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2001｜109 MIN | Drama
DIRECTOR YIM Soon-rye
CAST LEE Oel, HWANG Jung-min, PARK Won-sang, RYOO Seung-bum, PARK Hae-il
RELEASE DATE October 26, 2001
CONTACT 9ers Entertainment
Tel : +82 70 4490 4072
Fax : +82 2 797 7279
Email : debpark@niners.co.kr

 

Like many other countries, music is an enormous part of Korea’s culture and society. From the harsh wailing of a shaman’s chants and the undulating lyricism of yesteryear’s traveling pansori (traditional Korean narrative song) artists to the melancholy crooning of old school folk singers and softly whispered love songs of today’s singer-songwriters, Korea’s musical output is perhaps more sentimental than most. It’s just as important in cinema, and the local industry has frequently placed musicians front and center in its narratives. Guitars are never far off in romantic comedies and karaoke rooms may be the single most often used locations in Korean films.

 

Then there are films about bands, which have consistently appeared, despite their varying levels of success. Twin Folio biopic C'est Si Bon had a rough run earlier this year, while LEE Joon-ik’s drama The Happy Life was a modest triumph in 2007. But the most important title in this subgenre in contemporary Korean film (if not the most financially viable) is surely director YIM Soon-rye’s poignant Waikiki Brothers, the tale of a struggling cover band and the tribulations of its members as they tour small towns around the peninsula.

 

In the 1980s, Sung-woo leads the ‘Waikiki Brothers’ around Korea, playing small outdoor events until they land a residency at a dingy nightclub in a backwater town. The stable income is welcomed by the musicians, but soon, each falls prey to their own personal problems, until in-fighting threatens to tear apart the group.

 

On her second feature outing, YIM tells her story with a stripped-down mise-en-scéne which heightens the dark atmosphere of the period and squalid conditions that her characters are frequently faced with. She also stitches in some pitch black humor which affords the narrative some welcome levity while at the same time hinting at more sombre truths.

 

The film is also notable for early appearances by some of the most popular stars of modern Korea. HWANG Jung-min, star of Ode to My Father and Veteran, and PARK Won-sang, a familiar character actor, both play band members, while RYOO Seung-bum (The Berlin File) appears as a good-for-nothing club employee and PARK Hae-il (Gyeong-ju) plays the band leader as a youth in flashbacks. Leading the band is LEE Oel, a well-known face in 1990s films who appears in occasional supporting parts these days.

 

Set in a period when Korea was under the rule of the oppressive government and exposing the fragile psyches of Korean men in modern society, Waikiki Brothers was much more than a simple drama and became one of the first instances of a film directed by a woman in Korea receiving serious critical consideration. Director YIM went on to make hits such as Forever The Moment (2008) and socially conscious works such as last year’s The Whistleblower, which paired her up with PARK Hae-il once again.

 

*K-CINEMA LIBRARY is a section to introduce old Korean films not in the theater anymore but still meaningful and outstanding.