Country: Korea
Genre: Drama
Director: Chang-dong Lee
Year: 1997
Rating: 
NOT WORTH YOUR TIME
There have been dozens of films about young men without prospects being lured into a life of crime, but most of them are melodramas, focusing on action, violence, and florid emotions. Green Fish is different from those flicks because it is a realistic drama.
Makdong (Suk-kyu Han) is a young man just getting out of the army. He comes home to poverty and little hope of upward mobility. All he wants is to take care of his family. For him, crime is a way out.
Bae Tae-kon (Seong-kun Mun) is the gangster who notices Makdong’s willingness to fight and takes him under his wing. He prides himself on avoiding violence and taking care of his employees.
Mi-ae (Hye-jin Shim) is Bae Tae-kon’s unwilling girlfriend, who likes Makdong and halfheartedly hopes he will take her away from Bae Tae-kon.
We’re set up to think that Bae Tae-kon is going to turn out to be a scumbag and that Makdong will eventually get fed up and rescue Mi-ae, or something equally melodramatic, but that isn’t where writer/director Chang-dong Lee is going. Bae Tae-kon, like pretty much everyone in the movie, is doing the best they can, trying to be the best person they know how to be, and still make their way in the world. The truth is that life is hard, especially in Korea, where there are few public services and thus little hope for social mobility. People don’t conveniently fall into villain and hero categories.
If you don’t expect catharsis from Green Fish, there are some rewards. Suk-kyu Han, Seong-kun Mun, and Hye-jin Shim contribute rich character portrayals. Hye-jin Shim is especially fine. She is probably the most trapped of all the characters. She registers sorrow, anger, shame and affection without saying almost anything. It’s all in her body language and expression.
I also appreciated the opening images of Green Fish, which occur on a train. Makdong and Mi-ae both happen to be leaning out windows when Mi-ae’s scarf blows off and ends up on Makdong’s face. The effect is exquisitely poetic.
But do I recommend Green Fish? Not really. Writer/director Chang-dong Lee doesn’t quite come up with a compelling narrative. True, many of the episodes are moving, but they don’t really mesh together into a satisfying whole. It’s possible to write a slice of life character study and still be dramatically cohesive. One example I can think of is Kramer Versus Kramer, which is admittedly in an entirely different genre.
Another problem with Green Fish is that some connective tissue seems to be missing from the screenplay. It’s commendable that writer Chang-dong Lee doesn’t spoonfeed the audience, but there are times when you don’t know quite what’s going on and why and you really want to.
Finally, Green Fish doesn’t resolve in a satisfactory manner. One could argue that director Chang-dong Lee’s intent is to not resolve the story in a conventional way in order to be true to life, but I reject that argument. You could make a film that argues that life does not resolve itself, but it is the responsibility of the filmmaker to make that argument in a way that provides closure for the audience, even if that closure is a profound sense of unease. Seems like a paradox, doesn’t it?
Green Fish is elusive, just like the prosperity and peace that Makdong wants to achieve.
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