In my inconsequential opinion, I am not an ideal audience for South Korean independent film “Esper’s Light”. While it is probably one of the most singular South Korean films of this year, I often felt distant and confused for more than 2 hours, and that impression of mine does not go away even after I later learned more about what and how it is about.

The movie consists of three different science fiction fantasy stories which, as far as I remember, are connected with each other to some degree. At the beginning of the first story, it is explained to us that a bunch of boys and girls happen to be pursued by the government due to their special powers, and the opening scene shows some of them hiding inside their safe house while being helped a bit by some other boy.

The plot thickens when their safe house is not safe anymore. They have to run away as soon as possible, and there are several options for them. While some of them go to several other remote spots which may be safer from the ongoing pursuit of the government, others go to an underground tunnel which eventually leads them to a futuristic city. Needless to say, the government continues to chase after them as usual, and we soon see some of them captured or cornered by the government agents.

Now the movie feels like your average tabletop role-playing games (TRPG) such as, yes, “Dungeons & Dragons”. As a matter of fact, director Jung Jae-hoon wrote the screenplay along with a bunch of adolescent kids who are the members of an online TRPG community on Twitter (It now becomes “X”, you know), and the movie alternates between their stories and the documentary footage clips of these young writers. Whenever the story comes upon a conflict or crisis under the guidance of their story master, they instantly respond to that via their smartphones, and then the story advances more via their imagination and storytelling skill.

I am not sure whether their writing is really good, but the movie tries to convey their enthusiasm to us via its modest cinematic ways. Whenever the mood gets weird or tense, the soundtrack is naturally filled with odd sound effects while the screen is packed with a lot of light and shadow. Besides often baffling us a lot, the overall result surely covers up the production budget limit of the movie to some degree, and you may appreciate some nice creative visual touches shown from the screen.

In case of the second story, it is simply set in some isolated background occupied by several adolescent characters who are your average fantasy archetypes. Just like the main characters of the first story, they have each own superpower, and the story mainly revolves around one girl who must protect a certain precious object despite a lot of pain inflicted upon her because of that.

We see how several other characters try to handle her problem as she screams very, very, very loud in her continuing agony, but the story is unfortunately deficient in many aspects just like the first one. For instance, we never get to know that much about its main characters and their motives, and the story is also quite murky and confusing about its rules and conditions as it is handed from one community member to another.

The third story is probably the best one in the bunch, mainly because it is a bit more dramatic compared to the two other stories. The four android robots are sent to a remote island where some four young girls have lived together without anyone else, and the robots soon come to discover that there is something magical in the island. As a matter of fact, it is so special that some of the robots cannot help but become emotional along the story, and that naturally leads to a big conflict in the story.

What eventually happens at the end of the story will not surprise you that much, but you will be more aware of those young community members behind the story. From time to time, the movie shows these kids going through their respective daily lives, and we observe how serious they are about the story and characters created by them day by day.

However, the movie does not delve much into who these young community members are, and that is the main reason why it feels too superficial at times. Yes, their stories are understandably clumsy at times, and I am totally fine with that, but the movie does not share their interest and enthusiasm with us that much. Without enough emotional ground to support their stories, the movie ultimately becomes a merely shallow exercise in style, and that makes us all the more distant to whatever is being presented on the screen. 

On the whole, “Esper’s Light” did not intrigue or stimulate my mind enough for recommendation. Yes, my mind kept going somewhere else when I watched it yesterday, but this is a distinctive cinematic experiment which deserves some admiration, and you will probably appreciate it more if you have ever had any TRPG experience (Full disclosure: I haven’t). Considering that it will not be released on video on demand (VOD), maybe you should check it out if you are a serious movie fan like me, but please be aware of what and how it is about in advance.