A modern-day model of Chaplin’s Metropolis Lights
After gaining worldwide vital acclaim along with his quick and artwork home movies, Music Il-gon‘s directed first mainstream movie “At all times” that opened the 2011 Busan Worldwide Movie Competition. It was additionally the primary characteristic movie for actress Han Hyo-joo. Music Il-gon (1971) studied Wonderful Arts on the Seoul Institute of the Arts. After commencement he attended the Nationwide Academy of Movie in Łódź, Poland. Throughout his time there he made a number of quick movies that had been influenced by psychology and Western mythology comparable to Liver and Potato(1998) impressed by the biblical story of Cain and Abel and The Dream of the Clowns (1998). Receiving the Jury Prize for Greatest Quick Movie for Picnic (Sopoong,1999) Music turned the primary Korean to win an award on the Cannes Movie Competition. This worldwide success continued along with his first characteristic Flower Island (2001) wining a prize on the Venice Movie Competition
Jang Marcelino (So Ji-sub) is a former boxer with a troubled previous who works exhausting to redeem himself. Then he begins working as a parking zone attendant and on his first night time, Jung-hwa (Han Hyo-joo) reveals up claiming she used to look at a drama present on TV along with his predecessor. Jang rapidly realizes his customer is blind which at first makes him really feel self-conscious and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, when she retains coming round night time after night time, what began out awkwardly grows right into a friendship and finally a relationship. After saving her from an assault by her boss Jang feels chargeable for Jung-hwa. He guarantees to take care of her and he will get his life again on the rails. And, when he later finds out he was not directly chargeable for the accident that made Jung-hwa go blind, he’s much more decided to make her really feel content material and comfy. So, it doesn’t come as a shock that when she wants surgical procedure as to not lose what little eyesight she had left, he takes the drastic choice of taking part in an unlawful combat to earn the cash for her operation. His getting concerned with this felony circuit is nonetheless certain to go incorrect and nearly deprives them of their blissful ending.
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For his script Music took inspiration from Chaplin’s “Metropolis Lights”, wherein a tramp falls in love with a blind woman, transferring this narrative to a contemporary city surroundings. Music’s background in artwork home motion pictures reveals in the best way he tells the story. The backstory of the primary characters is revealed little by little and the environment of the boxing world and Jang’s previous add a darkish layer. Though total the story line is barely predictable there may be sufficient happening to maintain the viewer .
From filmic perspective the distinction between the blissful and the not so blissful moments will not be solely talked about, however it is usually seen and audible. When Jang and Jung-hwa are joyful and in love the scenes are flooded with gentle, to some extent of being overexposed, whereas the opposite scenes are darker and sometimes happen at night time. A fairly literal reference to that is Jang fixing up Jung-hwa’s condo once they transfer in collectively to make it extra accessible for Jung-hwa. He additionally modifications one of many home windows to let the sunshine in, referring to (her) dwell being simpler now. To underline the completely different moods even additional, cheery songs distinction with a extra menacing sound scape.
The place Music’s ability, as a filmmaker, shines is within the combat scene. Filmed in high-contrast lighting its tempo and tone is sort of completely different from the typical romantic movie. It’s a quick and brutal scene, not for the faint hearted. Due to how “At all times” is about up, it doesn’t really feel misplaced, however it makes one marvel if the film wanted the frilly wrap-up that follows. On this ultimate half, the narrative will get barely unconvincing and it’s telling that performing from the lead actors, whihc for essentially the most half is refined and plausible, additionally feels barely excessive . Perhaps it might have been higher to cease the movie at its highpoint and depart what follows to the viewer’s creativeness. However with Music making his first mainstream movie the marginally compelled blissful ending was the logical method to go because it makes “At all times” enchantment to a wider viewers. A alternative that’s mirrored in there being 3 remakes of his movie: a Turkish, Japanese and Filipino one.
Because of this, “At all times” is edgier and darker than, not solely Chaplin’s movie but in addition most modern-day romantic drama’s. With out Music’s strategy to each story and directing it might have been a movie too sugarcoated and contrived to be plausible.
