3-IRON (Bin-Jip)

Bin-Jip (2004) My personal interest in Ki-Duk Kim appeared some months ago after buying Bad Guy on DVD, that movie challenged and moved a lot, but at the end it did bother me that it contained certain plot holes. Months later my path came across another movie of his, The Isle, while this story were without obvious plot holes it failed to contain the emotional strength that made Bad Guy such a remarkable experience for me. Now, my path has crossed Bin-Jip and I must say that as an overall vote I rate it higher than both The Isle and Bad Guy, but I don't necessarily consider it a better movie. It is a challenging movie that will leave each viewer with a unique interpretation, because, as in other of Ki-Duk Kim's movies it's all about interpreting what happens on the screen.
The story, roughly drawn, is about a young man who lives an almost entirely anonymous life, breaking into various houses, fixing things, living their lives, doing their laundry for a little while before he moves onto his next location, a nomad. He uses a very simple technique to know if a house is occupied or not. Stick stupid pamphlets on door-locks and leave quietly. Come back after some time, preferably after a golf practice. If the pamphlet remains where its still stuck, welcome home. One day his path comes across a wealthy house in which he finds a wife beaten up. Once the husband returns he hits golf-balls at him with the husband's 3-iron and leaves with the wife, taking her with him on his journeys.
The first thing that strikes me on this movie is how extremely slow and quiet it is, it often feels like nothing is happening in the movie at all, but actually a lot manages to happen through those 95 minutes. The challenging part about the movie is interpreting the many changes of mood and morals in the movie and as always with Ki-Duk Kim almost everything is hidden beneath the surface. I don't wanna cross my own interpretation of things in this review as that is impossible without making needless spoilers.
Both the acting and the directing is really quite remarkable, the main characters of the movie hardly says anything, actually the lead male doesn't say one single word at all and the female says only 3 words, therefore it can only be considered admirable how many feelings are actually expressed through their faces and movements. The directing is equally brilliant and Ki-Duk brings a powerful and intelligent visual side as he usually does, and of course this movie also includes some fantastic music fitting the mood of the movie perfectly, another typical Ki-Duk detail.
As a final note, I'd prefer to say it very directly, if you like to think during your movies this will interest you, especially if you've found Ki-Duk's other work interesting, but if you prefer nonstop action on the screen, you'll be extremely disappointed with this one, because all the action of this movie happens inside each viewers head.