Pastor
Sung is sort of a Korean Elmer Gantry, except he is the closest thing to a good
guy in this dark animated examination of human nature. He had the profound misfortune to become
entangled with a ruthless con artist, but the man out to expose them is the
worst of the lot in Yeon Sang-ho’s The
Fake (trailer
here), which
just started a week-long Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles.
The
best part of absentee father Min-chul has been his absence. Physically and emotionally abusive, his
homecoming is far from a happy event for his meek wife and daughter, the long
suffering Young-sun. Plundering
Young-sun’s college savings for gambling money, Min-chul inadvertently drives
her into the arms of the local faith-healing church—the very sort of outfit he
most despises.
Devastated
by a prior scandal, the gentle Pastor Sung has fallen for the false promises of
“Elder” Choi, a wanted con man. Through
drunken happenstance (and a night in lock-up), Min-chul learns the truth about
Choi, but nobody will listen to the obnoxious cretin. A savage war commences between Min-chul and
Choi’s henchmen, while the shadowy crook pressures Pastor Sung to finish
fleecing his flock.
Fake is nothing like
what you probably expect, beyond its pitch black portrayal of human
nature. Its depiction of blind faith
might be unflattering, but nothing is more miserable than the abject lack of a
higher meaning in one’s life. Min-chul
is not an anti-hero. He is a vile brute
driven by rage and contempt for his fellow man—and he is unquestionably the
face of atheism throughout the film. In
a variation on Chesterton, Min-chul suggests those who believe in nothing, hate
everything.
With
its acrid irony and complete lack sentimentality, Fake is not likely to be embraced by Christian audiences. Yet, it
is a deeply moral film. It is also
unremittingly pessimistic, perhaps setting the world’s record for the most
grimly naturalistic animated feature ever.
Frankly, Yeon’s figures are not very expressive, perhaps showing
slightly less definition than those in his feature debut, The King of Pigs. However, his characters very definitely have
something to say. Set in a provincial small
town scheduled to be demolished for the sake of a massive public works project,
the film also has a distinctive, vaguely apocalyptic vibe that is hard to
shake.
