Project Y

Story: Mi-seon (Han So-hee) is having her last day as a barmaid. With the money she's earned pouring drinks and chatting with men, she's bought a flower shop. Meanwhile, her friend Do-kyung (Jeon Jong-seo) drives drunk patrons home from the bar where Mi-seon works. Mi-seon learns that the bar has just been taken over by Seok-go (Lee Jae-kyoon), a cold-blooded gangster who's prone to making people disappear. Then the bar girls receive news that their previous boss committed suicide after it was revealed he was running a real estate scam. The problem is, the girls, including Mi-seon, fell for the scam and are now saddled with a mountain of debt. Do-kyung has heard from an acquaintance that Seok-go's wife frequently visits a gigolo. Through this information, Do-kyung learns that Seok-go supposedly buried $700,000 on newly purchased land. Mi-seon and Do-kyung set out to find the exact location, which they actually manage to do. When they dig there, however, they find not only the $700,000 that is rightfully theirs, since they were cheated out of the money, but also several million dollars in gold bars. But that's just the beginning of their troubles...

Review: The very beginning of "Project Y" left me somewhat puzzled. I went into the film expecting a crime thriller, perhaps with a bit more of a focus on drama. A film noir with a more subdued tone would have been fine too, but instead, I couldn't quite figure out what identity Lee Hwan's work was trying to claim for itself. Often, it gives the impression of an art-house film, but the visuals are too polished and the story too superficial for that. There are a few moments where the characters come more to the forefront, though, and the dynamic and close connection between the two protagonists are explored. This is countered, however, by a clichéd villain and an unstructured script that completely fails to create any real highs or lows. While the film itself never becomes truly boring, we also never develop any real interest in the characters. And that's precisely where the film's potential strength could have laid.

It takes a while for the film to get going. Even halfway through, I wasn't sure if everything was in place and the story was just beginning, or if that was all there was to it. And it's actually not that easy to judge. Because, strictly speaking, the roles are already defined, we have a sense of what makes the villain tick — namely, he is just evil, there's really nothing more to it — and the friendship between the two women is also established. But then the mother enters the picture, who admittedly adds a bit of depth to the drama and makes the circumstances for the protagonists somewhat more complex. Nevertheless, it can't really be said that she's been well-considered and integrated into the film. Is she an irresponsible mother who exploits her daughters, or is there more to her behavior? For a brief moment, the viewer's interest is piqued, only to be immediately extinguished.

How poorly the individual parts mesh together is evident in the fact that, despite some effort, we remain relatively indifferent to the characters' fates. There's a scene in the gangster thriller where someone dies in a rather gruesome manner, but it simply fails to resonate. The heroines' reactions also fail to achieve the desired emotional impact. Han So-hee and Jeon Jong-seo ("Ballerina") can't be seriously faulted for this. They give their all, but ultimately fail because their characters aren't sufficiently developed. The actresses do manage to create good chemistry together, however. Overall, though, they lack precisely what the script as a whole struggles with: a clear direction. Time and again, you get the impression you're watching a gritty gangster thriller, but then both, real action and suspense, are missing. Nothing ever seems to be at stake, even though, technically, that's not the case at all. The tension simply isn't conveyed to the viewer via what's happening on screen.

Towards the end, things get particularly bad. It seems director Lee Hwan completely lost his way with his thriller. One scene after another is strung together haphazardly, even if it might have made some sense on paper. We even get a bit of action eventually, but it's neither well-executed nor does it fit the film, because up until then, we'd never even remotely suspected this to be an action movie. Furthermore, the protagonists are never established as action heroines. Even when the pacing picks up, they don't do much, but the intended action still feels out of place. Adding to the confusion is a soundtrack that's jarring. It doesn't suit a film noir, but rather an art-house film, with which the movie shares a sense of hopelessness. Then again, it seems as if the director was aiming for a gritty drama.

With each passing minute, my impression that "Project Y" has an identity problem grew stronger. The ending only underscores this. Individual scenes may seem nice at times, but this doesn't make a movie. The film simply can't find the right tone for the story it's trying to tell. Moreover, it's not even clear what story it's trying to convey. In the end, it even degenerates into a revenge story. Overall, the visuals are polished, but also somehow cheap. It's as if the director tried to emulate a film noir without understanding the essence of the genre. This is all the more disappointing because the two actresses would have been well-suited to a film of this kind. But everything that happens behind the camera feels half-baked, making "Project Y" a forgettable gangster thriller.

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