Pieta: Movie Review
by Yevette Renee Nelson
The Bottom Line
Violent and touching
Cast: Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin
Writer-director:Kim Ki-duk
“Pietaâ€, South Korean premiere filmmaker Kim Ki-duk’s tragic tale starring Cho Min-soo and Lee Jung-jin
Intense and violent, the film suddenly turns touching and emotional as writer-director Kim Ki-duk’s Asian horror follows Kang-do (Lee Jung-jin) as he collects on loans for his employer, a loan shark. Victims are forced to sign an insurance policy that guarantees them money in the event they become disabled at work. When they do not make their payments, Kang-do commits atrocities in order to collect the insurance money. The film is definitely filled with hard scenes to watch.
Taking place in the slums of Cheonggyecheon, writer-director Ki-duk’s hometown, which are filled with small machine shops and all of the people living in poverty. You have the working poor willing to exchange their hands, arms and legs for cash. The issues of money as the root of their problems are made known all throughout the film.
Only one character mentions the eventual destruction of Cheonggyecheon. Soon, the small ramshackled shops will be demolished to make way for high rise buildings, housing financial institutions. The citizens have lived the life of machinist in this community for the past 50 years. It is the only means of work that they know.
It is hard to see the difference between the inhuman acts committed by Kang-do upon the people he collected money from and the inhuman acts committed by developers/financiers who displace generations of people and cut them off from their income and the only life they know. Both leave the people crippled.
Kang-do, a violent man, who’s sadistic and cruel ways against the frightened people he goes to collect from are without humanity. He exaggerates his wickedness of his ways by leaving bloody animal intestines all over his bathroom floor.
A woman suddenly appears at his door step, seemingly out of thin air, claiming to be his mother. He refuses to believe her but she persistently tells him it is she who left him as an infant. He cuts off a limb and demands that she eat it in order to prove herself to him. Still not believing she is his mother, he commits the unthinkable against her. Nothing he does stops her from showing him affection.
Kang-do eventually shows a tender side. Captivated by her, she becomes the most important person to him. He displays new found compassion and playfulness. Not to last long, the heartbreaking condition of the human spirit prevails.
Cinematographer Jo Yeong-jik scenes illustrate a dark, hand-held look that is influential in revealing the cruelty of the film’s horrific theme.
Together Cho and Lee deliver a spectacular performance portraying their relationship as that of Christian Pietà and the Virgin Mary who sorrowfully cradles the body of her dead son Jesus. An unsettling story against the backdrop of money as evil.
Opens May 17, 2013
Production companies: Good Films and Finecut
Cast: Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Screenwriter: Kim Ki-duk
Producer: Kim Soon-mo
Executive producers: Kim Ki-duk, Kim Woo-taek
Director of photography: Jo Yeong-jik
Production designer: Lee Hyun-joo
Editor: Kim Ki-duk
Music: Park In-young
No rating
Run time:104 minutes