Amateur Recommendation Hour: Bedevilled

Today’s recommendation is a FASCINATING film that must be seen to be believed and I will try to keep the information at a minimum because my god. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to talk about a film. While it certainly isn’t for a broad audience I think there are enough that will be fascinated by this film that’s makes it worth recommending here. You’ll know soon which side you fall on in terms of whether or not it’s rawness and torturous tone is something you can get into. An almost two hour commitment to the chaos.

[Content Warning: This film depicts graphic violence, sexual abuse and A LOT of it. To be honest I’m kind of shocked I was able to handle it as well as I did.]

Bedevilled, directed by Jang Chul-soo, is a thriller with a horror slant about a business woman from Seoul who’s forced to take a vacation after a stressful day leads her to slap a coworker down. She visits the rural island where she grew up to re-connect with a childhood friend. As tropical as said island is, with a community of tanned, hard-working people (mostly women), the sinister underbelly conveyed through a sun drenched, almost sepia look to it’s color scheme, contrasted with the whiter opulence of modern day Korean city life and office jobs. The upper-crust meets not so much the working class, but the cast-offs of modern society. Uninterested in the embrace of the “dystopian” present day. Too loud and bustling for their tastes. They prefer the traditionalism and values of times past, to a damning fault.

The relieved surface layer will last long enough though. Long enough for us to understand the exhaustion of our main characters. One allowed relax their prim and proper city life away from the hectic office buildings and busy streets of Seoul. Another putting on the facade of a smile. Crestfallen beneath the brightest of faces. A small, fleeting break for her too. But for how long? Her break isn’t quite as indefinite as her friend’s. She’s come here in the middle of hell to relax. Does seem like there’s much fairness in that. 

I thought we were friends.

She’s doing yoga and taking rejuvenating walks on the beach while I’m being tortured and battered for the “good” of my child, so they tell me. And goodness are they not afraid to tell me. I’m not strong enough to do the kinds of work we rely on them for. My job is to be a good mother, a role model. And that doesn’t apply to them? Why aren’t they expected to be good fathers? You’re enabling them to be miserable, to rule over this island like warlords of a failing country. All to keep the “peace” you’re comfortable with, at my expense. I didn’t come here for this.

I believe this work to be a criticism of gender roles, specifically in Korea. The negatives stereotypes associated with women, systematic violence carried down from generation to generation, the value of standing up, and the importance of communication. One can only be told to be a certain way, to live in a certain fashion, before they reach a breaking point of no return, bitter, crazed, fully succumbed to the best of themselves they’ve abandoned. “If it’s good enough for you it’s good enough for me, my heart’s black, your heart’s black.” There’s a lot going on here in terms of thematic strength, subject matter, and it being able to pack narrative punch as well as being done in a way that does not feel heavy-handed or preachy. Reinforced through its story beats as well as its cast of characters through which much of these plights are explored. 

I am happy to say that, for me, it did all of the above and then some. It is a work of fiction that “takes no prisoners” as I like to say on occasion. While some may be put off by its plaintiveness others may be able to derive valuable meaning from it as I did, as harrowing and intense as it may be.

If you are not put off by the content warning I hope you give this film a chance. If you are interested in the ultra violent explorations of the human soul similar to the works of say a Kinji Fukasaku or a Quentin Tarantino, this work will be right up your alley. For everyone else I would say to tread carefully. This work pulls absolutely no punches with how it goes about making its intentions to the viewer. This is as aggressive of a work as they come. Unsurprising considering it is from the mind of a Kim Ki-duk protege who himself is no stranger to creating works centered around the pathos of base human instinct.