A far-fetched tale of revenge
From the initial looks of the trailer and the poster Princess Aurora
looked like a calculating, comic book-inspired revenge drama. While
it's definitely about revenge, I think the screen writers have grown a
bit lazy with this particular subject in recent times.
** The following comments contain some spoilers**
Story here deals with an on and off lunatic, Jung Soon-jung, played by
Jong-hwa Eom. She was a mother once, now left carrying mental scars.
Meanwhile she keeps herself busy by killing off random (or aren't
they?) mean people. Her deeds challenge the authority as after
consecutive killings the only thing they uncover is the sticker of a
cartoon character next to the victims. Maybe the investigation is
stalled due to her ex-husband, a cop trying to become a pastor, working
on this case.
Before the film was able to get to the motives of the story I was
irritated with a few things. The police work and psychology behind this
case was made to look insignificant and felt undetailed and tension
free for the most part. The death scenes were formidable, although a
bit too easily conceived by the leading lady. The sex scene between the
unmarried couple served no purpose, and instead should have focused on
telling us something of their past. A particular scene in the spa where
a staff member hears a noise, which people even next door couldn't, and
after walking an endless corridor misses to see any traces of the
killer, was quite dubious.
The film eagerly tries to clinch for a deeper impact as Soon-jung
captures the lawyer who trialed the serial killer to a mental
institution instead of a prison. Jong-hwa displays her acting chops as
she dangles him from a crane above the cops and press, while speaking
in her daughter's voice. Sung-keun Moon, playing her ex-husband cop,
achieves zero to nothing while noting how neglectful he was when the
wife asked him to look for their child, to what he suggested that she
should file a police report.
The film gets down to the mechanics of the story, voyeuristically
revealing the day the girl was abducted along with the people who
Soon-jung thought were liable for her murder, with moderate conviction.
The girl herself was left to brood the busy streets, but instead of
going up to someone or getting noticed by anyone for hours, she decided
to instead take a cab for which she didn't have enough fare, resulting
in her getting kicked out and later picked up by the killer. But the
further butchery of probability didn't stop there, as the vengeful mom
got sent to the same cuckoo's nest where the killer was kept.
Conveniently seated a table away from him to be exact.
** End of spoilers **
In conclusion, Princess Aurora was an unconvincing revenge film which
might have gotten some slack 5-6 years ago, but now it gets crushed by
the opposition. 2005, which early on seemed like a candidate for a year
as remarkable as 2003 and 2004 in Korean Cinema, provided fewer truly
remarkable features, but here's hoping for a better, stronger 2006.
Personal| Seen it: | Nej |
| Nr of disks/tapes: | 1 |
| Storage device: | Divx 4 |
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Loan
Technical
