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| Domestic scene |
The film also follows another character, Gi-tae, who is a
famed martial artist on the run after having escaped from jail. Pil-seong,
after having been suspended from the force for brutality and subsequently reached
rock bottom, gets lucky when he gambles his wife’s savings on a long shot and
wins. He is not so lucky when Gi-tae attacks his bookies for being offensive to
his girl and takes his winnings. From this point on he tries to apprehend Gi-tae,
even though each time he corners him he gets beaten to within an inch of his
life. For some it may be frustrating to watch Pil-seong go after Gi-tae when it
is so clear that he will be overwhelmed, but it is a demonstration of
remarkable tenacity and stubbornness on the former’s part. The reason for this
is that Gi-tae has become embroiled with Pil-seong at a very fragile time.
Being booted off the force, unable to provide for his family, facing the ire of
his wife, and losing the respect of all his former colleagues, he his
emasculated to a degree where he will do anything to prove his masculinity. Running
straight into Gi-tae’s fists, knowing full-well that he will be overcome, is
the little he can do to stake his claim at being a man. The more he loses, the
more frustrated and careless he becomes. As such he joins the ranks of the many
post-traumatic males of Korean cinema that have appeared in the last 25 years.
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| Pil-seong (Kim Yun-seok) after winning his bet |
The film is ostensibly about a man chasing down a criminal
but really the narrative pits Pil-seong in a scrappy fight and breathless
search for his elusive masculinity. After being pummeled again and again, he must
pullback and make use of his mental faculty. It is thought and intellect that will
allow him to reclaim his desired position in society, as in this instance physicality
has clearly failed. The climax and the audience’s interpretation will decide
whether he succeeds in reclaiming his identity. In the meantime the other male
in the narrative serves as an obstacle.
Gi-tae seems like a one-note character that we learn little
about, he is just young, boyishly handsome, and endowed with nearly superhuman
fighting skills. Korean cinema seems to be rife with characters who seem
positively unbeatable, although they always fall in the end, recent examples
include Haunters (2010) and The Yellow Sea (2010). The latter in particular
featured Kim Yun-seok yet again in another role in which he displays a gritty
bravado and masculinity. Unlike The Chaser and Running Turtle however, his
character in The Yellow Sea is in complete control of his persona and with
ruthless brutality and unnerving calmness, easily cuts down his adversaries dozens
at a time. Haunters features Choi Deok-moon as a nearly emotionless psychic
with the ability to control everyone that comes near him like a puppet, save
for the hero. Much like Pil-seong, the hero in Haunters puts himself
continually in the psychic’s path with no tangible plan of action, although he
does not suffer from the same kind of masculine lack.
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| Pil-seong cannot overcome Gi-tae physically |
These all-powerful antagonists typically show very little
emotion and even less regard for human life. They have spades of masculinity
but are disconnected from normal society and healthy human interactions. As far
as the recuperation of the male id in Korean cinema, which generally takes the
form of men who blunder through narratives in search of their lost masculinity,
these characters seem to emanate from the darker side of this act of
reconstitution. They have their masculinities but at the expense of all else:
history has been erased or deliberately forgotten.
Gi-tae is on some kind of a journey too but his destination
or goal isn’t clear. He fights, or rather defends himself, during the film but
still hangs around. Perhaps he has nowhere to go, certainly he has no need to
reconstitute his masculinity as he is not emasculated like Pil-seong. Yet his
identity is lost and perhaps he knows that he cannot recuperate it, any journey
he goes on must therefore be doomed.
For these reasons Running Turtle acts as a very effective
thriller and fascinating, if somewhat simplistic, character study. It helps
that it builds momentum on the way towards its climax. The more I think about
it, this film is actually very similar to The Chaser, thematically as well as
aesthetically. Strongly recommended for fans of thoughtful, well-made Korean thrillers.
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