Guess which other movie was set in Japan-Occupied Korean, has beautiful music and cinematography and an odd female duo?

Phantom 유령

It’s about damn time South Korean entered the chat! It feels like forever since we last covered something from there. Let’s get this party started with PHANTOM!

In the beginning

In the end

 
 
 

I have so been waiting for this movie since I saw the trailer but not because I was expecting gayness, because there is nothing at all in the trailers, but because of our two main ladies; Lee Hanee, who plays Chankyung and the somewhat recognisable Park So-dam, who plays Yuriko AKA Kangok!

No one knows this fact, but I am so obsessed with Lee Hanee’s looks! As far as I am concerned, she has the Korean features! I just love her features! I have of course seen her in multiple projects already but sadly most were not worthy to write about on this blog.

I would have watched this movie if it was just her but then go and throw in Park So-dam and hello heaven!

Now, you must have deduced that my writing about this movie means there was something worth writing about and you would be right! There is both personal reasons, meaning that it might not be silver-spoon gay, but goggles didn’t have to work hard and factual, meaning that there is real reason to write about it.

Let’s start with the real reason and that is that Lee Hanee’s character Chankyung is very gay! She is so gay that she ditched the life of comfort, her family was filthy rich, in a period of political unrest, to be with her girlfriend, who turned out to be a Phantom – agents planted into the government to fight for Korea’s freedom by assassinating Japanese powerful people in the fight to take their country back.

I have to say that this movie showed me that I was losing my touch and that I need to watch more subtext movies because I so did not catch that until Chankyung came out to Park S-dam’s character Yuriko and then I was like ‘Ooh’!

Shameful behaviour!

I really don’t know how I missed it! For crying out loud, the girlfriend Nanyeong, played by Esom, took a cigarette straight from her lips and placed it between Chankyung’s lips, during a very tearful scene but for some reason I missed it!

I think having gotten all these 100% gay projects lately has rusted my skills!

Anyway, back to the point at hand, we unfortunately never get to see any kind of making out but that goes for any character in this movie! It is logical as this is an espionage story that is too serious for relationships and really, it’s mostly a setup of a bunch of strangers forced together in an isolated mansion for questioning of suspected insurgency!

Basically, what I am saying is that there was no place for romance in this story and even with the lack of that, it moved at a very brisk pace. That is not to say that there was a lack of downtime or heartfelt moments! I mean, why would I be writing about it in the first place?

Other than the beauty, music and setting, another aspect in which Phantom is like Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden is the twists and mystery. Just about half-way through the movie, shit hit the fan and never let out till the very end!

From the beginning, all we viewers knew was the Phantom was Chankyung, her girlfriend having died after attempting to kill the soon to be Prime General, and really, we did not know that there was more than one Phantom! I don’t think I have to say who the other one is, right?

We find later after a young man who was close with Chankyung is killed right at the dining table and Chankyung was ready to lose it and blow her cover at the same time. As she made to go leap for the knife and attack, Yuriko beat her to it by picking up the candle holder and throwing it towards the villain, then following it up with a knife that she stabs the guy’s right hand with.

It was so fast that Chankyung and us viewer could do nothing but stare with mouths open.

Yep, Yuriko was the other Phantom.

Before that moment Yuriko played this obnoxious secretary to the General and she played the part so well that there is no way anyone would have suspected her! She fooled us all!

Turns out she was a badass, gun-trotting spy that could clear the room if she wanted and girl, did she clear the room! Totally the most head count by a slide, and that is saying a lot when Chankyung nearly blew up the whole mansion after she set the fuel storage on fire!

Seriously, she sent our first villain cowering and the only reason they got her was because she surrendered. To be fair, she was planning on ending her life but she got shot in the hand so she could not pull the trigger!

That right there, is the point I want to touch upon. I have said it countless times but characters who affect one another’s life are my favourite. Yuriko was so ready to throw away her life to the mission, but Chankyung changed her by the end of the movie.

Yuriko was so done with life that all she thought of was leading towards one ending. The company stationed two agents to the mission? It was because one could cover the other’s gateaway. But Chankyung thought of it in the positive way, like the reason for stationing two people to the mission being that they can help each other.

It was a good study of character and how people handle their pain and trauma. Of the two, one would think that if anyone was looking to end their life it would have been Chankyung, right? I mean, she has just lost her lover to the mission so she should be looking to get her revenge, even if it killed her! I mean, what is she living for? But she was the one that was most positive. She was the one fighting to make sure that Yuriko lived in the end!

I have to confess that even I thought her decision to save Yuriko after her capture was madness! There was no way she would’ve come out of there alive, especially carrying a subconscious Yuriko. But alas, Chankyung is the best of us. Not only did go back to save Yuriko but she made sure that Yuriko made it and that she would have the will to live.

As for Yuriko, no one knew who she really was! When Chankyung asked her name, it was the first time that she felt she was alive and human! It was the first time she felt someone cared to know her! Chankyung affected her twice, first when she told her that she had to live and die only when her time came and the other was when she was asked her name.

Sure, the future actions also were appreciated but these two impacted her the most.

Now, I am not going to pass over the other actions like the gate away in the car after Chankyung saves Yuriko, or the taking care of Yuriko afterwards, or the hand-holding in that scene or the smoking!

The smoking. Speaking of, the only intimate moment we see between Chankyung and her girlfriend, is the two exchanging a cigarette! It is very intentional and the most they could do outside kissing out in the crowded street. Not that they could do it, not in that environment, not in that period!

Knowing that, Yuriko and Chankyung exchange cigarettes twice, the first when Chankyung thought that Yuriko had saved her ass (which she did , even if she denied it) and the other much later on, when they had ‘come together’ and definitely living together and no reason at all to share a cigarette, but they did, and not just a cigarette, they even shared coffee, or tea, whatever they were drinking. I guess there was enough utensils for one person use?

Nothing is ever made clear and really, if Chankyung did not confess to Yuriko, we probably wouldn’t have guessed that Chankyung was gay and that the woman was her girlfriend. Everything was just subtext, other than the confession so the moments between Yuriko and Chankyung during this subtext speaks volumes!

Let’[s break some scenes down; Chankyung comes out to Yuriko -> Yuriko shows Chankyung the scars on her upper thigh which Chankyung touches delicately BTW -> Chankyung begs Yuriko not to die -> Chankyung asks Yuriko’s real name -> Yuriko sacrifices herself to save Chankyung -> Chankyung risks her life to save Yuriko -> Hold Yuriko’s hand -> Share a cigarette twice -> Live together -> Become partners!

Like, come on!

I am pretty sure that they were breaking all kinds of rules in the espionage world by giving away their identity to one another and choosing to live together.

But who cares, love conquers all, am I right!

So yeah, I have been looking forward to this movie. I was a bit worried that we would not get in Internationally but I mis-judged the cast’s power. The movie itself is already unique and not a mass appeaser so my expectations were low. That being said, it was different from other espionage films in that the story was more about catching these implants than it was about the real mission. In fact, the actual mission happened in after credits! Yes, believe it!

I missed you Park So-dam, I haven’t seen you since 2015, and unlike most, Parasite wasn’t my cup of tea, still haven’t finished that movie!

I hope there is another project soon with her!

And with that, I bid thee farewell.

Ja