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Homebound AKA Gwilo AKA Gwiro
R0 - South Korea - Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (12th October 2015). |
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The Film
 “Homebound” (1967) Ji-yoen (played by Mun Jeong-suk) is a housewife taking care of her husband Dong-u (played by Kim Jin-gyu), living in a lavish house in the city of Incheon. Living with their housemaid and their dog Bess, life has been quite good financially for them, as Dong-u, a former soldier is a writer of a serialized novel published in a newspaper. But in the 14 years of marriage, it has been physically trying for them. Dong-u is crippled from war injuries and can barely support himself with crutches or with a wheelchair. Ji-yeon dedicates her time to take care of her husband physically and also brings his manuscripts to the newspaper office out in Seoul. His serial novel, “Janseol” is a semi-autobiographical work, about the trials and tribulations of a crippled former soldier and his dear wife. Dong-u is a man that lives in the past and cannot escape it. Once, he asks Ji-yoen to dress him up in his military uniform and listen to military songs on the record player as he relives his moments in the battlefield. Ji-yoen complies but she desperately asks him to stop living in the past and look toward the future instead, but the heavy war trauma and mental strain stops him from doing so. When Ji-yoen brings the latest manuscript to the editor of the newspaper, he admits that the “Janseol” storyline is becoming stale. He insists that readers would rather have the woman’s point of view more, possibly a story in which the main character’s wife has an affair perhaps, to spice up readers’ interest. Offended and embarrassed, Ji-yoen leaves the office and unfortunately leaves behind her purse, in which the young new editor Gang-uk (played by Kim Jeong-cheol) chases after her to return it. The two have a short conversation, about the novel, about how hard life must be for her, and that there must be a lot on her mind to be able to forget her purse. The next time that Ji-yoen goes to the newspaper office to drop off the next manuscript, she acknowledges Gang-uk before leaving the office. After wandering around the city for a while, she runs into Gang-uk on the street shortly before she is about to head to Seoul Station to return home. Unfortunately, she misses her 6:00pm train, so Gang-uk suggests going to a café together. The time together they talk, they drink, walk around the city, and later go to a bar. At the bar filled with couples necking and dancing together, Gang-uk tells her about his sudden feelings for her and can’t stop thinking about her. Ji-yoen is conflicted on whether to act on her feelings or to reject him, as she is still married to her husband, yet she has been in a sexless relationship for years. She eventually takes the late train back to Incheon, in which Dong-u is with his sister (played by Jeon Gye-hyeon). The sister confronts Ji-yoen, saying that she saw her in Seoul with a young man at a café earlier in the evening. Although Dong-u’s sister seems to be concerned about Ji-yoen and the young man, she is also concerned that Dong-u is wasting his wife’s life and that he should divorce her to set her free. Will Ji-yoen find happiness through an affair, or will it crush the marriage? “Homebound”, directed by Lee Man-hee was released in 1967, which happened to be quite a busy year for the director. Directing and releasing 10 films in the one year alone, “Homebound” was the most successful, winning the Best Film at the Grand Bell Awards of 1967. Often thought of as the Korean director who brought a more European sensibility to Korean cinema, the film is stylistically similar to works of Michelangelo Antonioni, with the lost female character searching for something like an escape from the norm. Lee was 30 when he started directing films and only 36 when he directed “Homebound”. Working with the script by writer Baek Gyeol, who Lee also collaborated on with the films “Whistle” and “Oblivion” both released in 1967 as well, the love story is one that is not explicit at all, with many implied emotions and intentions rather than shown. There isn’t a single kiss in the film although there are close moments. It is never said that the marriage is sexless but implied as the husband and wife have separate bedrooms. But with Korean Government censors, a story about an extramarital affair, or even a possible extramarital affair was bound to be cut in one form or another. Lee experienced censorship to the extreme in 1965 with the film “The Seven Female POWs”, in which Lee was arrested and incarcerated for violating Article 4, clause 1 of the National Security Law, and was forced to make cuts and even change the title to comply with the Government censors. In the 1968 film “A Day Off AKA Holiday” directed by Lee, the censors claimed that the bleakness of the film and end had to be changed, in which by protest Lee decided to shelve the entire film, which was not seen publicly until 2005 when it was rediscovered to the delight of Korean cinema fans, in which many had no idea it existed. Lee and Baek crafted a screenplay and film in which subversive portions could be interpreted in ways that could be argued as “not subversive” at all, but were clearly implied. The cinematography by Lee Seok-gi heavily relied on angles and skewed straight lines. Almost all shots are filmed at angled locations in settings to give a three dimensional space of the locations. There are very few if any instances of camera movements or tracking shots. Everything plays within the frame like a photograph, with recurring locations such as Seoul Station, the church, the interior of the house including the staircase are constantly recurring visual motifs. Although very limited in terms of camerawork, the visual style is still very striking. Considering that a melodrama about an affair that may or may not happen with very limited encounters of sexuality in the film, it seems that censorship may ruin the intended film. But when comparing it to 2000’s “In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar Wai, or 2003’s “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola, “Homebound” could be in the same category of a story with implied moments of extra marital thoughts. On the opposite spectrum, a film such as 2007's “Lust, Caution” directed by Ang Lee shown sexuality very explicitly, to an almost uncomfortable nature, in which the physicality is more of the showpiece rather than the conflicted mentality of the characters. But any story about an extramarital affair is not going to end well. There will be broken hearts, possible deaths, as no one comes out to the other side clean and refreshed. The crippled husband will never walk and never get over his war experiences completely. The wife will never get her last 14 years back. Bess won’t come back (Oops! Spoiler!) The ending of the film is also left quite ambiguous as to what Ji-yoen decides. But that is what makes good cinema: making the audience interact and feel what the characters are feeling, and if that differs by each viewer, it creates more interesting discussions. Actress Mun Jeong-suk who played the conflicted housewife Ji-yoen debuted in Korean cinema in director Shin Sang-ok’s “The Youth” in 1955. She appeared in more than 20 films directed by Lee Man-hee including the highly acclaimed noir “Black Hair” (1964) and and “Oblivion” (1967), and also starred in other classics such as “Aimless Bullet” (1961) and “Holiday in Seoul” (1956). Actor Kim Jin-gyu who played the crippled husband was not a cripple in real life, and played in hundreds of movies in his career, including Lee Man-hee’s 1961 debut “Kaleidoscope” and also starred in Lee’s final film, 1975’s “Road to Sampo”. Other films he is known for are “The Money” (1958), “Dongshimcho” (1959), “Aimless Bullet” (1961), “The Housemaid” (1961), “Goryeojang” (1963), “Confession of an Actress” (1967), and “We Are Brothers” (2014). Kim Jeong-cheol was only 21 years old at the time “Homebound” was released. Previously he starred in 2 films directed by Lee which are both sadly lost, “Heukmaek” (1965), and “Full Autumn AKA Late Autumn” (1966) considered Lee’s masterwork. He also starred in films such as “Mist” (1967) and “Ieodo” (1977) as well as directing films later in his career such as the 1995 film “Yellow Handkerchief” (unrelated to the Japanese movie). Actress Jeon Gye-hyeon only has a minor role as the husband’s sister, but she also had an impressive resume, starring in Lee’s “The Marines Who Never Returned” (1964), and also classics such as “The Seashore Village” (1965), “Confession of an Actress” (1967), and “The Insect Woman” (1972). As mentioned earlier, "Homebound" was the winner of the Best Film at the Grand Bell Awards of 1967. Note: The DVD is region 0 NTSC, playable in any DVD player worldwide.
Video
The Korean Film Archive presents the film in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, in anamorphic widescreen in the NTSC format. The biggest thing to say here is WTF?! Where’s The Film? The quality of the master used here is not an HD master. Nor is it an SD master. It looks like a 240i low quality resolution YouTube video. It is heavily pixelated, with everything looking like tiny Lego blocks or an 8 bit video game, so diagonal lines look like little stairs instead. As for greyscale, everything looks dull grey. Blacks are not solid and whites are never white. Scratches are prevalent throughout but not distracting. Maybe the lower resolution just makes it less visible. This is undoubtedly the worst looking Korean Film Archive DVD I have encountered. It looks no better than how the film looks on their YouTube channel. Korean Film Archive said the problem was in the telecine process and it looks like it will not be remastered or corrected, and that is a terrible shame. Korean Film Archive should have not used this master for the DVD. Another problem is that the print used is a theatrical print, so cigarette burns are visible in reel changes and the picture does not look sharp. Korean Film Archive have the original negative and a master positive of the film in their vaults so why they weren’t scanned and used for the DVD is baffling. I certainly hope that this DVD doesn’t reflect the quality of their future releases, because their past ones have been very good. 
Audio
The Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono track is also a letdown. A standard with Korean films at the time, everything was post-synched in studio. Although the sound syncs with the film print fine, the sound quality is the biggest problem. “S” sounds spoken by characters are distorted and hissy, there is constant buzzing and crackling sounds especially toward the end reels, and there is a constant light popping sound throughout the film, like leaving a record on the turntable to the end of the side. Like the video, the audio deserves better. The main feature includes optional English, Japanese, and Korean subtitles. All three are in a white font and easy to read. The English translation is excellent and I did not notice any grammar or spelling problems.
Extras
Audio commentary by film critic & director Chung Sung-ill Chung gives a stellar well prepared scholarly commentary on the film with no dead spaces at all. He discussed the short film career of Lee Man-hee who died in 1975 at the age of 43, about the relationship between Lee and writer Baek Gyeol, the recurring motifs played throughout, and the collapsing of traditional values in South Korea at the time. In Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono with optional English and Korean subtitles. "Image Gallery" A collection of stills from production, a poster, and images of director Lee Man-hee in a manual slideshow. The image quality of the stills are much better than that of the main feature. 32 page book As with all Korean Film Archive sets, the informative booklet is half in Korean and half in English with film information, director biography, and an essay. The essays consist of “About the Director” by Cho Jun-hyoung of KOFA and “Homebound, to Modernism through Discarding and Emptying” by film critic Lee Yeon-ho. Although pretty light on extras, there is a lot of good information included with the commentary. No documentaries or featurettes located here, but I would have a better video and audio presentation than those. I would have liked to see a featurette on the telecine transfer, to know how they screwed it up.
Packaging
The DVD is packaged in a clear amaray case with doublesided artwork, housed in a slipcase which holds the case and the 32-page book.
Overall
It’s easy to recommend “Homebound” as a film but not as a DVD purchase. Video and audio are frankly terrible and better elements (which do exist!) should have been used. For people interested, watching the film on the Korean Film Archive YouTube Channel is a better option.
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