dir: Shin-yun Won, Republic of Korea, 2006, 115 mins, Korean with subtitles.
Cast: Suk-kyu Han, Dalsu Oh, Mun-sik Lee, Ye-ryeon Cha, Shi-hoo Kim, Byeong-jun Lee
Review by Laurie Munslow What starts out as a seemingly ordinary story about music professor, Yeong-sun (Byeong-jun Lee) and his operatic protégée, In-jeong (Ye-ryeon Cha), quickly descends into a disturbing, yet sometimes darkly amusing, scenario.
Having driven the aspiring singer to her first audition in his gleaming white Mercedes, the married professor takes her to an isolated location where he hopes she’ll give in to his lecherous advances. On the way, they are stopped by a policeman (Suk-kyu Han) for running a red light. Yeong-sun unsuccessfully tries to gain the upper hand and persuade the officer of leniency. Humiliated, he runs another red light, speeding away before the officer can catch him. So begins the film’s primary theme - the interminable struggle for and abuse of power.
When they reach a deserted riverbank, the professor tries to force himself on the young girl. Fighting him off, she runs through the woodland, where she stumbles upon two youths beating a young boy. When the boy faints, the youths put him in a sack and drive off with him on their scooters. In-jeong manages to find help in the form of Bongyeon (Mun-sik Lee), a seemingly polite and bashful local who offers to drive her to the bus terminal on his moped.
Meanwhile, the professor remains on the riverbank in his prized car, shouting for In-jeong to return. Instead, a dishevelled stranger, Ogeun (Dalsu Oh), turns up, wielding a baseball bat dripping with blood. He’s swiftly followed by the two youths with the boy in the sack. Finally, the arrival of Bongyeon and his unsuspecting passenger, In-jeong, completes the gathering, and events now take on a more menacing, often violent turn.
It’s clear that, far from being polite and humble, Bongyeon is in fact the brutal ringleader of this group of countryside thugs. And violence is an integral part of their interactions, ensuring there is a pecking order.
The boy in the sack, Hyun-jae (Shi-hoo Kim), is brought out to “entertain” the guests while they have a barbecue. Cowed and bleeding, Bongyeon forces him to strip in front of everyone. On the lowest rung of the ladder in the hierarchy, he has no choice but to submit.
Ogeun, the butcher who kills his pigs with his bloodied baseball bat, backs down after a heated argument, leaving Bongyeon’s status as top dog intact. And when In-jeong says she’d rather go to Seoul in the professor’s car than have Bongyeon drop her at the bus terminal, he orders the two youths to rape her: “Bongyeon, do we have to?” “Do it, you suckers.” He also instructs Yeong-sun and Hyun-jae to fight to the death, telling the professor that if he can kill the boy before In-jeung is raped, he can have her himself.
And so, while he surveys all the bloodshed going on around him, Bongyeon sings the national anthem and takes a swim in the river. This cycle of brutality “is a fable of violence in Korean society”, according to director, Shin-yun Won. “Rank exists among losers,” he says, referring to the how the characters relish “their chain of power by abusing each other like animals.” Not only are they unable to stand up to their bullies, they accept it as a natural part of their existence where only further, more extreme violence can change the hierarchical structure. While the choice for the characters seems to be between being prey or predator, it’s clear that everyone here is really a victim.
The final twist completes the cycle of bullying so violently that it’s almost difficult to watch. But the director makes no apology for the level of violence he depicts on-screen: “The violence in A Bloody Aria is an expression of pain…embedded deep inside the characters,” says Won.” Long takes and natural light give the film a washed-out appearance where the only striking colour is the red of spilt blood. But, while the characters and their relationships are complex, the film beats you over the head with its theme: “I wanted the audience to feel the pain, and wanted to wake their subconscious sense of submission.” And yet, in between the almost incessant blood-splattering violence, there are occasional moments of laugh-out-loud humour.
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