The Wong Kar Wai-ish feel of ‘The Worst of Evil’
I recently watched this ganster noir drama ‘The Worst of Evil' and couldn’t help but think of ‘Chungking Express’ the entire time! Did you notice these references as well?
Set in the 1990s in Gangnam (we’ve heard this in PSY’s Gangnam Style), Seoul, South Korea. The story follows Jung Gi-Cheol, the king of nightlife in Gangnam who has built a name for himself as one of the most influential people in the country. Now a target of the Korean police for his hidden illegal drug business and having powerful connections with the underworld people of China and Japan. This makes him encounter Junmo, an undercover police officer planted in his team to know the secret routes of his illegal business and Eui-Jeong, Junmo’s wife and Gi-Cheol’s first love from high school who is also a police officer herself.
Directed & written by Han Dong-Wook and Jang Min-Suk (respectively), the basic plot itself gave the feels of those gangster noir movies that I have seen but the moment I started watching the show it suddenly felt like I was watching a Wong Kar Wai film. The colours and the setup of 90’s Gangnam are similar to Hong Kong we see in his films, the characters’ aura and the use of elements. It was hard not to remember Wong Kar Wai while watching this show that much how similar the feelings were between the two!
Here are some parts of the show that scremed Wong Kar Wai for me:
The 90’s Gangnam & Hong Kong
The sets of the two stories had a very similar feeling considering how the cultures of the two countries are and were quite common on the grounds of fashion style, nightlife, and music (Leslie Chung was ‘the' big deal of that time). Even the streets and lights were identical here.
The office set-up of a gangster was no diffrent with a living room consisting of a brown/leopard print leather sofa set and a glass table, the head’s office with the same table and sofa set with a desk and chair and a fish tank with green-ish color tints lights radiating from the inside.
The signboards of the shops, clubs and stores had a similarity in the style of writing and designing and they could still be spotted till this date.
The fashion of mono-colour suits with stripes printed on them, short or slick parted hair, and black leather shoes with big-dial gold watches were the go-to look for men. Meanwhile, for women, it’d be strip or floral print mini dresses, or mono-colour cord-sets consisting of either a blouse or skirt or suits. They would wear a small dial watch with a leather belt and black office-wear heels with the ensemble. For hair, they would either go for straight hair in layers, a perm, or a wavy style.
Elements: Cigarettes, smoke, lights, etc.
As mentioned earlier the set and treatment of the 90s in these two works could be seen evidently here. Time is for sure an element where you are being teleported to by the makers regardless of the era you actually come from. This element is much more than we often see. We, as we dwel into the story understand the nature of the place and its occurings. We understand the ‘Why' factor of it even tho we do not have much knowledge of that ‘time’.
Second in my opinion would be the cigarettes and it’s smoke so dense in the frame with our character. Referring to the scenes of ‘In The Mood For Love’ and ‘Fallen Angels’ where our charcters are seen smoking with a dense cloud like smoke from their activity is taking up the frame as much as our character. That cigarette symbolises as quoted by Dylan Foley in his blog:
“Usually drifting between odd jobs and casual sex, his characters are troubled by commitemnt and notions of purpose. They sometimes anchor themselves within those chaotic delimmas by smoking cigarettes, treating them as a type of raft; one which those who float adrift can return to.”
The dense smoke often feels like a thunder cloud to me that represents the conflicts and stress Wong’s characters are going through.
BiBi as Ms. Lee & the Lady in Blonde Wig
“The Worst of Evil” starring Ji Chang Wook, Wi Ha-Joon, & Im Se-Mi as leads also marks as the debtu of singer BiBi in the role of ‘Ms. Lee’ aka ‘Lee Hae-Reyon’ who is the daughter and the sucessor of the Chinese drug supplyer.
Why I compared her with the Lady in Blonde Wig from Chungking Express is because of the aura these two characters radiate. The Blonde Wig lady is a mysterious woman we have zero idea of. We don’t know her name, her real face, or where she comes from. Even her expressions are deep hidden behind her sunglasses and blonde wig. All we know that she is connected with some gang thats into the smuggling buisness and that she is currently exhausted with the missing troupe she had prepared to make a big and urgent delivery. Her life depended on that.
Ms. Lee’s story and situation was the same. Instead here she was the daughter of the head of the drug chain but still had this ounce of anxiety in her of being abandoned by her father if she comes between his work style. Mr. Lee is a bold and smart woman but deep down had wishes and desires of an average person wanting to study and live a simple life free from the blood and stress that she has been seeing and have been trained to be immune of since birth.
The Resembelence (cont.)
The ending scene where Ms. Lee is on a run after killing the police officers trailing her, she calls Junmo one last time asking where she should go now to which Junmo replies her suggesting to leave for Hong Kong till things settle down. In this scene Ms. Lee is seen wearing a blonde wig with sunglasses just like Brigitten Lee’s character in Chungking Experess. That scene at the end, Junmo suggesting her to leave for Hong Kong, and that sadness she has carried in her heart that could be seen through that one tear drop. Uff! Is there anything more left for me to say?
Seeing this and relating it with Wong’s movie something came in my mind. What if this perticular reference in the end of the show is more like a prequel story for the character? The Worst of Evil is set in the early 1990’s and Chungking Express is in 1994, what if Ms. Lee is the Blonde wig lady? Who, after the whole drug fiasco reloacted to Hong Kong as per Junmo’s suggestion and have settled there working as a contract based mysterious drug supplyer? After Junmo she isn’t able to get close with anyone let alone trust a single being and since he was a police officer, she (now the blonde wig lady of Wong’s world) sort of connects with Cop 223’s personality which is similar to Junmo’s and hence ends up wishing him on his birthday since thats the least she can do just like in the case of Junmo who was also a police officer and she, a drug pedler. The difference in two diffrent worlds would always be clearly visible to her as its something she lived and got hurt from badly. Also, another reason for her to live as the nameless mysterious Blonde wig lady is to stay hidden from her father and his gang who could eleminate her at sight!
WOW! I just feel like I have open the door to the multiverse! (*￣∇￣*)
The End
Before anyone rushes to run their horses let me clear something. The resembelence between the two screen works isn’t to imply that the show copied the movie, its a mere thought that the makers of the show have given tribute to the legendary director who is well known in this genre of films. I haven’t watched many of these gangster noir films by Korean or Hong-Kong or Chinese directors, maybe there were more references or tributes to other movies but I missed it. For the things I have mentioned, I have watched, studied and observed this movie over and over again for me to not be able to think of Chungking Express while watching this!
If I am ever to make a Gangster Noir film there are bound to be tributes to this or other films of Wong Kar Wai in general! It doesn’t even have to be a gangster film, any genre will have a bit of what I have learned from the filmmaker and his films. And I guess it was the same for the makers of ‘The Worst of Evil’.
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