Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Cho Jae-Hyn, Seo Won, Kim Yoon-Tae, Choi Duk-Moon, Shin Yoo-Jin
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
With a title like BAD GUY you might expect a violent blood-fest but instead you get a sort of perverse love story set against a background of kidnapping and enforced prostitution.
A young college girl, Sun-hwa (Seo Won), is forced into prostitution by Han-gi (Cho Jae-Hyn), the bad guy in the title and made to have sex for money with a succession of uncaring clients. She is trained into becoming a hooker and as she goes through various stages of acceptance she is watched by Han-gi not just to see she doesn’t escape but in what is almost portrayed as a caring way.
In BAD GUY hate turns to love and depression turns to acceptance of her new lifestyle.
Although this doesn’t seem the most appealing of concepts for a movie it’s made to work partly by the skill of the director and partly by Cho Jae-Hyn the actor who plays the bad guy, whose job of portraying his part is made even more difficult as his character has almost no dialogue except for a few lines uttered in a squeaky voice because of the character’s damaged vocal chords due to an injury.
On the negative side however I’m not sure what preconception the director has of what’s in the woman’s mind to accept her role.
BAD GUY is not a bad movie but the repeated bed scenes between Sun-hwa and her customers become repetitive. The story is thin, basic and unrealistic but it is competently directed and acted.
Opinion is really going to split on this one.
