| Language: Korean Director: Jang Hun Running time: 113 min Release year: 2008 |
| Cast: So Ji-Seob, Kang Ji-Hwan, Ko Chang-Seok, Hong Soo-Hyun, Song Yong-Tae, Jang Hie-Jin, Bae Yong-Geun |
Movie Review:
Something off the beaten path in the Korean “gangster” film world, is “Rough Cut,” with the literal Korean title “Movie is a Movie.” The film’s director Jang Hun isn’t a name you’ll recognize instantly, but like the 2008 film “Beautiful” (Arumdabda), “Rough Cut”’s producer & writer is none other than Ki-duk Kim. Jang Hun has previously worked as an assistant director in Ki-Duk Kim’s “Time” - a film that shares similar lensing qualities and identity issues with “Rough Cut”. But with that said, “Rough Cut” isn’t as cryptic as your average Ki-duk Kim film and, consequently, a whole lot more accessible for the masses. The film features a superb performance by Ji-seop So, which has already helped him land the lead role, alongside Ziyi Zhang, in next year’s Chinese-Korean Romantic-Comedy “Sophie Revenge.”
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In “Rought Cut,” Gang-pae has risen to the #2 rank in his mafia organization by using unflinching violence. Even though he has made his name by his violent nature, Gang-pae has a softer side and loves nothing more than to catch a matinee showing all by himself. Meanwhile, Su-ta is a popular actor who has a similar violent edge. Su-tar has already knocked one actor out of commission while filming a fight scene.
One night, Gang-pae hears that Su-ta is drinking in the same bar and he orders one of his men to get Su-ta’s autograph. The short-tempered Su-ta refuses and this leads to a confrontation between Gang-pae and Su-ta.
A few days later, Su-ta critically injures another actor while filming a fight scene. Filming now comes to a halt, because no other actors are willing to perform alongside the short tempered movie star. Su-ta then thinks backs to his confrontation with Gang-pae and recalls Gang-pae mentioning he performed as an extra in a film before. He then contacts Gang-pae and offers him the co-starring role. Gang-pae is willing to take the part, but only if they are to do the fight scenes for real.
With this interesting premise, “Rough Cut” weaves an unpredictable path between gangster film, the movie within a movie, and character study of two seemingly disparate characters who are shown to be a lot more similar than originally thought. The movie also exhibits a quirky sense of humor, with plenty of insider jokes. The names of the two main characters jumps out immediately: Gang-pae and Su-ta. “Gang-pae” is the Korean word for “Gangster” (a gangster named gangster) and “Su-ta” is a play on the English word “star” (a movie star named star). Meanwhile, the fictional director in the movie is named “Director Bong”. You probably know of another famous director in Korea named Bong, who directed the Host (a movie that got Ki-duk Kim in a lot of hot water after he made negative remarks about the film’s dominance over the Korean box-office market). You’ll also see snippets of Korean classic gangster pic “Green Fish” shown in “Rough Cut” (first time when Ji-seob So watches a movie alone in the theater and second time when Ji-sob So is superimposed into a scene in “Green Fish” as a car driver).
With these humorous jokes aside, “Rough Cut” then delves into parallel stories involving Gang-pae’s gangster life, the filming of the movie within a movie, and Su-ta’s personal life. If the story seems complicated don’t worry, the story itself is linear and doesn’t bother to delve more than skin deep examining those issues. The film’s focus is rather on two men and their violent confrontation on screen. Ji-seob So strikes an incredibly charismatic figure. Using a calm demeanor that anoints a monsoon of emotions underneath, Ji-seob So gradually takes over the film, until literally “Rough Cut” is his movie. His counterpart, and good friend in real life, Ji-hwan Kang, performs adequately as “Su-ta,” but there’s a country mile difference between those actor’s screen presence.
What “Rough Cut” has to offer is a tantalizing premise and that eye-popping performance by Ji-seob So. The movie also has plenty of energetic action sequences, the final duel between Gang-pae & Su-tae being particularly memorable. The movie’s drawbacks would be the lack of depth in addressing the duality of the main character’s selves & the bad habit of becoming too much tongue-in-cheek at times. In particular, “Rough Cut”’s plot relies on Gang-pae committing a gaff that no series cut-throat mobster would commit in real life, but again, going with the whole “film within a film” theme, this gaff is an all to common occurrence in gangster movies and, such, “Rough Cut” proudly uses it to make its screenplay work. No doubt, there would have been more impact without relying on this trite error in judgment, but, nevertheless, “Rough Cut” has what it takes to win you over with ease.
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