Film: Breath
Release date: 26th July 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 84 mins
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Starring: Chen Chang, Gang In-Hyeong, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Ki-duk, Park Ji-a
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Palisades Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: South Korea
This film was nominated for the 2007 Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and is directed by Kim Ki-duk, who was previously lauded for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...And Spring in 2003. It seems he can do no wrong.
Yeon is a depressed housewife, mechanically going through the motions of her day – entertaining her young daughter, listlessly seeing to the chores and, when her husband gets home, silently provoking him by wearing his lover’s hair clip, which she found in his car.
She becomes obsessed by a news story about convicted killer Jang Jin (Chang Chen), who has attempted suicide as he waits on death row for his sentence to be carried out. Her fixation grows partly out of empathy for his tormented state of mind, but also because she feels that she has experienced death herself during a childhood ‘prank’, and wants to reassure him that it is not actually a terrifying experience.
Yeon presents herself at the prison and manages to talk her way into seeing Jang Jin, and from this first encounter a strange relationship develops. Decorating the interview room with a seasonal theme each time, she sings to him and talks about her experience of death, and, as the meetings continue, a gentle kiss becomes a passionate one, a hug in one meeting becomes an embrace filled with desire, and it becomes clear that a love affair is blossoming – seemingly with the blessing of the prison’s director, who voyeuristically watches all the events unfold via CCTV.
The inevitable happens and Yeon’s husband finds out where she has been going, and in a final attempt to end the liason, he drives her to the prison for one more meeting with Jang Jin. As he and their child play in the snow outside the prison, the relationship that Yeon has nurtured so carefully comes to its dramatic conclusion…
This may not be regarded as Kim Ki-duk’s greatest work, but it certainly holds the viewer’s attention. At first the repetitive nature of events – Yeon goes to the prison, the meeting with Jang Jin takes place, she goes home to an unhappy marriage – threatens to become tedious, but this pattern nicely reflects the monotonous nature of prison life, and variety is, of course, added by the differences in each encounter, and the development of the affair between prisoner and visitor.
Park Ji-ah is compelling as Yeon, her moods directly reflecting the sombre subject matter, and the overall tone of the film, and the deepness of her unhappiness and her silences are amplified by the low key presentation generally – there is no music in the film apart from Yeon’s musical interludes. These interludes provide a moment of complete astonishment when, clad in a spring frock despite the bitter winter weather, she serenades Jang Jin in a tuneless but enthusiastic manner, and dances round the interview room. One is almost tempted to laugh, but because Park Ji-ah plays this scene in such a disingenuous way, the viewer is won over to her plan, however unlikely it may seem.
Chang Chen is equally convincing as Jang Jin, especially as he has no dialogue at all in the film. His performance begins as impassive and never becomes flamboyant; entirely reliant as the actor is on the subtleties of facial and body language to convey his mood. Strong supporting acting by his fellow inmates keeps the reality of his condition alive in the mind.
The film is full of coincidences and small details which add to the roundness and interest of the characters - not only does Yeon have to return to an unhappy home life, trapped in her domesticity as if in a prison, but Jang Jin must return to the reality of his situation after the escapism of those brief liaisons, and that includes the jealousy of his prison admirer, who is eventually instrumental in sealing Jang Jin’s fate.
This is a film which can be watched more than once and new questions will continue to be raised; but one needs to look beyond the surface to see the complexities.
If the mark of a good film is that after watching it one is prompted to seek out other works by the director, or any of the cast for that matter, then this definitely qualifies as such - there is also enough to please any fan of South Korean/East Asian cinema. GR
