Bad Guy v When Harry Met Sally

With a big shout out to Lucas, I am proud to share with my loyal readers some insights arising out of the viewing on consecutive days of When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner) and Bad Guy (Kim Ki-Duk).

I have had a terrible flu / head cold this week, and due to generalised weakness and lack of concentration I somehow agreed to watch When Harry Met Sally with M on valentines day. OMG. Meg Ryan in WHMS must be the least attractive character ever committed to celluloid. I've seen a lot over the years, and the sex scene between her and Billy Crystal is genuinely the scariest, most repulsive thing I've ever seen (and yes I am taking into account Alien, The Descent and Freddie Got Fingered). The best thing about the two of them getting together at the end is that it limited the destruction their psychoses and genes could inflict on others.

Anyway, last night I'd recovered some of my strength and suggested that this time we should watch a film of my selection. Bring on Bad Guy. A Korean film by Kim Ki-Duk film released in 2001 (well before he discovered tranquility in Spring, Summer, Fall ...), it centres around a college girl forcibly turned into a prostitute by the title character as revenge for ignoring his advances.

What really stood out is the incredible similarities between the two films. In both films:
- the male lead is set up as a pig who doesn't care for social conventions or how his behaviour affects others (inappropriate public displays of affection and spitting grapes for Harry, inappropriately forcing a kiss on an unwilling college girl and looking generally disreputable in Bad Guy)
- the initial meeting between the male and female leads is highly unpromising and looks very unlikely to lead to an ongoing relationship
- the male lead comes on to the female lead inappropriately and this is held against him
- the male lead lets off steam by hitting baseballs spat out by an automated ball machine
- the leads take a long time to recognise their true feelings for each other (many years, boring conversations and failed relationships in WHMS, multiple rapes, beatings and stabbings in Bad Guy)
- each of the films is ultimately a love story about a couple who don't recognise they are 'meant to be together' for at least an hour's worth of film after it is incredibly obvious to the viewer

Of course there are some differences. Billy Crystal talked non-stop for 90+ minutes, whereas Han-Gi has about 3 lines of dialogue.