The Taste of Money

Money. Sex. Power. They’re often the objects of greed and lust that many will go to great lengths to get just a taste of. But just how far are they willing to go? That’s the general premise of ‘The Taste of Money’, a Korean ‘erotic drama/thriller’ that doesn’t really fit the bill. It has some of the elements there; there’s sex and nudity, but I wouldn’t call it erotic (one scene in particular is just about as far from erotic as I can think), and while a couple of people end up dead it’s not really a thriller as there’s no tension or danger. For all its pretentions of dramatic grandeur and the allure of its slick and sumptuous cinematography, the film ends up being much less than the sum of its parts, unintentionally devolving into self-parody.

It’s focus on the lives of an exceptionally wealthy family and their secrets and schemes might be ripe for a proper erotic thriller, but here it’s handled in just about the worst way possible, completely defusing any erotic thrills there might be. To be blunt, it’s basically like a prolonged episode of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ or ‘The Young and the Restless’, or any of the other ‘rich people have problems’ daytime soap operas. Business deals, torrid affairs, murder, secrets, lies – all that stuff. It might be a little darker than most, with better cinematography, slightly better acting and with more sex and nudity, but at its core it’s essentially just like those shows, but entirely not realising it. It’s a ‘what if?’ scenario if they gave daytime soaps the high cinema treatment with its acting and filmmaking but keeping the silly heart of those shows. It’s ridiculous and silly and completely unaware of it.

 

Yoon is the company president of a wealthy Korean conglomerate. While he’s the figurehead and public face of the company and family (one of the richest in Korea), in reality his wife Geum-ok is the real power behind the throne. She controls the business and wealth and makes the key decisions and deals for the family’s benefit – she knows who to bribe and how to manage the various scandals caused by her family. She’s a controlling, smothering presence, made bitter by her husband’s blatant disinterest in her.

Their daughter Nami is divorced, spending her days lounging around their luxurious estate while her young child runs around minded by the help, while their son Chul is eyeing a successor role as company head, something he isn’t suited for as he lacks the sense and skill. His ambition is only matched by his incompetence – he’s constantly under investigation for various tax evasion schemes. The family is in the midst of making a large business deal with a rich American businessman who they’re spoiling with bribes and prostitutes; the deal will secure even more fortune and power for the family. While Chul is busy making side deals and Geum-ok makes steps to solidify the deal, Yoon is more interested in having an affair with Eva, a Filipino maid working to support her children at home. Yoon is genuinely in love with her and is prepared to leave his family and money to be with her. This brings out intense rage in Geum-ok, who feels her life has been ruined by her marriage to Yoon. She begins plotting ways to punish his dalliance.

Involved in all this is Young-jak, Yoon’s personal assistant and our protagonist. Determined to make as much money as he can and tempted by the potential wealth and spoils his position offers, he finds himself responsible for seemingly all the family’s needs, from serving wine and making meaningless errands to organising prostitutes and delivering bribes. As he becomes witness to the darker lies and secrets, he finds himself being used and abused by the various family members attempting to conceal or reveal each other’s secrets for leverage. Caught amidst his ambitious desire for money, his loyalty to Yoon, his friendships with Eva and blossoming romance with Nami, he becomes weighed down by the crushingly brutal reality of the length some go for a taste of money, and whether he’s willing to go to those same lengths.

 

Or something like that. It’s meant to be a thematic tale about the horrible allure of money, sex and power and what some do in their lust for it, or at least that’s what the movie seems to think it is – in reality I’d say it actually has much more in common with ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ styled ‘horny, greedy rich idiot’ tales than any mortality fables. For a film about greed there really aren’t that many ‘greedy’ folks in there, which defuses any moral story there is to tell. A lot of the good characters (well, ‘good’ in the sense of not being blatantly horrible) are distinctly not interested in the pursuit of money. Yoon just wants to be with Eva, Eva wants to provide for her kids (but loves Yoon) and Nami just sort of hangs around home with her daughter. Even Geum-ok, basically the villain of the piece, isn’t really that focused on money either; while maintaining the family’s wealth and power are her raison d'être she quickly becomes more determined in punishing her husband. Chul is greedy and ambitious, but also incompetent.

You know your moral message is fucked when you have to have an incredibly minor character basically say it out loud – indeed, such a scene happens, where a character (implied to be behind one of the darker events) basically says out loud ‘greed for money makes people do horrible things’. The problem is that Young-jak absolutely never gets drawn into a moral dilemma about greed. The few times something rough happens, it’s entirely out of his control or not his choice – he’s mostly forced when he doesn’t outright refuse something. He never truly gets drawn into the world of greed, he’s just standing on the very outskirts looking it and judging it harshly. As such it doesn’t work, since our protagonist – and witness character – already knows right from wrong, has a keen sense of personal morals and is damning of the evil, greedy characters.

The movie doesn’t realise it’s a parody, playing its ridiculous little scenarios with absolute sincerity and that, depending on your appreciation for the cheese of daytime soaps. It’s unintentionally funny at times, even when it’s trying to be serious and deep; it just doesn’t seem to see it. There are so many elements, moments and details that are silly. Young-jak spends a lot of time without a shirt on, displaying his fit physique. Every other scene he’s either already not wearing a shirt or he takes it off. The funny part is that his shirt is only ever off in a serious/emotional scene. He’s like the hunky pool boy character, always shirtless for eye-candy, but the movie doesn’t seem to realise that it’s doing this. There’s also the slowest suicide I can think of, the details of which are so high camp and unbelievable it couldn’t have been meant to be serious.

The height in humour comes in a serious part of the film where the elderly Geum-ok forces Young-jak to sleep with her (in a pretty graphic sex scene). That’s the point where the movie finally trips over into complete unintentional parody, with the sort of daytime-soap scandal (‘elderly matriarch sleeping with the handsome young help’ is pretty cliché soap plotting) given the explicit treatment (I do love how Young-jak keeps drinking booze mid-coitus to get through his gruesome task).


Now for a little praise; the movie is good looking. The sets and costumes and colours are great. In particular, I want to live in their house - it's a damn cool house, real swanky. They really sell the 'rich and powerful family' thing with a lot of little details (lots of art and fancy furniture and there's always a glass of wine everywhere). They also do a little bit of awesome horror-esque mood building - the house itself is full of dark shadows and sharp corners. The filmmaking in that respect is top notch, but it just gets brought down by the movie itself.
 

 

I’ve heard that the director of the film was disappointed in foreign response to it, commenting that it’s a very Korean tale, and that only Koreans would ‘get’ it. I’m more concerned that he didn’t get it, or didn’t realise what he ended up doing. Maybe in Korean culture this sort of story is a dark, biting think piece, but coming from western culture, where the lifestyles of the rich and famous have been fodder for ridiculously camp TV shows for decades, it just comes across as silly.