Lee Moo-saeng and Choi Ji-eun are after revenge in Ji Ha-jean’s debut thriller, BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY
KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY (CHEOLAM GYEKOKUI HYEOLTU) (Ji Ha-jean, 2011)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, March 26, free, 7:00
212-759-9550
www.koreanculture.org
www.tribecacinemas.com
Writer-director Ji Ha-jean offers new twists on the Korean revenge thriller in Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley. Winner of the European Fantastic Film Festival Asian Award for best Asian genre film and the Fujifilm Eterna Award for best Korean independent at the 2011 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea, Bloody Fight stars Lee Moo-saeng as a nameless antihero who is released from prison with vengeance on his mind. He sets out on his motorcycle, carrying with him a music box with a ballerina on top of it, determined to find the cold-blooded killers known as Ghostface and Ax who work for a gangster boss in a wheelchair and his drug-addled son. As he gets closer to his prey, coming upon gambling dens, a corrupt construction business, and a quiet monastery where a prostitute is staying, bits and pieces of his past are shown in flashback, slowly explaining the motive behind his spree. Filmed for thirty-five thousand dollars in a month in Gangwon province, Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley combines such spaghetti Westerns as Once Upon a Time in the West and High Plains Drifter with such violent revenge films as Old Boy and Death Wish. Ji uses a wide range of weaponry throughout, including a nail gun, a blowtorch, and a unique little ax, in scenes that often involve torture as well as some head scratching, as Ji does not fill up the various plot holes and several inexplicable elements. Still, it’s a compelling revenge thriller that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is. Bloody Fight in Iron-Rock Valley is screening for free March 26 at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the Korean Cultural Service Korean Movie Night series “Micro-Budget Genre Invasion!,” which continues April 16 with Oh Young-doo’s Invasion of Alien Bikini and April 30 with the four-part omnibus The Neighbor Zombie.