Dear Internet,
I bet you
talk to a lot of people, Internet. You
probably talk to people from all over the world and all wakes of life. There are only a few areas that you probably
do not get much conversation from, right?
The majority of North Korea would be one of them. I am sure you get a few bits of information coming
from Pyongyang, the capital. The rest of
the country is an all-around blackout zone considering the night time space photos
from satellites cannot find any light from outside the capital. Considering that the country has such a large
gap between the haves and the have-nots, it is with some curiosity to know that
North Korea has put out a few movies over the years. If there is a viable movie industry there,
how can the populace afford to go see the movies unless the government forces
or cajoles the populace to watch the films? "Pyongyang Nalpharam" is
one of the few movies that the Hermit Kingdom has produced. How few you ask? The all knowing Wikipedia says there are
about 60 films. In comparison, Hollywood
makes more films than that in half a year. You would not stumble upon a North
Korean film browsing store catalogs or shelves, even if you were to do it for
years.
"Pyongyang
Nalpharam" is a martial arts movie set at the annexation of Korea to Japan
in 1910. It follows Jeong Taek and the
adventures he must endure to ensure the protection of the traditional martial
art Taekkyeon. He has to protect a
certain manual that details the various elements of the art from the Japanese
imperialists who wish to destroy all traces of Taekkyeon and replace it with
Judo. As he seeks to protect his national
treasure, Taek falls into a world filled with death and underhanded individuals
willing to do anything to get what they want.
That is
not much of a plot description, but then again there is not much plot. Looking back, there are numerous twists and backstabbing
that occur on such a regular rhythm that saying anything more would spoil a
lot. Few of those twists are enjoyable,
however. A good number of them only
added more confusion to the film.
Sometimes it would cut away to another scene where the antagonists were discussing
various schemes. They would occur so
quickly and usually after a specific dialog line that the scene change
suggested that the new scene was taking place in the past. After a few lines, it would be obvious that this
was not the case, but the frequency of such quick action transitions became a
detriment since the jump was so quick and would cause me to have to collect my senses
about the new scene while it was plowing into new and often important
dialog.
This is
one of the major qualities of the film.
It moves terribly quickly whenever some is not getting punched in the
face. The film is of a reasonable
length, clocking in at an hour forty.
Those 100 minutes are jam packed to the point that you cannot look
away. Now, do not confuse that with
being unable to look away, which stems from a film being so engaging that it
pulls the viewer in. No, "Pyongyang
Nalpharam" moves with such intensity and ferventness that if you look away
for even a few minutes while someone is talking, you will miss a new twist that
changes the status quo. The constantly
changing status of the various characters is perhaps one of the films strong
points, but it still bumbles. Sometimes
a character is a good guy, then he is a traitor, but he was actually a good guy
all the time. These kinds of flip flops
make big holes that cause the story to fall apart.
The
film makes use of numerous action sequences.
It is about a martial art that was almost wiped out when Korea was
colonized by Japan. The fights are
boring at best. The shots are always
very short, detailing only a single kick or punch most times. There is very little technique being
showcased. Judo perhaps has more
technique being shown because it is shown with longer shots and pulled out to
show both fighters. I am not saying that
Taekkyeon is not technical, just that the film does little to show the skills
of Taekkyeon fighters. The first fight
in the film occurs in a marketplace.
There, the camera spends more time watching the various thugs landing
into a stall than the punch or kick that sent them there. Later on, the fights start becoming more outlandish
to the point where wire-fu starts coming into play. It feels completely out of place considering
that the film is not supposed to be a wuxia piece, but a dramatization of the
very real cultural control programs that the Japanese imposed upon the Koreans
during colonization. The wire-fu
elements break the mood of the film and attempt to push the story into fantasy
rather than the reality that it was working so well with.
 |
| During a training montage, a student learns how to hammer a nail into a tree with his head. |
There
are a number of other little bumps that "Pyongyang Nalpharam" hits as
it rolls out. They include a dead woman
talking from beyond the grave, bad foley for horses, and bad choreography. Overall, all of these things are problems
that stem from low budget, something that this film cannot help hiding. It all feels like a movie made in the
70's. The style, film quality, and film
techniques are all dated. Even a viewer
raised on only high production pictures in post 90's would not film this story like
this. There is little film literacy,
which is the biggest problem. A student
of the art of film could shoot a better picture because he has learned the techniques
that maximize the information that he wants to impart to the viewer. "Pyongyang Nalpharam" is constantly
showing that the individuals that made it are amateurs to the point that they
have not consumed film to the point of learning from them.
"Pyongyang
Nalpharam" had a lot going for itself.
The historical conflict between Japan and Korea around 1910 is one that
that can be analyzed and discussed until I am blue in the face. Using Taekkyeon, a cultural icon of Korean,
as the object of conflict is like hitting the nail on the head, as opposed to
with the head. The Japanese of the time
were adamant about inserting their culture as much as they could, which meant
that they had to minimize or get rid of Korean culture. The film does hit on how Taekkyeon is only
one of many other things that were almost wiped out. This is the one thing that the film does
right. Everything else is caught between
ignorance of technique and lack of skill brought about from a lack of
production.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Tomorrow is the "Pitbull Daycare" discography.
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