AKA: 거짓말, 謊言, Bugie, Fantasmes, Ложь, Mentiras, Lies / Gojitmal, 谎言, Gojitmal | Directed by Jang Sun-woo | Country: South Korea | Language: Korean | 133 mins
Cast: : Sang Hyun Lee, Kim Tae-yeon, Hyun Joo Choi, Kwon Taek Han, Jeon Hye-jin
Subtitles : English
Synopsis
“This story should be filmed as if it were graffiti. Lettering within the film could also look like graffiti. The subtitles, too. The images should be very rough. And what about the genitals and pubic hair? Should they be covered up? Or should we just try to avoid showing them? Whatever, the viewers have to be stopped from projecting themselves into the film.”
“This is about a kind of life, a kind of sadness, the overthrowing of values. I guess I’m tossing out questions again, right? I’ve said before that I wanted to get rid of the distinctions between good and evil, between beauty and ugliness. This story centers on life and love. But love is not so terrific. It’s usually beautified in films, but it takes only a small change of angle to see it as absurd or hopeless.”
“This is also about a dream of living, eating and having intercourse without having to work. Social orthodoxy holds that everyone should work hard and live a decent life — especially now that the Korean economy is under the control of the IMF. It strikes me as amusing to insolently express a contrary point of view.”
“If the film shows the lives of the characters as a kind of graffiti, the distinction between pornography and enlightenment should disappear. The same goes for the distinction between the viewer’s senses of empathy and alienation. Good and evil will lose all meaning, but the film should be rich in feelings of sadness. Let’s get past the desire to make such distinctions. What are you judging? Just throw away the desire to judge. We’re just playing! So what?”
– Jang Sun-woo
“I’ve sometimes had the chance to look at pornography, and I’ve never found it very interesting. But I did find the novel interesting — it made me interested. ‘Wow, a new world I’d never experienced!’ It made me feel like trying out new things. I even felt like trying anal sex for the first time!”
– Also Jang Sun-woo
Review by SupremeLemon (지존레몬)
[RG] Lies (1999)
