Con’s Score: 2.5 greenhouse gases
Director Lee Chan-Dong adapts a Murakami short story into a full length noir thriller, in this Korean Academy Award nominee.
Jongsu (Ah-In Yoo) is just out of college when he bumps into Haemi (Jong Seo Jun), gyrating in hot pants outside what looks like a JB Hi-Fi store (they seem to do that a lot in Korea). She’s a girl from his village he doesn’t recognise. She lives in a small unit in Seoul where the only sun she gets is at 2pm when it hits Seoul Tower. They hook up before she heads off on an African adventure and meets Ben (Steven Yuen). You know, the slightly older but much richer and good looking guy, the humble lose out to.
Ben is intrigued by Jongsu who has studied to be a creative writer. The three of them get to know each other, particularly when Ben and Haemi visit Jongsu on his family farm. They share a joint, which is always the circuit breaker which causes people to start confessing their inner thoughts. Ben likes burning down empty greenhouses which litter the country side. Go figure. Jongsu loves Haemi. (And I would rather have been having one than hanging out with this trio.)
It’s not until the 75 minute mark that the plot turns and this becomes a murder-mystery. It moves way too slow to be considered a thriller and they could have used Jongsu’s writing skills with this script. It’s ponderous.
Yoo plays Jongsu with a mouth wide-open naivety that is more gormless than innocent. Ben is charming and mysterious although there isn’t much mystery. Jun gives all her scenes energy. Without her, there’s little reason to care about these three.
There are layers to the script, especially about what modern times have done to Korea’s farmers and soul. (Let’s skip the obvious pun.) The idle rich are devouring the poor, who struggle without hope, no matter how educated they become. Pride is punished and family pride is destructive. This is the Korea that the West is holding up as an ambition for North Korea?
Chan-Dong, who co-wrote this, was fascinated with the concept of empty greenhouses as a metaphor and what they might symbolise. It drives his cinematography, but not the story line. He has avoided conclusions, just like Jongsu. He’s taken on an ambitious task – turning a short story into two-and a half hour film, but I needed more than empty greenhouses to keep my waning focus.
Jongsu’s character is given lots of dramatic depth and we’re given time to understand all three. But it this isn’t clever enough for a crime story, and the long focus on an uninteresting protagonist doesn’t make it quite work as a drama. Lots of the sub plots pay off in subtle ways to justify the ending, without driving the final scene. So it’s satisfying in one way but feels like a surprising turn in others.
How much you enjoy this, will depend on your patience, and whether you see Jongsu’s lack of emotion as naivety or just badly directed acting.
Con Nats – On The Screen
