one good film.

A GOOD LAWYER'S WIFE
a film by Im Sang-soo

the film boasts of too much sex scenes, some seems to be too graphic, but the overall pace of the story, the cinematography, and the production design makes it climb to my top 20.

watch it and you'll have a roller-coaster ride of eroticism, romance, hypocrisy,
a well-crafted match of beauty and madness.

SYNOPSIS:

Counselor Joo (Hwang Jeong-min) is present on a building site where a number of skeletons have just been uncovered. the long-dead remains of people who went missing during the Korean war. The discovery has brought to light a long-buried subject that many would rather forget about. The film similarly opens up and subjects to scrutiny a number of taboos that are not usually portrayed with such frankness in Korean cinema. Just as Joo in his professional capacity falls into the hole where the bodies have been uncovered, so the other events in his life when uncovered, lead him to a parallel and no less horrific fall in his personal life.

The father of Joo (Kim In-moon), an alcoholic, is dying yet he stubbornly remains unrepentant of a lifestyle, racked by guilt over the loss of many of his family during the Korean war, that has been less than generous to his wife and family. The son holds many of the same traits as the father. As a lawyer, he is highly regarded, completely in control and deals with everything with the utmost professionalism. His personal life however is a mess and beyond his capacity to address. He rarely sleeps with his wife, Hojung (Moon Soo-ri) and when he does, she no longer receives the same sexual satisfaction. His wife has an admirer, or perhaps stalker would be a better description, a teenage neighbour (Bong Tae-gyu) who follows her on his bike, barges into her dance class and even spies on her doing naked gymnastics in her home. His actions show every sign of emotional instability, yet Hojung is intrigued by the young man and makes contact with him. The Lawyer Joo himself has a mistress where sex is much less inhibited, but the affair leads inevitably to complications. Returning one day from a clandestine meeting with his mistress, he is involved in an accident with a drunk-driving postman on his motorbike. It is an incident that is to set off a disturbing series of events.

Although the English title of the film draws attention to the wife, the film is however clearly based around the lawyer, Joo Youngjak. But while he is the centre of events in the film, he is rarely the focus, and we have a much less clear picture of him than any of the other characters. It is an intentional technique employed by the director to depict the lack of control he has over his personal life, he is being driven by the actions around him and is powerless to control them. Outside of his professional capacity, he seems lost and disorientated, without any idea of what he really wants and is increasingly distancing himself from his responsibilities, like his father, through alcohol. These are complex characters and the film does not make it easy for you, either in relating to any of the characters, sympathising with any of them or even understanding them.