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Address Unknown revolves around three people living in the
barracks near an American army base and their miserable lives:
There's Chan-guk (Yang Dong-kun), son to an American father - who has
long left for the USA - and a Korean mother (Bang Eun-jin), who is more
than a bit crazy and still thinks Chan-guk's father will one day come back
and take them with him. Chan-guk works for the local dogcatcher (Jo
Jae-hyeon), who specializes in killing dogs and selling the meat to the
local butcher, who constantly bullies Chan-guk and who has an affair with
his mother ...
Then there's schoolgirl Eunok (Ban Min-jung), who had one of her eyes
poked out by her brother when they were children and since has lost all
trust in people. Instead she has an almost sexual relation ship to her
puppy (!).
And then there is Jihum (Kim Young-min), who can't go to school because
his father (Myeong Gye-nam) who thinks he is a warhero is poor, and thus
has to work as a painter's assistant. But everytime he gets paid, he is
robbed by two bullies.
Jihum is in love with Eunok, but she refuses him for the longest time.
Only eventually does she give in, and the two have sex, but then the two
bullies surprise them and both have their way with Eunok after having
beaten up Jihum. This results in Eunok getting pregnant, and Jihum is
blamed for it, though it is probably not his fault (after all, he did get
interrupted way too soon).
Eventually, an American soldier (Mitch Malum) falls in love with Eunok,
and he promises her an eye operation if she agrees to be his girlfriend.
Since Eunok wants nothing more than to properly see again and have a
proper looking eye, she gives in to his demands - much to the dismay of
Jihum, naturally.
In the meantime, Chan-guk leaves his job at the dogcatchers and helps
Jihum against his bullies - with the only effect that the bullies become
ever fiercer once Chan-guk is not around - eventually though, one of them
gets arrested, and Jihum starts training himself at the bow and arrow to
take care of the other.
Eunok's relationship with the GI is more and more on the brink, and
eventually it leads to her poking her eye out again just to not owe him
anything.
At the same time, Chan-guk is finally getting his revenge with the dog
catcher, whom he hangs by his neck, just like the dogcatcher hanged the
dogs. Then he takes care of his own mother, cutting away the tattoo on her
breast his father has left her back in the days. Then though he dies in a
freak motorbike accident.
Jihum has since become an ace marksman, and he takes care first of one
of the bullies, then he kills Eunok's GI-ex ... then he gives himself up
to the police, but only because he knows the other of the bullies is still
in police custody, and that night he tries to strangle him with a wire he
smuggled into the cell ...
Chan Guk's mother meanwhile, after she had found the dead body of her
son and lived next to it for several days, burns her home and herself with
it - on exactly the day she finally received a message from Chan-guk's
father (but never got round to open it) ...
Somehow inspired by Italian Neo-Realismo of the 1950's, this film takes
a very bleak look at the lives of several social underdogs, and the story
just seems to go from bad to worse. Still, the film is not half as
depressing as my synopsis makes it sound to be, since writer/director Kim
Ki-duk really knows how to tell his story, how to build up tension, how to
make his characters believable and despite everything likeable, when to
insert light-hearted episodes, when to insert (non-gratuituous) violence
and how to present a negative highlight without just being down-beat. Very
very good !
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