I met Breathless director Yang Ik-June over dim sum in Montreal when his film played at the Fantasia Film Festival. He seemed such a nice, quiet, unassuming young man. Who knew that behind the modest exterior lay a writer-director-actor who pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, with his first feature length film. I heard praise for the film for months before I saw it this past Sunday at the closing night of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, and the praise is certainly well earned.
Yang plays, Sang-Hoon, a thug who uses his fists as his employment, extorting protection money from hapless victims for his friend, and occasionally doling out his own brand of fist-vengeance on those he feels deserve it (both perpetrator and victim alike). He is constantly aggressive, no matter how good or kind those around him are, including a half-sister, to whom he gives most of his income to look after his nephew. Sang-Hoon one day meets a schoolgirl who is just as rough as he is. It’s no wonder why, for they both come from violent homes where the only response is violence and screaming. Growing up in such an environment, whether physical and emotional violence are bread and butter, it seems almost impossible that anyone coming out of that would not automatically function in the same manner.
