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- Movie: Wild Animals
- Revised romanization: Yasaeng dongmul bohoguyeog
- Hangul: 야생동물보호구역
- Director: Ki-duk Kim
- Writer: Ki-duk Kim
- Producer:
- Cinematographer:
- Release Date: October 25, 1997
- Runtime: 103 min
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Plot
The plot of Wild Animals unfolds on a Budapest-Paris train where deserter and
defector Hong-san, a former soldier and martial arts expert in the North Korean
army who can only speak Korean, sits alone in a compartment. As the representative
of North Koreanness in the film, Hong-san is a tough and silent but gullible young
man who dresses in combat-style paramilitary clothes, and harbours a dream to go to
Paris and sign up as a soldier of fortune in the French foreign legion. Laura, an
adopted Korean girl in her late teens with coloured hair, heavy make-up, and
provocative and defiant body language, enters the film by boarding the train and
taking a seat in the same compartment. The naïve and kind-hearted Laura, who
represents yet another type of Koreanness in the film, has been persuaded by her
boyfriend Emil to return to and resume her peepshow at his club in the red light
district of Pigalle in Paris. Laura’ s dream is to quit her dubious profession, and live a
normal family life together with Emil. Laura’s arrival to the compartment is a
moment fraught with ambiguity: she could be anything from a French woman of
Asian origin, to a first generation Asian immigrant, a visiting Asian tourist or an
ethnic Korean. As a North Korean with a characteristic lack of knowledge about the
existence of adopted Koreans in Western countries, Hong-san first mistakes her for a
North Korean woman but soon realises his error when he sees her behaving in ways
that are characteristically associated with French.
Laura in her turn does not seem to respond to his (North) Koreanness at all,
and she acts as mannish and bold as any other young French woman of her age. She
coughs when he starts to smoke, which makes him stop, and he helps her to open a
bottle of soft drink, which she empties in one gulp. Hong-san is puzzled and
fascinated by her un-Korean style, and he falls helplessly in love with her. When two
French gendarmes enter the compartment to check their passports, Laura is
immediately addressed as a French woman, gives them her name card and jokes
with the policemen in her fluent and native French, saying that they must come and
see her show. At the same moment, she saves the non-Francophone Hong-san from
uncomfortable questions by pretending to be his companion, something which the
gendarmes easily accept as the two travellers are both ethnic Koreans. However,
when the train arrives in the terminus in Paris and Hong-san sees her being met by
Emil at the platform, he is deeply disappointed.
The audience is also introduced to Chong–hae, the third Korean character who
represents South Koreanness in the film. Chong–hae is a rude and mischievous
small-time crook, petty criminal and rascal, who dreams of becoming a painter and
part of mainstream French society. He hangs around a studio for Korean artists in
Paris where he harasses his countrymen, steals their paintings and sells them on the
street. At the same street corner where Chong–hae sells his stolen goods, Corinne, an
illegal immigrant of Hungarian origin who earns money by performing as one of
August Rodin’s marble busts of Camille Claudel, stands immobile, nude and totally
covered in white paint. Chong–hae takes a liking to Corinne, and when two men
throw water on her to destroy her body painting, Chong–hae resolutely chases them
away. Together they visit the Luxembourg garden, and Corinne shows Chong–hae
the marble statue of Rodin, which she is obsessed by and wants to own. Chong–hae
tries to steal the bust for her, and after being hunted by the French police, they end
up in bed in Corinne’s apartment. Laura and Emil have at the same time arrived in
his apartment, where they too end up in bed. Laura tells Emil that she loves him, and
begs him to agree that she would never have to perform at his club again. The selfcentred
Emil exploits Laura’s feelings for him, openly treats her like a child and an
exotic toy, and makes use of her naïve personality and vulnerability as an abused
adoptee to extract money, and he answers by just laughing.
Chong–hae is discovered by the Korean artists to be the person stealing their
paintings, and gets thrown out of the Korean artisan community in Paris. Instead he
finds a new way of making a living: pretending to be a kind stranger who shows
newcomers how the lockers at the railway station work, and then steals their luggage.
Korean tourists are not exempt from Chong-hae’s scam; director Kim quickly dispels
viewers from rosy notions of solidarity loyalty between Chong-hae and fellow
Koreans. Not surprisingly, when Hong-san turns up at the lockers, Chong–hae
immediately mistakes Hong-san for a fellow national and addresses him as a South
Korean. Hong-san is happy to have received help from two ethnic Koreans on the
same day, and he accepts Chong–hae’s assistance and walks away for some brief
sightseeing. By chance and unknowingly, he happens to pass by the sex club where
Laura works and, upon returning, finds the locker empty and realises that he has
been deceived. Two Frenchmen who have also been duped by Chong–hae suddenly
turn up, and together, they chase after him. The Frenchmen take the lead, manage to
capture Chong–hae, and proceed to beat him. When Hong-san catches up, he
unexpectedly changes side, driven by some kind of ethnic solidarity, and helps
Chong–hae out of the precarious situation by chasing away the Frenchmen.
Cast
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