Image provided by Fantasia Festival
When the first line of a film is “I jerked off my son,” you have to question what exactly you are getting into. Clearly Lee Su Jin has no interest in making films that make you smile and laugh. Following on from his extraordinary 2013 debut Han Gong Ju, Idol can be just as dark, depressing, and critical of South Korea’s class divides and handling of criminal cases. Unlike Han Gong Ju however, this time Lee Su Jin is using a fictional tale to address such themes, meaning he can also weave a thrilling and tense noir that may seem as though it is tying itself up in knots, but somehow is all laid out by the end.
Myung Hei (Han Seok Kyu), is a counsellor on his way to becoming a governor. He’s popular with people in office, and with those in his constituency. Needless to say everything goes downhill from there. Myung Hei returns home to find his wife (Kang Mal Geum), frantically washing blood from their car. It transpires that their son Yo Han (Jo Byung Gyu) has been in a hit and run, except, he has brought the body home with him. Myung Hei decides the best thing to do is to return the body to the scene, and have Yo Han admit to the hit and run, thinking this will be best for Yo Han’s future and his own career. But after Myung Hei meets the victim’s father, Jeong Sik (Sol Kyung Gu), things get twisty and complicated, as Jeong Sik reveals his son would have been with his new wife, Ryeon Hwa (Chun Woo Hee). Not convinced by Myung Hei’s story, Jeong Sik sets about finding his missing daughter in law, only for Myung Hei to also follow suit.
From there we embark on a cat and mouse thriller, where we’re never positive as to who is the cat and who is the mouse…they may even be the cheese, or the trap. Twists come and complicate matters, and sometimes introduce new plot lines to the point where you’ll wonder if you’re watching a condensed season of a TV show. Amazingly, Lee Su Jin has a perfect grasp on the material. He squeezes tight and gets you involved with characters that are neither good nor bad. Myung Hei seems moral to an extent, and genuinely believes he would be good for his constituency. Meanwhile Jeong Sik is very reactionary in terms of emotions. Both Han and Sol bring their characters to life in amazing ways. We find out it is Jeong Sik delivering that infamous opening line, but when we here the line in context during a dramatic speech, you’d be hard pressed to not feel sympathy for the character.
The film also dances in unison with its convoluted plot by keeping focus on its themes. There is an obvious barrier in terms of education and class between Jeong Sik and Myung Hei, which propels their actions. However, this isn’t the only divide, as we discover Ryeon Hwa is an illegal Chinese immigrant who herself has been manipulated and used. Surrounding them are supporting characters, all with their own agenda. You can sense a lot of anger from Lee Su Jin, much as you could in Han Gong Ju, but he still makes you feel and finds the emotional core while discussing these societal indiscrepancies.
Idol is grim and downright nasty at points. It delves into darker places of the mind, soul, and body, and lingers there for some time. The violence also goes to extremes, without becoming too cinematic, nor gratuitous. You feel what these characters are experiencing. This is mostly down to a number of in depth performances and a director further honing his craft. Idol isn’t very likable, but it is admirable, engaging, and definitely something to behold.
Idol was reviewed at Fantasia Festival 2019.
