It
is sort of like Life of Pi, but with
a massive body count. An old hunter and a legendary one-eyed tiger share a
spiritual link, but it is more about their bitter shared experiences than New
Age enlightenment. Inevitably, their intertwined fates come down to one last
hunt in Park Hoon-jung’s The Tiger (trailer here), which releases
today on DVD and BluRay from Well Go USA.
The
legendary “Mountain God” has prowled Jirisan for years. He was sort of involved
with the death of Chun Man-duk’s wife and the hunter similarly had a hand in
the death of the tiger’s mate. Hunting Joseon tigers was once of viable option
for the hardscrabble mountain folk, but the local commander of the Japanese
occupying force has declared war on the big cats, partly out of misplaced zeal
for big game and partly to eradicate the symbol of Joseon nationalism. However,
that Mountain God is one elusive beast.
Naturally,
Chun will soon have ever greater reasons to resume his grudge against the
Mountain God, but he finds the unsportsmanlike hunt distasteful and is
disinclined to do the occupiers’ bidding. Goo-gyeong is probably the second
most skilled hunter on the mountain and he holds no such reservations.
Unfortunately, his gambit to lure Chun to the hunt will yield bitter fruit.
When
crack Japanese troops reinforce the hunt, Chun’s tiger arguably become the
fiercest freedom fighter in Korean history. Frankly, Park’s film is a little
slow out of the blocks, but when the Mountain God gets ticked off, it becomes a
ripping (most literally) good time. The ironic parallels between Chun and the
tiger are also strong enough to give the film significant heft, but are not
excessively heavy-handed in a way that would mire the film in self-importance.
Nobody
can top Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, New World,
Nameless Gangster) for stone cold steeliness, which he brings in spades
once again as Chun. Yet, this time around, Jeong Man-sik’s Goo-gyeong might be
an even badder cat. While Kim Sang-ho has had his somewhat shticky supporting
turns, he is refreshingly gritty as Goo-gyeong’s hunting mate, Chil-goo. He
still might be a tad high-strung, but he’s entitled.
