A young Korean woman shoots for the skies in "Blue Swallow," a sumptuously staged biopic about pre-WWII aviatrix Park Gyeong-weon that's good, old-fashioned bigscreen entertainment. Though it's considerably more involving than other recent biopics of Koreans who made their names in neighboring Japan (such as "Rikidozan", partly thanks to a sparky perf by actress Jang Jin-yeong, pic will still struggle to fly far beyond Asia, as there's still no established market for such mainstream big-budgeters. Asiaphile fests, however, will want to check it out.
Three years in production, for a reported $9 million (huge by local standards), film opened Dec. 29 in South Korea but snagged only a dis-appointing 480,000 admissions ($3 million). An Internet campaign branding Park a Japanese collaborator may have played a part in pic's nosedive, given still-raw sensitivities by Koreans over their colonized past. ("Rikidozan" also performed below par.)
Film is framed as a young woman's dream to escape her background in a village in Japanese-colonized Korea by becoming a pilot and "flying like a swallow." Brief tinted intro sketches Park's (Jang) countryside youth before fast-forwarding to the Tachikawa Flight Academy in Japan, 1925, where she's one of only six distaff students.
Light tone of the first half-hour engagingly sets up the characters, with Park working as a cabbie and carousing with fellow Koreans Lee Jeong-heui (Han Ji-min), a younger girl who idolizes her, and Kang Se-gi (Kim Tae-hyeon). Section also includes a slight romantic subplot between her and overseas Korean student Han Ji-hyeok (Kim Ju-hyeok), though it's vaguely hinted that the tomboyish Park may be asexual.
Pic starts to soar in the aerial scenes -- shot over California, and broadly scored by Michael Staudacher -- in which Park first proves herself against a Nipponese aviatrix, Masako Gibe (Yuko Fueki).
Thereon, the much darker second half develops the simmering tension between the Koreans and the Japanese, as Japan gears up for war and, in a graphic sequence, both Park and Han are tortured as suspected terrorists. Finally cleared, Park plans a long-distance "friendship" flight to Manchuria that will establish her as an Asian Amelia Earhart.
Script doesn't flinch from the subject of Park being caught between two extremes in the nationalistic '30s. However, film makes it clear that Park's aviatory dream transcended nationalism.
Jang, heretofore mostly in rom-com roles, brings her character charmingly alive and handles her copious Japanese dialogue naturally, but she lacks the dramatic heft to make the third act as powerful as it should be. Other perfs are solid, especially Han as her younger Korean friend and Fueki as her Japanese rival-turned-loyal supporter.
Sophomore helmer Yoon Jong-chan (psycho-horror "Sorum" delivers a smooth, old-style studio package. Tech credits are lush in all departments, from Yun Hong-shik's nicely composed widescreen imagery to period costuming and production design. Film was shot over a period of six months in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and (a large chunk) China.
nfo wrote:
Years : 2005
DVD Date : 2006.xx.xx
Rls Date : 2006.03.09
IMDB Rating : 9.3/10 (7 votes)
Genres : Romance
Source : DVD R3
Running Time : 132 min
Language : Korean
Subtitle : Korean,English
FiLE iNFO
Video Codec : XViD
Resolution : 640 x 272
Aspect Ratio : 2.35 : 1
Frame Rate : 23.976fps
Video Bitrate : 1077 kbps
Audio Codec : AC3 5.1CH
Audio Bitrate : 384kbps
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