Last Updated on September 28, 2020 by rob
A powerhouse drama built about human suffering that never succumbs to nihilism and built around a philosophical conundrum. Namely, is it possible to live a life of conscience trapped inside a cage? Our characters here are a group of wounded ex-army men seeking work and the cage their truly dire circumstances. Unremittingly bleak – including a horrendous moment in which one of the men, having just robbed a bank and on the run, charges straight into the body of a woman who’s just hung herself as the baby tied to her back cries for its Mother. Stray Bullet takes its time but when the focus switches to Chul-Ho’s thoroughly decent parent, a guy saddled with every tragedy imaginable (his brother’s about to go to prison for robbing a bank, his pregnant wife’s just died giving birth, his mother’s senile and his little daughter asks him for clothes he can’t possibly afford .. oh, and he’s stuck with an agonizing toothache he’s too broke to get fixed) the film attains an almost spiritual intensity of feeling. Pessimistic it may be, but this is extremely well staged on every level, equal parts Italian neo-realism, film noir and family melodrama.
