The Tiger

A South Korean drama. The place is Mount Jiri, the time the Japanese occupation. One tiger is said to be left on the mountain; the others were hunted out over the years. Man-duk is a former hunter. He no longer carries a gun; he lives at the foot of the mountain with his son and makes a living gathering herbs. Something he did in the past made him stop. The Japanese commander wants this tiger. He sees the skin as a symbol and mobilises every hunter. The local hunters are after the reward; the army supports them. They come to Man-duk again and again. He knows the mountain best. From there the film becomes a hunt, but a two-sided one: the tiger also has a past, a loss and a territory, and the narrative looks at it too. What the film is interested in is not hunting but being the last: both the animal and the man are what remains of their kind, and both know it. The mountain and the snow are constantly in the image; the tiger was made with computer imagery and most of the budget went there. Choi Min-sik plays Man-duk. Jeong Man-sik and Kim Sang-ho are in the cast. Park Hoon-jung wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes slow Korean drama and narratives built on nature. Who it is not for: anyone put off by sentiment; the film raises its tone noticeably in the last section.