Bad Guy

The embrace of Korean writer-director Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring and 3-Iron by American critics has led to the release of some of his earlier work on DVD, including this 2001 drama, which shares some technical qualities with Kim's more recent films, being elegantly mounted and deliberately paced. Like the newer films, Bad Guy also focuses on a stoic hero and emphasizes the possibility of redemption for even the most flawed of characters, but it underscores the fact that Kim was a very different kind of filmmaker before the elegiac, almost transcendent Spring. In fact, Bad Guy is an extremely lurid tale set in the world of criminality and prostitution, with an extraordinarily high level of violence. The central character is Han-gi, a brutal gangster who lusts after a young college student. When she contemptuously rejects him, he cruelly tricks her into signing for a loan she can pay off only by becoming part of his stable of call girls, and then silently watches her degradation; yet the road they traverse together somehow leads to their mutual purification through love. Many viewers will find the film unsavory, and others simply incomprehensible, but admirers of the director will appreciate the opportunity to see Bad Guy, even if it is one of Kim's lesser efforts. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a “behind the scenes” featurette, and an interview with Kim. Bottom line: a small but solid extras package for a flawed film.] (F. Swietek)