The 2nd Repatriation (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Still waiting for repatriation

Posted on October 3, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “The 2nd Repatriation”, which is the sequel to director Kim Dong-won’s acclaimed 2003 documentary “Repatriation” (It won the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, by the way), covers last two decades of a bunch of converted North Koreans still stuck in South Korea even after many years of incarceration. As they desperately hoped for returning to their country, the situation unfortunately got worsen between North and South Korea despite a brief respite in the early 2000s, and it is really sad to observe that they may be never sent back to North Korea even after their impending death.

The documentary begins its story at the point not long after the ending of its predecessor. Since the cease-fire of the Korean War in 1953, there had been many North Koreans who were captured and then imprisoned due to their military/espionage operations in South Korea, but they were not allowed to go back to their country even after they were eventually released due to their old age. In 2000, when the political mood between South and North Korea became quite mild mainly thanks to President Kim Dae-jung’s “sunshine policy”, 63 North Koreans who had been politically “unconverted” were repatriated to North Korea in the end, but their fellow “converted” North Koreans were excluded from that, and the circumstance did not change much for them even after they made a “declaration that the conversion by torture was invalid” in the following year.

The main focus of the documentary is one of such North Koreans, who incidentally gave one of the most poignant moments in the previous film. His name is Kim Yeong-sik, and he was just a crew member of one North Korean boat to contact with some North Korean agent in South Korea. Due to that agent’s betrayal, he and all of his crew members were captured, and that was the beginning of many years of plight and torment for him. Tortured and harassed for next several years, he eventually surrendered and let himself “converted” on record in exchange for his earlier release, and it is clear that he still feels hurt and ashamed about that.

Anyway, Kim and his fellow converted North Koreans defiantly launched a movement for their repatriation in the early 2000s, and the documentary closely observes how they continue to live and struggle day by day while never giving up their hope despite their very old age. In case of Kim, he often attempts to make some statement about his political status to South Korean citizens out there, and he is not daunted at all even though he is usually ignored by many of them and also insulted by some rude right-wing guys at times.

When President Kim Dae-jung was succeeded by President Roh Moo-hyun in 2003, the situation remained frustratingly same as before for Kim and his fellow converted North Koreans. After a certain famous tourist spot in North Korea was opened to South Korean civilians, Kim and his fellow converted North Koreans were certainly ready to go there for seeing their country again just for a few days, but the South Korean government did not allow some of them to go there for a rather insignificant bureaucratic reason, and that certainly dampened their mood to say the least.

Meanwhile, they kept trying to continue their little political movement for repatriation. When “Repatriation” was eventually completed and then released in South Korean theaters with considerable praises, Kim was certainly willing to go to a number of special screenings, but he later said to the director that he was not particularly satisfied with the documentary itself for a number of understandable reasons.

As listening to Kim, the director felt again the considerable gap between his viewpoint and Kim and other converted North Koreans’. As the son of a couple who fled from North Korea before the war, the director later came to reflect more on his deeply anti-communist family background, and he even came to learn later that there was even a sibling behind whom his mother left in North Korea at that time.

That made the director more motivated about getting a permission to enter North Korea for his documentary, but, sadly, the relationship between the South and North Korean government was soon reversed to that old hostile mood due to several unfortunate factors. Besides President George W. Bush in US (Remember “the axis of evil”?), two conservative South Korean presidents after President Roh, both of whom are incidentally big disgraces to South Korean democracy, were not so friendly to the North Korean government to say the least, and the possibility of the second repatriation was accordingly disappeared to Kim and his fellow converted North Koreans’ despair and frustration.

Nevertheless, they kept trying to live another day. As years hopelessly went by, many of them died one by one mainly because of their deteriorating health condition, but they do not still give up their hope entirely, and there is a touching moment as Kim celebrating his 88th birthday along with his friends and supporters in early 2021. He is still alive at present, and I can only hope that things will soon get better for him, though the political situation between South and North Korean recently becomes much more troubling thanks to the current president of South Korea, who is incidentally your typical right-wing nut just like Donald J. Trump or Jair Bolsonaro.

On the whole, “The 2nd Repatriation” is more or less than the continuation of its predecessor, but it is still a powerful documentary on the whole, and I also appreciate how the director often pays some attention to many other different people to observe besides his main human subjects. While it focuses on several female converted North Koreans at times, the documentary also listens to the angry members of the association of the family members of those South Korean taken to North Korea, and, regardless of their political differences, all these and other people in the documentary come to us the victim of the ongoing historical tragedy in the Korean peninsula. To be frank with you, I cannot help but doubt whether there will actually be the eventual closure for all of them before the end of the current decade, but I sincerely wish for the best anyway.

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Repatriation (2003) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Waiting for repatriation

Posted on October 2, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Repatriation” simply follows the lives of a bunch of unconverted North Korean people who could not go back to their country even after being imprisoned in South Korea for many years. As observing their long struggle for repatriation during several years, the documentary gradually lets us have some empathy and understanding on these old but defiant people, and it is surely the powerful presentation of rather unknown human tales behind the ongoing political situation between South and North Korea.

It must be pointed out that these North Korean people were once an active part of a long military/espionage war which still does not completely end even at this point. Although the Korean War eventually reached to the cease-fire in 1953, South and North Korea constantly clashed with each other behind their back, and both sides attempted numerous covert military/espionage operations on each other during next 20 years, though none of these operations was successful at all except making them all the more hostile to each other.

According to existing records, more than 7,000 North Korean agents were sent to South Korea, and many of those captured North Korean agents were subsequently incarcerated in prisons for many years. During their incarceration periods, all of them were brutally pushed toward political conversion in one way or another, and most of them were eventually coerced to go through political conversion on record, while rest of them defiantly stuck to their political belief to the end.

After managing to survive for more than two or three decades, some of those defiant North Korean political prisoners were eventually released mainly due to their old age, but they were still not allowed to be sent back to North Korea, which did not recognize their existence officially. While being stuck in South Korea, they had no choice but to continue to live in a society alien to them in many aspects, and, not so surprisingly, their living condition was not so good at all because they were not technically South Korean citizens.

The documentary mainly revolves around two of these unconverted North Koreans: Jo Chang-soon and Kim Suk-hyung. In 1991, Director/writer/co-producer Kim Dong-wan happened to come across these two very old North Koreans when they came to reside in Kim’s shabby neighborhood in Seoul thanks to some little help from a local civilian support group, and that was the beginning of his accidental friendship with these two old North Koreans. Like many of South Koreans accustomed to anti-communist propaganda stuffs, Kim surely felt some distance between him and these two old North Koreans, but he came to like and care about them more than expected as recording some slices of their ongoing lives, and that was the starting point of his personal project which came to took more than 10 years before its eventual completion in 2003.

Through his two unlikely North Korean friends, Kim was allowed to approach to many other similar North Korean folks in South Korea. In case of Kim Yeong-sik, this old North Korean guy was just a crew member of one North Korean boat which was supposed to contact with some North Korean agent hiding in South Korea, but he happened to be captured along with his crew members due to that agent’s betrayal, and he subsequently became ‘converted’ after being tortured and harassed for next several years. Still feeling ashamed of what he was forced to do, he cannot help but become emotional when he is visited by one of his living colleagues, and that is one of the most poignant moments in the documentary.

Regardless of being converted or unconverted, many of these North Korean folks really hoped to go back to their country, and there fortunately came a big chance for them when the political conflict between South and North Korea became less tense than before in 1998. Right after getting elected as the new President of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung embarked on his “sunshine policy” on North Korea for bringing peace to the Korean peninsula, and everyone in South Korean became quite hopeful about the possibility of unification in the near future as watching that historical moment between their president and Kim Jung-il, who was the leader of North Korea at that time.

In the end, the South Korean government allowed the repatriation of a small group of unconverted North Koreans in 2000, but things did not go as well as they hoped. Their repatriation was objected by not only those right-wing organizations but also the association of the family members of those numerous South Korean people taken to North Korea, and the documentary sharply recognizes how complicated the circumstance surrounding the eventual repatriation process. While it is certainly nice to see those North Koreans finally getting their wish, they were eventually used as a propaganda tool for the North Korean government, and I personally wonder whether they were really happier to be there, considering how grim the life in North Korea can be.

Anyway, “Repatriation”, which deservedly received the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, is still a valuable documentary for many reasons, and it is also a bitter reminder of how things looked a bit more optimistic during that period. Unfortunately, the situation between South and North Korea has worsened during next two decades, and the hope for repatriation was accordingly disappeared while many of old North Korean folks in the documentary passed away one by one in the meantime. While you may disagree with them a lot on many political subjects, you will come to have more compassion on them after watching this exceptional documentary – and you may also reflect more on their undeniable tragedy in the last chapter of the Cold War.

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Athena (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Three brothers in the middle of an intense urban conflict

Posted on September 27, 2022 by kaist455

French film “Athena”, which was released on Netflix in last week, is quite gritty and intense in the presentation of one increasingly chaotic conflict in a slum neighborhood. While it takes some time for you to grasp what is exactly going on around its several main characters, the movie steadily and tightly holds your attention in its grip to the end, and its impressive overall technical achievement is more than enough to compensate for its rather weak storytelling.

During the striking opening sequence which plainly begins at a local police station and then electrifies us with considerable technical prowess, the movie quickly establishes the ongoing situation surrounding Abdel (Dali Benssalah) and his two brothers Karim (Sami Slimane) and Moktar (Ouassini Embarek). A few days ago, their youngest brother was brutally murdered, and it seemed that he was killed by several unidentified local police officers. Not so surprisingly, many people in their neighborhood including Karim became quite angry about this ghastly injustice, and that eventually led to the ongoing clash between the local police and a bunch of young protesters led by Karim.

Abdel, who happens to be a decorated soldier of the French Army, tries to calm down others as much as possible. While helping many of his neighbors leave their apartment buildings for their safety, he also tries to persuade Karim and Karim’s protesters to be reasonable about their situation, but Karim is not so willing to listen to his older brother from the beginning. As a matter of fact, he and a bunch of protesters steal a big safe from the aforementioned police station during their ambush, and they are eager to open it even though they do not know what is actually in the safe.

Meanwhile, Moktar, who is incidentally a local drug lord, is more occupied with protecting his drug business from the conflict as much as he can. When the neighborhood is surrounded more by the police, he naturally feels more nervous than before, and that accordingly generates more conflict between him and his two brothers, who share the common contempt toward Moktar despite their very different viewpoints.

While shuffling among its three main characters, the movie also focuses a bit on several substantial supporting figures. We get to know a bit about a young married police officer who is understandably worried about his latest mission, and then we are also introduced to another police officer who seems to care a lot about getting things under control just like Abdel, and then there we later meet a certain disturbingly quiet man who turns out to be more experienced than Karim and his fellow protesters.

As the movie urgently hops from one narrative point to another, we get confused a bit from time to time, but the movie deftly immerses us into the chaotic circumstance surrounding its main characters and many other figures in the background. While I wish it could provide more background information for more understanding, the movie adamantly pays more attention to generating more verisimilitude along the story instead, and we often feel like being in the middle of the chaos along with its characters as a result.

Director/co-producer/co-writer Romain Gavras, who is incidentally the son of Costa-Gavras, and his crew members including cinematographer Matias Boucard and editor Benjamin Weill deserve to be praised for their technical efforts. As Boucard’s camera usually moves along with characters in fluid camerawork, Weill’s editing is succinctly precise without never interrupting the relentless narrative flow of the film, and that is further amplified by the effective score by GENER8ION. Besides its superlative opening sequence, there are also a number of excellent sequences which will dazzle any serious moviegoer, and, when I was watching the film early in this morning. I actually kept wondering how they shot these terrific sequences.

However, I also recognized some notable weak aspects in the screenplay written by Gavras and his co-writers Ladj Ly and Elias Belkeddar. Like Ly’s Oscar-nominated film “Les Misérables” (2019), the movie is surely angry and passionate about several social/political issues including racism and police brutality, but it sometimes stumbles as trying to balance itself between family melodrama and political drama. In addition, I think its inevitable ending could be more impactful without its very final scene, which is rather redundant in my inconsequential opinion.

Anyway, the movie remains to be a compelling piece of work thanks to Gavras’ commendable direction, and he also draws solid performances from his main cast members. While Dali Benssalah dutifully occupies the center, Sami Slimane often galvanizes the screen with his character’s righteous anger, and Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, and Alexis Manenti are also suitably cast in their respective roles.

In conclusion, “Athena” may not go further than what was shown in “La Haine” (1995) and “Les Misérables”, but it will give you a vivid cinematic experience you will not easily forget, and that may make you reflect more on its main subjects after it is over. Considering the current political circumstance of France as well as many other countries in Europe, the movie surely needs to be watched by more audiences out there, and that is just one of many good reasons for recommendation.

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A Jazzman’s Blues (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Tyler Perry comes to Netflix

Posted on September 26, 2022 by kaist455

Here is my inconsequential confession: I did not watch any film directed by Tyler Perry during last two decades. Sure, like many of you, I do know that he has made a bunch of notable films since his first commercial hit film “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” (2005), but many of his movies failed to draw my attention more because, as far as I gathered from the reviews on his movies, I am not exactly one of the target audiences of his films and, above all, they do not particularly look like good movies worthwhile to watch.

Anyway, my trivial personal opinion on Perry has been improved a bit since I enjoyed his delightfully no-nonsense supporting role in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” (2014), and now he becomes more respectable especially after receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy Awards. It is undeniable that he is a major Hollywood filmmaker you cannot possibly ignore, and that is why it is not so surprising that he recently made “A Jazzman’s Blues” for Netflix, which was incidentally released in last week.

Because I have no experience with Perry’s films at all, I cannot tell you whether “A Jazzman’s Blues” is better than his previous works, but I can tell you instead that the movie is a fairly competent Netflix product on the whole. Although the screenplay, which Tyler actually wrote more than 25 years ago, is rather uneven due to many reasons including contrived narrative and blatant melodramatic tactics, the movie has some heart on its sleeve at least, and it certainly does not lack mood and spirit as your average Southern racial melodrama.

After the opening part set in a rural town of Georgia in the late 1980s, the movie immediately goes back to around 40 years ago, and we are introduced to a rather problematic African American family. Hattie Mae (Amirah Vann), a strong-willed woman who also has a considerable singing talent, is proud of her younger son Bayou (Joshua Boone) because he happens to be a very good singer just like his mother, but her musician husband usually bullies Bayou without showing any care or affection for a certain reason revealed later in the story. As a matter of fact, her husband has more expectation on their older son Willie Earl (Austin Scott), who has some potential as a trumpet player as shown from the scene where he confidently performs a bit in front of neighbors.

Anyway, Bayou does not care this much even when his father eventually leaves for Chicago along with Willie Earl, because his heart has been occupied with a young pretty girl named by Leanne (Solea Pfeiffer). As they spend more time together, their mutual attraction becomes more evident to each other, and Bayou, who comes to learn how to read and write thanks to her encouragement, begins to consider marrying her someday.

Of course, like many star-crossed lovers, Bayou and Leanne soon find themselves getting separated from each other against their will. During next several years, they try to contact with each other while never ceasing to love each other, but they are blocked by a number of obstacles including Leanne’s self-serving mother, who once left her when Leanne was young but now returns with some plan for her and her daughter’s future.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Bayou and Leanne come across each other at last by coincidence, but I will not go into details on a very tricky racial circumstance surrounding them, though you can quickly guess right from when you notice Leanne’s certain features. Now she should be very careful and discreet, but Leanne still cannot help but drawn to Bayou, and Bayou also cannot resist her either even though he is well aware of the big risks she is taking everyday.

And then the movie takes a left turn when Bayou has no choice but to leave his hometown as quickly as possible via Willie Earl, who happens to return along with his Jewish manager Ira (Ryan Eggold). At first, Bayou is just an accidental companion to Willie Earl and Ira, but Ira already saw considerable potential from Bayou, and, what do you know, Bayou finds himself becoming a big star blues singer not long after arriving in Chicago.

Nevertheless, Bayou still cannot forget Leanne in addition to being more concerned about his mother’s welfare, and that is the point where the story becomes more blatant and predictable than before. What inevitably happens during the expected finale is indeed tragic to say the least, but it does not feel as impactful as intended mainly because many of its main characters remain to be broad stereotypes merely functioning as plot elements. At least, the main cast members including Joshua Boone, Amira Vann, Solea Pfeiffer, Austin Scott, Ryan Eggold, and Milauna Jemai Jackson try their best with materials given to them, and Boone generates enough romantic heat with Pfeiffer in addition to being convincing in his several performance scenes in the film.

In conclusion, “A Jazzman’s Blues” is not a waste of time at all, and I also enjoyed its good several technical aspects including Brett Pawlak’s cinematography and Aaron Zigman’s score (The songs in the film are arranged by Terence Blanchard, by the way), but Perry could polish his story and characters more for some improvement. He is surely sincere about his story and its main subjects, but he still needs to get better, and, considering how competent he is as a filmmaker at present, I am sure that he will get to that higher level soon.

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Honest Candidate 2 (2022) ☆☆(2/4): She is back – with less laugh

Posted on September 25, 2022 by kaist455

Surprise is always crucial for comedy, but there is not much surprise for me in South Korean comedy film “Honest Candidate 2”, a sequel to the 2020 South Korean remake of Brazilian comedy film “The Honest Candidate” (2014). I could see how much its good main cast members try to sell their comic materials on the screen, but, alas, they are not helped much by the tediously repetitive screenplay which simply resorts to predictable laughs, and I soon got tired and bored with lots of disappointment while watching the film during this evening.

The story begins at the point not long after what happened at the end of the previous film. After her political career was seriously ruined mainly thanks to her sudden inability to tell lies, Joo Sang-sook (Ra Mi-ran) returned to a seaside town in Gangwon-do where she once lived with her grandmother, and it looks like she will spend the rest of life there as working in a fish market, but then something unbelievable happens on one day. When some local lad is suddenly thrown into a serious danger, she boldly comes to rescue him, and that incident soon puts her back in spotlight as she is showered with lots of public attention.

As a result, Sang-sook swiftly makes a successful comeback as getting elected as the new governor of Gangwong-do, and she is quite determined to be more honest and trustful than before, but, not so surprisingly, her determination does not last that long as she is reminded again of how complicated it is to run the state government. In the end, she decides to step back a little for the benefit of the people of the state, and, not so surprisingly, that leads to more compromise and cynicism she comes to accept without much hesitation.

And then another unexpected thing occurs to Sang-sook. When she is doing her latest public event for making her all the more popular, she comes to experience something mysterious involved with her grandmother, and, what do you know, she subsequently finds herself incapable of lying just like she was in the previous film. To make matters worse, one of several figures closely associated with her also happens to have the same problem for some reason, and that certainly makes the situation more complicated for her and that figure in question.

This may look like a fun variation of the story promise of the previous film, but the movie only goes for easy laughs without fully developing its supposedly funnier comic circumstance. For example, we certainly expect something outrageous to happen when Sang-sook is going to make a speech in the middle of a very important wedding ceremony, and the movie surely attempts to generate some laughs as Sang-sook struggles not to say anything inappropriate, but the delivery of these laughs are so perfunctory and unsurprising that we are just mildly amused by what is supposed to be the punchline of the scene.

In addition, it seems that the movie often does not seem to know how to build up its heroine’s absurd comic situation. When Sang-sook inadvertently causes a diplomatic crisis between South and North Korea at one point, the movie looks like going for edgier laughs, but this subplot eventually gets fizzled, and the movie comes to focus more on how Sang-sook subsequently tries to clean up her public image in addition to fighting against certain greedy figures ready to get rid of her as soon as possible. Again, our heroine comes to have another important awakening on what is really important for her, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that she will triumphantly overcome her obstacles as usual.

However, the movie does not provide much fun or excitement even during that part. The main villains of its story are so broad and cartoonish that it is a shame that their eventual comeuppance comes too easily during the finale, and several supporting characters surrounding Sang-sook are also more or less than silly caricatures who do not show much of recognizable human behaviors. As many of you know, recognizable human behaviors are always an excellent source for good comedy, and I think director Chang You-jeong, who also directed the previous film, unfortunately overlooks this important thing here in this film.

Anyway, I still admire the diligent efforts from Ra Mi-ran, who has quickly risen as one of the leading actresses in South Korean cinema thanks to her good comic performance in the previous film. While she is mostly stuck with clumsy gags and trite jokes, Ra goes all the way like a trouper, and she actually makes a few big scenes in the film look a bit funnier than expected. She can surely handle any comic moment with deft timing, and I will not deny that I chuckled a bit when her character tries a rather ingenious way to tell lies in front of a bunch of international reporters.

In case of several other main cast members in the film, they try as much as they can do with their cardboard roles, and they manage to acquit themselves to varying degrees. While Kim Mu-yeol clicks fairly well with Ra during their several big scenes in the movie, Yoon Kyung-ho and Park Jin-joo are sadly demanded to do lots of clownish stuffs throughout the film, and you may find their characters rather annoying instead of endearing.

Overall, “Honest Candidate 2” does not surpass the comic highlights of its predecessor. Yes, I did not like “Honest Candidate” enough for recommendation, but it did make me chuckle more than once during its first half, and I think you will be more entertained if you see “Honest Candidate” again instead of enduring this middling sequel.

Sidenote: After watching “Honest Candidate 2”, I immediately watched “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), which happens to be re-released in South Korea in this week. Believe me, you will have a lot more laugh and entertainment from this great Hollywood musical comedy film.

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Cow (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The daily life of two cows

Posted on September 25, 2022 by kaist455

Andrea Arnold’s documentary film “Cow” directly looks into an inconvenient fact of dairy business. It is undeniable that our human society has exploited millions of cows to get lots of milk produced from their bodies everyday, and the documentary gives us a series of sobering moments as calmly observing how its two bovine subjects are exploited in one way or another at one rural dairy farm in England.

The film opens with one of its two bovine subjects giving birth to the other one. After its female calf is successfully delivered, the cow is allowed to mother the calf for some time, but then it is eventually separated from the calf, and then we see it being subjected to the following milking process along with many other cows in the farm. As the camera is simply watching it mooing helplessly toward its calf, we cannot help but feel sorry for it, and we are all the more horrified as observing how it and other cows are systemically used for producing tons of milk secreted from their big nipples.

Although the documentary does not provide any comment or narration, we slowly come to gather how these numerous cows in the farm go through one day after another as constantly handled and monitored by those farm employees. At one point, the cow gets its uterus examined for being checked for whether it is well enough for another pregnancy, and this is certainly not a pleasant sight at all. Just imagine how you would possibly feel if you were frequently forced to get pregnant and then milked again and again while being stuck in a stuffy and muddy place along with many other cows.

Meanwhile, the documentary also focuses on how that calf is handled after being separated from its mother. At first, it is taken to a small cage where it can be raised alone for some time, but, once it grows up a bit more during next several weeks, it soon gets thrown into the system along with many other calves. At one point, a farm employee cauterizes two certain spots of its head for preventing the growth of its two horns, and you may wince as observing how this rather cruel job is casually done step by step.

Nevertheless, the documentary keeps holding our attention thanks to its considerable verisimilitude. As the camera constantly stays around its two bovien subjects and many other cows in the farm, the documentary gradually immerses us into their daily life, and we come to pay more attention to some interesting details presented on the screen. I do not know how the cows actually feel about a certain pop song played in the background, but that soft pop song makes an interesting contrast to their drab life condition, and I was also fascinated with one certain brief scene showing how the hooves of one cow are thoroughly cleaned for a hygenical reason.

The mood becomes a bit sunnier than before when the cows and calves are later allowed to be outside their cages. As they freely move around here and there in a field outside the farm, Arnold and her cinematographer Magda Kowalczyk vividly present a series of pastoral moments enhanced further by bright natural light, and we also become a bit more relaxed despite knowing too well that these animals’ free time on the field will be soon over.

What follows next is more or less than the repetition of what we previously observed. Once it is deemed to be ready for impregnation, the cow is soon put in a cage along with a black bull horny enough for their mating, and its pregnancy is confirmed not long after that. Some time later, another calf is born as expected, and the cow goes through another suffering as being subjected to the milking process along with other cows as usual.

And then there comes an inevitable moment as the cow reaches to the point where it cannot possibly be milked anymore. Although we already know what will eventually occur, it is still quite sad and devastating to say the least, and the camera thankfully distances itself from that a bit while never becoming sentimental about that. In the adamantly objective viewpoint of the documentary, the cow is a crucial but ultimately expendable entity to be discarded sooner or later, and the last scene of the documentary is going to unnerve you more as showing a bunch of calves which will surely go through that grim circle of life just like many cows before that.

On the whole, “Cow” is another interesting work from Arnold, who previously impressed me and other audiences a lot with “Fish Tank” (2009) and “American Honey” (2016). I do not know whether this documentary will actually change your viewpoint on dairy business, but I can tell you at least that it is a mesmerizing experience which deserves to be compared with Viktor Kosakovskiy’s “Gunda” (2020), an equally exceptional documentary about the daily life of one certain female pig and several other animals in one farm besides its little piglets. While these two documentaries do not make any direct point on their respective main subjects, many indelible moments of theirs will probably make you reflect more on our relationships with livestock animals we have exploited for many years, and you may come to understand the value of vegetarianism at least. Sure, we will probably continue to use livestock animals as one of our main sources of protein as before, but, considering how much they have been exploited for our life and society, they deserve better care and treatment at least, don’t they?

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Homeless (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): They need a place to stay…

Posted on September 25, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “Homeless” is about a desperate young couple helplessly stuck in their grim economic status. Without getting any financial help or support at all, they come to resort to some desperate measures for not only themselves but also their little baby, and the movie often feels like a thriller as closely and intensely observing their increasingly precarious circumstance.

During its first act, the movie slowly lets us gather how things have been quite hopeless for Han-gyeol (Jeon Bong-seok) and Go-woon (Park Jeong-yeon). This poor young couple has been trying to get any suitable place where they can live along with their infant son, and they have saved a considerable amount of money for that, but, alas, they only end up swindled by some con man. As a result, they and their baby have no choice but to spend another night at a local sauna, and they become all the more frustrated when their baby happens to be seriously injured.

At least, the baby gets some emergency treatment at a local hospital, but now they will have to pay the medical bill for that, and there is no one to help around them. Neither Han-gyeol nor Go-woon has any close family member at all, and Han-gyeol’s current employer, who is running a small delivery service, is not so willing to lend some money to him for understandable reasons.

Remaining homeless as well as broke, Han-gyeol and Go-woon are accordingly driven into more despair and exasperation, and then Han-gyeol comes with a nice temporary solution for them. There is an old lady who has been very friendly to him while he often delivers a box of sushi to her, and this old lady is living alone in a house without any close family member around her. When Han-gyeol later takes Go-woon and their baby to the house, the old lady happens to be absent, and he tells Go-woon that the old lady asked him to take care of the house during her brief absence.

Go-woon is certainly glad to have a place for them and their baby at last, but it does not take much for us to sense that Han-gyeol is hiding something from her. For example, he tells her not to go inside a certain locked room on the second floor, and, though she is not bothered much by this strange instruction, she gradually comes to see that Han-gyeol was not totally honest with her from the very beginning, while more aware of some weird smell coming from somewhere inside the house.

Nevertheless, Go-woon also discerns that there is not any other option for them and their baby, and things look a bit better for them as they get accustomed more to their new staying place. They feel free and safe as comfortably sleeping with their baby at every night, and that inconvenient fact hovering over them can be ignored for a while at least.

However, their harsh reality keep cornering them more and more. After reporting to the police, Go-woon tries to find that con man, but there is really nothing she can do, and her desperate search eventually comes upon a dead end as expected. In the meantime, Han-gyeol continues to search for any cheap place they may move into, but he only gets frustrated again and again, and he becomes all the more desperate when he and Go-woon come to face another big problem later in the story.

What follows next is pretty despairing to say the least, but the screenplay by director Lim Seung-hyeun and his co-writer Kim Seung-hyun continues to hold our attention as steadily building the tension around its two main characters. Although the movie does not tell us that much about their past, it is implied to us that both of them struggled through some hard times even when they were very young, and we gather that is the main reason why they are so concerned about taking care of their little son. Determined to protect their son from their harsh reality as much as possible, both of them are eventually driven to make some bad choices, and we are not so surprised by that.

The movie is supported well by the unadorned acting from its lead performers, who ably embody their characters’ growing despair and weariness along the story. Jeon Bong-seok is harrowing especially when his character has a grueling moment of conflict at one point, and Park Jeong-yeon has her own several moments to shine in addition to complementing her co-star well during several key scenes. Right from their first scene, we can feel the strong emotional bond between their characters, and their characters’ sincere parental devotion feels all the more palpable because of that. In case of several substantial supporting performers in the film, Song Gwang-ja and Jang Joon-hwi are well-cast in their respective parts, and Song brings some warmth to what can be regarded as a few bright moments in the film.

Overall, “Homeless” is not a pleasant experience at all, but it works as a fairly compelling social drama thanks to its good storytelling and solid performances. Lim, who incidentally makes a feature film debut here, demonstrates that he is a good filmmaker who knows how to present story and characters well on the screen, and it will be interesting to see what he will do next after this commendable start. In short, this is one of notable South Korean films of this year, and I recommend you to check it out if you have a chance.

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Vestige (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): Two short films set in Muju

Posted on September 24, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Vestige” alternatively intrigued and baffled me for good reasons. While this is actually two different short films packaged together as a feature film, these two short films are connected with each other in more than one aspect besides their common rural background, and I admire both of them in terms of mood and storytelling. To be frank with you, I am still struggling on how to describe what exactly they are about, so I will instead focus more on how they are about, and I hope that will help you decide on whether you will take a chance with it or not.

The first short film begins with the introduction of a middle-aged woman played by Kim Geum-soon. At first, we see her going to somewhere in a rural region called Muju on one cold winter day, and we gradually come to gather that she is returning to a little village where she once lived some time ago. After arriving in that village, she goes to a nearby mountain where she buried some personal stuffs, and, after retrieving these personal stuffs of hers, she goes to a shabby abandoned house where she resided during that time.

It turns out that the woman was a local shaman, and we soon watch her doing some ritualistic invocations inside her former residence. Regardless of whether it is imagined by her or not, we are chilled as some ghostly figure slowly appears, and then we get some glimpse of her past involved with her daughter. It becomes apparent to us that she was not that close to her daughter for understandable reasons, and then the film slowly shifts its focus from her to what is assumed to be her daughter’s ghost. The film never specifies what actually happened to her daughter, but we begin to sense that the woman has grieved a lot about her daughter’s premature death, and everything in the film eventually culminates to the haunting final scene where the woman comes to find some solace and comfort in the end.

In contrast to the cold and elusive qualities of the first short film, the second short film is more straightforward under its vibrant summer atmosphere. Its main center is a young woman named Min-jae (Kang Jin-ah), and we come to learn about her current status of life bit by bit via a series of episodic moments between her and several other characters in the story. Although she left her family in Muju for studying in Seoul several years ago, she eventually came back to her hometown, and she is currently working as a public servant while living with her widow mother in their cozy family house.

Her first scene in the film shows her having a drinking night at a local bar along with an old female friend of hers who comes to Muju for visiting her. The mood between them is casual and pleasant, but things begin to feel rather odd when they later go outside. Min-jae somehow gets separated from her friend, and the mood becomes rather spooky as she is looking for her friend who is gone for no apparent reason.

Without explaining anything about this baffling happening, the film comes to focus more on its heroine’s personal relationships with two other main characters in the story. Although she is quite disappointed that her daughter chose to be back in Muju, Min-jae’s mother respects her daughter’s choice nonetheless, and we sense how much she and Min-jae care about each other even when they happen to bicker a bit with each other at one point. In case of Min-jae’s boyfriend, he is a pleasant lad glad to spend more time with her, and we later see them spending some free time together in a house belonging to his grandmother, who has recently been in a local hospital due to her illness.

When they are sleeping together in that house, Min-jae’s boyfriend tells her about what his grandmother experienced not long before she became ill. According to him, his grandmother came to sense the ghostly presence of her dead husband at one night, and Min-jae cannot help but feel some creepiness as reflecting more on what her boyfriend told her. Not so surprisingly, she also comes to experience something strange later in the story, and that is followed by a somber but undeniably sublime moment you must see for yourself. As the camera quietly pulls back, we come to see more of what is going on the screen, and the resulting final shot will linger on your mind for a while just like the final shot of the first short film.

It goes without saying that both of two short films will demand some patience from you, but they are worthwhile to watch for atmosphere and details to be appreciated, and their respective writers/directors, Jang Kun-jae and Kim Jong-kwan, deserve to be commended for their competent direction. They also draw good actings from their performers, and Kim Geum-soon and Kang Jin-ah are convincing in each own way while supported well by several other performers including Lee Tae-gyoo and Ahn So-hee.

On the whole, “Vestige” is rather challenging as your average arthouse film, and I still do not think I understand everything in its two stories, but I was often impressed by a number of hauntingly poetic moments in the film. Like several other recent South Korean independent films such as “Chorokbam” (2021), this is surely something different from what we usually encounter at movie theaters, and I am already willing to revisit the film for appreciating more of its interesting aspects.

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Sisters on the Road (2009) ☆☆☆(3/4): Two different sisters on a journey

Posted on September 24, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “Sisters on the Road”, whose remastered version happens to be re-released in South Korean theaters in this week, engaged me more than expected. At first, it begins as a simple but intimate drama revolving around two very different family members, and then it takes a sudden unexpected plot turn during its third act. Although the movie came out in 2009, I did not know anything about it because it somehow eluded me at that time, so I was really caught off guard during my viewing, and I also appreciated how it generates some genuine poignancy among its main characters after that crucial narrative point.

At the beginning, the movie introduces us to its two main characters: Myeong-joo (Gong Hyo-jin) and Myeong-eun (Shin Min-a). As shown from a series of flashback scenes in the film, there was a time when they grew up closely together as half-sisters in their hometown in Jeju Island, but they have been estranged from each other as respectively leading each own life, and the opening scene shows how much they are different from each other in many aspects. While Myeong-joo is a single mother who has raised her little daughter along with her mother and aunt, Myeong-eun has lived in Seoul since leaving their hometown some time ago, and we see how she busily works in some company while her half-sister is diligently working at a local fish market as usual.

Both of these two half-sisters are not particularly willing to contact with each other, but then there comes a sad news. Their dear mother has died, so Myeong-eun has to come back to her hometown, and then she dutifully accompanies Myeong-joo and their aunt. Their aunt is clearly devastated a lot by the death of their mother, but she is still pleased to see Myeong-eun again, and there is a little tender moment as she and her nieces share some old memories while rummaging those old stuffs belonging to their dead mother.

One of those old items is a letter from the biological father of Myeong-eun, who suddenly left Myeong-eun’s mother not long before Myeong-eun’s birth. While still resentful about that, Myeong-eun wants to know where her biological father is, and she asks Myeong-joo to join her search for him mainly because Myeong-joo was quite close to him during that time. Myeong-joo is initially reluctant, but her aunt persuades her to do that, mainly because she thinks her nieces really need to spend some time together for bonding with each other again.

Of course, things do not go well between Myeong-joo and Myeong-eun right from the beginning. Due to Myeong-joo’s acrophobia, Myeong-eun has no choice but to travel back to the mainland by ship instead of airplane, and she also cannot help but annoyed with her half-sister’s rather thoughtless behaviors. While she does feel sad about the loss of her mother, Myeong-joo cannot resist having some fun and drink nonetheless, and that certainly exasperates her half-sister a lot.

Meanwhile, their journey turns out to be more complicated than expected. While there comes a big setback later, Myeong-eun is also pressured a lot by her company manager, who frequently demands that she should come back as soon as possible for some important project. When she and Myeong-joo finally arrive at a city where her biological father supposedly resides (This city is incidentally my hometown, by the way), Myeong-joo wants to spend more time with her half-sister instead of helping her finding him, and Myeong-eun comes to wonder whether Myeong-joo is hiding something important from her.

Of course, a moment of epiphany inevitably comes upon Myeong-eun later, and the mood naturally becomes quite melodramatic as she and her half-sister try to deal with a certain fact in their life, but the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Boo Ji-young, who would draw more attention from us with her subsequent work “Cart” (2014), does not lose its calm and thoughtful focus on story and characters. For example, a subplot involved with Myeong-joo’s daughter feels rather redundant at first, but it comes to resonate with the main plot more than expected, and there is a little touching moment when Myeong-joo’s daughter comes to spend some quality time with a certain supporting figure in the story thanks her great aunt.

Above all, the movie is held together well by the solid performances from its two wonderful lead actresses, who have steadily advanced for years since the film came out. While Shin Min-a ably holds the ground as the soul of the movie, Gong Hyo-jin brings some humor and spirit to the film as its heart, and they are effortless as their contrasting characters pull and push each other throughout the story. In case of several other main cast members, Chu Kwi-jung, Kim Sang-hyeon, Moon Jae-won, and Bea Eun-jin are well-cast in their respective supporting roles, and Chu Kwi-jung and Kim Sang-hyeon are especially terrific as two different women who raised Myeong-joo and Myeong-eun with sincere care and love.

Although more than 10 years have passed since its original theatrical release, “Sisters on the Road” still feels fresh as a female drama film which handles its relevant main subjects with enough sensitivity and thoughtfulness. It surely reminds me that good movies usually do not get old regardless of how much time passes, and I am glad that this little gem comes to get another chance to approach to audiences out there.

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Beast (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Idris Elba vs. Lion

Posted on September 20, 2022 by kaist455

Baltasar Kormákur’s new film “Beast” is a simple but fairly competent survival thriller drama. Although I wish it had a bit more fun and excitement besides having more substance in terms of story and character, the movie has some tense moments to be appreciated, and it is also held well together by the strong presence of its charismatic lead actor.

Idris Elba, a British actor who has steadily been reliable and interesting since his breakout turn in HBO TV series in “The Wire”, plays Dr. Nate Samuels, who recently became a widower and has tried to handle his rather estranged relationship with his two young daughters. For getting closer to them again, Samuels brings his daughters to a rural area of South Africa, and they are soon greeted by Samuels’ old friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), who was also close to Samuels’ wife and gladly shows her photographs to Samuel’s daughters.

As Samuel and his daughters spend their first night in Battles’ place, we get to know a bit more about the ongoing estrangement between him and his daughters. Although they love their father, Samuels’ daughters still feel hurt by their mother’s sudden illness and her following death, and, in addition to missing her a lot, Samuels feels quite guilty because he happened to be separated from his wife right before she became ill.

On the next morning, Battles, who is incidentally the manager of a nearby wild animal reserve, takes the Samuels inside the reserve, and the mood becomes more brightened as they enjoy the sights of a number of different wild animals living there. At one point, Battles shows the Samuels a lion pride which has been under his care and protection for years, and we see how much he has been close to those pack of lions.

However, the pleasant mood surrounding them is soon disrupted when they go to a nearby village, where Samuels and Battles discover something quite alarming. As already shown to us from the very first scene, there is a very dangerous rogue lion somewhere in the reserve, and we later come to gather that this lion becomes quite angry and ruthless about human beings for a good reason.

Once they discern how dangerous the situation is, Samuels and Battles quickly leave along with Samuels’ daughters, but, of course, they soon find themselves in a big trouble. With their vehicle unfortunately stuck in a tree, they are virtually trapped on the spot, and they naturally become the latest targets of that murderous lion.

I must point out that the lion in the film does not look that real like those lions in “The Lion King” (2019), but Kormákur and his crew members including Oscar-winning cinematographer Philippe Rousselot try their best for making the urgent circumstance surrounding the main characters of the film look as realistic as possible. The camera fluidly moves even when it is inside the vehicle along with the main characters, and Kormákur and editor Jay Rabinowitz thankfully do not resort to choppy editing during several intense scenes including the one where Samuels must evade the lion while hiding under the vehicle.

As he fights for his and his dear daughters’ survival, Samuels comes to bond more with them, but the screenplay by Ryan Engle, which is based on a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan, does not develop their personal drama enough to engage us. While Samuels is mostly defined by the grief from the loss of his dead wife, his two daughters are more or less than plot elements, and some of their actions along the story feel contrived just for generating more danger and suspense as required.

The last act of the story comes to lose some of what the movie has diligently built up before that point, and that is where our level of our interest is decreased. While it surely gives us what is promised to us via its trailer and promotional poster (You will probably know what I mean), the movie eventually comes to fizzle during its rather convenient finale, and that is one of the main disappointments in the film.

Anyway, Elba dutifully carries the film, and he looks as committed as demanded. Besides ably conveying to us the urgency surrounding his character, he is believable as his plain ordinary character comes to show more courage and strength for saving himself as well as others around him, and I will not be surprised if he subsequently follows the footsteps of Liam Neeson. After all, if he can stand against a big lion, he is surely able to fight against a pack of wolves as Neeson did in “The Grey” (2011), can’t he?

In case of the three main cast members around Elba, they are limited by their thankless roles, but they manage to acquit themselves well. Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries do a little more than being daughters in danger, and Sharlto Copley also has a few good moments including the one where his character must do something drastic for treating a very serious wound.

Overall, “Beast” does not reach to the level of “The Grey” and other entertaining survival drama thriller flicks, but it is not entirely without thrill and entertainment. I am not satisfied enough because it could go further along with its leading actor who deserves better in my humble opinion, but this is something you can casually watch during your spare time, and I will not stop you from doing that.

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