LIES
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Offline Releasing/Cowboy Booking International Director: Jang Sun Woo Writer: Jang Sun Woo, adapted from Jang Jung II's novel "Tell Me a Lie" Cast: Kim Tae Yeon, Lee Sang Hyun
A better title for this picture would be "lays," or perhaps if there were not simply two principals in the cast, how about "Kim Does Korea"? "Lies" was easily the most pornographic picture shown at the Toronto Film Festival, a movie that according to reports prompted more walkouts than any other in recent memory. I'm thinking now of what U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said when, during the first trip to North Korea by a top American official since 1950 she called the heavily pro-communist show to which she was invited "embarrassing." Just think of the good lady's chagrin were she to leave Pyongyang for Seoul only to be invited to "Lies"! This might send her scurrying back to the more puritanical folks up north.
Director Jang Sun Woo is sometimes called the bad boy of South Korean cinema because he likes to shake up the conservative society of that country His films have included "The Road to the Racetrack" about modern relationships (with strong sexual references), though this time around he emphasizes sex over relationships. If Darren Aronosfky's "Requiem for a Dream" is the most recent movie about the dangers of drug addiction and Billy Wilder's 1945 work "The Lost Weekend" the classic, unrelenting tale of the perils of alcohol addiction, then Jang's current film might be designated a warning about the hazards of an addiction to sex. Huh, you say? There's something wrong about being a devotee of endless rounds of sex? Yes, indeed, if you follow the trajectory of "Lies," which begins in a joyful enumeration of the sexual acrobatics of a razor-thin duo, the 18-year-old "Y" (played by Kim Tae Yeon, a fashion model for the past four years) and her 38-year-old paramour, "J" (played by Lee Sang Hyan, who is a sculptor in real life as he is in this story). In fact, this movie gives new meaning to the acting term "played by."
In an interview, director Jang revealed that the novel from which his movie was taken had a very complicated structure and that he set out to simplify it by discarding most of the backgorund detail and dialogue. He sure did, because what remains has been cut to the bone (so to speak) with the more engaging aspect (surprisingly enough) the scenes that take place outside the bedrooms of the love hotels--popular buildings in South Korea that rent rooms by the hour.
The tale centers on the growing relationship between Y, an 18-year-old determined by lose her virginity before graduation, who hooks up with a bespectacled professional man twenty years her senior, J, whose wife is alone in Paris pursuing her own vocation. After the deed is done (shown graphically, as are all future gymnastics) they begin to indulge most pleasurably in S&M. J beats the ecstatic Y, at first with a simple whip, progressing to more sophisticated switches which he carries around in a large suitcase. Ultimately they will change roles, with J demanding to be beaten by the at first reluctant Y, who soon takes as much pleasure in sadism as she did in masochism. (I was waiting for the two to have an argument which would result in the masochistic Y's mewing, "Whip me, oh, please whip me," to which the sadistic J would respond, "No...I will not," but this dialogue, an in-joke in the U.S., never took off).
Full frontal nudity by both parties would please critics of Hollywood movies who complain that American males are never shown in that way, but after, oh, about 40 minutes into the movie, what becomes embarrassing is not the sexual performances but the redunancies. The film seems to be going nowhere, the plot thickening only when the characters graduate from one sort of whip to a more sophisticated type. Although the actors had not known each other before they were surreptitiously cast (Jang had to watch out for the Korean censors and could not advertise openly for his performers), they display convincing chemistry for each other and, in fact, reports are that they grew to like each other quite a bit after their non-stop romps in the sack. At last report, however, though they had each other on the ropes, they did not get to tie the knot. Some of the limited concern an audience might find in the picture is in the photographic effects of cinematographer Kim Woo Hyung, but "Lies" is of interest mainly in the way the Korean society reacted to both the novel and the movie, as pornography in any form is illegal in Korea. Jang Jung II who wrote "Tell Me A Lie" was sentenced to six months in jail for writing the book, two months of his sentence amid cries of liberals for erasing all charges.
Jang Sun Woo defends his work as art in that he calls the movie a spit-in-the-face of Korea's emphasis on working hard and living a clean life. "Let's just play. After all, it's all a game." Ultimately, though, "Lies" is a game that goes into too many extra innings. Despite the high scoring with bats and similar tools of the trade (this is pretty much the opposite of a no-hitter) "Lies" is as resonant as a trip to the gynecologist.
Not Rated. Running time: 115 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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