The
first movie that I happened to see was “ 3 Iron” , that I found in the shelves
of my university library, NTU, Singapore.
Made with calculated restraint, extreme sensitivity and subtlety, this
movie could well be part of movie making syllabi. Kim Ki Duk is a tour de force
and I was so impressed with his style and content , that I wasted no time in
seeing a lot of his other works. But all that will come later. For now, 3 Iron
it is!!
The
first thing I noticed is that for the initial 15 min, there are no dialogues
whatsoever. We get a glimpse of the hero, who lives life as a man on the move,
pasting pamphlets on the doors of houses and then coming back at night to see
which doors have not been opened, thereby confirming that the house is vacant
of its inhabitants. Then he would break into that house, and spend the night
there. He would cook himself a meal, and
after that he would go around the house picking all the dirty clothes and do
the laundry. At times, he would also repair some broken gadget, an alarm clock,
an air rifle etc, probably seeking solace in this so called good deed.
One
day, he breaks into a house assuming it is empty, but huddled in a corner of a
room is the lady of the house, a victim of domestic violence. He is not aware
of her presence, but she sees all his eccentric ways but keeps mum. In fact, I
doubt if she spoke even five complete sentences in the entire movie, but she
was all the more conspicuous because of this pained silence. Her face mirrors
sadness and more than that, a complete loss of hope or any desire for life. The
husband comes back at night, and begins to abuse her once more. Not willing to
see her suffer, the hero, rescues her by hitting the husband with a golf ball
using the “3 Iron”, a lesser used golf club.
The
lady decides to leave the injured husband, a tough decision considering she is helpless
in the outside world. But some inherent loneliness in the hero forges a kinship
between the two, and they go off on their bike, with the “3 Iron” appropriated by
the hero. So begins a shared life of breaking into homes, spending nights, and
all is good until one day, while practicing his swing with a golf ball tied to
a tree trunk, he accidentally hits a couple travelling in a car. United by pain
and loneliness, and something more than that, they share a night full of pain
and guilt, then succumb to their need to love and be loved. In this manner,
they become lovers, companions and reflections of each other. But one day, the
hero gets caught by the local police, and the enraged husband comes and takes
the lady away.
The
narrative /screenplay flows like water, and a lot of emotions are depicted and
silence is used as a potent tool throughout. Towards the end, the movie takes
on a surreal feel when the hero in prison resorts to some optical illusions
with the guard. He is later released, and word of that reaches the husband and
the lady. In a bizarre end, we see that the hero, having mastered the art of
making himself almost invisible, and imperceptible, is living in the same house
as the lady, with the husband entirely ignorant of his existence. The very
final scene is beautiful (which I’ll not divulge!!) and you see the credits
rolling with a vague sense of warmth and sadness.
A
must watch for all lovers of good cinema.
