TASK. Read these two texts below and do the two tasks.
Grounded work on a Korean noir film
ground (noun)ground (verb).
Korean Film Festival –
Man on High Heels – 2014
PLOT. This is the set-up; Ji-Wook Yoon (Seung-won Cha) is a homicide detective with a violent reputation of taking down criminals without the use of handcuffs or guns.
Yoon’s reputation extends to both sides of the law and is both revered and feared. In Yoon’s personal life, however, he still burdens the loss of his first love and his desire to become a woman, something he has known since his teenage years.
As Yoon begins his sex change operation, some gangsters want revenge after feeling the brunt of his violent actions and, consequently, this puts his own life as well as his close-friend Jang-mi (Esom) in danger.
director and writer: Jin Jang
cast: Seung-won Cha and Esom
TASK 1. Is the critique that follows done on reasonable grounds?
Matthew Lee's Review:
From the outset it is apparent this on-screen experimentation between masculine and feminine roles is both interesting and detrimental to the film. The interest lies in the audiences own on-screen preconception of gender roles and the film’s subversion to humorous effect. Conversely though, the shifts from Yoon’s slow self-discovery to the hyper-masculine fight scenes are both done straight, which results in the more obvious comedic set pieces losing their punchline. In short, the experimentation of gender roles offers something that elevates this from a banal experience but is undermined by the tonal shifts.
The film’s attempt at two distinctly contrasting stories results in them not integrating tonally and one wonders whether cramming them together results in a decent pay-off. Sadly, it does not. As neither facet is explored deeply enough nor are they conveyed in a light-hearted manner, the film veers towards melodrama. This would not be an issue if the detective narrative was not violently ironic in its depiction, or if Yoon’s first love was not wrought with complex emotional scars. These varying topics and tonal contrasts result in a film that never grounds itself.
The most interesting facet is the gangsters for they are successful in the crime syndicate but the head-bosses make amateur mistakes. This dry subversion of preconceived caricatures is done to charming comedic effect.
Man on High Heels never finds it feet with tone, theme or subject matter and results in an oddly lifeless experience. What could have been an interesting personal versus public life rhetoric is instead exchanged for melodrama, violence and weak comedy.
Matthew Lee is an undergraduate student in the field of Film Studies
at King's College London and a freelance film critic
TASK 2. Select 8 items with a negative tone in the comments above.
KEY:
PLOT. This is the set-up; Ji-Wook Yoon (Seung-won Cha) is a homicide detective with a violent reputation of taking down criminals without the use of handcuffs or guns. Yoon’s reputation extends to both sides of the law and is both revered and feared. In Yoon’s personal life, however, he still burdens the loss of his first love and his desire to become a woman, something he has known since his teenage years. As Yoon begins his sex change operation, some gangsters want revenge after feeling the brunt of his violent actions and, consequently, this puts his own life as well as his close-friend Jang-mi (Esom) in danger.
From the outset it is apparent this on-screen experimentation between masculine and feminine roles is both interesting and detrimental to the film. The interest lies in the audiences own on-screen preconception of gender roles and the film’s subversion to humorous effect. Conversely though, the shifts from Yoon’s slow self-discovery to the hyper-masculine fight scenes are both done straight, which results in the more obvious comedic set pieces .... losing their punchline. In short, the experimentation of gender roles offers something that elevates this from a banal experience but is undermined by the tonal shifts.
The film’s attempt at two distinctly contrasting stories results in them not integrating tonally and one wonders whether cramming them together results in a decent pay-off. Sadly, it does not. As neither facet is explored deeply enough nor are they conveyed in a light-hearted manner, the film veers towards melodrama. This would not be an issue if the detective narrative was not violently ironic in its depiction, or if Yoon’s first love was not wrought with complex emotional scars. These varying topics and tonal contrasts result in a film that never grounds itself.
The most interesting facet is the gangsters for they are successful in the crime syndicate but the head-bosses make amateur mistakes. This dry subversion of preconceived caricatures is done to charming comedic effect.
Man on High Heels never finds it feet with .... tone, theme or subject matter and results in an oddly lifeless experience. What could have been an interesting personal versus public life rhetoric is instead exchanged for melodrama, violence and weak comedy.
OUTLINE of 4 negative syntax items:
1. From the outset it is apparent this on-screen experimentation between ............ is both interesting and detrimental to the film.
the shifts from A to B are both done straight, which results in the more obvious comedic set pieces .... losing their punchline.
2. In short, the experimentation offers something that elevates this from a banal experience but is undermined by the tonal shifts.
The film’s attempt at two distinctly contrasting stories results in them not integrating tonally and....
one wonders whether cramming them together results in a decent pay-off. ...... Sadly, it does not.
3. As neither facet is explored deeply enough nor are they conveyed in a light-hearted manner, the film veers towards melodrama.
This would not be an issue if A and B.
These varying topics and tonal contrasts result in a film that never grounds itself. (= got lost)
4. Man on High Heels never finds it feet with .... tone, theme or subject matter and results in an oddly lifeless experience.
What could have been an interesting .... + + + +
is instead exchanged for (negative)
melodrama, violence and weak comedy.
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