Failan
Directed by : Hae-sung Song Written by : Jiro Asada (novel)
Starring Min-sik Choi [Kang-jae], Cecilia Cheung [Failan]
Kang-Jae is not much of a man. In fact, he's not much of a human being. He's boisterous and loud, a tough guy without any toughness in him. His boss abuses him, so does his roommate, and his fellow gangmembers have no respect for him whatsoever. The first time we meet Kang-Jae he's just been released from prison for selling porn tapes to teenagers and he's fallen asleep inside a gaming parlor. We quickly learn that Kang-Jae is a low-level thug in a low-level criminal operation. How low-level are these guys? In a word, pathetic. The "gang" consists of 6 members and all, except for Kang-Jae and his boss, looks like they're just barely out of diapers. It's a bad time for the gang as Kang-Jae quickly finds out, when the boss murders a rival gangmember in the parking lot of a nightclub and asks Kang-Jae to take the blame for him. If that wasn't bad enough, Kang-Jae gets word that his wife, Failan, has just died. Saying that Failan, the titular character, dies is not much of a spoiler, since we learn this information 30 minutes into the film. Until we learn of her death, not much is seen of Failan. Indeed, the only time we see her is in the movie's First Act when she arrives in Korea. It's a brief scene in black and white.
Flash-forward one year.
Unsure about rather to take the blame for the murder or run, Kang-Jae decides to travel to a small town in the countryside where Failan had been living. You see, it wasn't a real marriage. Failan is Chinese, and had come to Korea to visit an Aunt, who had left for Canada without a word. Now trapped, Failan has nowhere to go. She can't return home because she has no one there, either. Deciding to stay in Korea, she realizes she needs to find a job, and gets help when the local toughs offer her a chance to stay by way of an arranged marriage. Enter Kang-Jae, who looks even more pathetic (if it's possible) that he will a year later, who "sells" himself and marries Failan. The deal goes through without a hitch, and the two never see or meet each other, although Kang-Jae did get a glimpse of her from behind. Kang-Jae and Failan are two ships passing in the night, and neither are aware of the other's existence until much later. Even if they had met, one gets the feeling it would not have been pretty, since their personalities are polar opposites.
As Failan, Cecilia Cheung proves to be a marvelous young actress. After having seen her in Tsui Hark's Legend of Zu, I considered her an actress to watch. With the addition of Failan to her resume, she's certainly proving herself to be an extremely capable thespian with much more to offer than a pretty face. Here, she plays a na�ve Chinese woman who journeys to a foreign country seemingly without much preparation. If that wasn't enough, Failan is also ill, although she doesn't know it until much later on. (It is this untreated illness that eventually kills her.) In Failan, we see the good side of life. Failan is not stupid, just unprepared for the world outside of China. She makes due, gets a job at a laundry, and lives a happy enough life alone, although she begins to fall in love with Kang-Jae through his photo. It isn't with him that she's falling in love, but with her concept of him, this self-created Kang-Jae that is nothing like the real Kang-Jae. You see, Failan is a wonderful human being. She's kind-hearted and she wishes to see the good in everyone. In a word, she is everything Kang-Jae is not.
As Kang-Jae, Min-Sik Choi, who I last saw in Shiri, gives a terrific performance as a loser without much hope for redemption. Choi embraces his character, playing someone completely opposite from his Park character in Shiri, a North Korean commando leader with a thirst for mass mayhem. Choi's performance is oddly subdued for a character so loud and useless to everyone, including himself. He knows it and everyone knows it, and it's quite something to see him self-destruct while everyone watches on with a smirk. The fact that the best thing to happen to Kang-Jae is the murder of the rival gangmember and his boss's request that he take the blame says a lot about the man. The death of Failan, who Kang-Jae has never given a single thought to over the year since he glimpsed her, brings about a startling change in this loser, something no one is prepared for, much less Kang-Jae. In Failan's writings, which are filled with her inherent kindness and soulful presence, Kang-Jae begins to re-evaluate his own life. Kang-Jae's journey from his own town to Failan's to attend her funeral and burial begins as a need to close a fake marriage, but gradually becomes something more. Even in death, Failan has a magical presence.
Failan was directed by Hae-Sung Song, who amazingly enough is a first-time director. The film's rendition of the Korean snow-draped countryside is a beautiful piece of scenery. Song must have realized that he had a tremendous presence in the strikingly beautiful Cecilia Cheung, because every frame of Cheung's Failan is hauntingly beautiful. In contrast, every frame of the rugged, dark, and pathetic face of Kang-Jae is similarly pathetic...but almost as beautiful in its showcasing of a waste and a shell of a man.