Birdcage Inn

Colour, 35mm
Korea, 1998, 100 min
Section: Kim Ki-duk

Synopsis

A young woman carrying a small bag and a large reproduction of an Egon Schiele nude comes to a seaside hotel located in a small street. She has been hired to pleasure the hotel’s occasional nighttime customer, using her body to earn a living for herself and the hotel owner’s family. The father and son do not hesitate to avail themselves of her services but this merely intensifies the disdain she receives from the hotel owner’s daughter, a young woman her own age. The daughter hates the prostitute as well as her parents’ means of making money, and she hides their lifestyle from her fiancé. Although he suspects nothing, even he eventually spends a night in the prostitute’s arms. At first the incident merely worsens the girls’ relationship, but in the end it becomes the pivotal moment initiating their gradual rapprochement; the daughter discovers the power of sexuality and her hatred gives way to new understanding. And so one night the young women decide to change places. . . . The surf pounding the nearby shore mirrors the rhythm of the narration.