By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Lee Hwan-Kyung
Starring: Jeong Man-Sik | Kal So-Won | Kim Ki-Cheon | Oh Dal-Su | Park Won-Sang | Ryoo Seung-Ryong
Original language title: 7-beon-bang-ui seon-mul
Country: south_korea
Year: 2013
Running time: 127
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2659414/combined
Kyle says: “MIRACLE IN CELL NO. 7 is a despicable patriarchal fantasy presented as a comedic tearjerker about a wrongfully imprisoned intellectually impaired but adoring father Young-Goo (Ryoo Seung-Ryong) of a precious little girl Je-Seung (Kal So-Won), who is smuggled into the jail and inexplicably humanizes not only fellow prisoners but also hardened prison guards. Other than a few naked photos on the wall, the only women are the classroom teacher at the orphanage and the brilliant young lawyer the little girl grows into years later — unfortunately after her father has been put to death for a crime he did not commit or comprehend.
“The jaw-dropping parade of signifiers pulling the audience’s heartstrings to the point of asphyxiation includes but is not limited to: a loud syrupy main title cue for sustained strings and piano, only the first cue in a loud, obnoxious headache-inducing soundtrack; the last remaining ‘Sailor Moon’ backpack that inspires an unsuccessful purchase attempt; the dead child at a crime scene obviously not what it seems, based on which a bogus kidnapping and rape charge are concocted; a musical number performed by hardened criminals singing and dancing in response to Je-Seung’s sweet innocence; a colorful balloon made for a carefully plotted but accidentally foiled escape for father and daughter, referencing both THE WIZARD OF OZ and
THE CRIMSON PIRATE; and the painfully prolonged final farewell between father and daughter as his execution looms. Under the circumstances, even the cheery colorful cinematography is offensive. Every moment is a dramatic lie.
“Even a sigh of relief that this nonsense is ending is denied the audience until adult lawyer daughter can emotionally engineer the retroactive overturning of her father’s guilty verdict, and we must watch as she bids farewell to her younger self sailing off
into the ether with the apparition of her dead father in that balloon. Virtually the only point of interest about this impossible mish mosh is the film’s South Korean box office success: It is the third or fourth biggest financial hit in Korean cinema history. Its grosses rival the vastly superior and much more entertaining THE HOST (2006), the story of a giant pollution-mutated tadpole that rises from the Han River to take revenge, create mayhem, and eat people. That main character is infinitely more charismatic than anybody in MIRACLE IN CELL NO. 7, much more clearly motivated, and substantially better company than a
precious little mop top who brings cringe-inducing sunniness into an environment much more evocative of an ice cream social than a prison, as her father’s mental problems seem to come and go as melodrama requires. I could hear the sound of sniffling among women near me reaching into their purses for tissues during both farewell scenes between father and daughter. Is this really the South Korean film industry’s response to the cinema of Kim Jong-Un and his zombie army across the border in North Korea? How much more cynically manipulative could a revival of the North Korean documentary THE RESPECTED COMRADE
SUPREME COMMANDER IS OUR DESTINY (2008) possibly be? 1 cat”