Un Certain Regard review - MADONNA by Shin Su-won

Nightmarish representation of class inequality and sexual discrimination. Shin Su-won's film Madonna was presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

The nurse becomes emotionally invested in the investigation of a comatose female patient, who is to be the organ doner of a billionaire, kept alive by his son whose only interest in doing so is selfish and strictly financial. However, more than the plot, what really drives Madonna is its titular character, who owes her nickname to her big breast. Throughout the film's duration, she is subjected to more types of physical, emotional and psychological abuse - some of which is self inflicted - which makes it easy to read strong feminist vibes and provocative denunciations within them.

Shin Su-won's film is, like many films from South Korea in the festival circuit, a modern noir stylistically. Structurally, however, it is intuitive and often even disconnected. In fact, it works much better when taken as a representation of vicious class inequality and sexual discrimination, pointing fingers at Korean society and its inability to overcome these crippling defects. The worrying part is that the film is easily relatable on a universal scale.

The power of the film is unquestionalble as an artistic manifestion and afore mentioned representation. The pivotal brave, demanding and often physical performance by Kwon So-hyun in the titular role, is the true gelling element in a story that is far too openly complicated and disjointed to follow. Such performance is even more remarkable when we consider that here, she is in her feature film debut.

Of course, such a disjointed structural format is bound to irritate and alienate viewers. It is almost impossible to feel warmth towards any of the characters, driven by evil thoughts, leniance towards submission and self desctruction or middling and unable to revolt, if not downright totally cold. One might consider the whole film an excercise in provocation. But a lack of true emotional investment considerably lessens the importance and appeal of Madonna, that feels like a surreal nightmarish experience but fails to represent with genuineness any of its social sensibilities and cultural relevance. On top of that, its repetition of its various forms of violence is tedious and monotonous.