"Private Eye" Hong, Lady Inventor "Mrs. Q", and "Doc"
The best film I saw at Fantastic Fest this year was Park Dae-min's Private Eye, a brilliant and impressive first feature from a screenwriter-turned-director. It's the second highest-grossing movie in South Korea so far this year, and it's better mainstream entertainment than the US has produced in the last nine months. After both Fantastic Fest screenings, various people remarked that this Korean period crime movie was all the Sherlock Holmes they were looking for, and that they didn't know how Guy Ritchie's Holmes could hope to be this good.
Private Eye takes place in early 1900's Japanese-occupied Korea. All the details are perfect, from costumes to locations to the nuances of the script. The story follows a private eye named Hong Jin-ho (Hwang Jeong-min) who gets tangled up in a murder investigation when a medical student (Ryu Deok-Hwan) finds the body of a government minister's son and comes to Hong for help. The reason the med student (who is never named, but referred to as "Doc" by Hong) needs help is that prior to finding out who the body was, he started dissecting it for study. Without spoiling any of the twists and turns, by the end of the movie Hong and "Doc" have a very Holmes & Watson thing going. I'm not alone in wanting to see a followup, based on the responses of very enthusiastic audiences at both shows last week.
Hwang is one of the most famous actors in Korea these days, and director Park mentioned at one point that his participation is the main reason the movie was made with the budget it needed. His portrayal of Hong is at once disciplined like Holmes, but also somewhat obsessive and revenge-driven like Batman/Bruce Wayne. Unlike both characters, Hong's background (which is revealed later in the film) makes him right at home delivering brisk, decisive judgment in a Korea that isn't run by the laws on the books. It is Hwang's talent for subtle, naturalistic comedy that really sells the part. Otherwise, the hard-boiled detective would feel too much like a carbon copy of Holmes or Batman without the costume.
Ryu Deok-Hwan (Doc), Uhm Ji-won (Lady Inventor), Hwang Jeong-min (Private Eye Hong), director Park Dae-min
Hwang and Ryu make for a great team, and all the supporting cast members are solid no matter how few lines they may have. Uhm Ji-won has comparatively little to do as a Lady Inventor (whose name escapes me), but she's crucial to the plot and could figure much more prominently in a sequel. Director Park mentioned in the first screening's Q&A that she was loosely modeled on Q from the James Bond series. We're never directly told where "Mrs. Q"'s husband is, whether dead or what, but he's certainly absent. One of my favorite throwaways in the movie is seeing she's made various devices for Hong that are never seen again after they're demonstrated. Deductive reasoning wins out over gadgets and toys in the world of Private Eye.
More than anything, Private Eye succeeds in the details of its character development. One bit that figures prominently in the growth of "Doc" is a point where he makes his views on unequal medical treatment for the poor extremely clear. He's studying under a very profit-driven, old school Japanese doctor whose heart isn't into the rewarding nature of the work, but the financial incentive instead. In one of a few places where Park resists the urge to show us every last detail, but gives us enough evidence to assume the result, "Doc" stands up to the man he starts out revering, and it makes you want to buy the kid a beer.
The whodunnit style of crime story isn't reinvented here (I don't think that's possible), but it's perfectly shown tribute by a smart, funny script. Private Eye screened late in the festival, after most of the buyers and industry people had already left. The movie is one of the best I've seen in any language this year, with characters, music, and (most importantly) a story that deliver on every level. I'm hoping that post-festival buzz will carry it to a US distribution deal.
If anyone knows where/how I can import the score, I'll pay whatever it costs.