The Attorney releases on DVD June 17 from Well Go USA.
Last year I finally watched Paths Of Glory for the first time as part of a personal catch-up project to view Stanley Kubrick’s entire filmography. It was probably my favorite of Kubrick’s works, and definitely my top new discovery of the year. In it, Kirk Douglas’ Colonel Dax finds himself defending innocent men against a corrupt military judicial system, in which they have no chance of winning. It’s an impassioned film that fills the viewer with the character’s feelings of absolute rage and helplessness.
I was reminded of these exact feelings while viewing The Attorney, which tells a similar story. The instigating incident: Several college students, accused of being Communists, are seized by military officials and starved, tortured, and coerced under extreme duress to write false confessions to crimes of treason. Lone attorney Song Woo-seok, a friend of one of the students, goes far out of his comfort zone as a tax and real estate lawyer to represent the accused. The deck is hopelessly stacked against him as the corrupt officials behind the torture use the excuse of National Security as carte blanche to do whatever they please.
The film’s opening text introduces itself as a work of fiction inspired by true events. Being unfamiliar with Korea’s social history of the 1980s, I felt at first a little confused by the nature of the protests depicted, and the reason for the students’ arrest. However, once the trial begins, the film catches the viewer up with the relevant details.
Structurally, the film is a bit odd — but not unprecedentedly so. It may come as a surprise that the trial doesn’t begin until about the halfway mark. The first half follows a pattern similar to It’s A Wonderful Life, showing us the protagonist’s personal history of ups and downs before settling into the plot. As with George Bailey in that film, we see Song at his worst moments — greedy, self-important, fearful, and frustrated. We also see his successes and rise to prominence in his field. Song, who has no college degree, attained his law license through self-study. He has the uncanny ability to spot profitable new legal markets early and capitalize on them, and despite some rough patches, he has, by his cunning, become a self-made man. His story arc scales larger than a single court case: after a life of building himself up, he must learn to also serve others.
Song is slow to anger and to understand the perspective of protesting students, but once he does, he’s a powder keg. When we finally do get to the courtroom, we already fully understand his motivations and become aware of the full egregiousness of the human rights violations against the students. So when Song gets to his arguments, every time he spits out a white hot legal point, we’re right there with him. There’s a catharsis in his furious hollering because we feel it too.
Those unfamiliar with Korean drama might feel that this and similar films are over-acted or emotionally manipulative, but that’s indicative of a cultural contrast, not a deficiency in filmmaking or storytelling. Koreans do tend to emote loudly and legitimately act in what westerners might consider a melodramatic or exaggerated fashion. This particular film hammers some very powerful emotional punches, if you let it. There are some wonderful, touching moments and a stirring and unexpected finale that had me in tears. I encourage viewers to recognize the nuances of emotive Korean culture and try to appreciate them as intended with an open mind. Those who do will be rewarded.
THE PACKAGE
The Attorney arrives on DVD from Well Go USA. In a departure from their norm, there is no Blu-Ray version (yet).
This release is practically begging for a Blu edition. The colors feel a bit dull and the picture is interlaced (evident in some of the screenshots in this article). Not to mention that foreign films always benefit from Blu-Ray’s sharper, clearly-rendered subtitles.
The film is Not Rated but feels roughly PG-13 due to some elements of torture violence.
Special Features
Trailer (1:30)
Previews
Additional trailers for Korean Well Go releases The Suspect, Confession Of Murder, and Commitment.
CLOSING ARGUMENTS
I was really taken with this emotionally resonant film, but the lackluster DVD release elicits a “wait or rent” approach. Hopefully Well Go will release this on Blu-Ray soon — that’s something I could heartily recommend.
A/V Out.
Get it at Amazon:
The Attorney — [DVD]
You can see Jacob Knight’s theatrical review of The Attorney for Cinapse here.
Check out Austin’s Jury Duty series for more coverage on courtroom films.