It brings me no pleasure to tell you that both of the major foreign language contenders in this year's award season, "No Other Choice" and "The Secret Agent," didn't work for me. I don't know why, as I've liked previous movies directed by Park Chan-Wook and Kleber Mendonça Filho, but I'm going to use this post to try to tease some of the answersout.
"No Other Choice" was one of my most anticipated films of last year, about an unemployed family man Yoo Man-su, (Lee Byung-hun) who figures out who his likeliest competitors are for getting a specific job, and decides to eliminate them. Son Ye-jin plays Man-su's wife, and the targets are played by Lee Sung-min, Cha Seung-won, and Park Hee-soon. Park Chan-Wook wrote and directed the film, based on a Donald Westlake thriller, "The Ax," examining his protagonist's obsession with getting his perfect life back, and what he's willing to do to make it happen. "No Other Choice" has plenty to say about the merciless state of modern-day capitalism, and how a man's morals can be warped by desperation. The filmmaking has a lot of fun visual flourishes, and I like Lee Byung-hun's performance. However, it takes forever for the action to get going, and once it does the movie is overlong, repetitive, and lacking in much tension.
I appreciate that "No Other Choice" is much more restrained than some of Park Chan-Wook's other films, and doesn't feature any extreme content. However, this means that as a comedy it's not as much fun as I was hoping for, and as a thriller it's not nearly as exciting. I was never quite onboard with the story either - Lee Byung-hun makes Man-su a compelling tragicomic character, and his targets all turn out to be reflections of different aspects of himself - but there was never a sense of real urgency about his quest. The worst casualty of the job loss is only Man-su's ego. The wife is downsizing their lives, but otherwise seems fine with the state of affairs. One of the clear messages is that the stakes are only so high in Man-su's own mind, and whatever advantage he might gain isn't worth all the madness that he puts himself through. I was frustrated with Man-su for his pig-headedness more than anything else, especially since he's confronted with his own hubris repeatedly. I derived the most enjoyment from watching his schemes unfold in unpredictable ways. Well, until they wore out their welcome.
On to "The Secret Agent," a political thriller which has several secrets, so I'll have to discuss the film more obliquely. I liked this one more than "No Other Choice," as the storytelling was better able to hold my interest, despite a similar running time, and I found the characters more enjoyable. The year is 1977, and a man named Marcelo (Wagner Moura) arrives in the northern Brazilian city of Recife during carnival season. Political turmoil means that the atmosphere is dangerous and uncertain, and Marcelo is being targeted by two men of dubious intentions. Information comes slowly about Marcelo's identity, but we learn he has a young son who lives with his grandparents, an extremely helpful landlady, and many neighbors and acquaintances who have their own secrets. The film's title promises intrigue and excitement that it does deliver on, but not in the way I expected.
There is a very strong sense of time and place in "The Secret Agent." Marcelo spends much of his time settling into Recife and meeting various characters, some who only show up for a single scene, like a WWII vet played by Udo Kier and a political resistance member played by Maria Fernanda Cândido. We see recreations of '70s apartments, government buildings, a movie theater, a barber shop, a gas station, a university, crowded streets, bridges, parks, and many, many glimpses of lives being lived out by a variety of people. All of them together contribute this wonderfully eclectic, lively setting for an old fashioned political thriller in the vein of Alan J. Pakula and Bernardo Bertolucci. I was enjoying myself until the abrupt ending, which left me clutching at straws.
Still trying to avoid spoilers here, I think my issue with "The Secret Agent" is the same as my issue with last year's "I'm Still Here." The film is too fragmentary to be narratively satisfying for me, even though its messages about living under an oppressive regime are well conveyed. Also, I still don't know enough about South American history.
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