Release Date: 31 March 2005

Synopsis :

ATae-suk drifts around on his motorcycle to find empty houses to stay in. He goes from door to door and puts up ad flyers on the key holes of each house. He later breaks into the house where the flyer is not removed, assuming that the owner is away.

Tae-suk lives there till the owners return, but never steals or ruins anything in the house. He simply guards the houses for a few days, fixes broken items, and even does their laundry. When he leaves, he puts everything back in order as it used to be.

He repeatedly lives like this until one day he sneaks into a rich home and meets his destiny - a married woman named Sun-hwa who has been suffering under the torment of her abusive husband. While Tae-suk is sneaking around the house, Sun-hwa hides in the dark and peeks silently at him. She’s afraid of him at first, but when she sees him fixing a broken scale she realizes that he’s not a thief and keeps hiding to watch him.

That night Tae-suk wakes up petrified after discovering Sun-hwa looking down at him. He runs out of there, but the phone suddenly rings. It’s Sun-hwa’s husband. He overhears their conversation and realizes that Sun-hwa is keeping a very miserable marriage life. Sun-hwa looks silently at him as if she’s begging him to save her. But Tae-suk turns away and just walks out.

Even after Tae-suk leaves, he can’t stop thinking about Sun-hwa’s sad begging eyes. The more he tries to forget about her, the more vivid the images of Sun-hwa become. So Tae-suk sneaks into her home again, and watches her in silence. She cries pitifully and then takes a bath. After watching her for a while, Tae-suk turns on music to soothe her soul. He prepares clothes for her while she’s in the bath. Sun-hwa senses that Tae-suk has come back for her and she starts to feel comfortable. But her comfort turns sour after her husband comes home and tries to force her to sleep with him.

Tae-suk sees this and becomes furious. He grabs a 3 iron and swings it at golf balls on the ground. The balls strike her husband several times. Once he’s out of commission, Tae-suk runs away with Sun-hwa.

Together with his new partner, Tae-suk and Sun-hwa stick flyers to the doors and enter the empty houses together. In every home they break into, Tae-suk as usual cooks food, does the chores, and fixes broken items. Sun-hwa sees this and for the first time feels the real comfort of a home. Tae-suk sees Sun-hwa gradually find her smiles again and begins to fall for her little by little. The two feel the pain and loneliness in each other and eventually fall in love.

Then one day, they enter another house and discover the dead body of an old man. Tae-suk and Sun-hwa bury the body in a respectful ritual, and begin living in the old man’s house as if it was their own. But their happy days come to an end when the old man’s son makes a surprise visit. He calls the police and they take Tae-suk and Sun-hwa away.

Tae-suk is charged with murder, trespassing, and kidnapping, while Sun-hwa is unwillingly brought back to her husband and begins her miserable marriage life again. All Sun-hwa hopes for is the day Tae-suk is released. But while Tae-suk is in prison, he finds a secret way to bring back the joys he and Sun-hwa once had…

Movie Review:

3 Iron is my first exposure to Kim Ki-duk’s films. I had been warned about the lack of dialogue and narration in Kim Ki-duk’s type of films. After watching the film, I realized it was not only the lack of verbal communication in this film that makes Kim Ki-duk’s films different from others.

The two main characters in 3 Iron are rather a strange bunch. How many of you out there actually know of people that break into other people’s house while it’s vacant, does not steal anything and even help to clean up the house?

It might sound unbelievable at first but in Kim Ki-duk’s direction, he is able to make some sort of balance between the main character’s abnormal behavior and what we can accept, soon allowing us to be able to relate to their actions. Since most part of the film contains little or no dialogues between the main characters, the film depends on the expressions performance of the two main characters played by Lee Seung-Yeon and Jae Hee.

What each individual get out of 3 Iron depends pretty much on each individual’s interpretation of the film. This is because this film does not dwell in explaining too much of the motives behind the character’s action or consequences that happened to them. That would be fine for the active viewers or fans of Kim Ki-duk but will most likely leave the casual passive viewers bewildered and frustrated.

By the time you finish reading the Synopsis above, you have already known about what going to happen in ¾ of the movie. Is it worth buying the ticket to catch what happen in the last ¼ of the movie?

The last ¼ of the film was rather incredible and unexpected. It was done in rather dreamlike manner and it’s really up to each individual to figure out how real it could have been or whether the ending was satisfying enough because this film is meant to be discussed or relived after watching.

Movie Rating:

Review by Richard Lim Jr