Jung-won, a photo studio owner in the outskirts of Seoul, finds himself fighting for his life. He does not express feelings of frustration or anger, but rather he remains calm and continues to pursue film development and household chores like always. A traffic co-ordinator and warden at an office, Da-lim, visits jung won’s studio demanding him to take her photo, but being in a poor state himself, jung has to fend off his mix of anger, frustration, and regret by apologizing with ice cream.
Da-rim, after a while, makes frequent visits to Jung won’s studio. Although lie not officially dating, Jung, won and da rim spend a lot of time together going out to amusement parks and drinking beers. Feeling rush over him Jung won is unable to express his feelings for d a rim which makes him feel even worse due to the limited amount of time. Eventually da rim is unable to visit Jung won due to him being admitted in the hospital. In front of the abandoned studio da reminds leaves letters for Jung won, searching and looking for him everywhere but without any success. Growing frustrated she reaches Jung won’s studio at midnight and hurls a brick through the window. dalca moves to a new precinct.
In an interview, director Huh Jin-ho explained that a famous Korean folk singer’s smiling portrait was the motivation for the film. He elaborated that seeing the last smile of Kim while Kim was losing life captivated him to visualize how people would die. He further added that to Him, life and death are concepts that should be shown rather than discussed, so he took great care to portray them through the characters’ behaviors he designed.
A director puts a part of them in each character. In the case of Jung-won, his destiny has already been plotted out in the beginning. He is not opposing the idea, but rather resigns to it. Throughout the movie, he only expresses his emotions twice. The first occurs during his attempt to assist his father to operate a VCR along with a remote. He is not really in a position to spend much time on it but compels his father to keep making the same errors. It is possible to sense Jung-won’s suffering when he bellows at his father, without offering an explanation. The second instance is when he enjoys a drink with his closest pal. His inner self appears to be slightly in contrast with his contemplative disposition, “Why am I quiet?” While keeping himself silent, he screams from a deep place inside him. Considering the movie generally does not provide data about his sickness, there is little opportunity to understand his condition. Still, through his odd actions, one might make assumptions and feel for him.
Da-rim contributes to the film’s quality, without her the film would have been emotionally detached. With regards to the bond between Jung-won and her, she is a forward and proposes to him by extending a date. The in-depth that both of them bring to the conversations are minimal, (especially in the last 20 minutes) where the audience is only able to hear the white noise that surrounds the town.
The emotions of Jung-won and Darim are shown using gradual zoom out shots in the movie, allowing the audience to think as if they witnessing the two characters from a side view. How both space and characters are aesthetically captured is possible through the cinematographer Yoo Young-gil’s natural lighting. In the dialogue, both Yoo and the lady operated the camera together, instead of changing the camera’s shot according to who is speaking. This creates the opposite impression of where the audience is expected to see the main characters. He employs tatami angles to illustrate the housescapes. As a result, he came out with this movie without even having seen the release. Thus, the respect that he lent to Yoo Young-gil shows up in the film.
Currently, we are in this world in which people are told to hurry, and being over-complicated is said to be the highest virtue. Whereas such a routine life is complicated, it seldom affords the area where the person’s feelings mature. But, by watching this movie which depicts the elegance of minimalism, you can always have the chance to recalculate your inner emotions.
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