A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Green Fish (Lee Chang-dong, 1997)

Cast: Han Suk-kyu, Shim Hye-jin, Moon Sung-keun, Mung Gye-nam, Kim Yong-nam, Han Seon-kyu, Jung Jin-young, Oh Ji-hye, Son Young-soon, Song Kan-ho, Lee Moon-sik. Screenplay: Lee Chang-dong. Cinematography: Yong Kil-you. Film editing: Hyun Kim. Music: Lee Dong-jun. 

A young man (Han Suk-kyu) finishes his military service and returns home, but on the way there he gets involved with a beautiful woman (Shim Hye-jin) with underworld ties. Fine performances and razor-keen editing animate this fascinating noir drama leavened with dark humor and superbly atmospheric cinematography and music. 

 

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