Bedevilled

A big hit at many 2010 film festivals, such as Cannes and Fantastic Fest, Jang Cheol-so’s film was always likely to achieve a DVD release in the UK. The director garnered a number of awards for his work on the movie – so having missed it at the cinema, is it worth hunting down a copy to watch at home?

Hae-won (Ji Seong-won) works in a bank in Seoul. After witnessing a violent crime, she is threatened and intimidated by a group of youths until she agrees not to testify. Frightened and angry, she returns to her office where she vents her frustration on an elderly customer. Her manager gives her little option but to take an enforced holiday, and given her state of mind, she opts on a restorative trip to visit her childhood friend on a nearby island.

Fifteen years after her last visit, Hae-won returns to Moo-do Island – the place her grandfather lived, and where she struck up a friendship with local girl Bok-nam (Seo Yeong-hee). Although her childhood friend is delighted to see her, it quickly becomes apparent that the rest of the small island community are not nearly so keen.

As the plot unfurls, it becomes increasingly clear why the other islanders are worried by Hae-won’s presence – it transpires that Bok-nam is being treated as little more than a glorified slave, punch bag and plaything. As the threat to her safety grows, so does the likelihood that she’ll seek retribution…

The opening scenes of the film are dispassionate and clinical. Concentrating solely on Hae-won’s reasons for seeking solace on Moo-do island presents the audience with a pretty dislikeable character. She’s cold, irritable and cowardly – not attributes an audience readily warms to. And so it proves. As she arrives on the island to outright hostility, it’s impossible to feel any sympathy for her, and this is a major flaw in the film – although it does raise the possibility that she will somehow redeem herself.

As the two female leads rekindle their friendship, we are slowly introduced to the idea that all is not well. It seems that other than an elderly and infirm man, the only other male characters on the island are Bok-nam’s husband, Man-jong, and his slack-jawed, mute brother. Their sneery indifference is threatening in itself, but they quickly reveal themselves to be even more worrisome.

It’s quickly established that the two are dangerous, immoral and violent. One particularly gruelling scene sees Man-jong’s brother having sex with Bok-nam. The idea in itself is repellent, but it’s also well shot in terms of creating a sense of violence and menace. He roughly forces himself upon her, and the visceral sex – filmed in a number of close-ups – makes extremely uncomfortable viewing.

Similarly, a sex-scene between Man-jong and a prostitute he’s had delivered to the island is a hard scene to watch. It’s extremely rough and misogynistic – and ultimately poignant, as the director cuts between shots of Man-jong (Park Jung-hak) forcing the prostitute to perform oral sex on him with shots of Bok-nam quietly eating her supper outside the room with the sounds of their meeting clearly audible.

Things become even bleaker as Bok-nam is repeatedly beaten, spat upon and insulted. When her young daughter becomes involved, things become even grimmer. Although never stated explicitly, it seems likely that she’s being groomed by the adult males – and perhaps even sexually abused. It’s subtly played by all concerned, but unfortunately, it’s arguably the last example of any tact being displayed.

It’s inevitable that the sexual (and possibly child) abuse and violence will have dire consequences, and so it proves as Bok-nam finally snaps. It’s an utterly predictable reaction and it’s filmed in an utterly predictable fashion. To say too much would be to give away the plot, but suffice to say that there is nothing on display which hasn’t been seen a million times before.

It’s a shame the story lapses into familiarity, as prior to Bok-nam ‘breaking’, the film was a much more interesting prospect. Although it’s almost relentlessly bleak, there were definite shades of The Wicker Man, as the sinister island community closed ranks against the interloper from outside.

Sadly, the character of Hae-won seems to serve merely as a device to illustrate the attitude of the islanders to outsiders. Once their attitude is established, she seems to disappear from the story altogether, but for a scene in which she is drugged and almost raped. She’s a peripheral character until the very end of the film, where she suddenly re-emerges – to the apparent benefit of nobody. A more unforgiving director or editor could probably removed her from the film altogether with very little impact on the overall feel of the movie.

Like Hae-won, the final act of the film completely outstays its welcome. It lapses into the worst kind of lazy cliché, and attempts to answer far too many questions. There would have been far more value in leaving some things unsaid or unanswered rather than trying to wrap everything up so neatly.

Bedevilled has moments of interest and a fine central performance from Seo Yeong-hee, but ultimately, the vast majority of the characters are one-dimensional and completely dislikeable. With judicious editing, there’s a decent film lurking in here somewhere, but as it stands, it’s bloated, flabby and predictable. Jang Cheol-so will have learned plenty of lessons from his directorial debut.