3-Iron

The title in korean Bin jip (빈집), empty house, describe faithfully the plot of the film. The Kim Ki-duk film describes the life of Tae-suk. After checking that houses are empty, he breaks into house or flats while the owner is away. Once, he enters into a large house without notice that a woman is inside. That woman, Sun-hwa, keeps observing the way Tae-suk is acting. As soon as they have the first eye contact, Tae-suk leaves the home but he keeps going there and watching over. When he realizes that Sun-hwa’s husband is battering her, he revenges her by hitting her husband with a 3 Iron (the golf club that gives name to the film in English). After that, they run away together, both Tae-suk and Sun-hwa.

From this point they start a relationship based on silence. Maybe because of the silence, it could disappoint somehow audience that are not prepared to see a film like this. But the image and photography of this movie is amazingly beautiful as it is the story.

It is not easy to see this kind of films, more independent, outside of the film festivals. Most of these Asian movies, more precisely South Korean ones, are just available in this kind of events. 3 Iron and other Korean films have depicted a particular film style. They show a cinema that little by little has become more remarkable. Not just this one but also “A tale of two sisters”, “Old boy”, “Memories of murder”, “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” are heading a list of example of a cinematography that has become very strong. Korean cinema, as Indian one, has been one of the film industries that has been able to compete with Hollywood.

The figure of Kim Ki-duk has been very important in terms of international diffusion of korean cinema. In his work he always explores characters that are in the border of the society. In ‘Bin Jip’, for example, appear Tae-suk, a young man that is like a 'parasite' living in houses when the owner is not inside; Sun-hwa, a beautiful woman, that was a model, subjugated under her husband authority and violence; and Min-gyu, the violent and insecure husband that batters his wife.

In this film Kim ki-duk depicts the love as a mixture with pain and this representation is based on the image almost without dialogs (even the main character do not say a word).

Tae-suk lives without possessions using things of other people and that questions the necessity of having assets.

The silence is a very important element in the film. Kim Ki-duk manages to use it properly and get a very good final project based on a visual poetry. I really recommend this film to everyone that want to get in touch with a different kind of cinema far away from the typical hollywood movie.