Yang-Ik Jun, Mole Film (29/01/10)

There is a strong possibility that you will not enjoy watching Breathless, but that does not necessarily mean that you will not like it. This film is an uncomfortable, sometimes disturbing experience, but it remains a very worthwhile and challenging piece of cinema.

Breathless is certainly one of the most violent films that I have seen in some time. It is no gore fest, but it portrays ugly beatings with fists and feet that are born from the sheer rage and pent up frustration of the central character. Breathless does not demonstrate violence merely to elicit twisted, visceral thrills from its audience but rather it does so in a bid to establish where this brutality may have stemmed from.

The film is directed by debutante Yang-Ik June who also wrote and produced it, as well as portraying the lead character, possibly leaving him feeling him as worn out as the title suggests. He plays Sang-hoon, a foul-mouthed thug who works for a debt collecting agency run by a friend. Sang-hoon is a walking time bomb of hate and bitterness who explodes with minimal provocation. In the opening scene he rescues a girl from being assaulted by her boyfriend only to then turn around and beat and chide the young woman for being so weak. For Sang-hoon breaking up student demonstrations or forcing debtors to cough up what they owe is the ideal outlet for him as it usually allows the chance to give some poor unfortunate a good slap.

San-hoon gets results but he is an utter nightmare to work with. If you thought that having your colleagues nicking your biros now and again was bad then you do not know anything. San-hoon is not averse to giving his own workmates and even his boss a sound kicking when he feels like it. Admittedly, the latter might sound like wish fulfillment to some but it still indicates a marked lack of mental stability. Pretty soon nobody wants to work with San-hoon so his employer finds him a student protégée who is naïve but keen to get stuck into the job.

Breathless is a film brave enough to have a hugely dislikeable central character and a story packed full of what initially seems like gratuitous violence. San-hoon is only able to relate to the world through brute force and anger as if all his other emotions have been effectively cauterised. His speech is almost entirely profane with at least every other word beginning with an ‘F’ or a ‘C’. The film’s language is strong even by today’s standards making the most foul-mouthed Tarantino movie look like a release from Pixar in comparison.

We are shown in flashback how the young San-hoon grew up to be a monster. He was raised in an abusive household and one night witnessed his father kill the boy’s sister and indirectly cause the death of his mother. From this background the damaged San-hoon became a boiling volcano of hatred, the abused now the abuser. Matters are exasperated by the father’s recent release from prison. This cycle of violence seems likely to end only in tragedy until San-hoon meets a schoolgirl called Yeon-hue (Kot-bi Kim.) She comes from a similarly destructive and tragic home which has hardened her to the point that only she has the metaphorical balls to stand up to San-hoon.

On their first meeting her boldness results in her being knocked unconscious by the hard man but, despite this, a slow burning friendship develops between the pair as they find a link in shared emotional pain. It seems that San-hoon may have met his match and possibly his salvation. Unfortunately, fate in the form of Yeon-hue’s out of control brother has other ideas.

The relationship between San-hoon and Yeon-hue has echoes of that between the characters played by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in the Godard film which shares it name with Yang-Ik June’s movie. Belmondo’s charming, ultra-cool car thief is a world away from the vicious thug in this latest film but for a one brief moment I thought I was watching some warped Korean remake of Godard’s finest. There is doubtless love somewhere between San-hoon and Yeon-hue but is not that obviously expressed. How could it be given the horrendous circumstances? Despite San-hoon’s appalling behaviour one does come to pity him, especially as he eventually starts to see the error of his ways thanks to Yeon-hue’s arrival.

The quality of the acting in Breathless is all very good but the core of the film is the blistering turn from Yang-Ik June in a performance which is a veritable magnet for critical adjectives such as ‘powerful’ and ‘uncompromising.’ He has also put in an excellent effort as a first time director with a raw, authentic style which somehow manages to mine the humanity from a seemingly soulless environment. It is little wonder this film has already won him several festival trophies for his mantelpiece.

Breathless is by no means an easy watch and you may emerge from it feeling as battered and bruised as San-hoon’s victims. This might not be something you would recommend for a fun night out but it is hard to deny the film’s remarkable impact on the viewer.

review: Alan Diment

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