(Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2004, 35mm, 88 minutes)
I like his films above all because they are amusing. Not in the style of comic films but they manage to capture aspects of everyday life that drift by without us really paying attention to them. They show things that we look at and say, "That's right, it's just like that." That's what's amusing.
--Tae-woo Kim, actor
If, as Hong Sang-soo (Turning Gate) would have it, woman is the future of man, then man is in big trouble. The men in his fifth film, Mun-ho (Yu Ji-tae, Oldboy) and Hyeon-jun (Kim Tae-woo, Joint Security Area), are emotional idiots. The woman in their life, the willowy Seon-hwa (Seong Hyeon-a), may be marginally more mature, but she's just as passive. After college, when Hyeon-jun left to study film in the States, Mun-ho hooked up with her. The men stayed in touch, but Mun-ho never told Hyeon-jun about the relationship.
Years later, the two reunite. They've grown apart, but they're still jerks. Hyeon-jun is a filmmaker; Mun-ho is an art professor. Hyeon-jun is poor and single, while the married Mun-ho makes a comfortable living. After spending the afternoon reminiscing and hitting on their waitress, who resembles the college-aged Seon-hwa, they decide to visit the hotel bar she manages.
Long story short, Seon-hwa is the one that got away. Hyeon-jun is lonely, and regrets dumping her. She's still hurt. Mun-ho has regrets, too, but keeps them to himself. Mostly, he seems bored. Seeing Seon-hwa again reminds him that he once felt more alive. In a Hollywood production, that would indicate reconciliation time. Instead, Seon-hwa indulges the two losers, letting them drink themselves into oblivion before crashing at her pad. The next morning, she gives Mun-ho a blow job.
Later that day, Mun-ho runs into some students while walking through the snow with Hyeon-jun and Seon-hwa. This results in yet another blow job. By this point, I was reminded of Carnal Knowledge (1971), in which Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel are depicted as dunderheads for mistreating Candace Bergen in college--plus, the Mike Nichols picture also ends with Nicholson being "serviced." It is presented, of course, as a degrading experience.
Woman Is the Future of Man offers a less definitive conclusion. I can only assume that this former SIFF Emerging Master (2003) has more love for his cretins. Hong doesn't punish them--as he does in his grimly fascinating 1996 debut, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, which ends with a multiple murder--but nor does he let them off the hook. The menage a trois re-formed by this clueless trio simply collapses.
It may sound anti-climactic, but the filmmaker Michael Atkinson has called "Korean New Wave's answer to the love child [of] Antonioni and Hou Hsiao-hsien" has, for better or for worse, mounted one of the most realistic reunion films ever made. If The Big Chill (1983), with its kitchen-dancing and flag football games set to the boomer-friendly strains of Motown, is your favorite movie, you may want to take a pass, but if you're looking for something with more of the messiness of real life: Here's your antidote.
Woman is the Future of Man plays at the Northwest Film Forum May 5-11, Fri.-Thurs., at 7 and 9pm. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave on Capitol Hill between Pike and Pine. For more information, please visit www.nwfilmforum.org. You can also call (206) 329-2629 for general info and (206) 267-5380 for show times. Image from Rotten Tomatoes.
The final scene in Carnal Knowledge, as well as the slide show that precedes it, ilustrates the inability of Jonothan to establish anything more than the most superficial relationships with women. Further, it also speaks largely to the way in which the character sees women in general, as whores or princesses, rather than intellectual equals. More than degrading, the final scene is horribly sad.
ReplyDeleteIt's also Nichol's best film. Have you ever met Gladly the Bear?
Hi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit off the subject, but what did you think of "The Promise?"
You mean Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear? :-) It's funny, but more people compared Mike Nichols' "Closer" to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" than to "Carnal Knowledge," but I think the latter comparison makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteRe: "The Promise." It pains me to say it, since I loved "Farewell My Concubine," but I thought it was a major misfire. I went in with an open mind, but the movie got off to a bad start & never recovered. It felt like Kaige was trying to remake "House of Flying Daggers," but without the budget or big-name actors (Cecilia Cheung has nothing on Zhang Ziyi). And the CGI was awful. I may never get the chance to see Mr. Kaige again, but I was so disappointed I left before the Q&A. As James Agee used to say,"Unclean, unclean!"
ReplyDelete