[movie 2010] The Servant / Bang-ja Chronicles 방자전

[melusine]

The Servant (방자전)

South Korea

Costume drama

Directed by Kim Dae-woo (김대우)

By Derek Elley, Film Business Asia

Thu, 01 July 2010, 19:06 PM (HKT)

Untold Scandal meets Chunhyang in an ironic tale of sexual shennanigans and not-so-discreet class warfare. Limited offshore potential beyond festivals.

Story

Joseon dynasty. Well-known gangster Lee Bang-ja (Kim Ju-hyeok) hires a popular novelist to write up his life story. Years ago, he says, he was a servant to young aristocrat Lee Mong-ryeong (Ryu Seung-beom) who, on a trip to Namweon, Jeolla province, fell for Chun-hyang (Jo Yeo-jeong), the cultured daughter of gisaeng Weol-mae (Kim Seong-ryeong). However, Bang-ja also fell for Chun-hyang and, despite his low status, became determined to win her. Schooled by wily old Ma (Oh Dal-su) in the art of seduction, and using Chun-hyang's maid Hyang-dan (Ryu Hyeon-gyeong) - who fancied him - as a way of getting to her, Bang-ja finally bedded Chun-hyang. While Mong-ryeong was away in the capital studying for his government exams, Bang-ja and Chun-hyang carried on their relationship with her mother's consent. But Chun-hyang all along had her eyes on marrying Mong-ryeong to advance her social position, and her plan appeared to unravel when Mong-ryeong eventually returned as a government inspector.

Review

The Servant (방자전) takes one of the best-known Korean classics, The Tale of Chun-hyang - already filmed by Shin Sang-ok (신상옥) in 1961 and Im Kwon-taek (임권택) in 2000 - and plays a cheeky "what if?" game. What if Bang-ja, the hero's servant (and a minor character in the novel), also had designs on Chun-hyang? What if Chun-hyang was not so innocent as she was made out to be? And so on. In the hands of writer Kim Dae-woo (김대우), who's already gained a reputation for sexually transgressive costume movies (Forbidden Quest 음란서생 and Untold Scandal 스캔들, the latter a reworking of Dangerous Liaisons), the result is consistently entertaining, if a little hard to follow sometimes with its story ellipses.

Though the finer points of Kim's elaborate riff will be lost on viewers not familiar with the classic novel, the general theme of people trying to advance their social positions via sex is universal enough. That every character is highly aware of his/her position in the social order - but not giving a hoot when a good shag is at stake - is a low-key joke throughout the movie. "We're of the same rank, so nothing will happen to us!" gasps Chun-hyang's maid when in flagrante with Bang-ja, and it's the way in which the characters blithely cross invisible social lines that sets The Servant apart from the usual stodgy Korean costume dramas.

Like the even longer Forbidden Quest, which Kim also directed, there are times during the second half of the two-hour film when the drama dawdles and one is left appreciating just the colourful costume design and Kim Yeong-min's (김영민) handsome widescreen photography. But like Quest, The Servant repays the audience's patience with a final sequence that magically transfigures the whole movie, as well as justifying the seemingly pointless framing device of the hero narrating his story to a writer.

As in Quest, and the E J-yong (이재용) directed Untold Scandal, the cast rise beautifully to Kim's dialogue - full of blunt sexual talk, by both women and men. The gamble of casting dumb-looking comic star Ryu Seung-beom (류승범) as the noble, and handsome Kim Ju-hyeok (김주혁) as the unsophisticated servant, adds to the film's sly humour; and as the woman of both their dreams, Jo Yeo-jeong (조여정) gradually builds a portrait of Chun-hyang that's somewhere between innocent, worldly and scheming. They all get lively support from Oh Dal-su (오달수), prematurely aged as the lecherous old love tutor, Ryu Hyeon-gyeong (류현경) as Chun-hyang's horny maid, and Kim Seong-ryeong (김성령) as Chun-hyang's courtesan mother. Rising to the spirit of the project, both Jo and Ryu go fearlessly, and naturally, topless in the movie's several sex scenes.