Biography
Director Na Hong-jin captivated critics and audiences alike with the bold and distinctive cinematic worlds he created in “The Wailing” (2016), “The Yellow Sea” (2010) and “The Chaser” (2008). His films immerse viewers in innovative narratives, brought to life through meticulously precise direction. In particular, “The Wailing” (2016) It stands as a seminal work in the director’s career, exploring the profound theme of existential faith through an utterly unpredictable narrative. The film enchanted audiences and received global acclaim, setting a new standard for the occult genre. Na Hong-jin also demonstrated her skills as a producer, collaborating with Thailand on the horror film “The Medium” (2021). This innovative experiment in genre cinema has achieved considerable success, further showing its ability to expand the boundaries of cinema, while continuing to develop diversified projects in multiple genres. Currently, filmmaker Na Hong-jin is in post-production with his next project, “Hope”, which promises another unique and fascinating story. The film has already attracted attention thanks to an all-star cast, including Hwang Jung-min, Jo In-sung, Hoyeon, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. The director’s works have consistently achieved both commercial success and artistic acclaim. Through deceptively simple narratives, he masterfully manages to drag the audience into intricate webs of thought, cementing his reputation as an expert storyteller. His unparalleled ability to bring these stories to the screen ensures that audiences eagerly await what new direction their creative journey will take.
Critique
Among the many directors of the Korean New Wave, Na Hong-jin has conquered audiences and critics thanks to a recognizable style, a commendable writing and a unique and original way of narrating.
Since "The Chaser", his debut in 2008, the director's ability to describe a desolate world, where humanity seems to succumb under the weight of guilt and lack of trust in others, is evident.
The protagonist of the film is Eom Joong-ho, an ex-policeman with a rough character, always looking for money, who has chosen to become the protector of a group of prostitutes who, however, mysteriously begin to disappear without a trace.
Eom, convinced that he has been betrayed by his women, begins a search that will lead him to discover a heinous serial killer, Ji Young-min, who will turn out, when he is caught, to be devious and skilled in manipulating law enforcement. A solitary joong-ho race will then start to save the last missing prostitute, Mi-jin.
A great success with the public (despite the lack of real stars, a low-budget production and a first-time director), the film has an apparently simple plot that instead hides a depth in the narrative that has very few equals in the genre thanks to a reversal of roles and actions (no longer the search for the killer but time as an enemy), which allow the director to create multifaceted characters, where good and evil are confused in a world where women are (un)aware victims of those who want to exploit them or even want to eliminate them.
An atypical thriller, where violence explodes with coldness and elegance thanks to a visionary mise-en-scène that manages to insert moments of irony into the narrative that are never unrelated and always consistent with the development of the characters, without affecting the dramaturgical strength of the whole.
Perfect in the role of the protagonist Kim Yoon-soek, as is the performance of the young Ha Jung-woo, two faces that are not easily forgotten, for a formidable film, never artificial both in creating tension, horror, repulsion and on a technical level, with a wonderful photography that even more transports us into a world that has its only glow of light in the little Eun-ji, daughter of Mi-jin (an excellent Seo Young-hee), who manages to pull Joong-ho out of his torpor.
Two years passed before "The Yellow Sea", Na's new film, landed in theaters and with the unexpected success of his first work he managed to bring the new film to Cannes in 2011 in the Un Certain Regard section where it immediately had great success.
With a tripled budget, but with the same actors as protagonists (who exchange roles), the director brings to the screen the story of Gu-nam, a taxi driver of Korean origin, or a joseonjok, who lives in Yanji, in the autonomous prefecture of Yanbian (located between Russia, China and North Korea), where crime is at exorbitant levels.
Crushed by debts for gambling addiction and for having sent his wife to work in South Korea, he agrees to kill a man in exchange for money, thanks to the proposal of Myun Jung-hak, a local criminal.
Gu-nam, to carry out the crime and look for his wife, is forced to go to South Korea illegally crossing the yellow sea, only that things will not go as planned and our protagonist will find himself in the middle of a gang fight that will lead him to be wanted by the police.
The film begins as a journey into a no man's land, where every street, every corner, seem to come out of a post-apocalyptic film, there is no sign of hope and every rule of coexistence is unhinged by the total moral and physical abandonment of the inhabitants.
The mise-en-scène is remarkable, with a hand-held camera that manages, thanks also to masterful photography, to tell us about these devastated streets with an attentive but never cynical look. When the narrative then moves to South Korea, the director ventures into moments of pure action, with chases and tense fights full of rhythm that will take us more and more into the character of our anti-hero, a shy man full of fragility who will bump into the fury of the cruel Myun Jung-hak from which the most violent sequences will start.
As with the previous work, Na manages to overturn a classic noir story in a race against time, which will lead to rivers of blood through an excellent editing idea that forcefully moves us into a world where there are no more rules and where only money is the real master.
The performance of all the actors is remarkable, who are always credible, and the socio-political reading is excellent, complex and never ostentatious, for a film that drags us into the depths of the human soul just as the corpses of those who will not be able to reach the shore are dragged to the bottom of the yellow sea.
In 2016, after a long process, Na's new work, "Goksung", was released, which immediately demonstrated once again the expressive and narrative strength of the author.
Folk-horror that tells the story of Jong-goo, a local police officer of the town of the title of the film, who investigates a series of mysterious and violent murders, which began with the arrival in the country of a Japanese man, and which seem to be connected to each other by a contagion of supernatural origin.
When the protagonist's daughter, Hyo-jin, is also infected, a never-ending nightmare will begin.
Incredible mixture of genres in a work that manages to combine comedy, thriller, horror through a critical look at institutions, thanks to an iron script, which is staged perfectly through a photograph that transports us to a dark fairytale universe, where every choice seems to be always wrong and where every religion has no power towards Evil.
In the part of Jong-goo we have a majestic Kwak Do-won, as well as Jun Kunimura in the difficult role of the Japanese, for a film that also lives on its natural sets, excellent music, perfection of every detail and a characterization of all the secondary characters that is always adequate and never sloppy.
The sequence of the shamanic exorcism is unforgettable, spectacular and tense at the same time, as well as the suspended ending, where the lack of trust or the excess of it will be fatal.
A film capable of breaking through the wall of the genre (without ever denying it) to tell an elegantly constructed story that immerses the viewer in a descent towards the most atavistic fear that cannot be forgotten, just as the (bloody) Japanese occupation of Korean territories that began in 1910 and ended in 1945 cannot be forgotten by our protagonists.
Waiting for her new work "Hope" (in the cast there is also space for international stars such as Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander) one can only conclude that Na Hong-jin is one of the greatest authors of the last 20 years, thanks to an impeccable technique and her bold themes that immerse us in a "new" world.
- Federico Frusciante
