SGIFF Review: The Killers (2024)

The Killers (2024) attempts an anthology of genre-whirling stories, but ultimately disappoints in its lack of maximising its potential, President Daryl Cheong writes. 

Edward Hopper. Nighthawks. 

Some have suggested that one inspiration for Hopper’s famous (and my favourite) painting comes from Ernest Hemingway’s short story ‘The Killers’ about Hemingway’s famous recurring character Nick Adams running into a pair of hit men at a restaurant.

Taking inspiration from Hemingway’s story, The Killers (2024) by director Kim Jong-kwan presents four different short stories, taking cue from a central premise: a protagonist runs into killers at a restaurant. 

The first, Kim Jong-kwan’s ‘Metamorphosis’ sees a protagonist chased by gang members finding salvation in his reawakening as a vampire at a bar. The second, ‘Contractors’ by Roh Deok is a comedic look at contract killers outsourcing a killing to others, leading to mistakes and problems. The third, ‘Everyone is Waiting for the Man’ directed by Chang Hang-jun travels back to the pre-coup South Korea of 1979, where gangsters and detectives stake out a wanted criminal at a restaurant. Finally, Lee Myung-se’s ‘Silence Cinema’ is an allegory of underground existence that comments on cinema and existence.

Beyond the similar premise and exploration of killing, the stories also utilise motifs to connect the anthology.

Primarily, actress Shim Eun-kyung appears in all four films: as a vampire bar hostess, a wrongfully-kidnapped university administrator, a model in a magazine, and a young warrior fighting for her space. Shim’s versatility and range became the focal point and exceptional part of the film, rendering the anthology an overwhelming showcase of her acting abilities.

Whether intended or not, the varied portrayals of Shim across the four stories also create space to consider the role of gender in South Korean society. Regularly undermined by the male characters, Shim’s variations across the four shorts ultimately surprise and subvert these expectations by being someone capable of committing murder too.

‘Everyone is Waiting for the Man’ would prove to be the exception since she only appears as a magazine model. Yet, when reminded that the temporal setting of the segment points to the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee and the story’s ultimate revelation that the killer turns out to be a woman instead of the male figure the characters assumed, one could suggest that Shim, as a magazine model, represents the female voices and agency stripped at a time of patriarchy and dictatorship.

The second motif running through the films is of course, ‘Nighthawks’. Whether as a prop, inspiration for art direction, or conduit for conversation, Hopper’s painting becomes the second classic that the filmmakers utilise for their works. This is, however, where the pastiche of their films reveals itself.

Even as ‘Nighthawks’ could potentially involve noir or crime suggestions given its allusions to Hemingway and the mysterious male figure sitting alone, the interpretations pointing to loneliness and emptiness within the painting creates a second layer to the artwork. After all, if it was solely about the suspense within the diner, the left one-third of the painting depicting a dark and empty city would be pointless. Even Hopper concedes that he might have unconsciously been reflecting the “loneliness of a large city.”

Yet, unlike the layers of interpretation Hopper’s painting allows, most of the segments prove to be one-dimensional in its pursuit of generic elements of crime and killing. 

Granted, there are merits and possibilities of further discourse. ‘Metamorphosis’ borrows allusions to vampire films to comment on transformation. Roh Deok, in adapting a real-life event, comments on wage disparity, migrant issues, and labour law. Chang’s locating of his short in 1979 South Korea allows for a political angle. ‘SIlence Cinema’ can be interpreted as a love letter and reflection of the cinematic medium we so love. 

In being thirty-minute works in this larger anthology, the films rarely delved beyond these ideas and thematic concerns. Most of the works left much more to be desired just as the story comes together towards each segment’s end. While the anthology format can be a driver of a movement, this format has hurt the directors’ unique visions more than it aided them.

The only exception remains Roh Deok’s segment. The comedy generated by the mistakes made by the low-level contractors allow for reflections on the unemployed and wasted potential amongst the youths of South Korea today. Simultaneously, the tragic contemplations of suicide, grief and loss by Shim’s character layers the work with a strong and moving emotional core. 

Film anthologies remain an exceptional genre for the medium. Whether it be the Oscar-nominated Wild Tales (2014), Sin City (2005), or Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), the intertextual references and commentary can be exciting. In the case of The Killers, the excitement immediately dissipates into a morass of disappointment characterised by the failed potential of most of these works.

The Killers has completed its screening at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival.