The Korean born Japanese director Yoichi Sai brings the tale of family violence to the screen, which is based on the adaptation of Yan Sogil's same title novel.
With Takeshi Kitano playing the leading patriarch Kim Joong Pyong, the story begins in Osaka, Japan in 1923. Kim, a native Korean who left Cheju Island from Korea, reaches Osaka, hoping to find a better life.
When harsh reality makes his dream a far cry from where he stands, he resorts to violence and stubbornness to achieve his goal. He rapes Yong Hee (Masai Suzuki), another Korean immigrant, and they get married, and have a son named Masao, and a daughter named Hanako. He opens a fishcake factory and abuses his workers in long hour work, together with his barbaric behavior, which is an idea he strongly believes in. As time goes by, he earns a fortune, which makes him creating the second path of wealth: loan shark. At an extremely high interest and hard pressures on anyone who borrows from him, he was left with nothing but money and mistresses.
Years passes and his family is still under his pressure, which eventually leads to the fall of the family.
Bllood and Bones is a tale of family violence from a ruthless man who attempts to dominate what is around him. Raw and direct to your face, this is certainly not a family friendly tale on how a man repents from the sins he committed to his family.
Being a Korean immigrant in Japan, Yoichi Sai knows best on the facts of the Korean community living in Japan in the previous century, and how the first generation Korean immigrant blends their culture in the Japan society during the post Depression era and World War 2. While the film is portraying the glorious side of how the Koreans seek better life in Japan, it is not a smooth path they are taking. They are still faced with the discrimination of the Japanese as a second rate citizen, even though Japan wants Korea to join forces during World War 2.
Back home, Joon Pyong terrorizes the family thru endless violence, both physical and emotional. Workers were abused, creditors were driven to death, lust for beautiful women and endless physical relationship and abuse on the mistresses were just part of Joon Pyong's lifestyle. Yoichi Sai is not reaping the seed of fear in the audience, creating a negative impression. More rather, these are the bare naked facts that happens around us, even till today. The harsh environment in a developing country makes Joon Pyong's behavior, unfortunately, a norm to him.
As the title says, Blood and Bones. No blood were seen, no bones were broken. Instead, it's the emotion that bleeds and breaks into pieces, which can be explained by the downfall of the Kim family. And Takeshi Kitano's performances makes everyone bleed and left broken.
Blood and Bones is not a feel good movie of any kind. It makes you want to stop more people from bleeding, and breaking into pieces.
