When I came across this Korean movie, my addiction to golf made me pick this movie especially since I was struggling to hit the 3-Iron in my bag...
Director, Ki-duk Kim has strung up a unique version of boy meets girl story with a few improbable episodes to converge them together into a film that engrosses. Initial patience of the viewer is rewarded as the storyline evolves and takes the viewer on an almost dreamlike ethereal wispy plot.
To make it that much more challenging, Ki-duk Kim does not utilize speech between the key characters, relying completely on the actors ability to convey emotions and thoughts between themselves and to the audience. In fact, there is very little spoken dialogue in the entire movie.
(Note: Entire storyline is revealed....)
Tae-suk (Hee Jae) is a young drifter with a digital camera, a bike a part-time job of distributing restaurant fliers and no place to call home. However, he has a modus-operandi of finding a place to live. He sticks the restaurant fliers on the door locks of residences in a particular neighborhood and returns the next day to identify homes where the fliers have not been removed - an indication that the owner is away. He proceeds to pick the lock of one of such residence and makes himself at home.
He exists peacefully in the shadow of other people’s lives, cooking himself meals, taking baths, watching television and sleeping soundly in the master bedroom but never stealing anything. His way of paying back for utilizing the dwelling is by fixing things that are broken, watering plants, or doing the tenants laundry. Finally, before departing, he snaps a few pictures of himself in front of the family pictures in the apartment for his digital scrap book.
His simple routine suddenly takes a complicated turn - one day he enters a luxurious house and starts going about his routine. From the portraits on the wall, he realizes that the lady of the house is a model. He has no idea that the lady in the pictures is imprisoned within the house by her husband when he goes to work or travels away from home. The lady, Sun-hwa (Seung-yeon Lee) is shackled in an marriage with an abusive husband who is much older than her. A scared Sun-hwa secretly observes Tae-suk as he goes about his routine slowly realizing that he is no threat as she watches him fix a broken scale in the house. She follows Tae-suk with a facination borne out of loneliness and boredom. That night, Tae-suk gets the shock of his life as he wakes up to notice Sun-hwa observing him. As he bolts from the house, he hears the phone ring and overhears the conversation between husband & wife only to realize that Sun-hwa is unhappy.
Although Tae-suk keeps away from Sun-hwa’s house, he keeps thinking about her and finally he sneaks back into the house. He starts doing little things for Sun-hwa like setting her dress when she is taking a bath...making Sun-hwa realize that the stranger has returned. Her joy is short-lived as the husband returns from his trip. He tries to force her to have sex with him which enrages Tae-suk. Tae-suk picks up the 3-Iron (left in the yard by the husband who has a habit of practing his golf swing in the yard) and hits the husband with a golf ball. As the husband collapses, both he and Sun-hwa elope on his bike.
Tae-suk & Sun-hwa start living in others houses. Sun-hwa starts to heal and enjoys her companion. Director Ki-duk Kim exploits the silence between Sun-hwa and Tae-suk by utilizing the actors abilities to emote & the chemistry between them to wordlessly make them fall in love with each other. Sun-hwa is finally happy and begins to smile. One day they sneak into a house to find the owners dead body - an old man who has passed away in his sleep. They pay their respects to the departed, bury him in the traditional way and continue to live in his house. Their sojourn is interrupted when the old man’s son pays a visit. He calls the cops and has both of them arrested. Sun-hwa is released to her husband and returns to her lonely, forlorn life while Tae-suk is incarcerated on murder and kidnapping charges.
In prison, Tae-suk prepares for life after release - he starts inventing & perfecting - for a lack of better term - "a form of non-offensive martial arts". He practices this on his jailor to be beaten several times, till he can practically hide behind his jailor and mimick his every move to be invisible to the jailor. After his release, he returns back to Sun-hwa, living with her - whenever her husband is present, he practices his martial arts to be visible only to Sun-hwa. The husband however assumes Sun-hwa has changed for the better thinking all her smiles and blown kisses are for him!!!
Although full of drama, the film moves slowly in almost a ballet-like fashion where emotions are understated and depicted subtly. It is definitely not for someone who longs for a past-paced movie. One has to admire Ki-duk Kim’s creativity with the plot, direction and screenplay but it is the two lead actors who pull this off through their expressive and masterful depection of emotions to convey dialogue where none exists.
Why is it named ’3-Iron’ is for the viewer to decipher....as for me, I’ve given up hitting a 3-Iron and moved on to a 3-hybrid!