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| Aneeui aeineul mannada, South Korea 2007 |
Pointing initially in the direction of a road thriller about a vengeful husband flagging down the taxi driver who's cuckolded him, Driving with My Wife's Lover blossoms into a deeply felt study of loneliness and the need for love. Wrapped up in elegant visuals and with adroitly applied shots of absurdist humor, the film reps a sparkling debut for directorr/co-writer Kim Tai-sik. An attention-grabber from the first frame, the film opens with bespectacled, balding stamp-maker Tae-han (Park Kwang-jung) carving the word "fuck" into a wooden block, dipping it in red ink and slamming it into a pile of papers. In the first of his occasional voice-over narrations, he announces: "I'm really sure my wife's cheating on me," and shuts up his shop in the small seaside town of Naksan. Arriving in Seoul with the sharp tools of his trade tucked into his belongings, the stage seems set for a violent confrontation between Tae-han and his wife's lover, Joon-sik. The first indication that things might not be heading along traditional revenge lines surfaces in Tae-han's hotel room the night before he plans to make his move. Flubbing the lines he's prepared for the big moment and hardly able to muster any menace in speech or body language, it's clear this jilted hubby's going to have a hard time transforming thoughts into action. At least the first part of the plan goes according to script, with Tae-han successfully hailing Joon-sik's cab and asking him to drive back to Naksan. As the long haul begins, there's considerable tension surrounding if and when the wronged man will declare himself and take matters in hand. The script's trump card is never losing sight of this key concern as it spins the steering wheel in unexpected and highly stimulating directions. Foremost among these are conversations about the opposite sex. As Joon-sik freely talks about his success rate with women and claims "there's no such thing as adultery, only love," Tae-han finds himself drawn toward the man he intends to harm. Whether this amounts to Tae-han toying with his prey before the kill remains a tantalizing question right to the end. — Richard Kuipers, Variety |
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