A Bloody Aria

An uptight music professor Young-sun (Lee) and his beautiful young student In-jeong (Cha) are on their way back to Seoul from an audition. After a rough run-in with a local highway patrol officer (Han), Young-sun decides to pull his brand new Mercedes off the road for a ‘break’ from the road. Soon his womanizing instincts take over and he attempts to have his way with her, only to have his cell phone smashed over his head and his young student run off. So he sits and waits in his car (I guess for her to return?) He soon discovers that he is actually parked in the ‘turf’ of some rather off the wall country folk who do not appear to be of friendly, or intelligent nature, and who also happens to have a young high school student tied up in a sack on the back of their bike. He tries to hide behind his heavily tinted car windows. But he is eventually found out and after a swift baseball bat to the head is now held captive (and I use that term lightly). Meanwhile through some strange twist in fate In-jeong trying to catch a ride back to Seoul catches a ride with the leader of the country gang and end up back at her professor’s car! This is where the film starts to get interesting, but not before the group all sits down for some barbeque!



A Bloody Aria is a funny little film that beneath its surface, deals with some pretty tough subjects, including bullying and of course not to far into the picture rape. It’s a simple tale of upper class city folk having a run in with some off beat country bumpkins! What makes this film so interesting and entertaining is its unique cast of characters. At times you will think you should hate, or care for a certain character but then suddenly start questioning your opinions. We are given three almost henchmen like characters, two of them young biker kids, as well as the fantastic Oh Dal-su playing a mentally unstable redneck like character who we are introduced to as he chases down a bird with his trusty baseball bat. The leader of the pack played by Lee moon-sik is a small shot tempered man who will later provide a very important peace of the films plot later on. But perhaps the show stealer in the film is the cop, played brilliantly by Han Seok-kyu. He does not have as much on screen time as the rest of the cast, but what time he has is truly memorable.

Some may have to take the films simple yet twisted story with a grain of salt; it’s not your straight cut A to B comedic romp. It comes with its fair share of twists and turns, as well as some truly uncomfortable and awkward moments that help in force that ‘how the hell am I supposed to feel for this character?’ feeling.

8.5/10

A Film by: Shin-yeon Won