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About the Director
Rotterdam International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival
Product Description
A soldier is discharged from the army. On the train home, he watches a woman getting hassled by two men. The soldier decides to step in and is beaten senseless. This is only the beginning of his new life.
The soldier will be beaten regularly. He will get involved with the woman, whom he will discover is the mistress of a mobster. He will be enlisted into the mobster's circle, becoming a mobster himself. At every turn, the face will face pain, turmoil and heart break.
Lee Chang-dong, one of the most unique voices in international cinema, directs a thriller unlike any you've ever seen.
The soldier will be beaten regularly. He will get involved with the woman, whom he will discover is the mistress of a mobster. He will be enlisted into the mobster's circle, becoming a mobster himself. At every turn, the face will face pain, turmoil and heart break.
Lee Chang-dong, one of the most unique voices in international cinema, directs a thriller unlike any you've ever seen.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Green Fish" ("Chorok Mulgogi") is a highly-influential and popular Korean film from 1997. It is the first feature film directed by influential novelist and playwright Lee Chang-dong (Oasis), who would later hold the Presidential cabinet position of Minister of Culture for Korea and would be awarded the Chevalier order of the Legion d'Honneur by the French government for his contributions to promoting cultural diversity.
The story begins with Makdong being recently discharged from the army and attempting to re-enter civilian life. His family, once proud farmers with acres of land, has been reduced to selling eggs in a traveling truck and doing cleaning in order to survive. The only member of his family who approaches respectability is an older brother who is a coward and a cuckold. Their farmland has been paved over and covered with concrete apartment buildings, and little of Makdong's remember home remains.
Disillusioned and desperate to provide a better life for his family, Makdong meets Miae one evening on a train, a woman who will lead him down a dark and desperate path. While attempting to help Miae, Makdong is brutally beaten but manages to impress the gang boss Bae Taegon. Bae Taegon claims that Miae is his girlfriend, but has no qualms pimping her out when it suits his purposes. Slowly, Makdong is drawn into this criminal underworld, at first with the pure intentions of providing for his family but in time he will be forced to see exactly what he has become in the process.
"Green Fish" is a gritty, psychological gang thriller. Director Lee intended the film as a harsh critique of Korea's industrializing and urbanizing drive at the time that was rapidly destroying traditional ways but replacing them only with vice and violence. Makdong represents the corrupted innocence of the country people, and what adaptations are necessary in order to survive. Yet even in the whirlwind of blood and betrayal Makdong finds himself in, his heart is still pure enough to pity and find affection for Miae, who has become little more than a hallow tool for Bae Taegon.
As Lee's first feature film, "Green Fish" does have an amateur and raw feel. It is not as slick and well-produced as later films. However there are some beautiful images here, and some scenes that have become classics in Korean cinema.
The story begins with Makdong being recently discharged from the army and attempting to re-enter civilian life. His family, once proud farmers with acres of land, has been reduced to selling eggs in a traveling truck and doing cleaning in order to survive. The only member of his family who approaches respectability is an older brother who is a coward and a cuckold. Their farmland has been paved over and covered with concrete apartment buildings, and little of Makdong's remember home remains.
Disillusioned and desperate to provide a better life for his family, Makdong meets Miae one evening on a train, a woman who will lead him down a dark and desperate path. While attempting to help Miae, Makdong is brutally beaten but manages to impress the gang boss Bae Taegon. Bae Taegon claims that Miae is his girlfriend, but has no qualms pimping her out when it suits his purposes. Slowly, Makdong is drawn into this criminal underworld, at first with the pure intentions of providing for his family but in time he will be forced to see exactly what he has become in the process.
"Green Fish" is a gritty, psychological gang thriller. Director Lee intended the film as a harsh critique of Korea's industrializing and urbanizing drive at the time that was rapidly destroying traditional ways but replacing them only with vice and violence. Makdong represents the corrupted innocence of the country people, and what adaptations are necessary in order to survive. Yet even in the whirlwind of blood and betrayal Makdong finds himself in, his heart is still pure enough to pity and find affection for Miae, who has become little more than a hallow tool for Bae Taegon.
As Lee's first feature film, "Green Fish" does have an amateur and raw feel. It is not as slick and well-produced as later films. However there are some beautiful images here, and some scenes that have become classics in Korean cinema.
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