Failan (Director, Song Hae-sung) is both an unconventional gangster film and romance rolled into one. It is about two people who have never met falling in love with each other. This might seem pretty normal given this digital age that we live in except that one of them is dead. Like two ships in the dark, they just seemed to have missed each other and yet if they had met at the right time both of their lives would have been drastically different. Choi Min-sik plays a low-level gangster named Kang-jae. He marries a Chinese woman named Failan (Cecilia Cheung) through a broker for money but never actually meets her in person. Failan receives only a red skill cravat scarf from Kang-jae and a small passport sized photo, both of which she treasures. As she goes about her daily life working for a laundress in a small seaside town she gradually begins to fall in love with Kang-jae and composes many heartfelt letters but never has the courage to send them. Though Failan's life is truly pitiful (she has no family, lives in squalid conditions and is gravely ill) she never seems to get too hung up on self-pity. Kang-jae receives Failan's letters after her death and although they can never be together he falls in love with her through her letters. Failan then becomes a source of hope that inspires him to change his life.
Cecilia Cheung is excellent as Failan and it is heartbreaking to see her wait for a man who will never come as her health deteriorates further and further. Choi Min-sik makes Kang-jae's epiphany (upon reading Failan's letters) very believable. The final scenes where he is watching a video of Failan singing on the beach (he finds the tape by accident in his friend's money hiding spot) are both tragic and hauntingly beautiful.
Tonight is the last night of the Toronto Korean Film Festival 2012. Tonight's screenings will be Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (6pm) and Old Boy (9pm). You can purchase tickets at the door (Innis town Hall) for more info click here.
