Michael's Movie Grade: A-
A brilliant dark comedy from Korea.
This movie tells the story of a man who was fired from his job and is struggling to support his family. When he applies for a job in his field of expertise, he tries to kill all the other applicants so that he will certainly get the job.
What makes this movie work so well are the early scenes. Not only do they set up that this character has an idyllic life, but they also make the character very likable. When he loses his job, we empathize with him. As he descends into a darker frame of mind, it is done in such a gradual way that we are going through the emotions with him. This shows perfectly how there are people that are normal people that we would be glad to have as friends but who when the tide turns against them can show a dark side, we never knew they had. It also shows how corporate greed and the difficulty to make it in a money hungry world can so easily push these people past their breaking point. This makes everything here seem all too real and relatable. Yet director/co-writer Park Chan-wook is a master at dark comedy. To keep this movie from getting too disturbing to enjoy, he places a lot of that dark comedy throughout the film. Thus, we are laughing at the absurdity of what we are seeing, while we are also horrified by how real it is. This is shown perfectly in the first murder scene. As dark as the subject matter is, it is played almost as a slapstick comedy with how ineptly it goes. The dark subject matter makes our need to laugh all the more urgent and we laugh louder because of it.
Usually, these types of movies focus only on the main character while making that character's family bland and forgettable. Yet here the wife and kids are also very well fleshed out. This is especially true for the young daughter, whose storyline is surprisingly touching.
This film also benefits from a great ending that is in equal parts, disturbing, funny and touching.
This is another great movie from Park Chan-wook.
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