I am not a big fan of
“Friend” as I found the male relationships a bit farfetched). The “bonding”
of the good guy and the bad guy here is so absurd and out of place that
it’s hard not to laugh at times – at one point the hero says something
to the effect that in another world they could have been friends and later
the villain returns the compliment as they brandish knives at one another
“You and I understand one another”. I expected them to kiss. Of course
this bonding is partly explained because they are both Koreans and the
real villain here is the United States and geopolitics.
Sin (Jang Dong-kun) and his gang of merry Thai
pirates kill the crew and steal something from a ship that the U.S. was
transporting. Though the Korean intelligence is warned to stay out of it
by the U.S., they assign naval officer, Se-jong (Lee Jung-jae), to track
him down. Lee plays Se-jong like a grown up version of Howdy Doody with
the big ears included – he is everything a mother-in-law would want – kind,
gentle, clean cut, compassionate eyes – but perhaps not what is right for
this mission. The film sweeps though Thailand, Korea and Russia as Se-jong
looks for Sin – it also takes a lengthy flashback detour as we discover
why Sin is so pissed off at everyone and wants the “people of Korea to
die in a pool of their own blood and guts”. Most of it feels so formulaic
and perhaps that’s why Hollywood has shown some interest in it as Dreamworks
had plans to release it in the U.S. Everything though feels second hand
including the emotions.
My rating for this film: 5.5
Trailer
Reviewed: 02/06
Previous films from the Director:
Mutt Boy (2003)
Champion (2002)
Friend (2001)
Dr. K (1998)
3 p.m. Paradise (1997)