Geomeun meori / Black Hair

Lee Man-hee: 검은 머리 / Geomeun meori / Black Hair (KR 1964).

검은 머리
    KR 1964. PC: Korea Films. P: Ahn Tae-shik. EX: Kim Jin-mo, Park Soo-taek. D: Lee Man-hee. SC: Han Wu-jeong [=Han Gyeong-hyeon]. DP: Seo Jeong-min. M: Jeon Jeong-geun. ED: Kim Chang-soon. AD: Hong Seong-chil. Cast: Moon Jeong-suk (Yeon-sil), Jang Dong-he (Dong-il, gangster boss), Lee Dae-yeob (taxi driver), Chae Rang (Man-ho, drug addict), DokKo Seong, Lee Hae-Ryong.
    105 min.
     KOFA print with e-subtitles in English viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Cinema in South Korea), 4 Nov 2010.

AA: My first encounter with Lee Man-hee. I watched the start of Black Hair: extreme film noir ambience with dark cinematography, powerful exaggeration, melodramatic excess, strident music. The theme of the slashed face and torn eyes is introduced. Like in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, half of the black-haired woman's face is slashed. In the early part of the film there is a strange digital disturbance which causes changing jerkiness in various parts of the image. I even thought this might be a special device of the film-makers. Otherwise the black and white scope image looks fine in this KOFA print.