Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal: News and Views on Thai Cinema: Review: Iron Pussy: A Kimchi Affair

Friday, September 23, 2011

Review: Iron Pussy: A Kimchi Affair

Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng
Starring Michael Shaowanasai, Kim Min-jun
Released in Thai cinemas as part of Camellia on September 15, 2011; rated 18+
Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

Camellia, a.k.a. The Busan Project, the pan-Asian trio of romance shorts shot in Busan, South Korea, and premiered at last year's Pusan International Film Festival, opened in Thai cinemas last week, and judging from the Bangkok multiplex screening I attended last night, where I was the only person in the theatre – it hasn't been doing very well at the box office.

As I see it, the Thai release has a couple problems.

First of all, it's dubbed in Thai, so audiences who went to see the Korean and Japanese segments have to endure the mismatched mouthings of the one or two veteran dubbers who dub every single foreign movie and TV series released in Thailand. I think Thai audiences of films from other countries in Asia – especially art films like Camellia – generally prefer to watch the movies with the original soundtrack.

Second, it's not subtitled, even in cinemas where it is listed as being subtitled. So that cuts out another audience segment – the crazy farangs in Thailand who like watching Asian art films.

Released by Five Star Production, Camellia would have perhaps found a more receptive audience in a limited release in one of Bangkok's more arthouse-oriented cinemas, with the original soundtrack and Thai and English subtitles.

The Thai dubbing only works on the first segment, Wisit Sasanatieng and Michael Shaowanasai's Iron Pussy: A Kimchi Affair, which is done in a retro style and is intentionally dubbed, just as Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2005 comedy The Adventure of Iron Pussy was. And even without subtitles, Wisit's Kimchi Affair is still a lot of fun.

Starring Michael in the persona he's put on for a series of short films that goes back around 10 years or maybe more, it's the story of a Thai transvestite secret agent on a mission in Korea. As a man, Iron Pussy is in Busan working in a seafood restaurant, preparing live octopi for dinner. Secret messages are passed to him through phones embedded in the seafood, and a ringing, squirming octopus puts him on his next mission.

Transformed into the fashionable lady secret agent (with a dubbed woman's voice to match), she makes the scene at a swinging nightclub, where she catches the eye of a masked man (Kim Min-jun) and romance blossoms. Masked tommy-gun-wielding thugs are quickly dispatched with a few swift kicks by the lady spy. She then takes her Korean man on a picnic.

It's also been described as a "karaoke musical", and thanks to the dubbed soundtrack, Iron Pussy performs several songs, including the Korean folksong "Arirang", which she has to sing to gain access to her secret headquarters.

Commissioned by the city of Busan, Camellia has stories of romance in the seaside town, set in the past, present and future. The other segments are Kamome by Isao Yukisada, set in the present, about a director (Sol Kyung-Gu) making a movie in Busan and falling in love. Yuriko Yoshitaka also stars. And Love for Sale, directed by Joon-hwan Jang, is set in a future when the buying and selling memories is common. Gang Dong-Won plays a guy wanting to retrieve his memories of a lost love (Song Hye-Kyo).

Set in 1979, Wisit's stylish Iron Pussy takes place in the past. It actually feels more like 1969 when Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat were the leading man and lady of Thai cinema. It's that era of Thai cinema that Iron Pussy's character pays tribute to, and Wisit, the director of Tears of the Black Tiger and The Red Eagle, is especially adept at capturing.

But Iron Pussy also time-travels to present-day Busan, and it's a pretty riveting piece of performance art that's captured when Iron Pussy in her vintage Coco Chanel outfit struts around the busy shopping district of the beachside resort, attracting all kinds of weird stares.