A Kim Ki-duk film is one that will always bring with it a bit of
controversy upon its release, if indeed it gets released at all. His films
often border between the shocking, the strange and the sublime, taking the viewer
through a range of emotions, often leaving them not knowing how to feel about
them upon their conclusion. The appropriately-named 'Pieta' is a film that
follows along these lines, switching between moments of extreme violence and
revenge to tender moments between mother and son.
Gang-do is a no-nonsense debt collector for a loan shark, often taking
extreme force to scare his debtors into work-based 'accidents' thus triggering
the insurance claims that are used as a guarantee of repayment. No payment, no
more hands, but no more debt. Unconcerned by his victims, or the impact his actions
have on their families, the cold-hearted cripple-maker's life is turned upside
down when a woman arrives at his door claiming to be the mother that abandoned
him when he was born.
Eventually accepting her story, Gang-do gradually begins to see the
error of his ways, finally experiencing the love of a mother, and taking pity
on those to which he is to inflict pain. But with his guard now down, the now
vulnerable Gang-do leaves himself open to revenge, having the tables turned on
his own life and happiness.
The film starts with an stream of torture inflicted on desperate men,
unable to pay the always-inevitable-in-films high rate of inflation placed on
loan repayments. All of those taking out these 'happy loans' work in small,
independent workshops, complete with enough heavy machinery to cause rather a
nasty 'accident' that any insurance company would believe. Though the violence
is never fully shown on screen, building the anticipation and leaving it up to
the imagination, it is enough to leave the viewer feeling a little uneasy.
The film then moves into more easy roads, as the transformation of
Gang-do begins, becoming a vulnerable son, dependent on his mother, and by the film's
final twist he is a pitiful character. As he seeks redemption, the film has
become a vehicle for tender moments, a far cry from the violence of the start.
While there are inevitable plot holes along the way, the
characterisation in the two leads is strong, in two strong performances from
the leads, Jeong-jin Lee and particularly the relative unknown, Min-soo Jo, in
the role of mother.
As with his previous works, it's difficult to know how to feel at the
end of 'Pieta', as Min-soo Jo's character battles with her own confusion as to
how she should feel towards Gang-do. Controversial; love him or hate him; pick
faults at the lack of professionalism in the film-making or marvel at the way
he can conjure up emotion, Kim Ki-duk is a director that will probably always
divide opinion, but will always provoke thought.
