Towards the climax of Kim Ki Duk’s The Net , a South Korean spy-catcher who had just spectacularly failed in his attempts to turn innocents into spies, starts desperately singing the South Korean National Anthem, as if to protect himself from the repercussions of all his failures. Claps, whistles and laughter echoed inside Tagore Theatre as this sequence played out, hinting as a commentary on contemporary controversial events at the International Film Festival of Kerala.
Kim Ki Duk’s is a name that comes to everyone’s mind the minute IFFK is mentioned. However, his recent films had not satisfied much of the festival crowd. There was thus not much buzz accompanying The Net before it arrived here. However, strong word-of-mouth after the first screening ensured that the later shows would have cinema halls filled to the brim.
Kim Ki Duk drifts away from familiar territory in The Net , delivering a cautionary tale on what blind nationalism and ideological dogma can lead to.
At the centre of the tale is a North Korean fisherman, who ends up in South Korea as the tide and winds play the villain. The South Korean forces suspect him to be a spy and start interrogating him to force out secrets of the enemy.
A cruel spy-catcher, who hates anything beyond the borders, is given the responsibility of forcing him to speak. But an empathetic young man who is assigned to guard the fisherman, sees beyond nationalities and understands the emotions of the innocent fisherman. Realising that the fisherman might not be a spy after all, the South Korean authorities try to entice him to defect, by dropping him in the middle of Seoul, in all its capitalistic glory.
Blind to bling
In contrast with the mega city filled with mega brands and skyscrapers is the dull buildings of North Korea, which only has images of the leader and his family. The fisherman though chooses to keep his eyes shut to Seoul and its lures.
Kim Ki Duk does not provide the high moral ground to either of the Koreas. In his view, as bad as the dictatorial North Korea is the democratic South Korea, where there are people who still go hungry and where the intelligence men think that they are doing a favour by forcing “brainwashed” North Koreans to defect, much against their will.
For those expecting more nuanced takes, The Net might not provide satisfactory answers, but it surely is a crowd-pleaser, provided the crowd is able to think beyond the borders.
