Not many people are heroes and not all of us are brave. Sometimes even the most religious of people will break, when pushed too far. Some take their well being more seriously than they want justice. What would you do if you are pushed too far? Will you hand onto your beliefs or will you seek justice?

Such are the issues of this lovely Korean movie. There are others but this was enough for me, thank you very much. This movie reminded me of the serious problems that are still out there. That there are people who though know how to speak from experience, they wouldn’t know what they were seeing were you to show them the written version of their words. There are people out there that will never have any kind of education or protection from the worldly problems.

I ma depressing myself with all this seriousness so let’s stop right here, shall we.

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Hae-won is a working woman but her life is not going so well and she keeps so much to herself that when she sees someone else being assaulted, she simply ignores them and continues on her way. Actually she even rolled up the car window to a young woman that was crying out for help from her. There were guys who were obviously going to ‘have their way’ with her but she did nothing to help! Even if she went to the police to testify later on, this early in the movie and it immediately labelled Hae-won’s character for me.

I was not a fan of Hae-won but it might have something to do with the fact that she reminds me of me as I tend to keep to myself as well but as to helping those in peril, I don’t think I would just standby and do nothing when I see something like inevitable rape. I’d rather suffer wounds on the outside than what I would feel later on the inside had I not helped that person in need. But then again, Hae-won was too spoiled, being a rich girls and all so I guess this was normal for her character.

Hae-won’s life so bad that it reaches the point where she is even forced to take a break from her job because of all the stress. Just in time, as fates would have it, she receives a letter from her childhood friend Bok-nam. Hae-won travels to the island she spent most of her childhood to visit her friend.

The movies transitions from past to present and the scenes are blended so well too. Interestingly, the first flashback is about the day when Hae-won was to leave the Island. Getting back to the present, Hae-won has reached the Island and Bok-nam is there to meet her, very excited, so very excited, that she will finally get to meet her…once more.

Many years have passed and Hae-won finds the place really changed, her friend too. She genuinely missed her friend and Bok-nam is still as friendly as ever, even to the point of embarrassment like playing touching games while bathing.

There are many secrets on the Island too, Hae-won finds. Biggest of all is that though Bok-nam has a baby girl and thus married, she is still sleeping with her husband’s brother. On the other hand, though it wasn’t laid out on plate, there is insinuation that Bok-nam’s young daughter and her father aren’t actually fishing when they go out on their nightly fishing trips. Like, What! I will not share my thoughts on this one if the movie didn’t bother giving it straight so I will leave this hanging here.

Hae-won doesn’t have a family of her own, in fact she lives by herself with a fridge full of Guinness cans. I have an inkling that she has no boyfriend either which might be because of either the view she has on boys because of her experience with them (from her young age while still at this Island actually) to her present in the city where she seems to have been assaulted by them too. Or it may be another reason that we shall get to in a moment.

Because of this situation, Bok-nam has a wish that Hae-won would take her daughter with her to the city so she could get educated instead of rotting on the Island where there are no other children her age. Other than her daughter, Bok-nam is the youngest on the Island. But when she starts conveying this wish of hers to Hae-won, the conversation quickly changes and if Hae-won did it intentionally, I still don’t know but later on when she asks Bok-nam what she had been about to say, she holds her tongue, though that must have something to do with her mind going blank at Hae-won’s sudden touch, thus making things even more complicated.

Hae-won does what she actually came over to do by spending most of her time in their old house resting away and taking day time naps – The naps that led to some interesting character descriptions as we are taken some more into the past of Hae-won’s life here at this Island and we find out exactly how close she and Bok-nam were.

 
 
 

The two were almost like a true Princess and her Knight. One very rich, beautiful and gentle while the other, has no riches to speak of, dirty to the core but very strong both outward and inside. The Knight protected the Princess from the boys that would bully her while the Princess gave to the Knight what she could – like teaching her the things she would never learn otherwise due to lack of education.

Like the beauty of Music

I laughed a little at how Hae-won always wiped the flute to her dress before she passed it over whereas Bok-nam didn’t bother at all about anything. Actually Hae-won is the only one who seemed to give a rat’s butt about germs and all that, – curse you education – But somehow after seeing this care-free Bok-nam, something was awakened from within and…

She falls for her friend

And this was when Bok-nam did too, fall for Hae-won I mean, after experiencing this incredible feeling from her Princess. Too bad Hae-won had to leave the Island and go to the city with her family and never to return for years. Bok-nam was so heart broken by her Princess’ leave that she breaks the flute she was given as a parting gift. Music means nothing to her without Hae-won or at least this is what I thought of this action. She might have regretted this action after cooling down later because she actually tries to stick the pieces back together but that’s for later.

Hae-won is dreaming of these early days as she sleeps while at the same time Bok-nam who is awake, is also thinking of those days gone by as she watches her first (and probably true) love sleep beautifully – just like the Princess she is indeed. The moment is too cute for words as she carefully rightly places the lose bangs from Hae-won’s angelic face.

  
 
 
 

Though Hae-won tries to keep to herself, things start boiling up all over the Island. She gets closer to Bok-nam’s daughter and also learns of some of the dark side of this place she hasn’t been at for years but still shuts her eyes and ears to it all. Bok-nam’s situation is getting worse and she cannot handle her daughter spending any more time on this island of sin so she begs Hae-won to take them with her as she had promised (15 years ago) but Hae-won refuses saying that Seoul is scarier than this Island. Bok-nam begs for her to aleast take Yeon-hee. She says she won’t write or bother Hae-won ever again if she just takes her precious daughter away from this hell.

Hae-won asks why but Bok-nam can’t say. She says she won’t take her unless Bok-nam spills but she just can’t say. I think she wanted to keep her friend in the dark and protect her innocence.But Bok-nam really wants to protect her daughter so she spills her suspicions. Either it be of shock or she be so ignorant that she couldn’t picture such a thing but Hae-won denies Bok-nam’s reasoning and thinks that she made things up because she wanted to go to Seoul that badly. 

My heart at Bok-nam’s “Huh?” face at this…

Bok-nam decides to do things her self and so she steals some money from her husband and calls the boat man to take them away. Too bad everyone knows everyone on this small Island and as such, the boat man is friends with the three or so men on this Island, including Father dearest. Before the Father wakes up, Bok-nam and Yeon-hee sneak out to catch the boat. Only the Father’s bro came along for the ride. $%£ happens when Father dearest wakes up and comes after them.

Everyone just watches as this goes on and only the daughter tries to save her poor mother but she is instead thrown aside as if she was a piece of trash not unlike her mother. More of this throwing and finally the last time Yeon-hee does not get up after hitting her head. Her mother worried, crawls to her only gift in this madness of a world and finds that when she was pushed and fell, she had hit her still developing skull on a piece of rock sticking out of the ground. She did not survive.

I swear I could taste the emotions leaking from the monitor as Bok-nam wailed out all her sorrows upon the discovery as if she was dispensing everything she felt from her being. I have to say she had succeeded because she never looked the same when she finally emptied the well of tears. The funeral was attended by two and she simply covered her precious with rocks besides her home.

Hae-won didn’t know what to do so she didn’t even try. I was prepared to forgive her by this time but when she did not side with Bok-nam when the police came to talk about the murder, I enraged so much. There just has to be a limit on cowardice, seriously! She kept her mouth shut during the meeting and with the rest of village against Bok-nam, she lost the fight without even a moment’s pass. She could get justice for the only thing that had meaning in her life and her …her…what exactly, she didn’t know but she but she knew one thing, Hae-won meant very little to her now.

When Bok-nam finally snaps, it does not come as a surprise but it is what she does that is the surprise. Father dearest’s brother brings some tea for Hae-won, who had to stay because she missed her chance to leave the Island with the detective. Only the tea had a drug in it. The stupid brother was thinking of having his way with a out cold Hae-won. Almost as a way to finish what he and his brother and friend had started to do 15 years ago (she was saved by Bok-nam then). As the Dude takes off Hae-won’s undies, the door opens and on the other side is Bok-nam, wielding tick on fire! But even with this immediate threat that is bound to trigger warning bells in any living creature, the Dude ignores Bok-nam and continues his assault.It takes verbal warning from Bok-nam for the Dude to leave. Hae-won is saved yet again by Bok-nam, without her even knowing it.

Korean still takes my breath away with their WTF moments in all their serious movies I watch. This was no exception when Bok-nam finally started passing complete judgment over the whole Island. No one except the geezer that did nothing but munch of edible leaves all day, was spared and I have to say that I felt a little satisfaction about that fact.

I am still not sure she went after Hae-won to kill her even though she brought a weapon along but anyways, things don’t turn out as expected. Or maybe it was all going according to Bok-nam’s plan all along which would have been to help Hae-won grow a bone or remember her kindness or something. The showdown happens at the Police station where THAT detective works.Of course he too gets his divine retribution since he was in on everything but he wasn’t killed all kinds of dead yet.

Bok-nam takes the once broken flute that she taped back together and she hands it to Hae-won and asks her to play for her like the old days as she opens the door to the cell Hae-won locked herself in but Bok-nam gets shot by that half-dead detective. She is one tough cookie though so she finishes him off with a fatality move of smashing his…err..soccer balls in with a hammer first then his brains in for good measure.

Despite having been shot up a couple of times, Bok-nam still goes to finish the job off with Hae-won because that’s how she was raised, never to leave things half-done. But as we all know, fate has a great sense of humour as Hae-won uses the broken flute to take down Bok-nam. Bok-nam still lives though. The woman has unlimited lifelines. She craws her way over to Hae-won but instead of finishing her off finally, she instead settles for resting her head on Hae-won’s lap. She takes the other half of the flute from Hae-won and brings the pieces back together. She hands the flute back to Hae-won so she could play for her. Bok-nam finally gives into the darkness and fatigue and she is gone…forever.

That last scene broke me. The fact that it was so silent without any BGM or sounds made it all the more gripping.

Za END.

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God damn this movie!

Why you always have to play with my emotions like this Korea? I mean you may have given me some BEST END movies like Hellcats (I Like It Hot) but I still won’t frown at you for this BAD END either. So what if Hae-won finally got out of her shell? What if the two seemed to finally get back those feelings long buried? You still off’d one of them! BAD END is still BAD END no matter how you construct it, damn it!

Sigh

That doesn’t stop me from cherishing this movie though. Nope!

If you wanna see it you can below but be warned, it is R18, for many reasons…

——GEDDIT on AT-BT——

SD  | MF

720

1080