BEDEVILLED (Korea, 2010)
Directed by: Jang Cheol-Su
Starring: Ji Seong-Won, Seo Young-Hee, Park Jung-Hak, Jo Duk-Je, Je-Min

Ice-cold bank clerk, Hae-Won, knows she must be pitiless to live in a pitiless world.  Let the punks muggers slide, it’s not your problem; let an old woman lose her new house because of a clerical error, you’re not on overtime.  She’s stunning, she’s brilliant, and she’s finally figured out how a woman can get ahead in business: by being colder than the men.  Now she’s going on vacation.

A hellish “women’s picture” from the wrong side of the mirror, BEDEVILLED is a harrowing tale of women, culture, society, humanity, and what we can become.  When Hae-Won ventures back to her grandfather’s home on remote Moo-do Island, she finds it much like she remembers it from her childhood: an untamed hellhole populated by a handful of ruddy-faced men and old women bleached orange by the sun.  Her childhood friend, Bok-Nam (Seo Young-Hee), eagerly awaits her arrival, desperate for human contact.  All is not well on Moo-do Island, a misogynistic anti-Eden where the women work in the fields from dawn to dusk and prey on each other in competition for the savage, square-faced brutes they call their men. When her vicious husband begins eyeing their young daughter, Bok-Nam turns desperate, begging the cold-hearted Hae-Won for help escaping to civilization, but when tragedy strikes, their sick little island paradise will never be the same.

Jang Cheol-Su, former assistant director for Kim Ki-Duk, makes a stunning debut with BEDEVILLED, which is cleaning up on the festival circuit (six “Best Actress” awards for Seo Young-Hee and fifteen total for the film itself and its director).  The role of Bok-Nam is a shattering tour de force from Seo Young-Hee (taking the power back from her victim role in The Chaser), who goes beyond justice in her attempt to right the world and the life she’s been trapped in since childhood.  BEDEVILLED hits the audience like a sledgehammer, and while the chance for salvation for any of its characters is ragged at best, it must be seen.  If you don’t come out of this film shaking with rage, there’s something wrong with you.