I Will Survive (1993)
Written and directed by the veteran screenwriter Yun Sam-yuk (P'imak [1980], Mulberry Tree [1985], Adada The Imbecile [1987], Son of the General [1990]) and starring Lee Duk-hwa, one of the biggest stars of Korean cinema and TV in 1980s, I Will Survive earned Lee the best acting honors at Grand Bell Awards and the Moscow International Film Festival.
Lee (most recently seen in the TV series All-In) plays Man-seok, a professional executioner (mangnani) from the most discriminated butcher caste. One day he receives a secret commission from a yangban family that one of the condemned be killed without his head being cut off (The Korean Confucian emphasis on filial piety mandated that it was a shame to have damaged the body inherited from one's parents). Man-seok fulfills his end of the bargain, but when the emissary delivering the money turns out to be the daughter of the executed (Sug-young, played by Lee Mi-yeon, No. 3 [1997], Addicted [2002]), he brutally rapes her, motivated by his lifelong hatred of the upper class nobles. Later, she is arrested by the government and sold to slavery, as the punishment for the female members of a treasonous criminal's family. Manseok, feeling pangs of guilt, rescues her from slavery with the money he has accumulated from commissions and fees. They fall in love with each other and settle down for a peaceful married life. However, their happiness is sundered apart when the couple gets embroiled in a conspiracy to destroy the enemies of Sug-young's family.
The movie will appear clumsy and dated to the majority of the audience seeing it for the first time in early 2000s. It is literally draped with the hoary cliches of the '80s Korean cinema. Flashbacks are handled maladroitly, usually preceded by choppy close-ups of Lee Duk-hwa's scowling face. "Special effects" (in this movie, the geysers of blood whenever someone is killed by sword) are highlighted as if by a fluorescent marker. Sex scenes are either there to prove that you are watching an adult-oriented movie (in other words, pretty pointless), or seemingly inspired by Japanese soft-core porn (there is one scene where a yangban lecher keeps slapping a naked lower-class woman with a tree branch while giggling like an idiot: "Slap! Hee hee hee hee... Slap! Hee hee hee hee... Slap! Hee hee hee hee..."). The Korean villages and castle-towns have that "Colonial Williamsburg" look: you keep expecting a tourist wearing khaki jumpers to poke his neck into the frame. Finally, the film is scored entirely with heavy-handed, is-that-all-done-on-one-Yamaha-keyboard synthesizer music, cheapening it in the way all too familiar to those who have survived, say, a Menahem Golan film in 1980s.
However, as a historical drama I Will Survive is not without merit: it presents the dehumanizing social discrimination and poverty suffered by the lower classes in Yi dynasty Korea to the extent that was probably impossible in early 90s TV. Gruesome, realistic details abound during the opening public beheading of the condemned. When the butcher community slaughters a cow, a vat of fresh blood is brought in, considered a treat by the villagers. The yangban literati are portrayed as merciless, hypocritical oppressors (Sug-young and the shaman portrayed by Jo Ju-mi are also seen as victims of this oppression due to their lowly status as women, despite their class differences): for once, the film's tragic climax feels like a natural outgrowth of its premise.
Largely a journeyman effort, probably intended as a star vehicle for Lee Duk-hwa, I Will Survive nonetheless remains an interesting exploration into the underbelly of the traditional Korean society.
I Will Survive ("Sareori-ratta") Written and directed by Yoon Sam-yuk. Starring Lee Deok-hwa, Lee Mi-yeon, Jang Han-seon, Lee Il-woong, Nam Bo-won, Yang Taek-jo, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo. Cinematography by Son Hyeon-chae. Produced by Samyuk Films. 108 min, 35mm, color. Rating received on February 25, 1993. Released on August 21, 1993. Total admissions: 40,229.
Lee (most recently seen in the TV series All-In) plays Man-seok, a professional executioner (mangnani) from the most discriminated butcher caste. One day he receives a secret commission from a yangban family that one of the condemned be killed without his head being cut off (The Korean Confucian emphasis on filial piety mandated that it was a shame to have damaged the body inherited from one's parents). Man-seok fulfills his end of the bargain, but when the emissary delivering the money turns out to be the daughter of the executed (Sug-young, played by Lee Mi-yeon, No. 3 [1997], Addicted [2002]), he brutally rapes her, motivated by his lifelong hatred of the upper class nobles. Later, she is arrested by the government and sold to slavery, as the punishment for the female members of a treasonous criminal's family. Manseok, feeling pangs of guilt, rescues her from slavery with the money he has accumulated from commissions and fees. They fall in love with each other and settle down for a peaceful married life. However, their happiness is sundered apart when the couple gets embroiled in a conspiracy to destroy the enemies of Sug-young's family.The movie will appear clumsy and dated to the majority of the audience seeing it for the first time in early 2000s. It is literally draped with the hoary cliches of the '80s Korean cinema. Flashbacks are handled maladroitly, usually preceded by choppy close-ups of Lee Duk-hwa's scowling face. "Special effects" (in this movie, the geysers of blood whenever someone is killed by sword) are highlighted as if by a fluorescent marker. Sex scenes are either there to prove that you are watching an adult-oriented movie (in other words, pretty pointless), or seemingly inspired by Japanese soft-core porn (there is one scene where a yangban lecher keeps slapping a naked lower-class woman with a tree branch while giggling like an idiot: "Slap! Hee hee hee hee... Slap! Hee hee hee hee... Slap! Hee hee hee hee..."). The Korean villages and castle-towns have that "Colonial Williamsburg" look: you keep expecting a tourist wearing khaki jumpers to poke his neck into the frame. Finally, the film is scored entirely with heavy-handed, is-that-all-done-on-one-Yamaha-keyboard synthesizer music, cheapening it in the way all too familiar to those who have survived, say, a Menahem Golan film in 1980s.
However, as a historical drama I Will Survive is not without merit: it presents the dehumanizing social discrimination and poverty suffered by the lower classes in Yi dynasty Korea to the extent that was probably impossible in early 90s TV. Gruesome, realistic details abound during the opening public beheading of the condemned. When the butcher community slaughters a cow, a vat of fresh blood is brought in, considered a treat by the villagers. The yangban literati are portrayed as merciless, hypocritical oppressors (Sug-young and the shaman portrayed by Jo Ju-mi are also seen as victims of this oppression due to their lowly status as women, despite their class differences): for once, the film's tragic climax feels like a natural outgrowth of its premise.
Largely a journeyman effort, probably intended as a star vehicle for Lee Duk-hwa, I Will Survive nonetheless remains an interesting exploration into the underbelly of the traditional Korean society.
I Will Survive ("Sareori-ratta") Written and directed by Yoon Sam-yuk. Starring Lee Deok-hwa, Lee Mi-yeon, Jang Han-seon, Lee Il-woong, Nam Bo-won, Yang Taek-jo, Sunwoo Yong-nyeo. Cinematography by Son Hyeon-chae. Produced by Samyuk Films. 108 min, 35mm, color. Rating received on February 25, 1993. Released on August 21, 1993. Total admissions: 40,229.
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