As far as I have learned from many various comedy films, anything can be used for good laughs, and that is why I do not mind comedies delving into unpleasant subjects at all. However, South Korean film “Helpless” is merely unpleasant without any fun or interest for me, and I must confess that there are actually several very unpleasant moments which made me quite disgusted or annoyed during my viewing.

The story mainly revolves around a lad named Guen-seong (Heo Ji-won). There was once a time when he was expected to become a successful entertainer, but he struggles to earn his meager living as a salesman at present. Although he has tried to earn a bit more money as a part-time YouTuber, nobody on the Internet pays much attention to his YouTube channel, and that makes him more frustrated with his pathetic current life.

In contrast, Jong-man (Nam Yeon-woo), one of his old classmates, has been quite famous as a YouTube comedian. When Geun-seong and several other classmates gather for a drinking evening, Jong-man flaunts his success in front of his classmates a bit, and Geun-seong naturally becomes more envious of Jong-man’s ongoing success, though he is already too drunk to talk anything to interest Jong-man.

On the next day, Geun-seong belatedly comes to realize that he made a serious mistake in the middle of the previous night. Still quite inebriated, he started another live streaming on his YouTube channel, and then he claimed that Jong-man frequently bullied him during their old school days. Although there is no evidence to support that, Geun-seong’s YouTube video soon becomes quite popular on the Internet, and Geun-seong cannot help but excited to get more attention at last, even while knowing well that whatever he is going to say will hurt Jong-man’s success more.

It goes without saying that Geun-seong becomes more and more obsessed with drawing all the more attention from thousands of online viewers out there, and what we see next is not so pretty to say the least. At one point, one of those online viewers demands Geun-seong to do something too disgusting to be described here, and Geun-seong finds himself willingly following the demand because, well, he needs money more than ever after getting fired from his salesman job. Yes, I have heard a lot about how many YouTubers are willing to do anything for more fame and success, but this particularly repulsive moment merely disgusted me without any laugh at all.

Meanwhile, Geun-seong is approached by Mi-jeong (Go Won-hee), a woman who once got involved with Jong-man some time ago. She also wants to say something negative about Jong-man, and, what do you know, their joint live streaming on his YouTube channel becomes all the more successful as they accuse Jong-man of one thing after another. In addition, as working more with her, Geun-seong considers getting a bit closer to Mi-jeong, and she does not seem to mind this at all to his surprise.

Needless to say, Jong-man, who has been not so pleased about his decreasing popularity, has something to offer for Geun-seong, and that is where the situation becomes a lot uglier than before. We see more of how pathetic and clueless Geun-seong is in his pursuit of more success, and we are not so surprised by the dark consequence of his following actions.

Around that narrative point, we are supposed to be more engaged in the story and characters, but the screenplay by director/writer Jeon Seung-pyo fails to provide any depth or personality to observe. Besides being pretty unlikable at times, Geun-seong is quite a superficial character from the beginning, and that is why we observe his eventual fall from the distance without much care. In case of several other substantial characters in the story, they are more or less than mere plot elements too shallow to hold our attention, and most of them are as banal and unpleasant as Geun-seong.

The movie eventually attempts to generate some tension during its last act, but its execution is clumsy and tedious as only leaving more unpleasant impressions on us. Yes, its hero is bound to go lower as expected, but the movie ends up spinning its wheels again, and it even does not seem to know when and how to end the story.       

 The main cast members in the film try to fill their respective roles as much as they can, but, alas, they do not have enough material for that from the very beginning. While Heo Ji-won is only demanded to look petty and pathetic unless he is required to go through more humiliation along the story, Nam Yeon-woo is helplessly stuck with his thankless supporting role, and the same thing can be said about Go Won-hee, whose presence lightens up the mood a bit for a while despite being quite under-utilized.

Overall, “Helpless” is one of the most unpleasant South Korean films I have ever seen during last several months. I watched it just because I had to evaluate it and several other South Korean independent films for an upcoming local film award ceremony, and, needless to say, it is already at the bottom of my ranking to submit. I am now ready to move onto anything better, and I sincerely hope that I will forget this terrible film as soon as possible.