When looking at the bundle of Korean films I had waiting to view from the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival,this was the title I somehow kept overlooking. Discovering it was about to leave the site,I quickly got set to enjoy the silence.
View on the film:
Not given a single word of dialogue, Yoo Ah-in gives a mesmerising performance as Tae-in, whose mumbled howls,slurred grows and detailed, agitated face,are used by Ah-in to keep the menacing state of Tae-in boiling, while bringing to the surface a understated sardonic side.
Finding his odd-job act with Tae-in to clean up crime scenes for criminal gangs goes off the rails when tasked to take care of a 11 year old kidnapped girl, Yoo Jae-Myung gives a blazing performance as Chang-bok, who scrambles to present a mature image,which Jae-Myung captures as coming undone the longer the kidnapping goes on for.
Hiding the kidnapped girl in the farmland outskirts of town, writer/director EuiJeong Hong makes a splendid feature film debut, via closely working with cinematographer Jung-hun Park to map out the land with stylish long-crane shots gliding on the brightly saturated landscape the kidnapped girl in miles away from returning to.
Joining the lads cleaning up the crime scenes, Hong hangs a wicked macabre atmosphere on the blood-wipes and whip-pans across the bumbling clean-up act of the duo.
Digging into the dirty underworld lives of the duo, the screenplay by Hong brilliantly blends tough,playful tension from Tae-in and Chang-bok entering a whirlpool where they become involved in a kidnapping far beyond their expertise, with a wickedly wry streak of comedy charged by the façade of their professionalism in crime,which unveils to a refined final note,as the voices fall silent.
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