“Broken”: A Close Look on Vigilante
Genre：Action/Drama/Thriller
Director：Jeong-ho Lee
Cast： Jae-yeong Jeong、Sung-min Lee
Viola's Rating：6.8
With the Scandal of Burning Sun breaking,
more and more people raise awareness about sex related gangs and gangs crimes
in Korea. A feature film released in the US in 2014 with limited release,
"Broken" takes a close look on a bunch of tension, a father's depression
and the righteousness of vigilante.
Based on the 2004 novel The Hovering Blade by
Japanese mystery author Keigo Higashino, a film with the same name was produced
and released in Japan in 2009, and its Korean remake comes five years later. Not
a mystery work at all, the story of The Hovering Blade develops into a
dramatic thriller, and "Broken", furthermore, boasts action scenes
within it. Its plot talks about how a man becomes
a fugitive from the police after he kills one of the teenagers who raped and
murdered his daughter.
First of all, in order to demonstrate
such dark and horrible story well, the casting must be amazing. With Jung
Jae-Young, who won the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards at the Blue
Dragon Film Awards, and Lee Sung-Min, also a critically acclaimed awards
winning actor who's active on both big and small screens, "Broken" depicts
the complex tragedy with heavy despair. These two actors explain the reasons
why people consider the Korean version of the flick the better one.
Korean motion pictures have
been a tool to express their citizens' anger toward the jurisdiction and police
system, including "Dark Figure of Crime" and the classic "The
Chaser". Not only focus on the cruelty of crime in general or serial
killings, these works also point out how helpless and incompetent police could
sometimes be.
After all, the original
title of the novel "The Hovering Blade" is indicating both the power
on police officers' hands and the act of revenge took by the father of the late
girl. What scale of flashing the hovering blade is acceptable, and how much
would be considered too much is the question to be asked throughout
"Broken", and is also the reason why this movie is so nasty to watch.
Also, who the real victim is
is asked in "Broken". Instinctively, we know that the poor girl's
father and herself are definitely victims, but when the father commits murder
as well, could we still say the same? Moreover, do we accept the bitter sharp
cry the teenager's parents let out at the police station after their son has
been killed as "the victim's grief?" In the picture "Boy
A", teenage crimes' the theme, too, and it debates the issue whether underage
criminals should be forgiven. Such difficult dilemmas are discussed every day
all over the world.
Watching "Broken"
may not be your most pleasant theater experience, but it will get you think
about controversial vigilante matter, and with two awesome actors leading, it's
still a feature film worth watching.
Picture Credit: IMDb
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