Save Me from Evil has caught my attention even before I even watched the movie.
Who needs to be saved from evil, the begging of the characters in the movie? Or is it the director's cry?
If you've seen This Killer Isn't Too Cold, you'll be very familiar with the beginning of the movie.
A mysterious killer, single-handedly infiltrating the gangster's residence, cleanly and neatly killing a bunch of miscellaneous pieces, and then quietly appearing behind the big guy.
In both films, there is a phone call, except that the former informs the other party to get out of a certain territory, while the latter gets out of the egg from the earth.
The director of this film is Hong Yuancan, who crossed the line from the screenwriter, and his debut work "Office" is about a mysterious murder that happened in the office. Previously, as a screenwriter, he participated in films such as "Yellow Sea", "The Chaser", "I Am a Murderer" and so on.
Save Me from Evil is his second film. The style continues elements common to his previous works: gore, violence, murder, revenge. It can be seen that he is a single-minded person who is only interested in these elements.
The plot of the film unfolds with the story of two men, one looking for a daughter he has never seen before, and the other looking for the murderer of his brother. And the murderer was the one who was looking for his daughter.
We're always interested in tragic killers who are cold, professional, deep, intimidating but not so nasty.
"If the actors are chosen correctly, the movie is half successful." The film is dominated by Hwang Jeong-min and Lee Jeong-jae, two film emperors, which is the second time the two have joined forces after the gangster violence film "New World". It's just that the relationship in the film changes from brothers to enemies.
Rennan (Wong Jung-min), a former government agent overseas agent, trained in assassination, was later abandoned by the organization. Like all people who do work without seeing the light, abandonment means death.
But he survived, licking the blood with the tip of a knife and becoming a hired killer. No friends, no family, living in the dark like the walking dead.
Huang Zhengmin's acting skills are always reassuring. In International Market, the old father who dedicates his life to the family, the mountaineering captain who shoulders dreams and responsibilities in Himalayas, the little who struggles with life in When a Man Is in Love, or the criminal police officer who pays attention to human feelings in Old Hand, and too many roles, all have become classics under his interpretation.
The most moving scene in the whole film takes place in the second half. In-nam hides in a hotel with his daughter Yoo Min (Park Joo-yee), and in order to buy a ferry ticket to smuggle away, he and the ticket dealer make an appointment to pay for money at a location, and need to go alone.
Before leaving, he asked his daughter to mentally count 1 to 10, dozens of times he would come back and assure her. Yu Min hesitated for a moment to get up, stretched out his hand to draw a hook with him, and then opened his hands to wait for a hug, RenNan was suddenly overwhelmed, and then turned his head to the point of emotional excitement to the point that his mouth trembled, his eyes were moist, and he turned around and gently took Yu Min into his arms. The feelings are real and delicate. I watched this scene 11 times, and each time my eyes became blurry.
The other handmaiden is Ray (played by Lee Jung-jae). He had a nickname called Butcher, a title that came from the fact that he liked to hang people upside down and cut them off, like killing pigs and dogs.
We can see such a scene in the film, he hangs the man upside down on the tripod like a beast, kicks a basin under the man's head, and lets the other party ask for forgiveness, and only faintly says, "Although it is a pity, but this is my way." ”
It would be unfair to treat him as an unforgivable man simply because of his cruel means.
Because his motive for killing was to avenge his brother.
"Everyone who dies at my hands, the most he said before he dies, is it necessary?" Do you have to do this? Then plead with me with fearful eyes. As everyone knows, I did this just to see the look of pleading. ”
This is Ray's line. Obviously, this is what the director wants us to feel Ray's madness, but what he really wants to express is about the madness behind it.
Ray's father was a real butcher who slaughtered pigs and dogs during the day and came home at night to beat up his own children. Long-term domestic violence has led to his extremely distorted and unbalanced heart, and he hates his weak self.
Ray puts the pain he has experienced on others, putting himself in the position of a father, looking at those who ask for forgiveness like his former self. This mentality is verified by the way he works his father into the way he kills people.
I think that the death of his brother evokes Ray's memories of his childhood, and he treats the murderer as a childhood to scold the father of the brothers, thus forming a crazy revenge obsession.
Later, on a phone call with the killer Rennan, he said, "I'm going to kill everyone who has anything to do with you." If he sees Rennan as his father, the deeper meaning of this sentence is exactly the title of the film. Save yourself from evil (domestic violence).
There's also a conversation in the second half of the film where when the butcher is asked why he wants to hunt down Rennan so much, he just faintly says, "I've forgotten." Perhaps this answer will make you feel that he has changed from a determination to revenge to satisfying his desire to kill. But in my opinion, he just didn't bother to explain.
Colors are given a new meaning in the film. Green represents hope and safety in life. In this film, green indicates danger, and the darker the color, the higher the risk factor.
Yu Min's mother wore a dark green shirt when she reported the crime at the police station, and then lay in the morgue; the "cell" where the abducted children were held also had green doors and windows; and at the end, when Rennan appeared in a dark green coat, the director had already foreshadowed his fate in advance.
There are two versions of the film, in the 114-minute version, the director added some details of Yu Min's life, as well as her understanding of her father (her mother told her that her father was only separated from them, but her father also missed her in his heart), so compared to the 108 minute version, when the father and daughter met in the later stage, Yu Min opened his hands and embraced this suddenly appeared father, which seemed reasonable, this so-called "dad" man has always existed in Yu Min's heart, not strange, but this is the first time to meet.
Satirizing the police is still the best thing for Korean directors, even the Police in Thailand. After a drug factory was exposed and shut down, a group of policemen stood in a wide hall with their tails between their legs, and the drug lord boss angrily rebuked them like his boss admonishing his employees: "Compared with the money you give you policemen, that factory is nothing at all..."
There is also an indispensable character in the film, a man who wants to become a woman. Park Jeong-min plays the role of youyu, in the film can play a role in alleviating tension, its superb acting skills play in some body movements, there is a feminine delicacy between the hands and feet. She used to be a family person, used children's photos as mobile phone wallpaper, and for some reason, came to Thailand to be a demon.
"I came here just not to see these beast-like people," he said. Towards the end of the film, there is one place that is the biggest test of her humanity. When Hiroshi gets a large bag of cash left by Rennan, she can completely abandon the child who has not been in contact with her for less than a day and has nothing to do with her, and then take the cash alone and fly away, or return to her own child.
For Rennan, evil represents his identity, his past, and guilt for his family. For Ray, what he wants to escape is his unhappy childhood, the violence of his family, the painful memories. In the end, the two tragic characters end up together as a kind of redemption. The evil in the film ultimately points to the family. Family injuries are incurable for every child and will last a lifetime.
Try to think about it, only 9 years old Yu Min, in a short period of time, experienced kidnapping, and then lost her mother, and suddenly appeared her father, who died in front of her own eyes shortly after, witnessed so many bloody and violent scenes, and the last person to accompany her was her age that she could not understand (shemale).
At the end of the film, we see Yuwa Yumin running to the beach in Panama, and the camera looks at this seemingly happy picture from a distance through a door frame. We can't imagine the life of this child after that, and what kind of person she will become when she grows up. We expect her to meet some kind people.
But as the director said through the mouth of the character: where can the ugliness of human nature be hidden?