`Our Town' Deconstructs Murder

"Our Town" (우리 동네, Uri Dongnae)

Directed by Jung Gil-young (정길영)

Starring Oh Man-seok (오만석), Lee Sun-kyun (이선균), Ryu Duk-hwan (류덕환)

Unlike what its title might suggest, director Jung Gil-young’s ``Our Town’’ is not some fuzzy family drama. It’s a crime thriller where five women are brutally killed. Not another serial killer story, you may say. But, again, the film kills your expectations as it takes you on a novel cinematic experience -- a flight into the mind of not one, but two, killers on the loose in what could be ``our’’ neighborhood.

First off, the title needs some explanation. It is a literal translation of the original title ``Uri dongnae.’’ A Los Angeles Times column (July 24, 2006) once highlighted how the Korean language thoroughly reflects the collective nature of Koreans, who prefer the unassuming ``we’’ over the individual ``I,’’ and thus leads to the stapling of group pronouns ``our’’ (uri) rather than ``my’’ in front of objects. So saying ``our house’’ or ``our town’’ creates a communal sense of ownership and establishes a sense of mutual connection.

That’s the irony. This is a violent and disturbing murder story that is definitely not for children -- so the ``our’’ part doesn’t work there. And yet, the movie suggests such horrors can happen next door.

In a quiet, ordinary neighborhood, three women and a young girl are ``crucified,’’ with their dead bodies tied up in the form of a cross in public areas. Kyeong-su (Oh Man-seok), a struggling novelist, impulsively slay his landlady during a nasty quarrel over rent. With the recent happenings around town, he conveniently covers up his crime as the doings of the serial killer.

Kyeong-su’s childhood buddy and police officer Jae-sin (Lee Sun-kyun) begins to suspect the fifth victim was a copycat case. Meanwhile the actual serial killer, Hyo-i (Rue Duk-hwan), begins to track down his copycat.

This isn’t a conventional cat-and-mouse game between the police and killer. The movie immediately reveals the Who, What, When, Where and How, and the action feeds upon the disturbing Why part as the systematic murderer and impulsive killer trail each other’s paths.

Even the most hardened of crime thriller fans will be able to taste something new, as the suspense is rooted in the mind game between two murderers. And it’s more disturbing yet as the story takes place within the context of a neighborhood.

Hyo-i is the great guy next door. He’s the helpful owner of a small stationary store and has the face of an angel. Kyeong-su is also an ordinary guy, but can apparently commit murder when cornered. It shows how, in a spur of the moment, one can give into one’s darkest desires and bestial urgencies.

What the movie does is play with the human thought process, the stark difference -- or lack thereof -- between imagination and reality, wanting to kill and the actual act of killing.

In one scene, the murderer makes a girl sing a song, but still takes her life with a smirk: ``It’s just technique, nothing genuine.’’ Obviously he’s not happy with the singing. Lee Moon-sae’s good old love song is juxtaposed with the inhuman act, making it even more harrowing. It suggests the psyche of the psychopath, someone who kills for the sake of killing without a vengeful motive.

But unlike psychopath films like ``Black House,’’ the movie deals with more ``humane’’ killers and does a decent job of portraying the aftermath of a trauma and the copycat effect on individuals. ``Our Town’’ is an unsettling psychological drama that shows how the act of killing becomes a source of emotional release and rapture for the shattered soul. It deserves some comparison to Jean Giono’s novel/film ``Un Roi sans divertissement’’ (1963).

Although some of the highly dramatized, crisscrossed relationships in the film are slightly clichéd, the bona fide actors -- theater stars Oh Man-seok and Lee Sun-kyun who have recently been giving stellar appearances on TV and rising star Rue Duk-hwan (``Like a Virgin’’) -- give gripping, and disturbing, performances. These are neighbors we definitely don’t want in our town.

Director Explores Korean-American Identity

By bringing to Korea ``West 32nd'' ― a gritty, street-style crime film that delves deep into the underworld of New York Koreatown ― director Michael Kang explores the Korean-American identity, including his own. It is a continuation of the directorial concerns from his feature debut piece ``The Motel.''

``I needed this much time to get the film made, I needed `West 32nd' to be my second film. I think it was a personal journey, and it was a personal challenge, too, to make the film,'' Kang told The Korea Times in a recent interview in Seoul.

Growing up in the suburbs of New England, the award-winning director had never been exposed to such a large Korean community until he moved to New York for college.

``It was very jarring to me, my relationship with that community. I would walk around in Flushing (Queens, New York) and look like anybody else but I felt like I didn't belong there. That's what I very much wanted to explore (in `West 32nd'),'' said the New York University graduate.

Kang became well-known in the international circle with ``The Motel,'' a coming-of-age story about a young Asian American boy living in a cheap suburban motel. The piece won much critical acclaim and awards including the 2003 Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker's Award.

His second film takes place in the heart of New York's Koreatown (K-town), which lies on West 32nd Street. Ambitious attorney John Kim takes on a pro bono case to defend a Korean teenager implicated in a gang-style homicide. Over the course of the investigation, he meets Mike Juhn, a local thug, and becomes entangled in a world of mobsters and mayhem. Kang said that the mainstream-style film is inherently similar to ``The Motel," a smart indie flick.

``They're just different styles. The base of both films is rooted in characters you don't usually get to see. I feel like the gyopo (Korean-American) community really has not been shown on film before,'' he said. ``To me the message of the movie is that Koreans in America are very lost, very disconnected and they don't know where their place is,'' he said.

But why is the film based in New York instead of L.A., which has a larger and more deeply rooted Korean community? ``Partially because I'm from New York so it made more sense to shoot the film there. But it's also because it's the farthest you can get from Korea, so people are almost in this little island. Whereas in L.A., there are people who can live there without knowing any English. In New York, you can't do that ― the Latinos are here, the Jews are right there and the Chinese are right behind you.

``In L.A. K-town, people are more comfortable. People are usually completely bilingual, they can exist in both worlds ― they're very attached to their Korean culture and like to hang out in K-town but will also have a regular job where they're part of mainstream American culture and have no problem fitting in there.

``Whereas in New York, you have to make the decision, like those two characters, John and Mike,'' he said. John is the classic American success story; a lawyer climbing the mainstream American corporate ladder, while Mike tries his best to ascend the hierarchy of the Korean crime gang. They are polar opposites are but are in fact kindred spirits.

John Cho (Courtesy of CJ Entertainment)

``Mike has just as little clue about Korea just as much as John, even though he seems more in touch with his Korean side. Partially by exposing that and exposing the American culture in the movie, Koreans also get a look at what America is. Though I may be wrong, they might have a romanticized view of the Korean-American community,'' he said, explaining how he wanted to show the other side to the success stories of Michelle Wie and Daniel Dae Kim.

In the film, the convicted boy's older sister is well-off. ``I have a lot of friends whose brothers are in jail while they are working at a big Forbes company, so it's an interesting phenomenon,'' said the director.

Although the movie is fictional, it is deeply rooted in reality. Edmund J. Lee, who co-wrote the story with Kang, discovered an intricate Korean crime network in New York while working as a reporter for the Village Voice.

``The architecture of New York very much helps the inaccessibility of this (underground world). Beneath all those noraebang (karaoke) and restaurants, there are room salons (bars) there and different things that you need access to in order to enter,'' said Kang.

The director explained that Lee had followed a ``yangachi'' (thug) around for a year to really understand the K-town crime scene. In fact, the supporting actors that played the young teenage boys were actually kids from the area. They were part of the creative process to portray the true culture of K-town and create realistic ``Konglish'' (mix of Korean and English) and slang-ridden dialogue.

``West 32nd'' also brings together the best of Korean talent in the U.S. and Korea, with popular actors John Cho (``Harold and Kumar'') and Grace Park (``Battlestar Galactica''), and Korea's top star Jeong Jun-ho and hot newcomer Jun Kim (Kim Jun-seong).

``I was a big fan of John's from way back… As we were writing the script he became the shorthand for (my co-writer) and me, we'd just talk about it as if it were John Cho but we never thought we'd be able to cast him,'' said Kang, who spoke of his likewise great luck in casting Grace Park. As for Jeong, he said it was an ``unbelievable fantasy, because I know that he's like an icon here, and that's exactly what we needed.''

Kang said Jeong's star power is key for the film because ``he's the last connection to a real Korean. Within three minutes of the film he's dead, and the rest of the movie is about how his death affects these Koreans in America who are lost and have no connection anymore to Korea. So symbolically it works.''

Kang's bridge-making efforts continue. Upcoming projects include the production of a film here about Korean-American guys making their way through the dating scene in Seoul, which he describes as `` `The Swingers' (a male version of ``Sex and the City') meets Kim Ki-duk,'' and a TV show for HBO about Chinese-Americans, the first Asian American family drama in a long time.

His next big directorial project is a human-trafficking story that takes place in Africa. Although Kang's personal journey as a Korean-American may have halted for the time being, his filmmaking endeavor goes on.

One can expect more of Kang as he wrestles the crippling challenge for all artists ― that is, taking one's cultural assets to create something new and named.

``West 32nd'' awaits release here Nov. 22, exclusively at CGV multiplex theaters. For tickets, visit www.cgv.co.kr. To learn more about the movie, visit http://www.w32nd.com/.

>>Read my movie review of "West 32nd"

>>Read my interview with John Cho.

>>Read my interview with Daniel Dae Kim.

`West 32nd' Breaks Down NY Koreatown

It gets down-and-dirty like the gritty streets of New York. In ``West 32nd,'' Korean-American director Michael Kang gives the classic detective genre a fresh twist as he tells the untold story of a Korea that exists in the heart of the Big Apple.

West 32nd Street is the geographic location of New York Koreatown (K-town) near the Empire State Building. But even those who are familiar with the ``noraebang'' (karaoke), stationary stores and ``seoleongtang'' (Korean beef broth) restaurants lining the strip will be shocked to know that there lies a whole new world beneath it all -- where Korean gangsters and ``organized'' mayhem reign.

While snippets of Koreatown have began to appear (fleetingly) as an exotic backdrop in Hollywood films like ``Collateral'' (2004) and ``Shoot 'Em Up'' (2007), it remained a relatively unexplored territory, and ``West 32nd'' breaks it down, once and for all.

In the dark corner of K-town, a bar owner Jin-ho (Jeong Jun-ho) is shot to death. Ambitious young lawyer John Kim (John Cho) offers to defend the 14-year-old Korean boy convicted of the homicide pro bono. Over the course of the investigation, he meets Mike Juhn (Jun Kim), a ruthless thug ascending the hierarchy of the Korean underworld.

Though polar opposites, the two quickly become friends. Mike is contemptible as much as he is charismatic -- an anti-hero with the tempting appeal of Kurtz in ``The Heart of Darkness.'' He attracts John like a lamp would a moth in his anarchical world that lies outside the reach of state laws.

To complicate things, John starts to fall for his client's beautiful older sister Lila (Grace Park). But winning the case -- a fast ticket to promotion -- is always his top priority, while Mike takes ``the guy from the other side'' under his wing to manifest his own grand visions.

``West 32nd'' is a classic crime movie but it's also a story about Koreanness and Americanness, and the murky middle ground in between -- a critical branch of the Korean diaspora that constitutes the thin but integral thread of the American social fabric.

In recent years, independent films like ``Better Luck Tomorrow'' (starring John Cho) and Kim So-yong's ``In Between Days'' began to accurately portray the Asian American community, but ``West 32nd'' really punches the genre through with a strictly mainstream appeal.

In the American context, the film shines through for breaking the model minority myth -- the false stereotype about Asian kids being all math whizzes who go to Ivy League schools and thus in no need of Affirmative Action. For mainland Koreans, it looks at the dark side of the American Dream, that moving to the U.S. does not guarantee wealth and success.

Just as ``West 32nd'' serves as the missing link between the two Korean communities, it brings together top talent from each side, popular actor John Cho (``Harold and Kumar'') and ``Battlestar Galactica'' heroine Grace Park from the United States and top star Jeong Jun-ho and hot newcomer Jun Kim (also known as Kim Jun-seong) from Seoul.

The film also does justice in presenting the Asian community, like the dialogues that are realistically crafted with ``Konglish'' or a clever mix of Korean and English. Characters like Mike and Jin-ho (Jeong) ooze with sex appeal, bashing stereotypes that deprived Asian men of their sexuality. It depicts more disturbing truths, touching upon racial conflicts within the Asian American community and hints upon human trafficking issues.

``West 32nd'' is not a feel-good movie. Deeply embedded in the bitter and ironic reality of life, the film's ambiguous nature will leave some feeling slightly confounded.

But it doesn't drown with heavy drama. Far from being preachy, it has a rhythmic street-style beat sprinkled with good humor -- provided by a pair of ``Dumb and Dumber'' characters -- and an eye-catching array of ``poktanju'' or Korean-style boilermakers. So get ready to descend into an intoxicating underworld you may find hard to turn back from.