A Korean film combination

As well as the recent Korean Film Festival in London, Film 4 have shown five Korean films possibly
in connection with the event.   Those on TV were 'In Another Country' (2012) starring Isabelle Huppert, 'Like You Know It All' (2009), 'The Day He Arrives' (2011), Oki's Movie (2010) and 'Hahaha' (2010).   Common to all is a connection with film - Huppert is an actress with a director lover and the others all included leading actors claiming to be directors though most of them looked
hardly out of their teens.   All were elliptical and rather opaque, wordy and lacking in any cinematic
flair though all are fairly highly rated - possibly Koreans look for other things.   The only comparison
that comes to mind is that with some of the lesser Nouvelle Vague efforts of the late 50s and 60s.
In the cinema, 'One on One' starts with a rape and murder in relative darkness and then switches to a
disparate bunch of vigilantes who have agree to punish the ones responsible for ordering and carrying
out the rape.   As the bunch of seven work their way through the perpetrators, the level of retributory
violence starts to increase which leads to a falling away of willing participation though the group leader who is older and responsible for both organising the capture of the criminals and their punishing remains constant and increasingly intense.   One of those caught early on decides to find out just who did take him and he is seen spying on them in later scenes.   As the climax approaches,
it turns out that the raped girl was the daughter of the leading vigilante whereas the others are there
just for the thrill.   Following the final capture and punishment (though events in this suggest there
are others higher up), the group disbands and the father is seen on a hilltop overlooking Seoul
mourning his daughter - with the film ending with his death at the hands of the one who was spying
on them.   Somewhat patchy but with an interesting story line and a strong central performance, the
film also gets across the seeming inviolability that can come with authority and power.
'Cold Eyes' is a fairly straightforward policier taking the work of a surveillance group in the Seoul
police whose only job is that - they are specifically ordered not to be involved but, when appropriate,
to let armed police take over.   The story is told by using a young female recruit and her mentor as the focus with the opening scenes being her observing him.   The eventual focus of their work is a killer
played by Jung Woo-sung, who seems to be the current Korean heart-throb (younger, taller and better
looking than Tom Cruise), and his presence at the cinema seemed to bring out the teenage population
of Koreans in London and further afield.   The film is mainly well-paced though the middle section
was a little flat (as it was in 'One on One') and enjoyable though far from being anything more than
average.   The director, Kim Ki-Duk, who was the featured director of the Festival (apparently the
largest outside Korean for their films) is something of an outsider to the Korean film industry as we
were told at length before the first of the films we saw though he is well-thought of internationally.

James, P.R.:Death Comes to Pemberley

I have somehow never taken to the novels of P.R. James whom many consider the queen of British
thriller writers though both Ruth Rendell and Val McDermid are likely to be considered her equal or
better by many others.   This book is a departure as it is neither contemporary nor a policier.   It is
possibly the forerunner of a recent trend to write sequels to classic novels although the most frequently adapted character is surely Sherlock Holmes.   James here essays a sequel to Pride and
Prejudice setting the book in the early years of the 19th century with Elizabeth Bennett happily married to Darcy and a proud mother and more than capable chatelaine of Pemberley.   The couple
are about to continue the tradition of Darcy's late mother by having an autumn ball but their intention
is thwarted when, the night before the ball, Captain Denny is murdered on the estate while riding with
George Wickham and Lydia to Pemberley where the two men were going to leave Lydia so that she
might be at the ball, uninvited though she was.   Wickham, having been found in an incriminating
position, is arrested and tried for murder.   Apart from a cursory search around the area of the crime,
no investigation takes place though the trial is delayed and moved to London to ensure fairness.   The
bulk of the novel is the reaction of the family members to the crime and how this might have some
effect on their social position.   The final outcome is a little hard to accept as it is firmly based in the
social mores of Jane Austen's England which are so different from the present day.   Well written with
no noticeable anachronisms, eschewing archaic language, it well deserves its critical acclaim.