| Imagine being deeply in love with a gorgeous woman who you're not quite sure feels the same way about you, yet she shows great sexual affection and shares sweet moments, which leads you to believe that there's hope. You'd be able to have sex with her everyday and enjoy intimate times together, but at the ring of a cell phone you'd lose ALL access to her. She'd temporarily leave you without saying a word - not a kiss, not a hug, not a friendly goodbye or even a half-assed wave. Little do you know, that phone call comes from an ex-lover whom she's still in love with. As she runs to him, you become something that's less than a thing of the past, you'd become non-existent. That is, until she returns to you the next day for some mysterious reason. On that next day, it's back to normal. The sex, the feelings and the good times are all there again. However, it's just a matter of hours before that cell phone of hers rings again... now it's back to square one, and back again...this goes on for days. It's driving you nuts, to the point of silent screams.
You've just read the plot to Yeo Kyun-Dong's emotionally-charged film, "La Belle". It's filled with a tremendous amount of nudity and softcore sex, but there's a lot more to it than that. Unlike those sleazy softcore films on late night cable, the nudity and sex portrayed here are not for the sake of showing nudity and sex. They're actually a strong part of the plot which backs up it's alternate title, "Love Remembered By The Body". Since the sex scenes are crucial to the film's heart, they're filmed with beautiful photography in mind (according to www.koreanfilm.org, dancer Ahn Eun-mi served as "body choreographer" for the film's love scenes). If softcore sex on late night cable is the pure wilderness, then softcore sex in "La Belle" is a tropical beach with the whitest sands and the bluest waters.
"La Belle" is also a character study that revolves around all aspects of abuse. Two people, on two sides (although, in the woman's case, most of it happens off-screen), that wrongfully give their hearts, receive little or no love at all - at least not in the normal sense. Oh Ji-ho, who portrays the male reporter who obsessively falls for the woman, gives a very moderate, but outstanding performance. Lee Ji-Hyun, the female model, is very top-notch. Unlike Oh Ji-ho's calm character, her part is all over the place. Down-to-earth, happily excited, sitting quietly in tears, dancing around aimlessly and even singing drunk in the shower. Definitely a difficult role for her to play, but the reoccurring nudity and sex may blind people of her true performance.
"La Belle" is a film that's not suitable for everyone. For some it might be too slow, too depressing or simply too tedious to take in as an entertainment piece. It just depends on that person. Like Mike Figgis' 1995 film "Leaving Las Vegas", it can be a difficult film to watch. It's not exactly the most uplifting film, in fact, there's barely anything positive or happy about it. By the second half of the film, it's no surprise that it will end in some kind of melancholy state no matter what kind of jolly tidbits or happy moments pop up.
One thing's for sure, "La Belle" is visually a beautiful film. You can pause almost any scene of the movie and end up with something straight out of an interior design magazine and/or a desktop background for your computer. The music, which consists of exquisite Korean love ballads and orchestrated piano numbers are catchy, and accompany the film's tone to sheer perfection.
To sum it all up, "La Belle" is definitely a film of acquired tastes. I'd never bet any amount of money that any single human being will like this movie. As for me, I loved it - and surprisingly, it wasn't for the constant nipple and ass shots supplied by Lee Ji-Hyun. |
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