Breathless

Breathless is the impressive feature début by director, scriptwriter and producer Yang Ik-June. He was not first an assistant director, as is common in Korea, but learnt the trade as an actor. He also plays the lead in this raw and occasionally violent story based on the autobiographical experiences of a gangster and extortionist who enjoys pointing out in a violent way their place in the local pecking order to anyone who crosses his path. Even the sidekicks who do his dirty work suffer at his hands. A flashback reveals the cause of this problematic personality. Having grown up with a violent father whom he held responsible for the death of his mother and the stabbing of his sister, Song-Hoon knows no better than that hard action has to precede emotion. That changes when he meets the cheeky schoolgirl Han Yeon-Heui. Herself the daily victim of the brutality of her mentally-ill father and insensitive brother, she is also battered by dysfunctional families and not very impressed by Song-Hoon's hard exterior. Slowly but surely, an alternative family bond develops between the two of them, with the nephew of Song-Hoon as the untarnished centrepiece. Then Yeon-Heui's brother joins the gang without his sister knowing and the cards are shuffled again. (GT)