Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The Devil’s Stairway

There is no way Dr. Oh’s hospital is up to code. The first and second floors are connected by a rickety staircase, with a banister that constantly falls apart. There is also an incredibly steep fire escape out back. Frankly, old Satan would probably approve of either and they both contribute to the skullduggery in Lee Man-hee’s The Devil’s Stairway, which screens as part of the film series, Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s.

It is Dr. Oh’s hospital, but since he has no sons, he hopes his chief surgeon, Dr. Hyeon Gwang-ho will take over when he retires, assuming he marries Oh’s flighty youngest daughter, Oh Jung-ja. Hyeon has had the same idea, which is why he has kept his affair with Nurse Nam Jun-sik on the down-low. However, when Dr. Oh’s succession plans become known to the general hospital, Nurse Nam makes it clear she is more than willing to cause a scandal for Hyeon. While they are “discussing” the matter, Nurse Nam “falls” through the rotten banister.

The good news is Nurse Nam is already at the hospital, so she receives immediate treatment. The bad news is Dr. Hyeon will be her attending physician. Frankly, there is a good chance she will not survive her convalescence, but then again, maybe it isn’t quite that simple. There will indeed be a lot of twists and turns, which is why the copy for the series justifiably invokes Clouzot’s Diabolique.

Stairway is definitely a noir thriller, but Lee and cinematographer Seo Joeng-min often play with the visual language of horror, especially as Hyeon’s paranoia warps his perception of reality. Admittedly, cineastes who have seen Clouzot, Hitchcock, and similar masters will probably guess what is going on, but it is jolly entertaining to watch. Lee triples and quadruples-down on atmosphere and the first act’s lurid sexual tension would have been considered risqué for Hollywood movies of 1964, its original year of release.

Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The Great Monster Yonggary

Forget Godzilla vs. Kong, because it was so disappointing. What would really be cool would be Yonggary vs. Wangmagwi, a battle of the Korean kaiju. There is even some bad blood between the respective monsters. Yonggary was completed first, but Space Monster Wangmagwi beat it into theaters, earning accusations of plagiarism. Wangmagwi has recently been restored to its full earth-shaking glory, but Yonggary still only exists in the English-dubbed print produced by American International Pictures. Even with dubious English dialogue, it is still fun to watch the Godzilla-like monster smash stuff up in Kim Kee-duk’s The Great Monster Yonggary (a.k.a. Yonggary, Monster from the Deep), which screens as part of the film series, Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960s.

Ever so coincidentally, Yonggary starts with a newlywed pilot, recalled to duty after his wedding, to monitor a nuclear test in the Middle East from space. In Wangmagwi, our hero pilot was forced to postpone his wedding, so it was totally different. Regardless, the Korean space program is way more advanced in Yonggary than it is in The Moon. Be that as it may, the nuclear blast unleashes a monster buried deep within the Earth and it starts making its way straight towards the Korean peninsula, triggering catastrophic earthquakes in its wake. The prognosis is bad for South Korea, but that should mean a good part of the Mideast and China must be reduced to rubble. Tough luck for them, but we won’t be worrying about their fate in Yonggary.

You can also forget the astronaut. Instead, Kim and co-screenwriter Seo Yun-sung follow Il-woo, the socially awkward scientist, who has been dating the bride’s sister, Soon-a. Il-woo seems to get along better with her bratty brother Icho, who takes it upon himself to investigate Yonggary, to find his Achilles heel—again, not unlike Wangmagwi.

Presumably, the original Korean print of Yonggary is better. Presumably, fewer characters speak with English and Transatlantic accents, but that is part of the eccentric fun of the AIP dub. What matters is the suitmation is awesome. It was Cho Kyoung-min in the rubber Yonggary suit and he totally devastates every scale model in his path, like a tornado bearing down on a trailer park.