One of the important new faces who emerged in 2010 was screenwriter Park Hoon-jeong. As the original author of the scripts that became The Unjust (directed by Ryoo Seung-wan) and I Saw the Devil (directed by Kim Jee-woon), his imprint was on two of the highest profile films of the year. Given the lack of established, professional screenwriters in Korea (most often, directors write their own scripts), his contributions received much notice. Meanwhile, as both The Unjust and I Saw the Devil were in production, Park opened shooting on his first film as a director, based on yet another one of his scripts.
The Showdown is more modest in budget and scope than either of the two films mentioned above, despite the fact that it’s a period piece set during the early 17th century. The film opens with swords flashing and men dying. At the request of the Ming Dynasty in China, a group of Joseon (Korean) soldiers have been sent to engage in fighting with the Manchus. But this particular battle is more like a rout. With his men falling left and right, commander Heon-myung (Park Hee-soon, Barefoot Dream) refuses to order a retreat. In the end, only three men survive: Heon-myung himself and his old friend Do-young (Jin Goo, Mother) who, slashed to bits, are left for dead, and a portly, cowardly soldier named Doo-soo (Ko Chang-seok, Secret Reunion) who disobeyed orders and retreated as soon as it became clear that the company was overmatched.
Doo-soo makes his way across the frozen landscape and comes across an abandoned inn, where he takes shelter. Meanwhile Heon-myung, watching his friend die, issues a terrible confession that he never previously had the courage to utter. This turns out to be a mistake, because — perhaps due to the rage awoken within him — Do-young revives himself, and the two manage to pull themselves through the snow to the inn where Doo-soo is hiding.
Despite the burst of action which opens the film, The Showdown is distinguished by its overall lack of movement. Most of the action takes place inside the inn, where the three characters, whose distrust for each other soon boils into hate, are immobilized by their wounds and by the blizzard raging outside. It’s a slow-boiling confrontation, measured in small steps rather than leaps and bounds. At the same time, an extended series of flashbacks begin to flesh out the complicated relationship between Heon-myung and Do-young. As viewers, our feelings for the main characters develop gradually over time, with each additional flashback affecting our sympathies for each man.
It’s a premise that perhaps sounds better on paper than is actually realized in the film. Although always intriguing, the conflict between the characters never really captures our emotions in the way that, for example, the central confrontation in The Unjust does. At 111 minutes, the film does feel a bit overstretched. Nonetheless, it’s a highly unusual take on the martial arts genre that works on many levels. Despite its limited setting, it manages to raise questions on issues such as class, power and even, on an allegorical level, contemporary politics.
In interviews, Park says that he intends to continue working primarily as a professional screenwriter. If he manages to write 10 scripts, he says, then he plans to hand seven or eight of them off to other directors. This sounds like good news for the directors he chooses, because he obviously has a vivid imagination and a good feel for character. But I hope that he continues his own directing career as well, because The Showdown, despite its faults, is a distinctive and memorable film.
Darcy Paquet