An earlier effort by Kim Ki-duk that lets you know he’s been writing about prostitutes with kind hearts from the get-go, Birdcage Inn is first and foremost a character drama centered on the theme of lower class society.
While the film appears relatively tamer in comparison to his other works (until Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… Spring), Kim still finds a way to put his characters through misery and pain, especially his prostitute protagonist that may remind viewers of our heroines from The Isle and Bad Guy. If you aren’t a Kim fan, you’ll probably find the same things to dislike from his constant degradation of the characters (and debatable misogyny) to the slow, low-key plotting. However, Kim fans, familiar with his later works, may find themselves attracted by the interesting complex characters, but disappointed with the straightforward, simplistic storytelling
Jina, a budding sketch artist, for reasons unknown to us, is forced to resort to a job as a prostitute for an inn on the coast of Korea. The inn, run by a lower class family, is made up of a relatively nice father, a brash mother, an embarrassed and bitter daughter and a smitten, virgin son. The family is barely able to pay for school and food off of Jina’s work and tensions arise when a man from her past returns and the daughter finds more reasons to detest Jina further.
As a character drama, the film hits the right points by giving its main characters well-written positives and flaws and then tying them into the script to neatly contribute to the plot. Everyone is a rather morally ambiguous character and the multiple angles make it quite difficult to place our loyalties. The film hinges mainly on the relationships of Jina and the family, but especially that of the daughter, Hyemi, who is the most developed character and serves as a strong contrast to Jina for the film’s examination of attitudes towards sex.
Still, for all the interest generated by the characters, the linear plot is rather unimaginative and predictable—you will swear you’ve seen certain events in other films and probably handled in better ways. The ending is the sealer, as the film simply rolls the credits after yet another minor plot event, leaving you to wonder what it was you sat through the film to see. While the low-key storytelling does help keep the film from falling deep into melodrama and sentimentality, it goes to the other extreme and fails to make an impression beyond Kim’s typical “life sucks for these people” message.
The film is not bad by any means, but it isn’t terribly good either. It’s fine for an early work, mainly due to strong, convincing actors filling out their characters well. It shows signs of a definite direction for Kim’s later work, but it is ultimately a forgettable experience that gets overshadowed by the cleaner, more creative films he directed after.
Reviewed by Tarun
