BINJIP (THREE-IRON. EMPTY HOUSE)
Korea, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
Lee Seung- Yun, Jae Hee.
Directed by Kim Ki- Duk.
Writer-director Kim Ki- Duk has become a favourite on the international cinema scene. Self-taught and proud of it, he tells a range of stories, often focusing on the violence inherent in Korean life, especially in Seoul and the cities. At other times, however, he can become quite lyrical, especially with his beautiful film Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring (2003). He has been represented at many film festivals, at Venice with The Isle, a film of sadomasochism as well as beauty. His gangster films include Bad Guy and Samaritan Girl.
This film was a complete surprise for audiences at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. The film delighted everyone and finished with the International Critics’ Prize, a commendation from the SIGNIS jury, a winner of one of the Silver Lions as best director.
The film is rather beguiling, focusing on a young man who does not speak throughout the whole film. He seems to be well educated and has a very shrewd way of finding which houses are occupied or not, putting advertisements on the door locks and then occupying and squatting in houses where the ads have not been removed. However, he is absolutely obsessive and meticulous in making sure that everything is tidy, doing the washing, mending any mechanism that is not working. He cooks, cleans, watches television, listens to CDs – and then moves on to the next house.
In one house which he mistakenly thinks empty, he finds a woman who has been physically battered by her husband. He settles in and only later discovers her, running away but yet, in fascination, returning. She quietly responds to him and in fact goes with him to share in his squatting escapades. A relationship builds up between them, he offers her love and care, she becomes dependent on him. Their adventures are not always easy - a prize-fighter returns home suddenly and gives the hero quite a boxing.
When they occupy a house where they find an elderly dead man, the young man is arrested for murder. What happens afterwards is not always clear in terms of realism and fantasy. During his imprisonment what he does, especially tantalising the guards, could be construed as realistic. However, he may have died and what we see is his ghost or some kind of spirit. On his release he is able to wreak some vengeance on those who have persecuted him but goes back to the house and to the wife who is delighted and who is then able to become a more joyful person, even speaking a few words herself.
The film is symbolic, not only does the young man occupy the houses, he occupies some of the characters within them – moving from this physical world to aspects of spirituality and transcendence.
1.An audience pleaser from this director? The appeal? Nice characters? Genial – despite the breaking into houses and the touches of violence? Themes of loneliness, love and bonds?
2.A ghost story or not? The hero dead or not? Simply acting in a ghostly fashion at the end?
3.The director, his works, the emphasis on violence and sex, his other films of contemplation, this film as more humane?
4.The title, golf, the use of the three-iron by the rich man, by the hero? The empty houses?
5.The portrait of the city, the city streets, the homes, the bridges, prison? An authentic and contemporary feel? A sense of realism? The musical score?
6.The lack of dialogue, the hero not speaking throughout the film? The young woman speaking minimally, but transformed at the end? The effect of the lack of words? The acting and other means for bonds and communication?
7.Tae Suk, his bike, putting up the advertisements, the reason for concealing the keys, finding out who had not returned home? His entering people’s houses, not stealing, fixing anything wrong, doing the washing by scrubbing? His having a bath, eating the food, sleeping, the CDs, enjoying the houses? The family returning from their holiday unexpectedly – and squabbling and complaining? The rich businessman and the bike blocking his car, his glare at Tae Suk? Tae Suk returning? His wife, the poses on the wall, the nude photography? His enjoying the house? The fact that Sun- Hwa was watching him all the time? In the bath, his realising she was there, his hurrying away, waiting in the street, returning? Their sharing the house, the enjoyment, taking photographs as he did in every house? Hitting the golf balls, his skill at golf? Her bruises and his compassion for her? Their leaving, going to the other houses: the apartment of the photographer, the woman’s picture on the wall? Going to boxers’ house, their sudden return, his being beaten up? His escaping? The exhilaration of this kind of life for himself and for her? The growing bond between the two, without any words? The sexual relationship?
8.Going to the house, discovering the dead body, cleaning the room, reverently binding the body, burying it? Answering the phone, the son coming, calling the police?
9.The interrogation, the brutality of the police? Investigating Sun- Hwa, letting her go to her husband? Letting the husband come and hit golf balls into Tae Suk just as he had rescued Sun- Hwa by hitting golf balls into him? The husband and his not changing, his brutality, then the change, trying to be nice? The effect on Sun- Hwa? His continually playing golf?
10.The interrogation room, the brutality of the beatings, Tae Suk not being guilty of murder or of homicide, in fact the policeman saying that the body was reverently buried? His cell, the brutality of the warder, the beatings, his exercises, on the wall, hiding, tracking behind the warder? Had he died from the cruelty or not? Was he a ghost? Or simply acting in a ghostly way? The release?
11.His visiting the houses with his ghostly presence, beating the policeman with the golf balls, going into the houses – and the girl going into the house to sleep and thanking the owners and leaving?
12.His finally going to Sun- Hwa, her beginning to speak, declaring her love for her husband yet glad of Tae Suk’s presence, their love for each other, feeding him? The kind of happy ever after ending implied?
