Kim Ki-duk:
Poet of Silent Pain

     The hero of 3-Iron is Tae-suk (Jae Hee), a young motorcycle drifter who seeks out and inhabits a succession of unoccupied houses. On one occasion Tae-suk is surprised by the unexpected return of the lady of the house, Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon), the wife of a wealthy man. She discovers Tae-suk and secretly observes him. Reassured that he is a harmless drifer and drawn to him, she sneaks over to watch him sleeping. A startled Tae-suk tries to flee but is stopped by the ringing of a phone. The conversation he overhears convinces him that Sun-hwa is trapped in an empty and abusive marriage.



The title refers to the least-used club in a golfer's arsenal. It's the one with which Tae-suk frees Sun-hwa.

     Tae-suk flees but is haunted by the look on Sun-hwa's face. He returs to her house and becomes Sun-hwa's lover. When he sees Sun-hwa's husband trying to force her to have sex, Tae-suk uses a 3-iron to drive golf balls at the husband's head. They flee the house and begin drifting from house to house. In one house they find an old man's lifeless body. The old man's son finds the pair in the house and calls the police. Tae-suk is charged with murder and kidnapping while Sun-hwa is returnd to her husband. In prison Tae-suk finds the only available means of escape.

Samaritan is a disturbing work about the price two teenage girls pay for being led astray by society's misplaced priorities.

     “I was removing a flyer that had been pasted over the keyhole in my front door when it suddenly occurred to me that the houses that had these ads intact for days must have been empty,” recalls Kim of the original inspiration for the film. “The image of an empty house that no one enters led to a story of a very lonely person cut off from others. I wanted to make a story about a man who goes in and fills that emptiness with warmth. People who play golf would know that the 3-iron is the least used club. Imagine a 3-iron stuck in an expensive leather golf bag but only rarely used. At the same time it is the tool with which Tae-suk rescues Sun-hwa and so signifies a hope for change as well.”



     Spring, Summer is scheduled to be released in Los Angeles and New York on April 29 by Sony Classics.

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