A sixty and something year old captain has been raising for ten years a girl since she was six in his old fishing vessel that is permanently anchored offshore with the intention of marrying her on her seventeenth birthday. He survives bringing fishermen to fish in the vessel and predicting the future using his bow and shooting arrows in a Buddhist painting on the hull of the vessel while the girl moves back and forth in a swing. He also uses the bow and arrows to protect the girl against sexual assault of the fishermen. They live happily until the day that a teenage student comes to the ship and the girl feels attracted for him. When the teenager discovers that the girl was abducted when she was six and does not know the world, he returns to the vessel to bring the girl back to her parents.
"Hwal" is a very weird movie and it is strange that I liked. The characters do not have names; the girl and the captain do not speak; the old man is apparently an abductor and pedophile; many situations are metaphorical and do not have reasonable explanation. On the other side, the cinematography and the music score are very beautiful; Han Yeo-Reum is extremely gorgeous and sweet; there is a permanent sexual tension along the story; and the screenplay is intriguing and engaging and I was expecting to see some sort of mysterious explanation, even that the girl would be a mermaid, for example. Unfortunately the conclusion is not subtle – actually it is gross - and is very disappointing, open to the most different interpretations. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "O Arco" ("The Bow")
"Hwal" is a very weird movie and it is strange that I liked. The characters do not have names; the girl and the captain do not speak; the old man is apparently an abductor and pedophile; many situations are metaphorical and do not have reasonable explanation. On the other side, the cinematography and the music score are very beautiful; Han Yeo-Reum is extremely gorgeous and sweet; there is a permanent sexual tension along the story; and the screenplay is intriguing and engaging and I was expecting to see some sort of mysterious explanation, even that the girl would be a mermaid, for example. Unfortunately the conclusion is not subtle – actually it is gross - and is very disappointing, open to the most different interpretations. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "O Arco" ("The Bow")