2013 TIFF -- (3) THE FAKE

이영화는 한국사회의 병적인 현상을 단적으로 보여주는 애니메이션이라는 생각이 든다.  욕설로 범죄전과자로 등장한 주인공..당연히 사람들에게 무시당한다. 

한국의 기독교는 미국의 광적인 교단으로부터 보내진 선교사의 역활을 지나서, 한국인 기독교인들이 만들어낸 광적인 기독교의 현실로 정착되어있다. 말로는 그럴듯한 선량한듯 성경의 좋은구절을 인용하지만, 속마음은 다 들 하나같이 교회에서 돈을 많이 만들어서 커다란 비지니스를 만들자는것이 목사들의 목표다. 그것을 예수라는 이름을 팔아서 해먹는 장사라고 해도 과언이 아니다.

돈이 생기는곳에는 하나같이 양의 탈을쓴 사기단이있고, 보통사람들에게는 양의탈을 쓰고 달려드는 사기단이나, 예수의 이름으로 달려드는 광적인 기독교인이나 서로다른모습으로 보통사람들의 피를 빨아먹기 마련이다.

거기에 무기력하고, 아무런 능력도 없이 자리를 차지하고 있는 경찰관...

 이것이 한국사회의 밑바닥에 존재하고있는 변하지 않는 모습들이라는 생각이 든다. 

The sophomore feature from provocative South Korean animator Yeon Sang-ho (The King of Pigs) is a blistering critique of organized religion, set in a rural village where a manipulative church minister schemes to defraud his flock.

Gifted South Korean animator Yeon Sang-ho follows his acclaimed and controversial first feature, The King of Pigs, with another blistering provocation. Where that film decried his country's culture of bullying and class stratification, this one sets its sights on the hypocrisies of organized religion. But this is not a restrained critique in the mould of Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine — The Fake pulls no punches, portraying a beleaguered community in thrall to a ministry whose moral bankruptcy knows no limits.

With their municipality under threat from a menace of suitably biblical portent — it is scheduled to be flooded to make way for the construction of a hydro dam — the devout denizens of a rural village have placed their faith in Choi, a church elder who has promised to relocate to the flock to a new housing development. Behind his guise of devotion, however, Choi is a practiced con man; his true aim is to defraud the villagers of their resettlement compensation. The only obstacle to the scheme is Min-chul, a skeptical outcast who discovers evidence of Choi's past misdeeds. But Min-chul himself is hardly a saint, and when his attempts to expose Choi to the authorities fall on deaf ears, he makes a fateful decision to take matters into his own hands.

As well as a scathing social polemic, The Fake is a fascinating portrait of a deeply unsympathetic protagonist whose pursuit of truth aims to serve his own deplorable ends. Yeon here consolidates his status as a purveyor of mature, sophisticated animated narratives with a sophomore feature that is every bit as uncompromising as his debut, and that will no doubt prove to be just as divisive. 

GIOVANNA FULVI

Director Biography

• 
  • Yeon Sang-ho
  • Yeon Sang-ho is an actor, animator, screenwriter and director. He graduated from Sangmyung University with a degree in Western Painting before establishing the production house STUDIO DADA SHOW. He is the director of the short animations The Hell (Two Kinds of Life) (06) and Love is Protein (08). His features are The King of Pigs(11) and The Fake (13).