하이힐
Man On High Heels
Directed by Jang Jin
Starring Cha Seung Won, Oh Jung Se, Lee Som
2014
Yet this specific movie caught my attention with its provocative premise. According to wikipedia, the synopsis of Man On High Heels:
Yoon Ji-wook is a hard-as-nails homicide detective known for his undisputed ability to nab violent criminals. He is revered as a legend in the police force and at the same time feared among the mafia for his brutality in cracking down on crime. Yet, beneath his cool, macho appearance lies a secret that he must hide from the world he lives in. Ji-wook has wanted to become a woman ever since his teenage years. He tries to suppress this inner desire, but in vain. Ji-wook finally reaches the point where he makes up his mind to live as a woman, and decides to take the plunge and get a sex change operation. However, before he has a chance to do so, unexpected crises arise and interfere with his plans. A gang that suffered from the cold, hard steel of Ji-wook's handcuffs are dead set on getting their revenge against him. Ji-wook resigns and tries to go about making his dream a reality, but people close to him get sucked into the revenge plot he finds himself at the center of. When some of those people get killed and a girl named Jang-mi falls into danger, he realizes that he can't stand idly by any longer.The film, from the get-go, doesn't try to hide that its main character is transgender. A main character of a mainstream Korean movie with a star-studded cast who's transgender? And an action film, to boot? How will they manage all that?
At first I tried to be hopeful about this movie. At the least, it's a mainstream movie with a transgender character at the center of it. Something like this has never been done before.
Then I read this article about Jang Jin's comments during the premier of the movie held last week. I've translated what was quoted in the article:
"'Transgender' is a stereotyped word. We must be careful when using the word. [...] I have a lot of friends in that area [who are trans]. When I wrote this scenario I showed it to them and they gave me so much help.
"They told me a lot of crucial information at the beginning of the screenwriting process. According to what I've heard, they don't become women because they have women inside them. 98% of them start out with homosexuality. Suddenly you start liking the neighbourhood dude, and then you start liking a male friend, and then you want to become a woman. Apparently the desire to become a woman starts out like that. When I heard that I made significant developments on the screenplay."Now, I'm not very well-versed in trans theory or issues at all. However, I've been told over and over again that one's gender identity is independent of one's sexuality. Of course, I'm not trying to devalue the experiences of Jang Jin's "transgender friends", if he is indeed telling the truth and he does have friends who are transgender. But where the hell did he come up with the stat "98% of transgender individuals start out with homosexuality"? Can we get a quote on this? 98%? To me, it sounds like a load of bullshit, like he believes it's 100% but for the sake of playing safe, he tells people 98%.
Entrusting a transgender character to a cis director who's so confident in his inaccuracies seems very problematic to me. I have a bad feeling about this movie.
There aren't many reviews by critics released yet, but the three one-liner reviews from Cine21 (a weekly film magazine) were not glowing. Two 3-star ratings, which isn't bad, and one 2.5 star rating.
The audience reviews online on Naver Movie was mainly negative, with lots of one-star and two-star ratings. I've seen a lot of comments like "I can't believe I wasted time on this" and "This movie doesn't deserve any words, ugh". The Daum Movie review section seemed pretty fishy as most of the comments seemed to be fabricated and were written by part-timers (as many Korean movies do to get higher ratings on user-rating movie sites).
Yet I'm not sure if most of the negative reaction to the movie is due to the actual quality of the movie or if it's because the people who saw it were transphobic. I even saw a 2-star rating that said, "It's a gender movie ㅠㅠ, it reminded me of Harisu (famous Korean transgender celebrity)." The movie may be actually bad. If it's getting such negative reviews because it's a movie about a transgender character, then it's a bit alarming. But perhaps a look into what the Korean mass still thinks about trans people.
All across the board though, Cha Seung Won is getting good reviews for his acting.
Despite everything, I love the posters. They're so flashy but interesting to look at.
I will be definitely checking out Man On High Heels when I can, to see how they managed to deal with a transgender character. In the meantime, I will also try to read up and research more about trans theories and issues, since I can't say that I'm confident with my knowledge in that area.
If anybody has seen it, please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought about it, because I'm genuinely curious!
Check out the trailer below.
