In the movie “Crazy Boy“ we can
notice two main Korean film trends that were described in the article “Genre as
Contact Zone: Hong Kong Action and Korean Hwalkuk.” The article mostly
describes the influence that the Hong Kong action movies had on the Korean film
industry. Of course, we can notice this influence in the movie we just saw. However, the
movie “Crazy Boy” is not centrally focused on the action part, and I believe
this is the case, because this trend was more popular in the 60’s and 70’s. In a
typical action movie the fighting feels like the most important part, but in
this movie I felt like they tried to give a considerable attention to the story
of the all-female band. This brings us to the second theme of the movie:
hostess melodrama (this term was used in the article, even though it does not
completely apply to the movie). The “hostess melodrama” is described as a film
about girls who move to the city and end up working in bars, doing some
degrading jobs (p. 99). I felt like the movie we saw had actually a variation
of this theme: presenting some naïve girls who try to be successful in the
music industry, but end up being abused repeatedly (a degradation of innocence
which reflects the “dark side of Korea’s economic development”).
What I found
strange in the movie, was how they introduced a second ending. I felt that the
story was complete when the protagonist chased the bad guys with the ambulance
and did justice. I guess the director was trying to play a trick with us:
after the first rape scene we see the protagonist leaving the girls go with
another man and we let our gourd down thinking that everything is great and
successful for the band (and maybe the movie is about to end…?). But not too
long after that we see another girl being abused. I felt like the director
tried to send a clear message that a modern showbiz world is not safe for
women.
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