Archaeology of Love (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Recovering from a toxic relationship

Posted on April 16, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Archaeology of Love” is a haunting character drama revolving around one toxic relationship and its aftermath. As dryly but sensitively observing its ordinary heroine’s emotional struggle along the story, the movie lets us understand and empathize more with her via a series of restrained but powerful personal moments, and that is why it is touching to see how she eventually finds some strength for moving forward more for herself.

At the beginning, we are introduced to a young archaeologist named Yeong-sil (Ok Ja-yeon), and then we watch her doing a little presentation about her profession in front of a bunch of disinterested high school students. She is not particularly enthusiastic about doing the presentation, but this is how she earns her meager living for now before another opportunity for her career comes. While watching her phlegmatically going through her another day in a little residence of hers, we come to gather that something is holding her, but she does not reveal much in her rather detached appearance, and we naturally come to wonder more about this unspecified matter of hers.

After it patiently and gradually establishes its heroine’s current status during its first act, the movie goes back to when Yeong-sil met a guy named In-sik (Giyoon) 8 years ago by a small coincidence. When she was working on her latest excavation project with her colleagues in some rural region, Yeong-sil happened to be approached by In-sik, who came for doing some job at a nearby museum as a recording technician. Although they were total strangers from the beginning, Yeong-sil soon found herself attracted to this lad, and it seemed that In-sik was also quite interested in getting closer to her.

As they later come to spend more time together, In-sik looks more like someone Yeong-sil can be serious about, and In-sik comes to show more of himself in response. He has run a little recording studio of his own, and Yeong-sil appreciates his skills a lot as another kind of professional. In the end, she decides to break up with her current boyfriend who has been more like a burdensome roommate, and then she begins to live more with In-sik during next several months.

However, there are some bad signs about which Yeong-sil should have been alarmed from the very beginning. Blatantly emphasizing how disadvantaged he is as becoming 40, In-sik wants Yeong-sil to be really serious about their relationship, and she agrees to follow his rather petty demands without much hesitation, but then she only finds herself verbally bullied and humiliated because of her ‘promiscuous’ past. He often asks about whom she slept with before him, and he becomes pretty nasty when he comes to learn about her little mistake with some guys in the past at one point.

You may think any sensible woman would quickly decide that enough is enough around that point, but Yeong-sil only finds herself stuck more with her toxic boyfriend as virtually gaslighted by him. Even when one of her colleagues points out that to her with sincere concern, she still hesitates about breaking up with In-sik, and her growing conflict consequently affects both her life and her career to considerable degree.

After enduring In-sik for no less than 8 years, Yeong-sil eventually decided to leave, but, already shown to us around the end of the first act of the movie, she is not totally free from In-sik yet. Although they are supposedly finished with each other as lovers, In-sik keeps meddling with her life in one way or another, and Yeong-sil unwisely lets that happen – until she finally becomes more aware of the toxic aspects of her relationship with In-sik.

Steadily maintaining its leisurely narrative pacing throughout its rather long running time (163 minutes), the movie slowly shows some signs of hope and healing as Yeong-sil continues to struggle and wander without much direction for herself. When she happens to encounter some nice and good-looking lad, she is naturally interested in him, but then she understandably hesitates as still reeling from her unhealthy relationship with In-sik. At least, she manages to restart her professional career bit by bit, and she also gets some therapeutic help and support, though that still does not make her feel much better than before.

Everything in the film depends a lot on Ok Ja-yeon’s quite but undeniably unforgettable lead performance, which does not often signify much on the surface but conveys to us a lot about her character’s complicated thoughts and feelings. As Ok’s terrific performance ably carries the movie, a number of good performers come and go as deftly supporting her, and Giyoon is particularly effective as a textbook case of toxic boyfriend.

“Archaeology of Love”, which was premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival in last year but belatedly released here in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is the second feature film of director/writer Lee Wan-min, who previously made a feature film debut in “Jamsil” (2016). Like “Jamsil”, “Archaeology of Love” will require some patience from you during its first hour, but it will be quite a rewarding experience on the whole once you accept how it is about, and Lee demonstrates here that she is indeed one of more interesting South Korean filmmakers at present. Although she made only two feature films now, she is a talented filmmaker who really knows how to engage us via good mood and storytelling, and I will certainly look forward to watching whatever may come next from her.

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In Water (2023) ☆1/2(1.5/4): In Blur (or Bullsh*t, perhaps)

Posted on April 15, 2023 by kaist455

When my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert was going to review Ingmar Bergman’s great film “Persona” (1966) not long after he became the film critic of Chicago Sun-Times, he did not know what to write first, but then he simply began to write about what he observed and felt during his viewing, and then the rest quickly followed as a result. I tried to follow his example while watching Hong Sang-soo’s new film “In Water”, but I am so sure about how I and other audiences around me were supposed to respond when we watched it at last night. Is this supposed to be a practical joke for his admirers? Or, is this just a deliberate affront to all audiences who paid to see it? Although I fortunately did not pay anything for this exasperating piece of bullsh*t, I was pretty pissed off about wasting my precious 61 minutes without being rewarded much on the whole.

The main reason of my anger and frustration toward this movie mainly comes from its inexplicable visual strategy. Except a few key scenes, many other scenes in the film are blurred on the screen as being deliberately out of focus, and we cannot possibly detect any particular detail and nuance from that. Even those few key scenes do not have much lighting from the start, so we can barely see the main performers’ face in their rather dim environment, and it is often hard for us to sense whatever is exchanged among them beneath the surface.

I must really tell you that I do not mind out-of-focus shots at all. In case of one little but extraordinary Finnish film “The Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic” (2021), many of its key shots are frequently out-of-focus for emphasizing its disabled hero’s visually impaired viewpoint, and that wonderfully works because, above all, it still does not lose any focus on its hero’s face and the thoughts and expressions felt from his face. In case of Hong’s film, it does not have any focus on anything on the screen from the start to the end, so we can only observe its story and characters from the distance without much care or attention.

Come to think of it, I doubt whether there is any substantial story or character in the film from the beginning, because the movie feels like the tepidly extended version of a short film already deficient in terms of story and characters. At the beginning, we are introduced to two lads and a young woman who are working together for a little short film project of theirs in Jeju Island, but we do not know what the hell they are really making, because they still do not have any clear idea on what they are making at present.

Is this a self-deprecating reflection of how Hong usually makes his films? I heard that he often completes his screenplay right before handing it to his performers on the set, and that says a lot about how his movies usually depend a lot on quick improvisation and spontaneity couple with some necessary professionalism. Although many of his films look pretty plain and simple without much editing or camera movement (He has done all the editing and shooting for himself, by the way), they never look visibly bad or lousy, and I must say that they look better than what I shot with my current smartphone.

However, “In Water” surpasses the awfulness of many of my impromptu smartphone videos in many aspects. Besides its utterly unidentifiable main characters, even those locations in the film look so blurred that I doubt whether you can recognize them even if you have ever been to Jeju Island. Sure, the main characters do talk a bit about Jeju Island, but, in my humble opinion, Hong could get away with shooting the film somewhere else for saving a bit of his tiny production budget.

Therefore, we have no choice but to listen to the dialogue and the soundtrack for processing the film, but, again, we are frustrated a lot for good reasons. Although Hong demonstrates again that he is good at writing natural conversations scenes, the conversation scenes in the film only reveal the basic information about the main characters without delving much into their thoughts or feelings. We manage to gather that one of them, who has worked as an actor before deciding to try a bit of filmmaking, wants some change for his life and career, but that is all we can know about him. In case of the two other main characters, they are even less developed in comparison, and, as a matter of fact, the brief voice cameo by one certain well-known South Korean actress associated with Hong has much more presence than all of the characters of the film. Along with the brief music provided by Hong, this actress sings a bit on the phone later in the film, and this little moment of saving grace made me wish more that she will be able to work in other films besides Hong’s works.

In contrast, the three main performers of the film, Shin Seok-ho, Ha Seong-guk, and Kim Seung-yun, are thoroughly wasted as their supposedly diligent efforts are already blocked from us from the beginning, and that reminds me of late film critic Gene Siskel’s famous question: “Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?” Regardless of whether they knew the technical impediment they were going to face right from when they agreed to appear in the film, the performers try their best with their sheer thankless task, and they should not be blamed at any chance.

In conclusion, “In Water” is the worst film in Hong’s long and consistent career, and I feel rather sorry for whoever will work on its Blu-ray or DVD edition, if that is actually planned later. No matter how much those technicians will try, their efforts will be impeded by Hong’s misguided visual approach in one way or another, and I think they will be a lot happier with working on my anoscopy video shot in 2009. Believe me, my anoscopy looks sharper and more detailed besides being in focus as required, and I assure you that this will be much more entertaining than “In Water”.

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I Leave Home (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): An unexpected journey of two different losers

Posted on April 9, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “I Leave Home” is about an unexpected journey of two different losers who are utterly pathetic in each own way. They are not exactly interesting enough to draw our attention, and the movie also occasionally suffers from its weak narrative and thin characterization, but this mildly amiable road movie will not disappoint you if you just want to get relaxed while enjoying a series of nice landscapes unfolded on the screen.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Jin-woo (Na Hyun-joon), a struggling filmmaker who has currently earned his meager living via working as a part-time motel employee. Although it looks like there is a chance to boost his filmmaking career, that chance seems to be out of his reach no matter how much he tries, and he is not even willing to be with his wife and her family just because of his wounded pride.

Meanwhile, one of his close friends is about to walk away from his current life to become a Buddhist monk, so Jin-woo later has a little evening drinking party along with his friend before his friend heads to some rural Buddhist temple in the next morning. Although Seong-min (Yang Heung-joo) does not say much about his religious motive, but he really seems to be serious about devoting the rest of his life to Buddhism, and we come to gather that he has been frustrated a lot with how his life has been going nowhere.

Anyway, Seong-min is ready to enter that Buddhist temple in question when he arrives there along with Jin-woo in the next morning, but then there comes an unforeseen problem. It belatedly turns out that Seong-min is actually a bit too old to be accepted into the temple, and Seong-min and Jin-woo have no choice but to go to some other Buddhist temple where Seong-min can be accepted.

Of course, things keep going wrong for both Seong-min and Jin-woo, and the movie accordingly goes from one humorous moment to another as they keep finding themselves on the road with no definite end in sight. Despite quite befuddled about his ongoing procedure problem, Seong-min still wants to become a Buddhist monk nonetheless, and Jin-woo has to accompany his friend because he cannot just walk away from his friend. Besides, he has nothing else to do except going back to that motel job, which is the last thing he wants to do right now.

As the movie follows their journey, we see more of how pathetic Seong-min and Jin-woo are. Seong-min is running away from all those personal issues of his life because he does not know what to do with them, and Jin-woo is hopelessly stuck in his current state of life while not seeing any hope or possibility from that at all. His situation becomes more miserable when he is later notified that he lost that possible big chance for his filmmaking career, and he only comes to show more pettiness just because of that.

It would take some efforts for us to observe and care about these two miserable losers’ aimless journey, but the movie thankfully places several colorful figures here and there around their journey. At one point early in the story, Seong-min and Ji-woo receive some unexpected hospitality from a small local restaurant owner, and the mood becomes a bit more cheerful than before as they casually drink and talk together like the characters of Hong Sang-soo films. In case of the part unfolded at a little beach house belonging to an artist friend of Seong-min and Jin-woo, that artist friend and her several colleagues lighten up Seong-min and Jin-woo a little via their artistic activities, and Seong-min and Jin-woo accordingly become more relaxed than before.

However, the screenplay by Park Jin-soo often stumbles in building up its two main characters along the story. While we do not get to know much about Jin-woo except his misery and pettiness, Seong-min is mainly defined by his passive appearance, and we still do not get much glimpse into his life or personality even when his wife and daughter appear later in the story. Your interest may be increased a little when Seong-min reveals something about his daughter’s sexual identity, but Seong-min’s daughter remains rather underdeveloped just like many other supporting characters in the film, and the same thing can be said about a certain figure from Seong-min’s past.

While Na Hyun-joon is relatively showier in comparison, Yang Heung-joo steadily holds the ground as dutifully complementing his co-star, and we can easily sense a long history between their characters via their smooth interactions throughout the film. In case of the supporting performers who come and then go around Na and Yang, they are fairly believable as plain ordinary characters you may come across in real life, but the movie could add more depth and personality to their supporting characters in my inconsequential opinion, and that is the main reason why I think they are rather under-utilized on the whole.

In conclusion, “I Leave Home” is not satisfying enough to recommend, but director Kim Sung-hwan, who started his filmmaking careers with two documentary films before making a feature film debut here, shows here at least that he is a filmmaker with considerable talent and potential. Yes, this is a rather imperfect journey, but the movie is not entirely without good moments to enjoy at least. To be frank with you, I sincerely hope that I will be more entertained and impressed by whatever will come next from Kim.

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The Talent Show (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Performing for their lost children

Posted on April 9, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “The Talent Show” follows the story of several mothers who happen to try a bit on acting as a part of their personal process of dealing with immense loss and heartbreak. While that shocking tragedy involved with their lost children is not mentioned that much throughout the documentary, a sense of loss and devastation among them becomes more palpable as we get to know them more and more along the story, and it is touching to see how they find some strength to go on with their lives while also remembering their lost children as usual.

That tragedy in question happened on the morning of April 16th, 2014. A ferry named MV Sewol was suddenly sunken in the middle of its routine sail from Inchon to Jeju Island, and many of its passengers including 250 students of Danwon High School of Ansan city, who happened to be on a field trip at that time, died as a consequence. This terrible incident came to expose more of how incompetent President Park Geun-hye and her government really was in many aspects, and that eventually led to her imprisonment followed by several years of imprisonment, but, to the anger and frustration of the families of the victims and survivors, we still do not know what exactly happened on that dreadful day.

The documentary focuses on a group of mothers who later came to found a small independent acting troupe for the remembrance for their lost children, and the opening scene shows one stage performance where they play high school student characters not so different from their lost children. Their routine original play is called “The Talent Show”, and the play is mainly about how its high school student characters joyfully and passionately prepare for the talent show to be held in the middle of their field trip period.

The reason why these mothers came to act in this stage performance is simple and poignant. Besides remembering their lost children again, they also want to console their spirits as well as themselves via their stage performance, and they willingly talk to us about their respective thoughts and feelings about that. At first, it was just a casual way of theirs for reconnecting with the world after barely recovering from that devastating incident, but they came to see some value and meaning from their amateurish acting, and many of them became more passionate about acting under the thoughtful guidance of their director, who was the only professional in the group during its first several years.

Of course, these mothers have each own story about that terrible day. They all remember when they were initially relieved to hear that everyone on that ship was rescued – and how much they were devastated to learn that many of its passengers were actually not rescued at all. At one point, one of the mothers recollects her last phone call with her dear daughter, and you can feel how painful that memory is to her, even though she remains rather phlegmatic in her recollection.

As the mothers banded together for their performance, the troupe came to draw more attention from the public and the media, and the mothers soon found themselves performing here and there in South Korea. Although their acting may look clumsy at times, that weak aspect is compensated a lot by their sincerity and passion, and they certainly appreciate many positive reactions from their audiences.

Nevertheless, the troupe members sometime clashed with each other over a number of small matters, and the documentary does not hide this at all while showing more of the complex human relationships among them. At one point, a certain troupe member comes to draw more attention, and she even receives an offer to act in some other troupe, but that unintentionally draws envy and jealousy from some of her colleagues. Not so surprisingly, some of the original members eventually leave the troupe later, and that causes some bitterness among the remaining members.

However, the most challenging moment for the troupe is when they are asked to perform at Danwon High school. Because their performance is supposed to be held on April 16th, many of the troupe members show understandable concern as wondering whether they are really ready for doing this performance, and it is quite clear to us that they are still reeling from their devastating personal loss. Many of them frequently go to psychiatry clinics, and the documentary lets us observe one of them seriously consulting with her psychiatrist about her current mental condition.

Director Lee So-hyun wisely and thoughtfully focuses more on the vivid humanity of the troupe members, and that prevents her documentary from becoming a superficial presentation of sadness and devastation. When their time to perform at Danwon High school comes at last, the troupe members certainly try their best even when they cannot help but emotionally overwhelmed by being in their lost children’s school again, and their sincere performance is wholeheartedly welcomed and embraced by many young students in the school.

In conclusion, “The Talent Show” gives us a modest but poignant human portrayal from the aftermath of the Sinking of MV Sewol. To be frank with you, I wish it showed more about its unforgettable human subjects, but the documentary did its job as well as intended, and it will surely remind you of why we should remember this horrible incident with more care and compassion.

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Rebound (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Rebounding from the bottom

Posted on April 9, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean film “Rebound” follows its conventional genre playbook fairly well while making some unexpected moves at times. As your average underdog sports drama incidentally inspired by a dramatic real-life story, it will not surprise you that much if you are a seasoned moviegoer who has already watched numerous similar basketball movies ranging from “Hoosiers” (1986) to “Coach Carter” (2004), but it gradually engages us at least as ably handing its genre clichés and conventions on the whole.

At the beginning, the movie, which is set in the early 2010s (How that period feels quite distant to us now because of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, even though it is just around 10 years ago!) quickly establishes the rather dismal status of the basketball team of Jungang High School in Busan. There was a time when this basketball team was quite prominent, but it is now on the verge of becoming defunct at any point, and, to make matters worse, nobody is particularly willing to join the team at present.

In the end, the school manages to hire a new coach for the team, but the prospect is still not very bright to say the least. As an alumnus of the school who once had a promising basketball career in the past, Coach Kang Yang-hyeon (Ahn Jae-hong) is determined to try his best, but he soon finds himself daunted a lot by the poor conditions of his team. Besides its shabby training environment, the team has only four players, and two of them quickly leave right from his very first day with the team.

Nevertheless, Coach Kang does not easily give up mainly because there is not any other option for his life and career, and he soon embarks on recruiting several more players for his team. In case of Ki-beom (Lee Shin-young), this lad is understandably reluctant at first, but he eventually decides to join the team once Coach Kang manages to recruit a certain star player into his team, though he is not so pleased to see that one of the new team members is someone he has resented for some personal reason.

Anyway, Coach Kang keeps trying to get things under control, but then he comes to make a number of errors and mistakes instead. For example, he tries too hard to show his will and determination, and he stubbornly sticks to his game strategy even when one of his players points out its main weakness. When that game strategy of his is irrevocably ruined by one unexpected change during their first game, he comes to go a bit too far in the middle of the game, and that consequently leads to a big moment of shame and disgrace for him.

Around that narrative point, you can clearly see where the story and characters are going. Yes, Coach Kang comes to have lots of regret and reflection, so he desperately reaches for the second chance even though it looks like there is not much chance for him. Yes, he manages to persuade not only his team but also the school, and there is a little funny scene where he persistently pleads to the principal of the school until the principal eventually relents at him. Yes, we surely get your typical training sequence as Coach Kang and his players stick together again, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Ki-beom and his rival come to resolve their personal issue as they train along with the other team members.

During it second half, the movie naturally gives us a series of competent basketball game sequences as Coach Kang and his team participate in the National Championship. Even though you do not know much about basketball (Full disclosure: I am one of such persons), you can follow what is happening here and there in the field while the movie occasionally provides some explanation for us, and you will enjoy how the movie builds up its narrative momentum as deftly moving from one expected moment to another. Sure, we eventually get a big dramatic speech from Coach Kang in the middle of the finale, but then the movie arrives at the ending in a succinctly effective way, and the following epilogue part has considerable emotional resonance as a result.

As the main center of the movie, Ahn Jae-hong, who has steadily advanced since his likable breakthrough turn in “The King of Jokgu” (2013), did a commendable job of balancing his character well between comedy and drama, and his solid lead performance is supported by several younger performers who hold each own place well around Ahn besides looking convincing in the basketball game sequences in the film. While Lee Shin-young and Jeong Jin-woon are the most prominent ones in the bunch, Jung Gun-joo, Ahn Ji-ho, Kim Taek, and Kim Min are also fine as the other team members, and Kim Min is particularly good when his supporting character must be much more confident about himself despite his lack of field experience.

Directed by Jang Hang-jun (He previously directed several feature films including “Forgotten” (2017) besides also working as a screenplay writer/editor, by the way), “Rebound” does not bring anything particularly new to its genre territory, but it plays clichés and conventions well within its genre territory at least. I must point out that it is less impressive than Japanese animation film “The First Slam Dunk” (2022) or recent American basketball drama “Air” (2022), but it is still entertaining enough to overcome its rather predictable story and characters, and I will not grumble for now.

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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): John Wick Vs. the World (Continued)

Posted on April 8, 2023 by kaist455

“John Wick: Chapter 4” aims for being bigger, faster, and louder with more style, vision, and excitement than its predecessors, and I appreciate and enjoy that a lot. Sure, the movie is mostly all about style and entertainment without much depth in terms of story and characters, but there are a series of tense, stupefying, and exhilarating action sequences to remember, and you will definitely admire how its franchise has steadily and creatively advanced during last several years since the rather modest first film came out in early 2015.

First, let me summarize what happened during the first three movies. In “John Wick” (2014), our titular hero played by Keanu Reeves was a retired professional hitman and assassin, but, not long after losing his dear wife, he came to be back in action for his personal revenge for a dog left by his dead wife. As a result, he was drawn back into the secret underworld society filled with various criminal figures in “John Wick: Chapter 2” (2017), and then he came to break a certain cardinal rule of his old criminal world. As a consequence, he came to fight against a lot of guys sent by a very, very, very powerful organization named the High Table in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” (2019), and then, at the last minute, he was betrayed by Winston Scott (Ian McShane), who was supposed to be one of his few main allies.

Anyway, as shown at the end of the third film, Wick managed to survive, and he prepares to continue his brutal lonely fight against the High Table under the protection of the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), a local underground crime boss who is also quite angry about the High Table just like Wick. Once he gets sort of fully charged, Wick quickly goes all the way to a certain figure ruling over the High Table, and the movie gives us a little nice nod to that famous jump cut moment in David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Donnie Yen as Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4. Photo Credit: Murray Close

However, those folks of the High Table still do not quit at all mainly because of those old but firm rules and principles to which everyone including them and Wick stick without any question. In their viewpoint, Wick must be eliminated as soon as possible for maintaining their own law and order, so there comes Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a prominent member of the High Table who takes the full control for killing Wick by any means necessary. Besides raising the amount of the bounty on Wick, the Marquis also hires a blind but lethal assassin named Caine (Donnie Yen), and Caine cannot say no to the Marquis for good reasons, even though he was one of Wick’s old friends in the past.

As Caine and those numerous goons sent by the High Table go after Wick along the story, we surely get plenty of actions unfolded on the screen as expected, and director/co-producer Chad Stahelski and his crew members including cinematographer Dan Lausten, who was recently Oscar-nominated for Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017) and “Nightmare Alley” (2021), pull all the stops for maximum cinematic effect. For example, one main action sequence set in Tokyo is as stylish and energetic as that famous action sequence in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill – Volume 1” (2003), and that is just the appetizer for what will follow next along the story. I like the surreal qualities of the busy action sequence unfolded inside a big nightclub in Berlin, and I assure you that the expected climactic part set in Paris will not disappoint you at all with a wonderful homage to Walter Hill’s “Warriors” (1979).

I must also point out that you may cringe and wince a lot during some of the most violent moments in the film. However, these brutal moments are deftly executed with a considerable amount of style and technique at least, and there is also some dry sense of absurd humor around the movie. After all, the members of the High Table are committing one of the most idiotic wastes of human resource in the action movie history just because they want to eliminate only one man, aren’t they?

Keanu Reeves as John Wick in John Wick 4. Photo Credit: Murray Close

Amid all the sound and the fury in the film, Reeves diligently carries the film as he did before in the previous three films. He may have limits as an actor, but his understated acting style constantly anchors the film from the beginning to the end, and his overall efforts in the John Wick series surely demonstrate how he has become more interesting during last two decades since the Wachowskis’ “Matrix” (1999).

Around Reeves, the movie has a number of colorful cast members to complement Reeves’ stoic presence. While Donnie Yen and Bill Skarsgård certainly have a lot of juicy moments as Wick’s two main opponents, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rina Sawayama, Shamier Anderson, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown, and Ian McShane have each own fun with their respective supporting parts, and the special mention goes to Lance Reddick, a dependable character actor who sadly died a few weeks ago but gets his own small moment to shine early in this film at least.

On the whole, “John Wick – Chapter 4” is the best entry in its franchise thanks to its skillful handling of mood and action. Despite its long running time, which is no less than 169 minutes, the movie seldom lags while never boring us at all, and I wanted to applaud its striking style and grand ambition even though I was often overwhelmed and exhausted by its relentless intensity throughout my viewing. In short, this is one of the most exciting action films of this year, and you should really check it out especially if you enjoyed the first three films.

Laurence Fishburne as Bowery King, Keanu Reeves as John Wick, and Ian McShane as Winston in John Wick 4. Photo Credit: Murray Close
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Air (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Betting all on Michael Jordan

Posted on April 6, 2023 by kaist455

Ben Affleck’s new film “Air” jumps high from one spot to another for our amusement and entertainment, and I am happy to report to you here that it succeeds magnificently. Inspired by a real-life story about how one notable sportswear company came to have its biggest breakthrough moment via a certain promising rookie basketball player, the movie has lots of fun with how its main characters work together for their common goal step by step, and the result is one of more entertaining movies of this year.

Mainly set in 1984, the movie quickly establishes the rather dismal status of Nike during that time. Having been struggling behind two other major sportswear companies, Adidas and Converse, for years, the company surely needs something big enough to boost its status, and that is why Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a basketball talent scout hired by Nike, is looking for any promising rookie player to sign up for the company. From the beginning, the basketball division of the company is not so big besides not having much budget, but Vaccaro believes that he will eventually find the right one for the company, and then he begins to notice the possible right one on one day.

That rookie player in question is named, surprise, Michael Jordan, and Vaccaro instinctively senses the considerable potential of greatness as watching how Jordan led his college team to an unexpected win at the last moment. All he will have to do next is persuading Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), the head of the marketing division in Nike, and their CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), but both Strasser and Knight are understandably reluctant for good reasons. While they cannot give Vaccaro a lot for luring Jordan, they are also against recruiting only Jordan instead of three rookie players as planned.

Besides, Jordan has already been approached by both Converse and Adidas, both of which have each own nice offer for him. Knowing well how much Nike is disadvantaged compared to its two main competitors, Vaccaro must find a way to approach and then convince Jordan, and he gets an idea from Howard White (Chris Tucker), a close colleague of his who was also once a promising basketball rookie player before getting seriously injured. White told him that the best way for approaching to African American athletes is talking with their mothers, so Vaccaro decides to break the rules a bit. Instead of talking to Jordan’s aggressive agent David Falk (Chris Messina), he goes straight to Jordan’s family home in North Carolina, and then he comes to have a little private talk with Jordan’s mother Deloris (Viola Davis), who turns out to be a lot shrewder than Vaccaro expected. Like him, she also believes a lot in her son’s potential for greatness, but she may consider accepting the offer from Nike only if Nike looks like a more ideal business partner for her son than Converse or Adidas.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Vaccaro eventually gets the full support from not only Strasser and Knight but also a nerdy shoe designer named Peter Moore (Matthew Maher, a veteran character actor who should need to be known more considering how he steals every moment of his scenes), but the movie keeps us engaged and excited as these professional figures try to do their best for persuading Jordan and his parents to sign up for them. Because their budget is still limited even though they bet all on Jordan, so they are really going to need a new basketball shoe model to impress Jordan and his parents, and that eventually leads to the creation of that famous basketball shoe which has always been associated with Jordan.

While the screenplay by Alex Convery often delights us with a number of sharply written scenes shining with wit and humor, Affleck and his crew members including cinematographer Robert Richardson and editor William Goldenberg did a fantastic job of filling the screen with enough narrative momentum as well as an ample amount of vivid period atmosphere. Right from the opening scene consisting of various archival footage clips from the 1980s, the movie is brimming with boisterous mood, and that is further accentuated by the soundtrack packed with numerous stuffs from the 1980s (I was particularly amused by when Pino Donaggio’s score for Brian De Palma’s “Body Double” (1984) is briefly used later in the film).

Above all, the movie is supported by its fabulous ensemble led by Matt Damon, who gives one of his best performances here in this film. Ably balancing his performance well between comedy and drama, Damon’s seemingly earnest performance becomes more compelling along the story, and Affleck, who has been Damon’s best friend since they grew up together in Boston, Massachusetts, gives Damon a big moment to shine when Vaccaro gives an impromptu personal speech in the middle of a certain key scene, which is powerfully intercut with the archival footage clips of real Jordan.

By the way, Jordan is not shown much on the screen as the movie is more about the figures pushing and pulling each other over Jordan, and Affleck assembles a bunch of colorful performers around Damon. While Affleck himself gives a wonderful deadpan performance as the CEO of Nike, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina provide some of the funniest moments in the film in each own way, and Messina is quite uproarious in his hilariously angry phone conversation scene with Damon. Viola Davis, a great American actress who recently joined the prestigious list of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winners, brings a considerable amount of gravitas to the story, and Chris Tucker and Marlon Wayans are as funny as expected in their small but substantial roles.

In conclusion, “Air” is quite enjoyable thanks to Affleck’s skillful direction and his terrific cast members, and Affleck demonstrates here that he is still a competent filmmaker who gave us “Gone Baby Gone” (2007), “The Town” (2010), and “Argo” (2012), which incidentally garnered him the Best Picture Oscar. To be frank with you, I am not interested much in basketball or shoes while also vaguely knowing about Jordan’s legendary professional basketball career, but the movie impressed and entertained me a lot, and that is certainly an achievement in my inconsequential opinion.

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I Still Miss You, Roger

Posted on April 4, 2023 by kaist455

Dear Roger

Hello, Roger. I cannot believe it has been no less than 10 years since you passed on April 4th, 2013, and I am rather amazed by that. I thought I might stop writing about films around the end of the 2010s, and I actually took a few weeks of break in 2016, but, what do you know, I keep going as usual even at this point. To be frank with you, I usually write around 250~300 movie reviews on my personal blog per one year, and, considering that I do not get paid at all for this, I will surely go to hell someday.

Meanwhile, you may be depressed by how things seem to be falling apart in our world these days. As you feared around the time of your death, the global climate has gotten worse and worse during last 10 years, and I was particularly disturbed by the alarmingly early flowering season of this year in South Korea. The flowers were usually supposed to be blossomed in early April at least, but they came several weeks earlier, and I am afraid we will suffer another hotter summer in the middle of this year.

Furthermore, I and many others are quite concerned about another rise of fascism around the world. In the time of President Barack Obama, we were fairly optimistic, but, thanks to many negative factors including those toxic social network service applications including Facebook, there came the unbelievable political ascent of Donald J. Trump, whom you incidentally despised a lot for many reasons. Thanks to this orange-faced prick, the American society came to show more of its uglier sides, and this deplorable bastard also enabled many similar rotten politicians around the world including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently started a big war against Ukraine not long after contributing a lot to Trump’s entrance in the White House in 2017.

In case of moviegoing, well, Roger, there are some good news and some bad news, and let’s start with those bad news. When Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” (2011) came out, we thought that its chillingly realistic depiction of a global pandemic was merely possible, but, what do you know, our world were struck really hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and it took no less than 3 years for us to arrive at the point of recovery. During that period, I and many others in South Korea always wore mask in addition to getting vaccinated more than once, but this pandemic was pretty unpredictable and chaotic, and I must tell you that I got infected once in last April. It was not a very pleasant experience at all, but, at least, I and many others in South Korea were more fortunate compared to millions of people around the world, because we did not have to suffer any extensive period of lockdown thanks to the collaborative efforts from the government and citizens.

Because of the pandemic, the global theater business was utterly devastated to say the least, and that even affected Ebertfest. I was supposed to go to 2020 Ebertfest, but I canceled my plan in early 2020 due to the rising number of infection cases in South Korea, but then 2020 Ebertfest was eventually canceled as things got much worse in US. Ebertfest was eventually back in action in last year, and a lot of people will gather as usual in Ebertfest 2023, but I still cannot go there due to several reasons including my little concern on whether it is safe to travel by airplane at present (I will definitely be back in next year or 2025, by the way).

In South Korea, movie theaters remained opened, but there were not many new movies to be released, so I and other movie fans had a sort of blessing in disguise. A local theater chain decided to release a bunch of old classic films ranging from “Jaws” (1975) and “Carrie” (1976) to “Dekalog” (1988) and “Tokyo Story” (1953), and I was happy to watch them all at movie theaters. Sure, I watched many of them via VHS or DVD a long time ago, but I really wanted to experience them in a big screening room, and it was a very exciting time for me and other movie fans.

In case of how movies have kept engaging us, you would be impressed by a bunch of notable movies during last 10 years. While you might be depressed by the mind-numbing homogeneity of many of superhero flicks, you could be delighted to observe many good filmmakers advancing as broadening our mind in one way or another. As a longtime admirer of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, you would definitely admire some of their recent works such as “The Irishman” (2019) and “The Fabelmans” (2022). You would also cherish the considerable achievements of Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Guillermo del Toro, all of whom incidentally have more than one Oscar besides their respective Best Director Oscar awards at present. Considering how much you always supported new emerging filmmakers to watch, you would wholeheartedly support recent new talents including Ari Aster, Greta Gerwig, and Jordan Peele, and you would be quite excited to see Barry Jenkins becoming one of the best American filmmakers at present. Remember how much you supported Jenkin’s little but wonderful first feature film “Medicine for Melancholy” (2008)? Who could have guessed at that time that he would advance much further with his next feature film “Moonlight” (2016), which won three Oscars including the one for Best Picture?

And there is Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” (2019), which made a history not only as the first South Korean Best International Film Oscar winner but also as the first non-English language Best Picture Oscar winner. After this terrific milestone point, there came Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (2020) and Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” (2020), and then we recently saw Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022) making another awesome milestone moment to remember at the Academy Awards ceremony.

In the meantime, the website founded by you and your wife Chaz has been doing well on the whole. I must confess that, due to that fragile nature of online websites, I had some doubt about how long it can actually exist, but, what do you know, it is now becoming 10 years old in addition to being quite prominent and influential, and I am glad to tell you that your wife and the defendable staff members of the website are doing their jobs pretty well even at this point. I sometimes disagree with some of the movie reviews posted on the website, but, what the hell, you did not always agree with your dear partner Gene Siskel, right?

Oh, I still write several pieces for the Far-flung Correspondent section every year as before. I actually wrote much less than what I planned around the time when you were alive, but I do not have much problem with that because I think things are different from when you were always there for me and other FFC members. I have virtually been getting a sort of free service without much official qualification on my resume, and, in my humble viewpoint, I and other FFC members are relatively more expendable than before.

Nevertheless, I keep going on the FFC section while also grateful to the main staff members including Matt Zoller Seitz and Brian Tallerico, who once gave me a valuable advice on my writing style in last April. I still feel like spinning wheels without getting improved at all, but I continue to try, and I hope to be less inconvenient for them. I don’t know when I can write as fast and eloquent as you did, but I will keep going anyway.

By the way, there is one last thing I want to tell you. I revealed to many others around them that I am a gay in late 2016, and things have been a bit better for me once I became more comfortable with my sexual identity. Although there are also some problems including my parents’ persistent denial (They still want me to marry a girl someday, for example), I became more active in case of sex and romance, and I may candidly write about that in my future memoir just like you did in your lovely memoir.

As finishing this inconsequential piece of mine, I come to miss you more Roger. So far, you are somehow the only one whose death made me shed actual tears throughout my whole trivial life, but you would generously tell me that there will be more people I will cry for. Yes, sir, I will definitely go on as much as possible for that – and more good new movies about which I may talk with you someday.

Sincerely,
Seongyong Cho

Remembering Roger Ebert (Written on April 5th, 2013)

Dear Roger…. (Written on April 4th, 2014)

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The Conversation (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A series of conversations

Posted on April 4, 2023 by kaist455

My mind struggled to follow the rather confusing narrative flow of South Korean independent film “The Conversation”. Mainly because my condition happened to be not that good during the first viewing, I did not feel like understanding everything in the film, and I thought I should give it a second chance later. After watching it again yesterday, I still remain baffled about what is about or how it is about, and I am even not sure whether I can describe well what I observed during the second viewing.

Please don’t worry, because the movie is actually not as labyrinthic as, say, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” (2020). We simply get a series of seemingly random conversation scenes, and they look like being connected together, but you may struggle to some degree as wondering how they can be connected in one way or another. You will also notice some of the main characters appearing more than once throughout the film, but you may wonder how their scenes can be chronologically organized.

Okay, let’s start with the opening conversation scene with a woman named Eun-yeong (Jo Eun-ji) and her two close friends Myeong-sook (Kim Soy) and Da-hye (Seong Eun-ji). As listening to these three female characters’ private conversation, we come to gather that they once studied together in France, and the mood becomes more relaxed between them as they casually talk about their past and present. On the surface, they all seem content with how their respective lives are going, but we come to sense some discontent during the next conversation scene unfolded outside.

In many of conversation scenes in the film, the camera usually sticks to its static position, and that aspect is particularly exemplified by one interesting scene entirely unfolded inside a taxi going to somewhere. The camera only focuses on the female passenger in the back, and she looks apparently drunk, so we are not so surprised when she gets her smartphone dropped outside the taxi. Nevertheless, she does not seem to care that much about this accidental loss, and that leads to a long conversation between her and the taxi driver, who is incidentally not shown on the screen but may be the guy presented in one of the subsequent scenes in the film.

In case of the conversation scene set in a cafe, we observe two female characters meeting and then interacting with each other a bit before approached by some foreign dude. The movie goes back to Eun-yeong and her two friends, and, as they clumsily try to speak in French, we wonder whether the previous scene reflects some past experience of theirs in France.

Around that point, the movie shifts from ladies to guys. In the scene between two male characters, they simply talk about a book given to one of them by the other, but their conversation does not go anywhere as they are virtually circling around one spot. Because of one of these two guys happens to be accompanied with a baby, you may wonder whether he is married to one of Eun-yeong’s two friends who also has a baby, but the movie does not give any clear answer for that.

The subsequent sequence is unfolded among three male characters including Seung-jin (Park Jong-hwan), who later turns out to be connected with Eun-yeong. While having a little barbecue party on the rooftop of the residence belonging to one of them, these three guys talk and talk, and we get some little amusement as they come to know a bit more about each other.

After the conversation scene between two male characters who may be more than close friends, the movie gradually comes to focus on Eun-yeong and Seung-jin. During their first scene set in a coffee shop, they look like total strangers to each other, but we wonder whether they are doing a sort of role-playing, and that impression lingers on us when they meet each other again in an empty movie theater.

In the end, the movie arrives at a little private moment between Eun-yeong and Seung-jin, who now behave more like a married couple although nothing in their following conversation confirms that. As they come to bicker with each other over some petty matter, the mood becomes a bit more absurd, and it is implied that this is not the first time Eun-yeong gets frustrated with Seung-jin.

All these and other conversation scenes in the film are competent in addition to being supported well by its main cast members including Jo Eun-ji and Park Jong-hwan. Jo is particularly good during her two scenes with Kim Soy and Song Eun-ji, and I wish the movie kept focusing more on their engaging characters for getting us to know their characters more. In case of Park, he is also supported well by Kwak Min-gyu and Kwak Jin-moo, and he and Jo are convincing in the playful interactions between their characters.

“The Conversation” is the second feature film directed by director/writer Kim Duk-joong, who previously made a feature film debut in “The Education” (2019). Compared to “The Education”, “The Conversation” is more lightweight in comparison, but it did not click with me well in terms of storytelling and characterization, so I cannot recommend it despite some admiration on direction and acting. It is not bad at all, but, folks, I am still scratching my head even at present.

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The Layover (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their one accidental night in Busan

Posted on April 3, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “The Layover” gives us three different two-handers unfolded within a limited background at one accidental night. Although it is rather plain and simple in terms of story and character, the movie is engaging mainly thanks to its good direction and the solid performances from its small main cast, and I appreciate some unexpected emotional moments during each of its three acts.

The movie opens with introducing its six main characters one by one, who are on the same airplane leaving for US. Due to some serious engine problem, their airplane has to land in Busan, so all the passengers eventually have to get off and then stay for one night there, and the six main characters of the movie happen to check in the same local hotel.

The first story is between a lad named Seon-woo (Lee Han-ju) and a young woman named Soo-jeong (Jung Soo-ji). Although they are total strangers to each other, Seon-woo cannot help but attracted to Soo-jeong, and Soo-jeong does not seem to mind this at all. After he clumsily introduces himself to her, they come to spend some time at a hotel bar, and, what do you know, they come to reveal themselves to each other more than expected as they continue to spend more time together.

This is certainly not so different from Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003), and there is even a brief moment which will remind you of the last scene of that sublime masterpiece. Regardless of whether it is just a short nocturnal romance between them, they will probably never forget that night between them – even though their respective life courses will never converge again. Lee Han-ju, who was hilariously obnoxious in “Unboxing Girl” (2020), and Jung Soo-ji are flawless as their characters tentatively revolve around each other, and Jung is particularly good when her character tells a bit about her complicated feelings about a recently diseased family member of her.

In contrast, the second story focuses on the growing friction among one recently engaged couple: Gyoo-hyeong (Kang Gil-woo) and Ji-won (Kim Si-eun). They are going to meet Gyoo-hyeong’s parents living in US, and they look comfortable to be with each other on the surface, but we cannot help but notice some tension between them right from their first scene in the film.

As they check in their hotel room, they seem to get more relaxed for a while, but there suddenly comes a serious issue about which they really need to talk right now. Without telling Ji-won at all, Gyoo-hyeong made a rather selfish decision for his life and career, and Ji-won is not so pleased about that for good reasons. After all, she also has her own life and career, but her fiancé did not show much consideration about that, and this consequently makes her question whether she can really go on with their relationship.

During that crucial moment, the camera simply observes them from its mostly static position, but their increasingly tense interactions feel more palpable to us. Although you can already guess what will eventually happen between them, the movie keeps holding our attention to the end, and Kang Gil-woo, who has appeared in a number of notable South Korean independent films such as “A Distant Place” (2020) and “Chorokbam” (2021), and Kim Si-eun, who was one of the main characters in “Black Light” (2020), do not take any misstep as their characters come to let out more frustration and resentment between them along the story.

The third story is about a middle-aged woman named Eun-sil (Byun Joong-hee) and her daughter Yoo-jin (Kang Jin-ah). Eun-sil is going to have some big medical surgery in US, and Yoo-jin accompanies her mother for providing emotional support, but Eun-sil cannot help but become anxious in addition to often complaining about how she has frequently been neglected by her children.

And this goes on even as they try to have a rest and then sleep in their hotel room. In the end, Eun-sil suggests that she and Yoo-jin should spend some time outside, and that leads to a long private conversation mainly revolving around old disappointment and resentment between them. No matter how much Yoo-jin tries for her mother, Eun-sil still thinks she is not appreciated enough by her children despite everything she did for them for many years, and she also keeps pointing out her daughter’s currently unmarried status.

Of course, their conversation comes to reveal more of themselves to each other in a melodramatic way, and it is interesting to watch how they push and pull each other during this part. While Byun Joong-hee is relatively showier, Kang Jin-ah, who was wonderful in “The Slug” (2020), ably complements her co-star from the beginning to the end, and their effortless interaction on the screen is the main reason why the third story is the most satisfying one in the bunch.

On the whole, “The Layover”, which is incidentally the fifth feature film by director Choi Chang-hwan, is a modest but enjoyable work, and I admire how it succinctly and intimately presents its three different stories within its rather short running time (81 minutes). I have not yet seen Choi’s previous four feature films including “Back from the Beat” (2018), but, as far as I can see from “The Layover”, he is another promising independent South Korean filmmaker, and I guess I can have some expectation on whatever will come from him next.

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