Alice, Darling (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Away from her toxic relationship

Posted on August 21, 2023 by kaist455

“Alice, Darling” is a little but increasingly tense psychological drama about a young woman struggling with her toxic relationship with her abusive boyfriend. She desperately wants to look away from what she has suffered, but her mind and body do not lie, and that becomes more evident to not only herself but also a few figures around her when she happens to get a chance to get away from her boyfriend for a while.

At first, the movie shows us how Alice (Anne Kendrick) has tried to maintain her relationship with her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick). They have lived in the Manhattan borough of New York City, and Simon has been a new prominent young artist to watch, but it gradually dawns upon us that Alice is not as happy or fine as she pretends on the surface. For example, she often has to tolerate her boyfriend’s narcissistic ego, but he only shows more of his mentally abusive sides while also emphasizing how much he loves her.

Frequently finding herself on the edge due to her boyfriend’s abuse and manipulation, Alice eventually decides to tell a little lie to him on one day. She was recently invited to a cottage at a remote forest lake area where she can have a private rest along with her two close friends, and she lies to her boyfriend that she will be absent for a while due to her “business trip”.

After she arrives at the cottage along with her two close friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku), Alice seems to feel a better than before, but, not so surprisingly, she still trembles inside due to her boyfriend’s toxic influence. She cannot help but think of how he may react if he ever happens to learn of her little lie, and that makes her all the more nervous. She accordingly shows more alarming signs of emotional anxiety, and it does not take much time for both Tess and Sophie to discern that something is not so right with Alice.

Nevertheless, without asking too much, Tess and Sophie try to make Alice feel comfortable as much as possible, and we get a series of little relaxing moments as Alice allows herself to enjoy herself a bit along with her two friends. Although the recent incident of a local missing girl sometimes disturbs her mind for understandable reasons, Alice and her friends join the volunteer search for that missing girl when there is not much else to do, and that seems to make her reflect more on how her life is going at present.

However, Alice’s mind is still stuck with her boyfriend, whose imagined presence in her mind becomes more frightening along the story. His cruel words often make her mind feel bad or guilty, and she comes to show more of emotional stress no matter how much she tries to pretend in front of her friends that everything is fine and okay.

In the end, there comes a point where Alice’s friends cannot possibly ignore whatever their friend is struggling with. At one point later in the story, Alice becomes quite panic when she happens to lose a gift from her boyfriend, and that makes Tess and Sophie more convinced that their friend really needs help right now. While letting her stay more at the cottage, they have her slowly open herself more to them, and they surely show some sympathy and support after eventually learning about what she has suffered due to her toxic boyfriend.

Thanks to some good influence from Tess and Sophie, Alice shows a little progress toward the possible recovery, but Anna Kendrick, who demonstrates well a more serious side of her talent here, constantly conveys to us the growing tension inside her character’s traumatized mind. While she finally comes to realize that what she has felt bad about her boyfriend is not wrong at all, her mind remains a captive of his toxic influence to some degree, and, thanks to Kendrick’s believable performance, you will come to have more understanding on how people often cannot easily get away from their toxic relationship.

What the hell, I must confess here that I had my own experience with toxic relationship early in this year, and I really understand Alice’s tricky emotional struggle along the story. As a matter of fact, her increasingly agitated state of mind later in the film triggered a traumatic personal memory of how much I trembled and conflicted when I was finally about to declare the end of the relationship to a guy who, to put it mildly, mistreated me a lot for five months even though he was supposed to be my boyfriend.

The movie also reminds that it is always helpful to have some good friends in your private life, who may help and support you a lot as you struggle with a toxic relationship. As Alice’s two close friends, Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosku provide the stable ground for Alice’s anxiety and her following gradual recovery, and they and Kendrick are effective enough to overcome some artificial aspects of the finale. On the opposite, Charlie Carrick is insidiously threatening even though his character mostly hovers over the film, and the mood certainly becomes more tense when his character enters the screen as expected during the last act.

In conclusion, “Alice, Darling” is worthwhile to watch thanks to director Mary Nighy’s competent direction, screenplay writer Alanna Francis’s sensitive and thoughtful writing, and Kendrick and several few other main cast members’ solid acting. While it should be introduced with a trigger warning to anyone who has ever suffered toxic relationship, the movie makes us have more understanding and compassion to unfortunate people like Alice, and that is what good psychological drama films can do in my inconsequential opinion.

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Finding Yingying (2020) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Yingying Zhang is missing

Posted on August 20, 2023 by kaist455

Documentary film “Finding Yingying” focuses on the undeniably heartbreaking human aspects of one real-life missing case. Yingying Zhang, a graduate student at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois who was only 26 at the time of her missing, is a plain but smart and spirited young woman full of hope and possibility, and her sudden disappearance on one day of June 2017 surely devastated a lot her family and others close to her.

The case came quite close to director/co-producer/co-cinematographer Jiayan “Jenny” Shi Shilin, a Chinese documentary filmmaker who was incidentally also studying at University of Illinois during that time. Shortly after when the missing of Yingying Zhang was reported, Shilin and many other students actively participated in the search for Yingying during next several weeks, and Shilin subsequently followed the desperate efforts of Yingying’s family members and friends.

The early part of the documentary focuses on how hopeful Yingying was about her academic career in the future. After graduating from Peking University in China just like Shilin, Yingying went to US for more study, and that was how she came to University of Illinois. Although she could not help but feel lonely or depressed due to being alone in the middle of a world very alien to her in more than one aspect, she still did not lose any hope and optimism of hers at all, and it is often poignant to observe that via the occasional reading of her personal diary in the documentary.

On that fateful day of June 2017, nothing seemed to be particularly wrong for Yingying and her several fellow Chinese students. Once she had a brief meeting with her landlord in the afternoon for signing a lease for her current residence, she was supposed to join her friends after that, but, to her friends’ befuddlement, she did not appear even in the evening, and they accordingly became quite concerned about whatever might have happened to her.

As the subsequent search for Yingying was continued without much progress, Yingying’s friends came to fear for the worst, and so did her family. Her father soon came from China along with her aunt and her boyfriend (Her mother happened to be not so well at that time, by the way), and the whole university kept trying to search for Yingying, but there was still not any helpful clue to her whereabouts.

In the meantime, the local police also tried as much as possible for finding Yingying, and then there eventually came a breakthrough, though that was not a good news for Yingying’s family and friends at all. Considering what was captured on several surveillance cameras during that day, it was quite possible that Yingying was taken away to somewhere by an unidentified person, and it was also very likely that she was already dead if she was not being kept by that person in question.

Now this sounds like your average true-crime documentary, but, instead of resorting to any kind of cheap sensationalism, the documentary keeps focusing on not only the emotional pain and devastation of Yingying’s family and friends but also Yingying’s life and personality. She was a good daughter to make her parents proud. She was a wonderful girlfriend to her boyfriend. She was a dependable big sister to her younger brother. Above all, she was a promising young woman who could achieve and fulfill a lot after graduating with her doctoral degree.

And that is why the big hole left by her sudden disappearance feels so hurtful to her family and others close to her. At one point, we come to see how much Yingying’s parents have put up with each other a lot for years for supporting their dear daughter, and there is a very painful scene where they clash with each other due to Yingying’s growing absence in their life. In case of Yingying’s boyfriend, he is relatively calmer on the surface, but he is also clearly devastated by her disappearance, and that is why he kept standing by her suffering family to the end.

In the meantime, the investigation on Yingying’s disappearance gradually gained momentum after the local police finally came to find the prime suspect. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that what followed next during next two years was quite frustrating for everyone who cared about Yingying’s disappearance. Although Yingying’s family got the closure at least after suffering so much, that big question hovering over the case remains unanswered to some degree even at this point, and that causes more pain and sorrow for them.

On the whole, “Finding Yingying” is a documentary of haunting qualities to linger on your mind for a long time. Shilin, who received the Special Jury Award when the documentary was shown at the SXSW Film Festival early in 2020, handles her main human subjects with enough care and respect, and Yingying comes to us as a vivid human being to remember even though she is mainly presented via her words and a number of video clips and photographs. In short, this little but intimate documentary is one of most powerful ones I encountered during last several years, and I assure you that you will not easily forget Yingying after watching it.

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Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A little private affair between two young public figures 

Posted on August 18, 2023 by kaist455

“Red, White & Royal Blue”, which was released on Amazon Prime in last week, is a lightweight romantic comedy film which decorates its very familiar genre formula with some interesting story elements. Sure, homosexual romance has become quite a mainstream story subject even in romantic comedy movies these days as shown from “Bros” (2022) and “Spoiler Alert” (2022), but the movie distinguishes itself to some degree as having a fun with the specific aspects of its two contrasting main characters, and we are also actually touched as they come to show more of their feelings to each other along the story despite the considerable obstacles in front of their little private affair.

Like many other contrasting couples in romantic comedy films, the two main characters of the movie are not so cordial to each other from the very beginning. While he is attending a royal wedding party held in London, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), who is the son of the current President of the United States, happens to clash with Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) for petty reasons, and their mutual contempt to each other eventually culminates to a big public embarrassment, which is quickly developed into a hot media topic around the world. As a part of the following damage control, Alex and Prince Henry now have to look friendly together in public, and that surely annoys both of them in one way or another.

However, as spending more time together, Alex and Prince Henry come to realize that they are not so different from each other despite lots of differences between their respective social backgrounds. Sure, Prince Henry has much more privileges than Alex as the younger brother of the current Crown Prince, but Alex also have to have a fair share of burden for being a public figure just like Prince Henry, and they eventually come to interact more with each other after Alex goes back to US.

In the end, there comes a point where Prince Henry begins to show his growing feelings toward Alex, and, what do you know, Alex turns out to be quite attracted to Prince Henry although he is not totally gay like Prince Henry. After that point, they continue to meet each other while keeping their burgeoning romance in secret from many others except a few figures they can trust, and, as an R-rated romantic comedy, the movie does not hesitate to delve into some carnal aspects of their romance including, yes, that common act of sexual intercourse I do not dare to mention here in this review for, uh, public decency.

As things get more serious between them, both Alex and Prince Henry become more conflicted about whether they can really go further with their romantic passion. While Alex is concerned about whether his romance with Prince Henry can damage his mother’s ongoing presidential campaign, Prince Henry wonders more about whether he can be brave enough to break away from those old traditions represented by his royal family. Maybe he should put away his feelings instead, but then he cannot help himself about his feelings – especially when Alex opens himself more to him later in the story.

Even before that point, we already know quite well where the story is going, but the screenplay by director Matthew Lopez, who has been mainly known for his Tony-winning play “The Inheritance”, and his co-writer Ted Malawer, which is based on the novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston, keeps us engaged as sensitively and thoughtfully building up the progress of Alex and Prince Henry’s intimate relationship. While it is often amusing to watch how they try to keep their romance in secret, the movie also provides some little poignant moments between them, and there is an achingly sincere scene where Prince Henry shows Alex a little private place where he can be just a plain person for a while instead of a famous public figure.

Above all, the movie is supported well by the good chemistry between its two lead actors. Taylor Zakhar Perez, who recently appeared in Netflix films “The Kissing Booth 2” (2020) and “The Kissing Booth” (2021), brings enough wit and charm to his character, and he is also convincing when his character tries to do much more than merely being the son of the US president later in the story. Compared to his co-star, Nicholas Galitzine, whom we will see again in Emma Seligman’s “Bottoms” (2023), is more reserved as required by his role, and that is why it is moving to see when his character eventually makes an important choice for himself and Alex.

Around Perez and Galitzine, the movie places a number of various performers who has each own small moment to shine. As Alex’s US President mother, Uma Thurman is a bit strained with an exaggerated Texan accent, but she is matched well by the down-to-earth quality of Clifton Collins Jr., who plays Alex’s US Senator father. While Sarah Shahi often steals the show with her snappy supporting performance, Rachel Hilson, Ellie Bamber, and Aneesh Sheth are solid in their respective parts, and you will be also delighted by the cameo appearance by a well-known British actor around the end of the film, who plays his royal character with humorous aplomb.

In conclusion, “Red, White & Royal Blue” is a pretty conventional product to say the least, but it is equipped with good storytelling and engaging performances at least. Sure, the movie simply does as much as intended, but the overall result is fairly enjoyable and appealing in my inconsequential opinion, so I will not grumble for now.

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Hail to Hell (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): This is surely not what they expected…

Posted on August 18, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Hail to Hell” surprised me more than once for good reasons. As following two young outcasts’ silly attempt of personal revenge, the movie generates a number of sharply humorous moments for us, and then it goes further than expected before somehow pulling off some genuine hope and optimism for both of them around the end of their bumpy journey.

After the opening scene which dryly but painfully shows one very cruel incident of school bullying, the movie subsequently establishes how things have been quite miserable for Na-mi (Oh Woo-ri) and Seon-woo (Bang Hyo-rin), two female high school students living in a local city outside Seoul. So sick and tired of being bullied and ignored all the time, both of them decide to kill themselves together, but then, right before they try to kill themselves, Seon-woo tells Na-mi that Chae-rin (Jung Yi-ju), a mean girl mainly responsible for their ongoing misery, seems to be living pretty well after moving to Seoul some time ago. Quite furious about this, Na-mi changes her mind at the last minute, and she and Seon-woo soon leave for Seoul for having their revenge on Chae-rin before eventually committing suicide.

Not long after arriving in Seoul, Na-mi and Seon-woo luckily locate where Chae-rin is currently living, but they are caught off guard by how much Chae-rin seems different than before. As a member of some small Christian community, Chae-rin has devoted herself to the Christian faith along with several other members, and she is actually happy to see Na-mi and Seon-woo again because she needs their forgiveness for her, uh, spiritual salvation.

Naturally, both Na-mi and Seon-woo are all the more flabbergasted by this unbelievable change of Chae-rin. Sure, they are still willing to make Chae-rin miserable as much as possible, but Chae-rin looks very eager to accept anything from them in the name of forgiveness, and Na-mi and Seon-woo become more confused about what to do next, while also finding themselves stuck more with Chae-rin’s Christian community during next several days.

In the meantime, as many of you have probably guessed already, the situation gradually turns out to be more serious than both Na-mi and Seon-woo expected at first. While they are cordially accepted as guests by Chae-rin and her fellow Christian community members, Na-min and Seon-woo come to see more of how weird and disturbing this Christian community looks. As your average agnostic atheist, I do not know much about Christians in South Korea, but I have heard about some loony Christian communities out there, and what is shown in the film is not so far from what I heard about.

Maybe Na-mi and Seon-woo can just choose to give up and then leave, but, to our little amusement, they keep hesitating while not so sure about what is going on around them – and whether Chae-rin is really changed as she often claims in front of them and others. At one point, Na-mi tries to corner Chae-rin more, but Chae-rin does not seem to be perturbed at all even at this point, and that accordingly makes Na-mi less willing to execute the revenge than before. After all, what is the point of revenge if the figure in question is quite ready to be punished?

Around the narrative point where Na-mi and Seon-woo come upon some secret hidden behind Chae-rin’s Christian community (Is this a spoiler?), director/writer Lim Oh-jeong’s screenplay shifts itself onto horror/thriller mode, but the movie still does not lose any of its dark sense of humor while bringing more human complexity to its main characters. As their situation becomes quite tricky, Na-mi and Seon-woo also come to conflict a lot with each other, and we come to learn that their relationship is a bit more complicated than expected behind their common hate toward Chae-rin, who subsequently turns out to have a fair share of desperation behind her seemingly gentle and peaceful façade.

Na-mi and Seon-woo are often pathetic to say the least as they clumsily reach for their vengeance, but they are illustrated with an ample amount of life and personality. While they have just stuck together under their shared misery, Na-mi and Seon-woo come to find solace and solidarity from each other as going through their quest for revenge, and that is the main reason why the final act of the movie works splendidly in addition to being balanced well between comedy and thriller.

The wonderful comic performances from the two lead performers of the film flawlessly complement each other throughout the film. While Oh Woo-ri is relatively more direct and forthright, Bang Hyo-rin quietly but ably holds the ground for her co-star’s showier acting, and we surely get lots of small but solid laughs as observing how their characters push and pull each other along the story. As another crucial part of the story, Jung Yi-ju is equally terrific in the constant ambiguity of her character, and Park Sung-hoon, Lee Joo-woon, and Lee Sun-hee are also effective in their respective supporting parts.

On the whole, “Hail to Hell” is another highlight in South Korean independent cinema during this year, and Lim, who previously made several acclaimed short films before making a feature film debut her, shows that she is another interesting South Korean filmmaker to watch. While Na-mi and Seon-woo are not exactly likable even at the end of the story, I found myself rooting for them more than expected as observing how they feel a bit better about themselves and their life in a way to be appreciated by Friedrich Nietzsche, and that is quite an achievement to say the least.

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Oppenheimer (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): American Prometheus

Posted on August 16, 2023 by kaist455

Christopher Nolan’s latest film “Oppenheimer”, which was finally released in South Korean yesterday, is overwhelming to say the least. If you do not have much knowledge about its real-life hero’s life and career, you may get confused more than once as it busily and briskly juggles its multiple storylines and numerous figures around its real-life hero from the beginning to the end, but you will be also captivated by its sheer cinematic craft fueled by Nolan’s undeniably intense artistic vision and talent during its 3-hour running time.

Nolan’s adapted screenplay, which is based on Pulitzer-winning biography book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, shuffles among three main narratives for looking into the life and career of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), who has been known as “Father of the Atomic Bomb”. On one side, we see Oppenheimer enduring the security hearing by the Atomic Energy Committee (AEC) in 1953 due to being associated with some questionable left-wing figures. On the other hand, we see Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), the chief orchestrator of Oppenheimer’s eventual humiliating downfall in public, going through Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce several years later. Between these two contrasting main narratives, the movie vividly illustrates Oppenheimer’s dramatic rise and fall during the 1920-50s step by step.

Although he was not so promising mainly due to his clumsy handing of laboratory experiments, Oppenheimer was a troubled but brilliant student passionately drawn to the exciting academic possibilities of studying quantum mechanics, and he happened to be at the right time and the right place. After meeting Danish Nobel-winner physicist Nelis Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) while having some hard time in England, he immediately moved to Germany for studying under many pioneers in his academic field during the 1920-30s, and he certainly became more excited and passionate about his ongoing study.

However, not long after he returned to US for teaching quantum mechanics in University of California, Berkeley, things got quite serious for him and many others around the world, and then the World War II eventually began in 1939. Before the war, Oppenheimer and his colleagues learned about the amazing but disturbing discovery on nuclear fission in Germany, and, as the war was continued, they and many other physicists in US including Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) naturally came to worry about one dreadful possibility: what if Hitler got the powerful weapon based on that awesome scientific discovery first?

Eventually, the US government commenced the Manhattan Project, and Oppenheimer was subsequently selected as the director of this ambitious military project. When General Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon) approaches to him in private, he is surely well aware of what General Groves wants, and General Groves knows quite well about Oppenheimer’s questionable association with some suspicious left-wing figures such as his longtime mistress Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), though he does not care much because 1) Oppenheimer is on the top of his candidate list and 2) he sees as Oppenheimer’s political vulnerability as a little leverage to be used later for his advantage.

Under Oppenheimer’s confident guidance and leadership, the Manhattan Project gets accelerated further thanks to many different scientists ranging from Isidor Isaac Rabi (David Krumholtz) to Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), and their massive joint efforts finally culminate to that historical atomic bomb test in July 1945. As many of you know, there has been lots of hoopla about how Nolan and his crew members made this terrifying but captivating moment without using much CGI, and I can only tell you that their final result is worthwhile to watch on big theater screen.

Nevertheless, the movie does not lose the human dimensions of the story even at that point, and it keeps us focused on that via its superlative concoction of visual and sound. While Nolan’s adapted screenplay sometimes feels a bit too talky, the movie rapidly but succinctly moves around its multiple narrative lines thanks to the precise and efficient editing by Jennifer Lane, and its pulsating narrative momentum is further accentuated by the deliberately overpowering score by Ludwig Göransson. Above all, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema’s camera often focuses closely on the faces of the performers in the film, who all did a marvelous job in their understated ensemble acting as reminding me of what Ingmar Bergman once said: “For me, the human face is the most important subject of the cinema.”

As the distant but undeniably compelling human center of the film, Cillian Murphy, who already collaborated with Nolan no less than five times, diligently holds the center via his subdued but intense presence, and he is particularly terrific as Oppenheimer is trembled a lot by the growing guilt and regret from his involvement in the development of the atomic bomb later in the story. In addition, Nolan assembles many various notable performers around Murphy. While Robert Downey Jr. is a definite standout as Oppenheimer’s petty and spiteful political enemy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Rami Malek, Dane DeHaan, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke, Macon Blair, Matthew Modine, Gary Oldman, Alex Wolff, Casey Affleck, Jack Quaid, Gustaf Skarsgård, Matthias Schweighöfer, David Dastmalchian, Tony Goldwyn, Olivia Thirlby, James Remar, and Emily Bunt come and go as required, and Blunt and Pugh manage to bring some life and personality to their respective crucial but rather underwritten female supporting roles.

On the whole, “Oppenheimer” shows Nolan back in his element after the relative disappointment of “Tenet” (2020), which left me rather cold due to its very murky time travel plot despite some stunning visual moments to admire. Although this is your typical Nolan flick in many ways, it is one of his better works nonetheless, and it is surely one of the highlights of this summer season.

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A Man of Reason (2022) ☆1/2(1.5/4): A Man of Boredom

Posted on August 15, 2023 by kaist455

To be frank with you, I did not expect a lot from the beginning, but South Korean film “A Man of Reason” tremendously bored me from the beginning to the end. While there is nothing particularly new or refreshing in the overall result of this miserably mediocre dreck, it is so ponderously boring and unexciting in many aspects that I actually did not feel like missing anything at all even though I got quite drowsy more than once when I watched it at a local movie theater early in this morning.

The story mainly revolves around one very, very, very laconic ex-con named Soo-hyeok (Jung Woo-sung), who has just been released after 10 years of incarceration at the beginning of the film. He is an ex-member of some powerful criminal organization, and we gradually come to gather that he was sent to the prison due to whatever he did for the current boss of that criminal organization at that time.

After receiving a little generous present from the boss, Soo-hyeok visits the boss for showing some gratitude. When Soo-hyeok says that he will just lead a plain ordinary life instead of rejoining the criminal organization, the boss sardonically ridicules Soo-hyeok’s decision, and, though he lets Soo-hyeok go in the end, he soon instructs his right-had guy to watch on Soo-hyeok for a while at least.

Not so surprisingly, this right-hand guy turns out to have some other idea on how to deal with their current problem with Soo-hyeok. Probably because of being envious of how the boss trusts Soo-hyeok more than him, he subsequently hires a psychotic professional killer couple, and this murderous couple is certainly eager to go for their next target which seems to be an easy job just like their previous target.

Meanwhile, Soo-hyeok approaches to an old girlfriend of his, who has led a quiet normal life along with her cute little daughter since she got pregnant not long after his incarceration. It goes without saying that Soo-hyeok is the biological father of her daughter, but she is not so willing to let him enter her life again for understandable reasons. She is quite concerned about her daughter’s future due to her terminal illness, and Soo-hyeok may be the one who will take care of her daughter instead once she passes away, but she also remembers too well what kind of man he once was.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that 1) the daughter of Soo-hyeok’s ex-girlfriend is eventually kidnapped and 2) Soo-hyeok is the only one who can possibly save this young girl as a man with a particular set of skills. As clashing with that crazy professional killer couple, Soo-hyeok causes a lot of troubles for that criminal organization, and the boss certainly wants his right-hand guy to take care of this increasing messy situation as soon as possible.

Now you will be reminded of countless action thriller films ranging from “Taken” (2008) to “John Wick” (2014), and “A Man of Reason”, which is incidentally released as “The Protector” in South Korean theaters today, surely serves us several gritty physical action scenes, but none of these scenes shows enough style or substance to hold our attention. While they are mostly competent in technical aspects, they do not propel the story or the characters much on the whole, and we become all the more aware of how superficial the movie is in terms of story and character. Its attitude is certainly solemn and serious to say the least, but it sadly forgets to fill its rudimentary storyline and broad characters with details and nuances, and the result is one of the most joylessly hollow experiences I have ever had at a movie theater.

As the director and the lead actor of the film, Jung Woo-sung definitely tries as much as behind and in front of the camera. He is not a bad filmmaker as far as I can observe from his result, but his direction and performance are frequently limited by the barebone screenplay by written by him and his co-writer Jung Hae-sin. No matter how much Jung struggles to bring some human depth to his character, Soo-hyeok remains to be a bland and uninteresting walking stiff mainly defined by his fighting skill, and we become less and less interested in whatever is being at stake for Soo-hyeok.

The screenplay is also quite lousy in case of handling several substantial supporting characters in the story, some of whom are very distracting while often looking like belonging to a very different movie. As a matter of fact, I felt sorry for Kim Nam-gil, Park Sung-woon, Kim Jun-han, and Park Yoo-na because they usually resort to overacting without much clear direction for their acting, through Park occasionally shows a bit of dark sense of humor despite her thankless supporting role.

In conclusion, “A Man of Reason” is one of the most disappointing South Korean films of this year, and it actually made me wonder whether I was too harsh to another South Korean action thriller film “The Man from Nowhere” (2010). Unlike many other reviewers and critics, I did not like “The Man from Nowhere” much due to its shallow story and mediocre characters, but that movie has much more skill and energy compared to “A Man of Reason” at least, and maybe I should revisit it someday for checking out whether it is actually better than I thought at that time.

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Honey Sweet (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A familiar taste

Posted on August 15, 2023 by kaist455

I did not laugh much as watching South Korean romantic comedy film “Honey Sweet” because it turned out to be not as sweet or funny as its story and characters could be. While it works to some degree mainly thanks to its two lead performers’ diligent efforts, the movie unfortunately stumbles more than once in case of developing their awkward romantic situation or several supporting characters around them, and I found myself more distant to the story and characters instead of rooting for them more.

During its early part, the movie shows us how inflexibly repetitive its socially inept hero’s daily life is. Whenever his mind is not occupied with making better snack products at his workplace, Chi-ho (Yoo Hae-jin) flatly and precisely goes through every scheduled daily routine of his, and he does not feel particularly lonely even though he is mostly alone in his house in addition to becoming fortysomething now. His solitude is occasionally interrupted by his ex-con older brother Seok-ho (Cha In-pyo), but Chi-ho does not mind giving some money to his problematic older brother whenever Seok-ho happens to need it due to his frequent gambling, and Seok-ho has no qualms on exploiting his younger brother’s innocent kindness.

On one day, Seok-ho happens to have a little problem with paying off his latest loan. Again, Chi-ho has no choice but to take care of this problem of his older brother’s, and that is how he comes to meet a loan company employee named Il-yeong (Kim Hee-sun). Although their Meet Cute moment is rather embarrassing, Il-yeong quickly becomes determined to get closer to Chi-ho as a single mother who has been looking for any suitable guy who may be a solution to her difficult financial circumstance, and Chi-ho also soon finds himself more attracted to Il-yeong even while quite flabbergasted by this sudden change in his stably monotonous daily life.

However, besides the frequent awkwardness in their interactions, there are some other troubles surrounding the burgeoning romance between Chi-ho and Il-yeong. While Seok-ho does not welcome much Il-yeong from the very beginning, Il-yeong’s college student daughter does not approve of Chi-ho much either mainly because 1) she still remembers well how much Il-yeong suffered due to her ex-husband in the past and 2) she also happens to have a little relationship problem of hers. In addition, Chi-ho’s employer becomes quite concerned when they come to learn that Il-yeong is persuading Chi-ho to quit his job for some serious health reason, and they naturally embark on a secret plan for sabotaging Chi-ho and Il-yeong’s romance.

Now this setup looks like an ideal recipe for good comedy, but the movie somehow fails to muster enough comic energy and momentum to hold our attention. Sure, it does deliver one supposedly comic moment after another as expected, but most of them are no more than shallow gags and jokes which do not add up much to the story or the characters on the whole.

Furthermore, the movie even misses a potentially big opportunity of manic screwball comedy at one point where Chi-ho and Il-yeong happen to be followed by no less than three different supporting characters with each own mean goal. We expect for any kind of big laugh at this point, but then this initially promising moment unfortunately fizzles within a few minutes as if the movie were afraid of pushing its comic limits, and that is a big letdown to say the least.

The movie is also quite deficient in case of characterization. We are supposed to accept that Chi-ho is a sort of confectionary genius, but we never get to know anything at all about his considerable talent, and even the movie seems to forget that. As far as I can see, he also shows a number of notable signs of autistic spectrum, but this aspect of his is casually ignored while one traumatic accident in the past is thoughtlessly blamed for his social ineptitude. Moreover, Il-yeong is solely defined by her plucky pursuit of Mr. Right for her without showing much human depth, and, to make matters worse, many of other substantial characters in the film do not go beyond the level of caricature while not even utilized that well for intended comic effects.

Anyway, I must admit that Yoo Hae-jin, who has been one of the most dependable character actors in South Korean cinema for many years, does not look strained at all as the lead actor of the film. Okay, he may not be one of the most dashing movie actors in South Korea at present, but he brings some amiable qualities to his character, and you can easily see why Il-yeong comes to like and care about Chi-ho a lot more than expected. On the opposite, Kim Hee-sun ably complements Yoo throughout the film, and, like several notable cast members including Cha In-pyo, Jin Sun-kyu, and Han Sunhwa, they certainly deserve a better film in my trivial opinion.

“Honey Sweet” is directed by Lee Han, who previously directed “Punch” (2011) and “Elegant Lies” (2014). Unlike these two previous films of his, I did not respond that well to “Honey Sweet” mainly because its handling of story and characters was not funny enough for me, and I became more disappointed around its last act, which is a bit too long and scattershot as lurching toward its expected ending. At least, it is not a total waste of time, and, considering what I observed from several audiences around me while watching it early in this morning, I have a feeling that you may enjoy it more than me, so I will just let you decide to check it out someday.

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Queer My Friends (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Following her gay friend’s struggle

Posted on August 14, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Queer My Friends” follows the personal struggle of one young South Korean gay man who simply wants to be alive and true to himself. Although his story is presented mainly via the rather distant viewpoint of his close female friend who is incidentally the director of the documentary, it often feels sad and poignant for good reasons, and it will surely make you reflect more on how harsh and indifferent the South Korean society has been to many LGBTQ+ people like him for many years.

At first, director/writer Seo Ah-hyun tells us how she and Gang-won came to know each other during their early years. They and their Christian parents happened to go to the same church in their neighborhood in Seoul, so they became quite close to each other as often spending time together, and that was the main reason why Ah-hyun was quite surprised when Gang-won suddenly revealed his homosexuality to her shortly after having his 26th birthday.

While his parents still supported him as usual (I really envy him because my parents are still in denial while also pushing me toward heterosexual marriage as before), Gang-won eventually made a big decision when he was about to serve in the South Korean Army for at least 2 years just like many other able-bodied lads in South Korea. Knowing well how homophobic the South Korean Army really is, he gave up his South Korean citizenship in 2014, and then he went to US, where he subsequently got enlisted in the US Army.

Because the US Army has been more tolerant of LGBTQ+ people in these days, Gang-won did not have much problem with serving in the US Army, but, ironically, he was deployed to Seoul in the end, and he did not mind that much either. After all, he still felt more comfortable in South Korea, and there were also Ah-hyun and some other friends willing to accept his sexual identity. In addition, he began a little romantic relationship, so it seemed that he could actually settle in South Korea later even though he was not technically a South Korean citizen anymore.

However, sadly, the circumstance did not go that well for Gang-won during next several years. Not long after he was deployed to Germany later, Gang-won decided to leave the US Army due to some anxiety/depression problem, and then he stayed in New York City for a while as wondering what to do for the next chapter of his life. As a dude who has always been enthusiastic about theater performance, he takes some dance and singing lessons, and he seems to feel a bit better during these little cheerful moments, though that still does not alleviate his anxiety on the growing uncertainty of his future.

In the end, Gang-won returned to Seoul, and he was certainly welcomed by his boyfriend, Ah-hyun, and some other friends, but he still did not feel that well for understandable reasons. Because of giving up his South Korean citizenship and then evading that mandatory military service, it was difficult for him to get any decent job, and there is a little bitter moment when he reveals a bit about his current medicated status (I came to empathize more with him after learning that one of his two prescribed drugs happens to be the one I have had for more than 10 years, by the way).

As observing her friend’s ongoing struggle, Ah-hyun comes to reflect a lot on several things including her own life. Although she has aspired to be a documentary filmmaker since her college graduation, she mostly remains stuck with recording Gang-won’s story on her camera, and her parents often suggest that she should consider some other options for her life such as marrying some suitable guy.

In addition, Ah-hyun becomes more aware of the considerable social prejudice against LGBTQ+ people in the South Korean society. At one point, we see her and Gang-won attending the annual queer parade held in the middle of Seoul, and they and many other participants are happy to be there as enjoying themselves, but there are always a big bunch of hateful right-wing Christians verbally insulting and attacking at them. These loathsome people frequently emphasize their faith and Jesus in public, but, seriously, I do not think their cruel actions of hate and bigotry will be ever approved by Jesus himself.

Gang-won tries to be brave and truthful as before, but, sadly, there comes a moment equivalent to the breaking point when he and Ah-hyun come to have a painful private conversation with his boyfriend silently sitting beside them. Sure, they still care about each other as close friends, but Gang-won has felt a lot more burdened than before as Ah-hyun keeps following him with her camera, and that naturally makes Ah-hyun question whether she has actually put her project above their long friendship.

In my humble opinion, “Queer My Friends” could delve more into its main human subject, but it respects and cares too much about its main human subject to do that, and I appreciate how Seo handles her dear friend’s personal story with enough consideration and sensitivity. Although the ending is as bittersweet as expected, there are also some hope and optimism at least, and I can only wish the best for both Seo and Gang-won as a South Korean gay man who has had his own fair share of struggle for being true to myself besides being alive in the South Korean society during last several years. Yes, things have look pretty daunting to many of us these days, but things do change in the end as long as we keep struggling to live, don’t they?

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Speak No Evil (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their disturbing hosts

Posted on August 12, 2023 by kaist455

“Speak No Evil” warns us right from the very beginning that something bad will happen sooner or later, and that turns out to be quite disturbing to say the least. Starting from one sunny and pleasant environment, the movie eventually puts us through a series of increasingly dark and uncomfortable moments, and we find ourselves held tighter by its chillingly ruthless descent into darkness even when we clearly come to see its inevitable conclusion.
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At first, we are introduced to Bjørn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), an ordinary middle-class Danish couple who is currently having a little summer vacation along with their little daughter in Italy. While they are going through another pleasant and relaxing day, they happen to come across a Dutch couple who arrived a few days ago along with their little silent son, and it does not take much time for them to befriend this Dutch couple, Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders), during next several days.

Not long after they return to their residence in Denmark, Bjørn and Louise receive a postcard from Patrick and Karin, who seem to have had a real good time along with Bjørn and Louise. As a matter of fact, they cordially suggest that t Bjørn and Louise should come to their home in Holland someday, and Bjørn and Louise eventually decide that they will spend a weekend in Patrick and Karin’s residence, though, as they admit at one point, they do not know that much about Patrick or Karin.

Of course, things already do not look good to us even at that point. As Bjørn and Louise travel to Patrick and Karin’s house along with their daughter, the ominous score by Sune “Køter” Kølst frequently fills the screen with an aura of grave danger, and we are all the more unnerved as observing how isolated Patrick and Karin’s house looks in the middle of some remote rural spot – how their son still remains silent without saying any word.

While Patrick and Karin are eager to welcome Bjørn and Louise into their house, it does not take much time for us to discern how they often make Bjørn and Louise uncomfortable in one indirect way or another. For example, Patrick offers a piece of cooked meat to Louise even though he knows well that she is a vegetarian, and that is just the beginning of many small things which disturb or annoy Louise. No matter how much she tries to be nice and polite on the surface, Patrick and Karin gradually get on her nerve with more rudeness, and we are not so surprised when she eventually decides that enough is enough at one point later in the story.

In comparison, Bjørn seems less oblivious to how impolite Patrick and Karin are at times. As your average meek middle-class guy who has a fair share of frustration and suffocation behind his gentle appearance, he cannot help but envy Patrick’s casually masculine attitude, and he certainly feels good when he has a little moment of emotional ventilation along with Patrick at one abandoned site not so far from Patrick and Karin’s house.

In the meantime, more bad signs for Bjørn and Louise (and us) pop out one by one. There is a little disquieting moment associated with Patrick and Karin’s son. There is also a tense moment when Louise finds her private moment almost violated by Patrick. Above all, Bjørn and Louise feel more disturbed about how Patrick and Karin are often callous to their son right in front of Bjørn and Louise, and then there comes a point when both of Bjørn and Louise cannot possibly tolerate Patrick and Karin anymore.

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by director Christian Tafdrup, who won the Best Director award when the movie was shown at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in last year, and his brother/co-writer Mads Tafdrup shifts the story from a vicious black comedy of manners to something much darker than that. Yes, Patrick and Karin are not merely rude hosts at all as implied from the very beginning, but we are still chilled as observing how Bjørn and Louise get stuck more with Patrick and Karin along the story despite some opportunities and chances given to them. In short, this is a devious inversion of home invasion movies such as “The Strangers” (2008), and this aspect is more evident to us during its brutally nihilistic finale, which will make you wince more than once for good reasons.

While I give it three stars for its solid mood, storytelling, and performance, I am wondering whether I can really recommend “Speak No Evil” to everyone. A few days ago, a Filipino friend of mine, who is living with his wife and their two kids in Australia at present, once told me that he cannot revisit “The Exorcist” (1973) for an understandable personal reason, and I am certain that “Speak No Evil” is too grim for him for the same reason.

Anyway, “Speak No Evil” will leave you quite a striking impression if you are ready for something really dark and intense. If so, you should check it out as soon as possible considering that its American version is being produced by Blumhouse Productions at present. Although I still feel rather ambivalent about “Speak No Evil” even at present, I also want the American version not to screw up anything, and I guess that says a lot about its overall effectiveness as a horror thriller film.

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Concrete Utopia (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): An apartment building which survives

Posted on August 9, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean film “Concrete Utopia” is a dark but compelling apocalyptic thriller coupled with some biting social satire to be savored. While it feels conventional on the surface at times, the movie efficiently handles its story and characters in addition to establishing well its mood and background on the screen, and the result is one of more entertaining mainstream South Korean films during the summer season of this year.

After the amusing opening montage scene showing the long history of apartment complex development in Seoul during last several decades, the movie immediately puts us right into a sudden grim situation surrounding Min-seong (Park Seo-joon) and his wife Myeong-hwa (Park Bo-young) and many neighbors of their old apartment building. For some unspecified reason, Seoul is struck by a massive earthquake on one cold winter day, and this huge catastrophe seems to destroy all the buildings in the city except Min-seong and Myeong-hwa’s apartment building.

While everyone in the apartment building tries to recover from shock and awe during the following aftermath, they are consoled a bit by their incredible good luck. As mentioned at one point early in the story, their apartment was not so valuable compared to many of neighboring apartment buildings, but now their apartment becomes a priceless shelter, and they are certainly willing to protect it at any cost. As the survivors from the outside keep coming to the apartment building, they eventually decide to get rid of all of those outsiders at once, and Yeong-tak (Lee Byung-hun), who happens to be recently elected as the new representative of the apartment building residents, is ready to do anything for their common interest and survival.

After its several main characters are established one by one, the screenplay by director Um Tae-hwa and his co-writer Lee Sin-ji, which is based on Kim Sung-nik’s webtoon “Pleasant Bullying”, steadily follows their gradual descent into selfishness and cruelty while occasionally wielding its dark sense of humor. We are chilled by how much people can go low in the name of safety and survival, but we are also amused by the sheer human absurdity observed from that. So insulated from whatever is going on in the outside world, many residents of the apartment building let themselves driven by their worse sides under Yeong-tak’s increasingly questionable leadership, and, not so surprisingly, their hostility is eventually directed toward some residents who simply choose to be more decent and compassionate unlike many others around them.

Myeong-hwa is one of such conscientious persons in the apartment building, so she naturally comes to conflict a lot with her husband, who, in contrast, is willing to do anything for their survival. He and many others often go outside along with Yeong-tak for finding for anything to eat, and, as Myeong-hwa has worried from the beginning, he soon comes to face how he can easily cross lines for his survival and benefit.

During its second half, the movie generates more tension as a certain supporting character enters the picture. I will not describe in detail, but I can tell you instead that this supporting character in question later reveals something very important to Myeong-hwa. As a matter of fact, you may be able to guess it in advance while musing a bit on how many apartment building residents are usually distant and ignorant about each other in reality. Come to think of it, I am now reminded that I do not know or remember anything about any of those neighbors in my one-room apartment building, although I have lived here for more than 3 years now.

As deftly mixing satiric elements into the thriller narrative of his film, Um also pays a lot of attention to the mood and details of its apocalyptic background, and his crew members including cinematographer Joe Hyung-rae did a terrific job on the whole. The special effects in the film look relatively modest compared to many Hollywood blockbuster films out there, but they are utilized well to create a believable background to engage us, and many of those minor supporting characters in the film are credible as people you may come across in your average South Korean apartment complex.

Lee Byung-hun is the most prominent performer in the bunch, but he and several other main cast members are mostly effective together in their good ensemble performance. While Lee surely has several showy moments as required by his role, Park Seo-joon, Park Bo-young, Kim Sun-young, Park Ji-hu, and Kim Do-yoon also have each own moment to shine, and Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young convey well to us their respective characters’ growing inner conflict along the story.

Overall, “Concrete Utopia” is worthwhile to watch for a number of good reasons, and Um, who previously made “Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned” (2016), successfully moves up to the next step of his promising filmmaking career. Along it arrives rather late after several other big South Korean films were released during last two weeks, the movie is actually the best in the group, and I appreciate how it deftly brings some distinctive atmosphere and personality to its familiar genre elements.

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