Night in Paradise
NETFLIXNight in Paradise establishes itself as another fine installment to the Korean crime genre, especially for its gruesome violence and character savagery. The plot centralizes with the protagonist, Tae-gu, fleeing from an enemy clan after killing their boss for the murder of his sister. This results in both Tae’s clan and the enemy clan clashing in the streets of South Korea. There’s much to compliment due to its 2-hour runtime and immersive presentation; nonetheless, director Park Hoon-jung has questionable directing skills. In the weirdest set of circumstances, however, this works in his favour by subverting all expectations and concluding the movie with an epic finale making him an accidental genius.
Park rushes plot points and introductions to characters in its first act, making the first few crucial scenes of the plot unrefined. For instance, Tae’s discovery of his sister's death, concluding it was perpetrated by the mob, leads to his reflectiions on his own life as a gangster. This scene occurs a minute after she’s introduced, alive as well, immediately making the film seem lazy. There are more scenes like this, struggling to demonstrate emotion in an efficient way, which derive from Park’s directing, as he’s excruciatingly unaware of his weaknesses and strengths. He excels in carnage and riot, but focuses too much on trying to be emotional that it comes off as forced. Although Night in Paradise has mesmerizing cinematography, incredible performances, and the perfect location to film a neo-noir Korean mob film, it’s not enough to save most of what it starts.
Park completely changes direction in its second leg, almost turning the film into a romance. Tae moves to a home to hide from the mob, where he meets Jae-yeon, a farm girl that’s traumatized from the mob that killed the majority of her family. Jae resents him, but soon they grow fond for one another. Everything coming to a halt to solely focus on this duo is risky, as it can drag out the movie and make it boring, but Park works surprisingly well with this dynamic. Both characters are polar opposites, and Park takes full advantage of this continuously to make their interactions engaging and witty; the score and cinematography shine the most here. The camera work is crafty as it consistently finds unique shots to leave the viewer in awe, and the score elevates emotion dramatically. Once the relationship of the two is established, directions change again, and Park concludes the film in a brutally insane fashion.
As the mob start to close in on finding Tae, blood, violence, and characters start to lose boundaries, making the finale a slugfest. After its long expository journey, scenes are then filled with pure adrenaline, and Park now unpacks an arsenal of events that thrive fantastically well with his Tarantinoesque directing style. Constant camera movement, fast paced music, gangsters fighting and great usage of blood make its final act illuminate. After being sold out by his clan and with Jae held hostage, Tae turns himself in to the enemy clan through a meetup. Ranging from him being beat to a pulp to even small lines of dialogue from others, this sequence is ruthless as Park doesn’t hold back. A plot twist is then revealed by the enemy clan’s boss, as he tells Tae that their clan didn’t kill his sister and it was in fact Tae’s own boss all along to get Tae out of the gang, making him realize everything he’s done was for nothing; this is how Park subverts expectations. Tae is killed and Jae is left as the mob has no interest in her, ending the movie with her getting revenge by killing the mob in a carnage shootout.
There’s no denying the many flaws Night in Paradise has, as oftentimes it feels rushed or tedious. Park has trouble finding middle ground to work with what he’s best or worst at, leaving some scenes to feel out of place. Patience is tested as there’s various times when it's unclear what direction the movie wants to take. After Park is aware of what he’s working with, however, Night in Paradise concludes in poetic violent fashion, making the wait more than worth it. Park is not the best Korean director, but he might’ve just accidentally reinvented the genre completely.