failan

last night we watched failan. it's a korean flick, apparently based on a japanese novel. the basic story goes like this:

1. chinese girl loses parents, seeks out remaining relatives in korea.
2. chinese relatives in korea emigrate to canada
3. boohoo, poor chinese girl has nowhere to go, looks for an unemployment office for chinese folks
4. they marry her off to a korean mafia member, pay korean mafia guy, sell chinese girl
5. they try to sell her off as a stripper, but she's sick, so she works in a laundry instead
6. she falls in love with her "husband," probably because she has no one else to think about
7. she dies
8. he has to go confirm her death, and sees the letters she wrote him and feels bad
9. he falls in love with his dead "wife"

the beginning of the movie was pretty good. this mafia guy had a boss who had some serious anger management problems. he was just kicking ass all over the place. let's just say that the movie was much better when the main guy was getting the shit kicked out of him. when it started getting to the flashbacks and the love story, it just SUCKED. she's stupid for falling in love with him and writing him letters. what, she thought he was really her husband? she knew what the deal was...

it would've been better if the girl ended up working as a hostess at a korean club.. or a stripper on a pole. but in a laundry? come on! she's all frail and shit. she's dying for chrissakes. i think being a hostess would be much more realistic for her. when i say she worked at a laundry, there weren't any machines. she was outside in the cold washing them in a basin with her FEET. no wonder the poor bitch died.

also, the main male character was one of the main characters in Old Boy. which was a good but disturbing movie... now, this guy's a pretty good actor... but he always plays the pathetic guy. i'm sick of seeing him as a wimp! i think he'd be a kickass bad guy, too... damn. why does he always end up playing the loser???

i think the real problem was that a korean wrote the screenplay. koreans just fucking LOOOOVE the melodrama. if i had written the script, she would've been a stripper, paid off her debt, bought herself a ticket back to china. and he wouldn't be a pansy anymore. he'd grow a pair and then get rid of his boss and be the mafia leader. and then he could have the anger management problem and ram people's heads against the concrete many, many times.

also, koreans have no F. why would they name a movie with her name that supposedly starts with an F. and they weren't even saying it like that. they were saying it baeklan. i don't see no K in failan.

whatever. this movie gets a 2 out of 5. 1 star for being korean (hehe), 1/2 star for the asskicking in the beginning, and another 1/2 star for having the Old Boy guy in it.