Punch Lady (2007) - 펀치 레이디 (Peon-chi Le-i-di)

2007/10/18 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Movies are loaded with nonsensicality, and that's sometimes the fun part. Think of those unbelievably undying characters like "Die Hard's" Bruce Willis or Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill".

Nevertheless, things make sense -- in a comically surreal way -- within the internal logic of the film. "Punch Lady" is a tale of modern heroism where a battered housewife- turned-kickboxing queen fights her abusive husband in the ring. Pitifully reminiscent of J-Lo's "Enough", it stops short of being ridiculous, period, because it lacks its own set of cardinal rules.

The movie thoroughly disappoints as it serves third-rate comedy and contrived drama . without aplatter. Ha-eun's husband Ju-chang is a mixed martial arts champion who does not hesitate to practice Guillotine chokes or low kicks outside the ring. Ha-eun decides she cannot take it any longer and, in a spur of passion, publicly challenges Ju-chang to a duel in the ring.

This is a woman who has grown imm...

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2007/10/17 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Spousal abuse is not a new cinematic theme, but "Punch Lady" takes a fresh approach to the tricky issue by portraying the psychological trajectory of a battered Korean woman. The question is whether the likely climax -- whatever triumph the victim will manage to get -- meets viewers' expectations in a swift manner, just like the bullet-speed punch of a professional fighter.

After all, this movie, the debut feature by Kang Hyo-jin, involves a professional K1 fighter, Ju-chang (Park Sang-woo), and his timid, shy, self-conscious 36-year-old wife Ha-eun (Do Ji-won). The opening is telling: the couple is engaged in a K-1 fight in the living room, with all the vicious tricks fully deployed ... well, at least by the seemingly crazy husband. What is hard to understand, especially when the film is set in the 2000s, is why Ha-eun still sticks around this monstrous wife-beater.

The level of violence is almost unbearable. We see Ha-eun virtually flying over into the corner of the kitchen, wi...

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2007/10/02 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

While the female persona Korean entertainment remains largely reminiscent of Hollywood during the 1950~60s, a few in recently released or upcoming films are beginning to reflect, with some realism, Korean women today.

Women onscreen tend to be either innocent asexual Audrey Hepburns (think Lee Young-ae, Choi Ji-woo, Song Hye-kyo) or smoldering Marylin Monroes oozing with sex appeal (Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa). Then there exists a third, very minor group of eccentrics like Katherine Hepburn that fit into neither category, like actresses Kang Hye-jeong, Bae Doona and Kong Hyo-jin.

In other words, it is rather difficult to meet truly realistic female characters in movies. A most disappointing example is director Kwak Gyeong-taek's latest offering "A Love". In this terribly old-fashioned story about a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the heroine is but a mere caricature embodying romantic fantasies: the unforgettable first love, frail damsel in distress ...

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