Bok-nam (Seo Yeong-hee) can only take so much in Jang Cheol-su’s BEDEVILLED
BEDEVILLED (Jang Cheol-soo, 2010)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Wednesday, July 6, 8:45, and Sunday, July 10, 7:00
Series runs through July 14
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinemanews.com
Jang Cheol-su, who trained under Kim Ki-duk, has garnered several Best New Director awards for his powerful debut, Bedevilled, a story that would make Park Chan-wook proud. After her boss at the bank forces her to go on vacation following her awful public behavior, selfish, mean-spirited, and just plain nasty Hae-won (Ji Seong-won) decides to return to the small, isolated island village where her grandmother lived and she used to visit as a child. There she reconnects with Kim Bok-nam (Seo Yeong-hee), her best friend when they were kids. Bok-nam is treated like a slave by the tiny, extremely strange, and fiercely private community; the elderly women make her do all the work in the fields, and her husband, Man-jong (Park Jeong-hak), regularly beats her when he’s not carousing with a prostitute (Je-min). Her only solace is her young daughter, Yun-hui (Lee Ji-eun), until Hae-won arrives; her old friend represents the possible escape to freedom that Seoul offers. But when even Hae-won chooses not to help her out of her miserable life, Bok-nam takes matters into her own hands. The first half of Bedevilled, which reaches infuriating (and often hard-to-believe) depths, is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory Girl, as troubles are just heaped on top of poor Bok-nam, who seems unable to do anything about it. But in the furious second half, she more than makes up for that. The film is no mere revenge drama; instead, it focuses on the actions one chooses to take — or not to — in life. Bedevilled is screening July 6 at 8:45 and July 10 at 7:00 as part of the Sea of Revenge Focus at the New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center.