I saw Kim Tae-young's "Birth of a Family" yesterday (also called "Family Ties), an understated drama stretching further the elastic definition of family. It's an ode to the struggling lower middle class Koreans who made do with the shitty lot they were given in life. It's also about young love, familial devotion, and the consequences of lives impulsively lived. It's fantastic.
Plot: a drifter brother suddenly moves in to his older sister's house with a woman significantly older than him. And the lives of all related are irreovocably turned upside down.
The movie is worth watching just to see some of the finest Korean actors apply their craft. In three seemingly unrelated segments, the movie provides an opportunity for two of the best Korean actresses - Moon So-ri and Gong Hyo-jin - to unfurl their emotive powers.
Moon (Oasis, Lawyer's Wife, Peppermint Candy) burns up the screen with her quiet portrayal of the old-miss sister who is completely befuddled by the disruption of her quotidian life.
Gong (Conduct Zero) embodies the movie's plucky spirit, with her metaphorical middle-finger flipped to the everyday constraints facing young Korean women. No one tackles such roles better. Look out for one particular scene at an elementary school "athletic day" in which she is overwhelmed with the joy that only comes with selfless giving.
Bong Tae-gyu - who, until now, was fairly one dimensional with his bubbly, fumbling characters - continues to grow in this movie, becoming one of the better comic actors in Korea.
For about two years now, it seemed like the Korean cinema industry was cranking out - save for "The Host" - nothing but bad teen comedies, overdone mafia dramas and downright awful horror flicks. Let's hope it can expand on its effort to make more of these smart, subtle movies.
- Roger in DC
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