The first big surprise of this year’s Seattle International Film Festival was “3-Iron,” a small but inventive movie by South Korean director Kim Ki-duk. This sly number is already opening for a regular arthouse run, having played SIFF last weekend.
| Lyrical: A young man breaks into unoccupied houses, not to steal or vandalize but simply to make himself feel at home. This lyrical little number is another winner from South Korean director Kim Ki-duk. (In Korean, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence, subject matter. Now showing: Metro. |
We meet our hero, Tae-suk (Jae Hee), a young man who rides around on his motorcycle and quietly breaks into houses that he knows to be empty. He’s not a thief, or a vandal. In fact, he will fix broken gadgets in these strangers’ houses. He seems to simply enjoy being in a home for a few days – taking a bath, sleeping in nice sheets.
Tae-suk is the Buster Keaton of house-breakers. He doesn’t smile much, and he doesn’t speak.
One day he messes up. A house he thought to be empty is in fact occupied. An abused wife (Lee Seung-yeon) is hiding there, quietly watching Tae-suk as he goes about his unhurried, non-destructive habits. After a while, they meet, and she finds his gentle ways an attractive change from her mean husband.
Although “3-Iron” has a lyrical, quiet flow, it also has bursts of violence. The golf club of the title comes into play in one such scene, as Tae-suk has cause to assault the husband.
The film is not intended as realism – it’s more on the order of fairy tale. After the police finally catch up with Tae-suk, he takes on new talents that border on the supernatural.
Director Kim pulls this off. Maybe it’s because the unspeaking hero is slightly otherworldly from the beginning, or because the rhythms of the movie establish that we’re not really in Kansas anymore. Or even Seoul.
Similar things were happening in Kim’s otherwise very different previous picture, “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring.” A quasi-Buddhist parable, it also had moments of inexplicable magic.
That film reached for a large statement about existence, while “3-Iron” is so small it feels like a breeze passing by. But this is a beautifully realized film by a rapidly rising filmmaker.
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