Crocodile

Colour, 35mm
Korea, 1996, 102 min
Section: Kim Ki-duk

Synopsis

Hatred, violence and love on the banks and the bottom the Han, the river flowing through the South Korean capital. A young man nicknamed “Crocodile” picks up and sells the corpses of suicides. He meets up with an old man and his grandson and together they live hand to mouth at the edge of the dirty water – that is until the day Crocodile saves and then rapes a girl named Hyun-jung who has been abandoned by her boyfriend. Crocodile thus becomes the head of an unusual ‘family.’ Even after a series of intense conflicts in the big city and a short stint in prison he returns to them time and time again. Overall, the film’s mood teams with a raw lyricism which only allows true feelings to form very gradually. These feelings ultimately connect Crocodile and Hyun-jung and lead them to a strange and private realm beneath the surface of the water.