Sometimes Truth Defies Reason: Frailty (2001)

Whenever I take upon a viewing marathon, particularly one that involves me watching a ton of films of a specific genre I attempt to do a bit of research and find some examples of criminally underrated films that for a variety of reasons were overlooked and written off, yet prove to be the highlights of that particular year in filmmaking and even stand on their own against the giants of the genre.  While 2001's Frailty is not a perfect film, nor could it compete with the likes of The Exorcist or its contemporary masterpieces in the same ambiance and from the same year, particularly Mulholland Drive, it does manage to allow the important influence of these respective works wash over the narrative and make it become a visually engaging work with a narrative that could only work with the right levels of earnest dedication from all those involved.  Flowing in a simulacra of saturated filmic space, created by the mesmerizing cinematography of Bill Butler, Frailty manages to possess precisely this degree of direction and certainty, only benefitted by the always rewarding, if not initially realized, acting of Matthew McConaughey.  The fact that this is the feature length directorial debut of Bill Paxton, perhaps better known for his role on Big Love, makes the discovery of something like Frailty that much more rewarding.  Essentially, there is no quantifiable reason as to why a person would like Frailty on paper, nor is there an explanation as to how people would have sought it ought upon release, because it would appears to be a derivative and contrived piece of filmmaking with little to offer to the genre.  Derivative it is not, perfectly seasoned with a blend of horror classics and an understanding of a changing landscape in narrative filmmaking, Frailty manages to step up and compete with the other great puzzle films emerging around the time, such as Memento, The Machinist and in small ways the masterwork Zodiac.  To have been the person who rediscovered this film must have really been quite the revelation, not because it is has now become a much adored contemporary classic, but because it clearly appears to be remerging in the most word of mouth way possible.  I certainly know it will receive a healthy dose of acknowledgement on my part, right beside a few of my contemporary overlooked horror films in Session 9 and the science-fiction survival nightmare that is The Cube.

Frailty begins at the FBI headquarters in Dallas, Texas wherein a man introducing himself as Fenton Meeks (Matthew McConaughey) explains to Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that he is rather certain about the whereabouts of the God's Hand Killer, suspecting it to be his mentally unstable brother, who has recently committed suicide.  Suspicious for obvious reasons, Agent Doyle demands that Fenton provide some substantial evidence to such bold acquisitions, leading to Fenton telling a rather lengthy back story about his childhood growing up with his brother Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) in a single parent household with their father, played by Bill Paxton.  Things, while tough financially, are relatively easy going until in the middle of the night their father claims to have seen a vision of angels explaining that it is the job of not only himself, but Fenton and Adam to become slayers of demons in the name of God.  Thinking that it is simply a wild delusion of grandeur, Fenton, and to a degree Adam, write off the entire incident and continue on with their daily lives, even going so far as to overlook their fathers repeated returning home with items related to the killing of demons, the most disturbing being the various weapons he purports to be key to the act of slaying.  Yet, even this does not truly cause the children to step back and critique the situation, but when the father does indeed bring home a woman, bound and kills her with an axe, claiming that her sins had resulted in her becoming demonic, both the children appear to be initially hesitant, particularly Fenton who immediately questions the behaviors of his father and their larger implications on society.  This questioning on the pat of Fenton, leads to a divide between himself and Adam who sides with their father and betrays Fenton's desire to run away.  This leads to Fenton being locked in a cellar until, as his father says he is able to see God, at which point he will be released.  Through eventual dehydration and becoming stir crazy, Fenton claims to have seen God and then begins joining in the killings, as though it were something forever engrained in his psyche.  These actions carry the narrative back into the present where Agent Doyle and Fenton arrive at the alleged place of the burials.  It is at this point, where it becomes convoluted as to whether the narrative told was indeed through the yes of Fenton, or through those of Adam, perhaps even existing as a bizarre and troubling version of both.

Frailty could be interpreted as many different narratives, all having to pull from a decidedly complex narrative, that masks itself in a deceptively obvious form of linearity.  One could certainly make a case for it being a narrative of split-personality disorder, wherein one character is, in fact, extending his former reflections into multiple characters to help rationalize the terrible actions he committed, a reading that is further suggested by the general synthetic look of the film, one where glossy shine makes each action seem impossibly fabricated.  Another could simply be a study of the nature of evil and whether or not ridding the world of such entities should be deemed murder, the Texas setting for this reading making the narrative that much more complex.  I, however, am rather convinced that it is actually a metaphor, albeit obvious at times, about a troubling past with child abuse that was exacted upon children by a father figure.  Indeed, the narrative suggests that the family is void of a maternal figure, but the ways in which food magically appears in scenes and domestic chores happen to always be complete, would suggest that the memories spouted by Fenton are missing an element purposefully, perhaps an abused wife so minimized at the hands of an angry father that she has become literally non-existant in the narrative.  I know that the film suggest she has passed away, but considering its willingness to alter and shift factual understanding at a moments notice make such assumptions quite tenuous.  The reading of it as such a film is reinforced by particular images of Fenton possessing bleeding hands from working all day digging an impossibly large ditch.  Sure these could be callouses, but considering the father's reaction and awkward willingness to help heal the damage it could equally be read as one such act of abuse.  The fact that Denton is also depicted falling asleep during class, reflect his worry of the visions of God trouble facing his family, but again, it also could indicate an individual so emotionally distraught in the space of his home that he can no longer rest without severe anxiety and distress.  Add these images and subtle narratives to the notion that Adam and Fenton have considerably altering views on the nature of their father's goodness, and such a narrative begins to become rather blatant.  Indeed, should nothing else sound plausible, turning ones attention to the nailing the hatch shut on the shed scene, pretty much makes it a fact.

Key Scene:  The vision of the first weapon sequence is rather basic trick cinematography and special effects, but it occurs with such a degree of realized execution as to completely change the pace of the film, and is only one time when which this occurs in the stellar film.

This DVD and bluray is cheap, I would recommend the latter as it is a decidedly cinematic film and well worth a blind buy.

I Trained While Watching Bruce Lee Movies: Punch Lady (2007)

I have included a couple of South Korean films in my consideration of kung fu/martial arts movies thus far in my endeavor to become more aware of the genre, although the two films in question, The Man from Nowhere and my most recent viewing of Punch Lady are indicative of a revisionist approach to the genre, one that applies social issues while only tangentially being related to whatever stylistic tropes and themes are emergent within the genre.  Of course, while I found myself initially surprised by this choice, I also remember that it is very much an element of South Korean and to a larger extent much of the East Asian cinema output, to take genre and use it as a means to cleverly consider poignant social woes, whether it be the use of a wrestling calamari to look at masculinity and performance in the eponymous Calamari Wrestler, or a scathing critique of othering non-heterosexual bodies as occurs in Memento Mori.  Punch Lady, in the guise of a fighting/boxing movie manages to take on the very controversial topic of spousal abuse, while also considering a larger issue of violence as spectacle and the consumption of such brutality as a means of escapism.  While on the whole Punch Lady does not always succeed in its message or methodology, it does manage to do one thing that is worth high note, by employing a female lead into a world of cinema that while visceral, incredibly watchable and currently the most essential in the world, still proves to be heavily dominated by patriarchal privilege and masculine issues.  The parts of this film that do work, do so on a highly engaging level and manage to add fresh looks and styles to the boxing film, which has arguably been perfected in the way of Scorsese's Raging Bull or more recently in the post-modern look at the sport in David O. Russell's The Fighter.  As noted though, Punch Lady is only a boxing movie to a degree, instead, existing as a social commentary first and genre film second, resulting in a film whose narrative is certainly winding and twisting, but in relative consideration to the countries other works it is considerably straight forward and accessible on, at the very least, a cinematic and visual level.

Punch Lady focuses on a woman named Ha-eun (Ji-Won To) who has always had a viscerally disconcerting experience with violence since she witnessed her father beating a thief when she was a child.  This unusual relationship with violence has led her to become involved in a violent relationship with her professional fighter husband Joo-Chang (Park Sang-wook) who beats and attacks Ha-eun for reasons that are completely inexcusable.  Ha-eun, however, seems content to just bear the attacks, until one day the couple's daughter Choon-sim (Sulli) confronts Joo-Chang, leading to his throwing a bowl at the young girl causing her to bleed.  The resulting rage felt by Ha-eun leads her to attack Joo-Chang with a frying pan, thus knocking him unconscious.  Despite his constant physical attacks, Joo-Chang is audacious enough to sue Ha-eun for spousal abuse, leading to a brief stint in jail.  When she gets out of jail, Ha-eun moves in with an old friend and briefly considers rekindling a relationship with an old high school fling, however, when she discovers that this former lover is himself a professional kick boxer, she is hesitant, particularly considering that he is to fiht Joo-Chang and claims that he will act as a vessel of revenge for Ha-eun.  When the fight does occur, Joo-Chang does not hesitate to fight dirty and through cheating kills the man, leading to a new level of rage in Ha-eun who during her blind fury demands that the two fight one another, much to the confusion of Joo-Chang and his promoters.  Yet when it becomes clear that the fight will result in huge viewership and sponsorship possibilities a planned bout for three months later emerges.  Ha-eun knowing that her martial arts skills are limited, if not non-existent, goes about finding a trainer in Su-Hyeon (Son Hyun-Joo) a math teacher whose recent acquisition of a old dojo is only to turn it into a nursery.  However, upon the begging and prodding of Ha-eun, along with her promise to share a considerable amount of the prize money, Su-Hyeon agrees and begins a considerably unorthodox training program.  There are various attempts on the part of Joo-Chang and others to stifle the fight prior to its occurrence, but as Hae-eun evolves in her self-worth things grow and her desire to prove so to Joo-Chang and all others who have been abused, results in the fight occurring, and the results being a surprise to all involved, including, most importantly, Hae-eun.

I mention that this film does not entirely deal with the spousal abuse elements in a positive and non-problematic manner and most of this criticism comes directly from the unfortunate choice of the director to situation the middle section of the film as fully comedic.  Doing so, at times, negates the very serious book ends of the film that graphically deal with the bruises and physical suffering experienced by a person who is a victim of domestic violence.  Now I understand that the producers probably hoped to avoid a completely dejecting experience for viewers, especially since the people involved, aside from the director, seem previously engaged in the decidedly upbeat world of Korean drama.  Nonetheless, shying away from the jarring and abject seems unusual for a South Korean film when one considers the films made by Chan-wook Park or Kim-ki Duk, both of who use violence extensively and comedy sparingly.  It is really off-putting to see moments of Ha-eun's training played up as humorously exhaustive, when only moments earlier her body was on display as a thing of inhumanity to be beaten into submission in a non-comedic form of exhaustion.  This is where the film goes completely in the wrong direction, but it does manage to do things correctly, particularly in its acknowledgement that the act of abuse often extends beyond the physical.  Indeed, Joo-Chang is an absolutely evil and terrible person, exploiting all of those around him merely to assert his own disgusting hyper-masculinity, killing  a person for suspecting that he might be involved with his wife of which he violently beats.  However, Joo-Chang also looks at Ha-eun as an object of verbal ridicule referring to her as stupid and less than human, thus becoming a form of psychological abuse, not to mention his own role as an economic provider, threatening both Ha-eun and her daughter with making their lives worse by having no money, one of the more scathing criticisms in the film as South Korean society still manages to be highly impossible to navigate for a single woman, particularly one who is in her thirties or older.  Finally, the film deals with the absurdity of spectacle and deconstructs a society, particularly one that has capitalist and democratic ideals for allowing the reality of domestic violence serve as a spectator sport, when indeed it should be a thing that is dealt with in the most serious of manners through the legal system.  Sure the film plays up the possibility of a spousal boxing match, but think about any domestic violence case that makes national headlines, even in America, the rhetoric is uncannily similar.

Key Scene:  The "eye-opening" scene for Ha-eun is a perfectly simultaneous execution of acting, cinematography and editing that manages to make the last act flow with a considerable degree of intensity.

This film is somewhat hard to come by and the current DVD is a bit dodgy, often freezing due to being a bad transfer.  As such, I would actually suggest seeking out another of the directors  works My Wife Is A Gangster, for a rewarding viewing experience.