Seen: La Luna (2011)

Reporting on the movies that I see

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I seem to keep forgetting that Pixar has still been continuing its tradition of putting short films before their features, no matter how many Pixar films I watch in theaters. On the other hand, that means I'm regularly delighted when I watch Pixar films because it was via shorts that they established their reputation and they continue to make some highly enjoyable shorts. La Luna continues in this tradition, appearing before Brave, capturing imaginative whimsy and embedding it into a story about family and finding your own way, dressed with some enchanting visuals.

The story is pretty simple with a trio of men, a father and his father taking their bambino out to join them in their family job, which is has to do with sweeping the stars on the moon, with both father and grandfather insisting that bambino do it their way. But a new fallen star provides a challenge to the trio, prompting the kid to find a way to save the day.

And the simplicity of the conflict fits the short length of the film perfectly, setting up the kid to be torn between the conflicting methods of his father and grandfather as well as a clever means of resolving that conflict. If there's anything wrong with the story is that there's a little lack of urgency when the big disruptive event happens and so the short isn't quite as exciting as it could have been in that moment.

More enchanting is the direction of the piece as a whole, especially with the possibly iconic image of how the family manages to get up onto the moon. Combined with a rustic design for the characters and their costumes as well as a lovely look to the stars and the moon, La Luna presents some lovely visuals to go with its small, but effectively story. The sense of humor itself is a little understated, but contributes well to the overall calmer atmosphere of the short and so works in harmony.

Now, maybe La Luna's more tranquil mood does result in the film popping a little less than the brighter humor and temperament of other popular Pixar shorts, and, if that's what you're looking for, then it might be a fair preference to air. However, I feel that La Luna's lovely art, small, but effective story and enchanting, but peaceable direction results in some new and appreciable ground for Pixar. 8/10.

Links:

• Director: Enrico Casarosa
• Writer: Enrico Casarosa
• Principal Actors: Tony Fucile, Krista Sheffler, Phil Sheridan
• Short website
• At Daum, IMDb, Naver, Wikipedia (en)

Inbox: 황산벌 (2003)

New for me

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Not until the release of Battlefield Heroes last year was I even aware that I Junik has made a movie prior to his enormously successful The King and the Clown. Nor did I realize that his first film was a comedy with a kind of humor that does not at all resemble the kind of character studies and epics that he would make following it. And, yet, after his recent historical epic, Blades of Blood, he has opted to go back to his roots and produce a sequel to his goofy historical comedy, Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield, which turned out to be modest fun, although it suffers from the ill-prepared final act tonal shift to the serious that frequents too much of Korean comedy.

The story itself is based on actual history, set during the end of the 7th Century Three Kingdoms period of Korea as the kingdoms, Baekje, Silla and Goguryeo skirmish with each other and the Tang Dynasty of China tries pressing their might upon them. In the opening, the kings of the three kingdoms convene as the Tang representative tries to get them all to pay tribute, but a longstanding rivalry between the kings of Baekje and Silla result in war! In particular, the Tang-friendly Shilla allies with Tang and, under pressure to deliver rice at a rendezvous point with the Tang warships, has to press their 50,000 troops, led by General Gim Yusin (Jeong Jinyeong) through a stronghold held by Baekje with a force of 5,000. The only hitch is that the Baekje stronghold's army is commanded by General Gyebaek (Bak Junghun), a focused man who has a history of defeating Gim Yusin in the past.

What makes Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield particularly different is that, on top of its telling of this particular slice of Korean history, it does so with a bit of a goofy sense of humor, especially at first as the seemingly cowardly Gim Yusin hesitates to commit his full forces to action and engages in creative, mocking combat (in a few cases, actually sending a troop of hardened name-callers) while searching for a weakness. Meanwhile, the comedy on the Baekje side comes in part from their capacity to repel these creative attacks, but some amusing verbal play which has Gyebaek speaking about a vague "it", which the other Baekje troops understand, but confounds Shilla. And while the sense of humor, itself a more straight-faced relative of the comedy of Mel Brooks in its irreverence, is pretty amusing, it doesn't ever reach howl-inducing, but stops at smirking levels. More problematic is the film's changeover to the serious in the final act, which isn't well embedded throughout the course of the film and leads to a rather sudden and fun-draining finale to the film, the silly antics of most of the film likewise undercutting the drama of the final act.

And even though I have previously given director I Junik a lot of credit with his capacity for character studies, his ability to handle the goofier comedy antics of Battlefield is interesting as the onscreen antics are captured with a minimum of flare, with only minimal parodic direction, leaving the actors with most of the comedy work, but also imposing upon the film a rather straight-faced tone, which was itself interesting versus a more winking comedy. But I Junik doesn't spare some more stylistic touches when necessary to get the parody across. Unfortunately, many of these more parodic moments aren't especially comedic (nor dramatic) and feel a little flat. And while the straighter approach to the comedy does help in the visual transformation to the serious in the final act, it doesn't overcome the distracting and seemingly unprovoked tonal shift. The actors do largely manage to succeed in their comedy, especially as they mostly play their silly characters somewhat straight, which works with the directorial style, letting the antics themselves draw the laughs, with Bak Junghun's serious visage and speech about the vague "it" being pretty winning.

Still, the comedy itself doesn't quite rise to its potential, especially when it gets abandoned for a serious war drama in the final act and while I understand that bloody massacre isn't really a funny thing, I think the film could have better integrated the serious and the comedic by approaching the comedy a little different, instead of going from farce to serious. Nevertheless, some amusing performances and jokes keep Battlefield from sinking, even with its flaws. I won't claim that it's a great historical comedy and many people will find the final reel of the film a bit of a let down, but I still think Battlefield has enough going for it that those that like silly irreverent comedies, especially set in historical periods like 7th Century Korea, will still be able to get some amusement here. 6/10.

DVD Note: Virgil Films' all region US release of Once Upon a Time in a Battlefield is yet another release that features an inexplicable 4:3 letterbox presentation, which is its most egregious problem. The transfer itself varies from fine, especially in the brighter scenes to some contrast, color and crushing issues in the darker scenes. The release is pretty barebones with no special features to speak of.

Links:

• Director: 이준익
• Writers: 조철현, 최석환
• Principal Cast: 박중훈, 이문식, 정진영
• Website
• At Daum, IMDb, Naver, Wikipedia (en|ko)
• Available at Amazon (US Region 1 DVD) and YesAsia (US Region 1 DVD)

Inbox: 색즉시공 시즌 2 (2007)

New for me

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Sequels in Korean cinema are a pretty rare thing and even those names that become franchises, like the Whispering Corridors horror series, have a tendency not to feature direct sequels. As such, Sex Is Zero's sequel (appropriately named Sex Is Zero 2) is rather surprising entity, being a direct sequel of a film which is itself an example of an uncommon subgenre in Korea, the raunchy sex comedy. The original was a hit in Korea, and while it suffered from a lack of focus in its storytelling and a fun-killing tonal shift towards the serious in the final act, some of the setups and situations were undeniably gut-bustingly funny and saved the film. The sequel does a little to ameliorate some of the dizziness of the original film and strengthen the actual relationship story, but is devastatingly unfunny, especially for those who have seen the previous film and ultimately sinks from losing the only saving grace of its predecessor.

The film opens up with Eunsik (Im Changjeong) saying goodbye to Eunhyo (Ha Jiwon) at the airport, their relationship from the final film coming to an end to open the door for a new love interest in Gyeonga (Song Jihyo), who he first meets as she threatens to kill him and herself in a psychiatric hospital before fast forwarding three years when they've long been dating. However, Gyeonga has maintained abstinence the whole time, leading Eunsik to be frustrated. Meanwhile, many of the same characters remain at the school, the spiritual concentration team that Eunsik is a part of becoming an MMA team and Gyeonga becoming a star member of the school's swim team. Things get complicated when a man from Gyeonga's past, Giju (I Sangyun), re-enters the picture.

Or, at least that's what the film would like us to think. Even though the relationship drama is much more meaningful in this film than the original Sex Is Zero, it suffers greatly in that it simply lacks any worthwhile drama with Gyeonga's unfazed devotion shattering any tension in the viewer and Eunsik's own devotion resulting in contrivance driving the conflict. Of course, this might all be a moot point if the film managed to be entertaining, but the film makes the terrible mistake of rehashing most of the old jokes from Sex Is Zero and somehow decides that toning them down will somehow keep it funny. That's right, the sequel is somehow tamer than the original and it makes every single joke derived from the original fall utterly flat in the sequel, as well as some of the moments seeming rather forced. Finally, the film expands deeper into the stories of some of the crazy side characters, but these stories hardly resonate with the main story and fail to provide a reasonable contrast or any real solid comedy, padding the film's unnecessarily long runtime.

One definite area where the film has improved since the original is the production values, where the film shows up benefiting from the development of the Korean film industry since the debut of the original and director Yun Taeyun actually handles the visual direction with a steady hand, which results in the film looking much cleaner than the original film. However, the film, addled with an unfocused story, still feels like it's a series of unconnected events and doesn't do much to draw it all together. Strangely enough, the rehashed nature of the film leaves most of the characters seeming rather unfresh, something which none of the actors are really able to counter and, under the more controlled direction, the performances of the rubber-faced Choe Seongguk and Yu Chaeyeong feel like caricatures in a more real world than the more bouncy original.

Ultimately, even though Sex Is Zero 2 avoids the predictable "bigger and more" factor of sequels, its more sedate and tamer story and telling of it results in a comedy that's actually quite boring, never getting the story together well enough to win on that ground, despite the mild improvements to character relations. Furthermore, the cleaner directing kind of exposes just how ramshackle the storytelling was in the original, but also creates an environment that does not favor the goofy antics that are contained within the film. And all this is wrapped up in a nearly two hour package, which is much too long, especially with the comedy missing much more than hitting. While the original film had some outrageous antics to make up for its shaky storytelling, this sequel has lost the only thing holding the original together and for that reason, I would suggest that you look elsewhere for a raunchy sex comedy. 5/10.

Links:

• Director: 윤태윤
• Writer: 윤제균
• Principal Cast: 임창정, 송지효
• At Daum, IMDb, Naver, Wikipedia (en|ko)
• Available at YesAsia (KR Region 3 DVD)

Inbox: 색즉시공 (2002)

New for me

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I have to admit that Sex Is Zero fits a rather rare place among all the Korean films I've seen, which is that of a raunchy gross-out sex comedy. Now, the natural comparison point to Sex Is Zero is going to be the American film, American Pie, which features a similar brand of mixing up horny young people with wild and frequently gross antics, but the Korean film unsurprisingly also manages to add its trademark shift to the serious for the final reel, which isn't as seamless as it could have been. But, then, the film is as wildly structures as its goofy characters resulting in a viewing that frequently loses its steam. But even though the film did seem like a chore to watch at times, I'm not going to lie that some of the comedy elements had me laughing out loud, so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Set in college, the story's protagonist is the hapless butt monkey Jang Eunsik (Im Changjeong), a freshman law student, who, along with the majority of his male friends, have a fixation on the young women on campus. The object of his particular affection is one of the star aerobics students, I Eunhyo (Ha Jiwon), who, like her female friends, has a fixation on campus hottie Ham Sang-uk (Jeong Min). And while the women prepare for their big competition and Jang makes a connection with I, she soon discovers that Ham has an interest in her too, making things complicated for the love/lust-lorn Jang.

What works especially well in this film are the moments of stupid gross out comedy in the film, which mark much of the first half of the film, with embarrassing setups and some really disgusting moments powering some great shock factor. But for all the goofy comedy, even the first half of the film suffers a bit from not really having much of an overall story direction as it largely seems like "stuff happens", frequently robbing the film of any drive and making the moments connecting the funny parts drag. Interestingly enough, once the film actually finds something resembling a story, the comedy gets heavily replaced by melodrama, which isn't well prepared for by the film in terms of character or foreshadowing quickly sinking the fun, which happened to be its only real strength. And it still feels long--which is difficult to do with a film that's less than one hundred minutes.

In terms of tone, writer-director Yun Jegyun finds a correlation with the Farrelly brothers, with most of his characters being pretty exaggerated and the setups drawn for heavy gross-out or raunchiness. In fact, in terms of sex, Sex Is Zero outdoes its American peers with nudity and even a few explicit sex scenes thrown in the mix alongside lots of ogling of women (and a single moment of ogling Ham). It's all done pretty bluntly, but with a rather rubbery comedic undertone cutting against the sexiness of it all a little.

Unfortunately, like his messy script, Yun doesn't quite manage to shape a consistent overall tone to his film and some of the editing and storytelling choices leave lots of unfunny and inconsequential things happening on screen while not motivating well enough his characters' actions, especially in the final dramatic act, taking away from the suspension of disbelief. The actors are pretty game here, ranging from heavily goofy supporting characters creating a bit of a surreal atmosphere, which sometimes feels just a touch too over the top, especially once the tonal shift occurs. Both Im and Ha are adequate as the butt monkey and straight woman, but the dramatic finale is a bit much for their limited characters to carry.

But, like I said, some of the setups and payoffs in the film are genuinely laugh inducing, so Sex Is Zero isn't without its value. These are utterly memorable moments from a film that otherwise has a hard time stitching the good parts together with a solid story, made a bit of a chore to watch by aimless storytelling, tonal inconsistencies and the rather incongruent shift to melodrama. With production values a bit on the rough side, Sex Is Zero simply doesn't seem as well put together by its closest American peer in story, production or character, but manages to at least pull out some funny moments. And that might be enough for those looking for a comedy to enjoy, but the film can be a little tedious for all of its flaws, so I'd only suggest watching this if gross-out jokes are what you're craving. 6/10.

DVD Note: The Panik House DVD is encoded in a lamentable 4:3 letterbox presentation, which is quite disappointing considering that anamorphic widescreen was format of choice for most other region releases of this film. The film itself had a better transfer than I anticipated, but still looks a bit on the rough side. At least the printed materials are pretty good, including an essay book and some modest special features.

Links:

• Director: 윤제균
• Writer: 윤제균
• Principal Cast: 임창정, 하지원
• At Daum, IMDb, Naver, Wikipedia (en|ko)
• More Reviews: Koreanfilm.org, VCinema
• Available at Amazon (US Region 1 DVD) and YesAsia (US Region 1 DVD)

Inbox: 생활의 발견 (2002)

New for me

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On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (often simply called Turning Gate) was one of director Hong Sangsu's most popular and accessible early films, but because of the circumstances as I developed my initial interest in Korean cinema, I completely missed the film and, despite catching nearly all of the rest of his filmography, I haven't actually seen Turning Gate until recently, but after seeing it, I can see why the film is regarded as one of his most accessible films, especially following the weightiness of his first two films and the cerebral quality of Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors. Turning Gate is Hong's first really comedic film, building upon a rather critical and ironic view of human folly and the degree of lightness afforded by that comedy makes Turning Gate much more accessible than his previous films, but also the reduced degree of formalism, tearing away the fantastic elements of his first two films as well as the structural play of Virgin. Also, Turning Gate is the first complete embodiment of Hong's standard story, featuring a love triangle; self-deceiving, but earnest, sex-loving men that work in the film industry; and critical, observational comedic irony. But, in his comedy, Hong doesn't pull punches with his depiction of his characters, resulting in a comedy that also doubles as a hefty character study of a flawed man, making Turning Gate quite interesting and possibly still one of his best films.

In Turning Gate, actor Gyeongsu (Gim Sanggyeong) is a bit down on his luck, his past film having been a failure and getting cut from his next film. Stuck without much to do, he takes an invitation from his old friend, Sungwoo (Gim Hakseok) to visit him outside of the city and with nothing left to do, he does. During his travels, he meets two different women, dancer Myeongsuk (Ye Jiwon) and train passenger Seonyeong (Chu Sangmi), both of whom seem to immediately take a liking to Gyeongsu, but as Gyeongsu explores the potential of both women, he discovers that relating to them is more complicated than being liked.

One of the reasons that Turning Gate is so effective is because, despite its nearly two hour running time, the storytelling is quite lean, sticking to Gyeongsu and his misadventures and each scene is rife with conflict, keeping the dramatic levels pretty high throughout the film, but even more distinctive than the quality of the storytelling is just how well realized Turning Gate's Gyeongsu is, full of hubris, but earnest enough that you can't help but feel just a little bad for how his impulsive decisions land him in regretful places. I especially liked some of the interesting characterization details, especially how Gyeonsu has a tendency to "take" phrases and behaviors from other people, perhaps because he's an actor and how he reuses these things on people he meets later, but also betrays a kind of malleability to his character which the film actually goes as far to indirectly call him out on.

And frequent Hong collaborator Gim Sanggyoeng manages to perfectly capture that unstable, but passionate nature well, still being able to find the earnestness and self-believing sincerity to contrast, both following in a long line of Hong male protagonists of this ilk, yet also establishing a unique pathos for his Gyeongsu. Likewise, his counterparts both manage to infuse a lot of character into the women they play, with Ye Jiwon's Myeongsuk capturing an obsessive willfulness that's almost frightening, and Chu Sangmi's Seonyeong managing an interesting kind of elusiveness that understandably captures Gyeongsu. Hong shows continued development towards his present stylistic presentation with his garish green title cards and simple music, but in terms of camera direction, handles the film smoothly and invisibly, keeping the focus on his characters and what they're up to, which is good because he works well with his actors here.

Still, how much of an impact the film leaves, as we see where Gyeongsu ends up as a result of his decisions, despite asking us to laugh at him, shows just how deftly Hong's observational style manages to split between dramatic character study and moments of ironic comedy. While I do think that Turning Gate is definitely a more accessible Hong film than his preceding ones, with its economical storytelling and comedic attitude, the detached, observational, and even critical style still might not win over the most casual of moviegoers. But even so, I think, because of how well all the elements come together in Turning Gate, that it is still easily one of the most engaging, interesting and enjoyable films in Hong's long filmography and definitely a good place to start checking out Hong's films, or, if you're already a devotee, a film you should definitely see. 9/10.

Links:

• Director: 홍상수
• Writer: 홍상수
• Principal Cast: 김상경, 추상미, 예지원
• At Daum, IMDb, Naver, Wikipedia (en|ko)
• More Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Available at Amazon (US Region 1 DVD) and YesAsia (US Region 1 DVD)

Replay: 오! 수정

Revisiting movies

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For some inexplicable reason, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors never sits as well in my memory as I opine of it when watching the film. Perhaps because on initial viewing the Rashomon-like multiple perspective wore my tired brain down and I struggled to stay awake. However, I think that with each successive viewing, director Hong Sangsoo's third feature has the most depth that can be mined and so proves to be more interesting each time.

While the film is rather simple, originally set up as we watch one lover, the wealthy Jaehoon (Jung Bosuk) arrive at a hotel for an intimate rendezvous only to be seemingly stood up by the titular Soojung (Lee Eunjoo), a film writer, she then calls and offers some resistance to having sex before finally agreeing to meet him. And then we watch the events of their relationship, from their meeting to moment we meet them at the beginning of the film. And Virgin presents these events twice, once from each character's perspective, resulting in some differences in recalling the events, based on the perspective, as well as Soojung presenting facts that are previously untold during Jaehoon's perspective.

What this storytelling technique does is create a fission in how to interpret what we see and presents insight into each character by how they shape their memories. This creates very different interpersonal conflicts in the minds of both characters and even what they each choose to remember and recall presents differing values and ways of seeing each other. It also makes it a bit of a game trying to discern what the actual events that took place are, and yet, the way that the film is structured, perhaps that's not even what matters. When you combine that interesting intellectual dimension to the story of a relationship that begins and ends, complicated by Jaehoon and Soojung's mutual director friend, Youngsoo (Moon Sunggeun), and some of the factors arising from differing class statuses, Virgin becomes quite a layered multi-dimensional affair. On the other hand, the film could also feel a bit clinical in its smart character study due to Hong's detached observational style and strong sense of irony, which has greater resonance due to the multi-perspective storytelling.

With Virgin, Hong presents perhaps the first film in his oeuvre that really marks his overall thematic and stylistic approach, with a love triangle setup, filmmaking characters and comedy drawn from irony, especially of characters who convince themselves of their honesty via sincerity in order to relieve themselves of blame or guilt. But not until The Day He Arrives would Hong revisit the use of black and white as he uses in Virgin, which results in striking visuals and perhaps adding to the murkiness of the characters' memories by presenting the film only in shades of grey. As Hong has shown previously, he works well with his actors to bring life to his story, with Jung imparting a kind of oddness to Jaehoon's exterior pleasantness as well as Lee's placing Soojung in a default dour state and the other performers all seem to add something overall to the film. Finally, the music here is simple, a style that Hong will continue with for much of the rest of his filmography.

All that said, because of the numbers of layers presented by the story's bifurcation and because the movie essentially repeats itself, I think that Virgin is a hard sell to casual moviegoers and the films subtlety has a high potential for boredom for the impatient or unwilling to work at looking into the film's layers. Even so, those who already have an interest in Hong's film and well as more patient moviegoers as well as those who like mentally stimulating films will likely find Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors to be a film rich with rewards, with strong visual direction and performances as well as revealing in its effective use of multiple perspectives to make a statement of personal perception, character, values, communication, and memory, among other things. A fine film, even if not immediately as accessible as Hong's other films. 8/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org

Inbox: 스물넷

New for me

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The main reason that I purchased My Beautiful Days is simply because it's attached to On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate, by a director favorite of mine, Hong Sangsoo, in a discounted Amazon two-pack. Having never even heard of this film before, I suppose it was a bit of a gamble, but the cost of buying both was only slightly more than buying both, so I thought it was worthwhile. After watching My Beautiful Days, I'm really surprised that the film hasn't gotten more attention than it has because I found it to be a surprisingly affecting tale of quarter-life confusion, even as its lack of a distinct plot might lose some viewers.

The Korean title is "Twenty Four" and our twenty-four year old protagonist is Joonee (Kim Hyunsung), a young man who is serving out his required military service as a part time civil service worker, as a parking attendant for a government office. Not having graduated school, he floats through life unsure of what he wants, having an affair with the older and married civil servant, Miyoung (Bang Eunjin), despite feeling a little uneasy about it. In the evening he works for a dry cleaner owned by the similarly named Joonee (Myung Gyenam). Suddenly, one day, he encounters his ex-girlfriend, Eunji (Byun Jungmin), who now works as at a television station and, then, her spunky younger sister, Hyunji (Kim Gyuri). Caught at the tail of his required service, he finds himself lost both in what he wants from his life, as well as between the three women in his life.

In many ways, My Beautiful Days follows an alternative type of storytelling, where the plot isn't the focus, but rather the character(s). In this case, the story is much less about "what happens", but how what happens to Joonee, and to a lesser extent those around him, changes him. And, in stepping away from conventional story-plotting, the film doesn't provide much resolution at the end in the conventional sense. Yet, I think it really captures the in-between-ness that encapsulates the lives of many confused twenty-somethings, who don't know what to do with their lives in some aspects after they leave the regimented lives of school and service. And so I found it very appropriate that Joonee, lost as he is, doesn't know what to do with the women in his life. In a scene where Hyunji quizzes Joonee on what his hobby is, he responds with "I don't know... sleeping" and when the question is turned back on her, she responds with "running". And I find it absolutely appropriate that a lost boy like Joonee is then attracted to the passion of Hyunji and makes some decisions about what he wants in his own life. And even if that seems like awfully small character development for a feature film, seeing that and Joonee's echo in the older Joonee, as he confronts something he lost in his past and how it plays into developing younger Joonee as well.

For the most part, director Im Jongjae handles his film with a light stylistic touch and spends a bit of time simply observing Joonee in his various environments. This largely helps add a lot of detail to his characters and helps expose the later acts shifts better, but the pacing is so casual that it matches the protagonist's outlook well. Fortunately, the film is not overlong and cuts close to 90 minutes, which really helps keep the film from feeling like it's dragging. The actors also largely do a great job of playing their low-key characters well, with Bang handling Miyoung's bite and fragility well and Myung infusing his supporting character with a lot of depth as well. Only Kim's Hyunji seems a touch off the reality of the film, but even then, I think it works as a highlight to contrast the difference between the confused wanderers in the film and Hyunji's spark. The one glaring weakness in terms of direction and performance are the sex scenes, which are a bit on the unbelievable side. The other weakness of the film is that is doesn't benefit from Korea's strong production values and lacks a bit in the tech departments.

Another great highlight to My Beautiful Days is the fantastic score, which I didn't even need to look up the credits to know that Lee Byungwoo handled. It's interesting that I found so much enjoyment out of a film that doesn't have a lot of plot and where the conflict largely relies on the personal angst of the protagonist and yet, despite that the film wanders much like the protagonist, I was drawn in by its internal thematic resonance and subtle touch, with the film's shorter running time definitely helping to balance the slower pace. Throw in some good low-key performances and a meaningful and relevant set of themes explored, echoes throughout multiple characters and even a small dash of hope, and you have film that was tragically ignored and ought to be seen and remembered more. That said, because of its unconventional approach to story, I think that it might not appeal to those looking for a film to grab them, but for those who might find the film's themes appealing and are willing to glide alongside the film, I think My Beautiful Days is definitely worth a watch. 9/10.

DVD Note: YA Entertainment's region 1 DVD is regretfully a pretty poor transfer of an already soft original. Even more egregious is the decision to present the film in a cropped 4:3 pan & scan that doesn't do enough panning and scanning to mask the fact that the ends of the picture are cut off, decimating the visual storytelling of the film. At least the subtitles and sound are decent.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org
• Available at Amazon and YesAsia

Replay: 강원도의 힘

Revisiting movies

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After watching The Power of Kangwon Province, I have to admit that I miss the Hong Sangsoo that made this film. While his more recent films remain quite entertaining, humorous, and manage to rework his now trademark setup in new and interesting ways, they also don't quite have the potency of his earliest films. And even though Power is certainly not a film for the impatient, due to its languid and observational character study, there's no denying that there's a kind of hypnotic power to the scenes we witness in the film.

Hong again takes a connected multi-narrative approach, this time limiting himself to two. The first follows college student Jisook (Oh Yoonhong) and her friends, Eunkyung (Park Hyunyoung) and Misun (Im Sunyoung) as the three take a trip to Kangwon Province for some touring in the wake of Jisook ending an intense affair with a married man. In the second, we follow the man, Sangkwon (Park Jonghak), a college lecturer who is struggling to get hired as a professor, as he joins his friend Jaewan (Jeon Jaehyun) on a trip to Kangwon Province in well.

And while the characters all do various things and interact with each other and additional characters, the two stories only connect directly near the end of the film, while there are other intersections between the two. Hong's eye for internal conflict is quite impressive in this story as we watch these characters do some rather mundane thing, but there is clearly something else looming in the back of their minds, driving them to behave the ways that they do, and the way that this great internal drama plays out against the banality of their trips makes for a fascinating contrast. Still, I'm not going to lie that the movie felt long and that I struggled to stay awake through parts of it, because the film is filled with moments where nothing of any consequence is happening. The film seems plotless at times.

Yet, even those actionless scenes that I struggled against, all seemed to add to the film, enhancing the observational approach of the film, almost documentary-like in its detachment, and yet gaining intimacy due to the time we spend with the characters. And the way that Hong manages to connect the two characters are surprising, including a moment of fantasy that threatens to break the otherwise very grounded in the real reality that Power presents. Being able to convey such internal drama in so many moments, the actors that Hong works with really shine, giving their characters depth without having to do much, carrying the weight of their backstories in their present.

Power also manages to elevate the production values of the film beyond the expected levels of its 1998 production year, as well as gaining a lot of subtlety in his visual storytelling ability between his debut film and Power, resulting in a film with a solid picture, even if it doesn't have the distinctness of vision that Hong later develops. But it all serves to support Hong's examination of how these characters deal with the consequences of the decisions they make, their fallibility, the potency of their emotions, and how two different people can be so connected by those experiences, even when apart. And in its dramatic meditation, Hong scores well, concluding his atypical narrative in an appropriately pointed, but oblique way. The Power of Kangwon Province is a kind of slow art film that can be a snorefest to many casual audiences, but those looking for a strong observational character study and a very subtly potent drama will likely appreciate Hong's early masterpiece. 8/10.

Links:

• Additional Reviews: Koreanfilm.org