Sun-Woo Jang – Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim AKA Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002)
Synopsis:
A matchstick girl who was frozen after death 200 years ago (for failing to sell any matchsticks), becomes reborn in this movie which pays homage to computer games. Working at a Chinese restaurant, Ju (played by Kim Hyeonseong) is a game maniac who suffers from unrequited love with Hui-mi (Im Eungyeong), who works part-time at a game room next door. One day, he meets a little matchstick girl of the same countenance as Hui-mi, and buys from her a gas lighter where he finds a phone number. When he calls the number, he comes upon the question: “Will you please log in the game ‘Resurrection of the Little Match Girl?'” From that time on, Ju enters into the world of virtual reality with a view to save the girl and win her love, which is by no means an easy job. He has to fight against gangsters, secret agents, and commandos, sometimes with the help of a lesbian warrior named Lara (modeled after Lara Croft in “Tomb Raider”). His final destination is the heart of the central computer operation system which gets rid of anyone who attains access to it. Indefatigable, Ju finally encounters an Orwellian “Big Brother” type boss who controls the whole computer system. The Matrix-like movie adroitly mixes the state-of-the-art techno game with Buddhist references, by sometimes presenting portions of Buddhist texts and mantra-like music.
Review:
Jang’s splendid folly uses the form and digital effects of a mainstream blockbuster to explore two besetting questions: (1) Can you live in a tropical paradise on someone else’s money? (2) Can the ego be transcended by chasing the yellow butterfly of Taoism? Ju (Kim Hyun-Sung, admirably ordinary) delivers Chinese food for the Great Wall Restaurant and dreams of becoming a champion gamer. He enters the virtual reality game of the title (the object is to save Hans Christian Andersen’s forlorn heroine from assorted predators so that she can safely freeze to death), but very quickly loses his identity and his ammo. And the Match Girl (now selling cheap lighters) suddenly starts taking her defence into her own hands. Despite fabulous casting (famous Chinese transsexual Jin Xing as the lesbian game player Lara) and spectacular stunts, it doesn’t really work as a genre movie – which is no doubt why it lost money on Korean release. But as a Jang Sun-Woo auteur piece it’s up there with Hwa-om-kyung: a philosophical fun-ride with thrills, spills and a serenely materialistic happy ending.
— TimeOut.
Resurrection.of.the.Little.Match.Girl.2002.Commentary.DVDRip.x264.DD5.1.mkv General Container: Matroska Runtime: 2h 2mn Size: 2.19 GiB Video Codec: x264 Resolution: 676x460 ~> 817x460 Aspect ratio: 16:9 Frame rate: 23.976 fps Bit rate: 1 902 Kbps BPP: 0.255 Audio #1: Korean 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 Kbps (Main) #2: Korean 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 Kbps (Commentary by Director Jang Sun-woo and Actress Lim Eun-kyung)
Language(s):Korean
Subtitles:English (muxed)
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