Review of "The Way We Are", "Address Unknown"
The Way We Are [Tin shui wai dik yat yu ye] (Hui, 2008)
IMDB Link
This slice of life film is so, well, slice of life, that I don't know why I should watch it. This is the life of a single mother (husband died) and her teenage son. Somewhere in the movie, the mother befriends an aging neighbor.
And what happens?
Well, not much really. It's like stepping in some sort of weird portal and coming out as an observer in some random person's life. You watch for a while and then leave. The title is honest, because it's just the way they are. Most attempts at movie conflicts or sentimental crowd-pleasing moments are ignored. The director at times seem to get close to those moments and then just drive nonchalantly away. Just the way it is.
The teenage boy does not have any arguments with his mother, doesn't get into fights at school, doesn't fall in love. He goes to his friends house, talks to his female cousin, meets with girl from his church, and visits his grandmother in the hospital, but none of these scenes provide anything more than a glance at his life. The same with the mother.
I supposed, one could argue that not all movies should have cheap thrills, but I say, then it should be replaced with at least something. Normal is not interesting.
2/5
Address Unknown [Suchwiin bulmyeong] (Kim, 2001)
IMDB Link
This is somewhere in South Korea. It's a remote area with a US Base Camp nearby.
The characters are as follows.
Woman living in a abandoned US army bus. Years ago she had a relationship with a black US soldier who has gone away now, but who gave her a son. Every day the woman writes letters to her ex-boyfriend, but she does not known the address, and it keeps coming back. To the folks in the area, she talks in English, refusing to speak in Korean, causing conflicts when no one understands her. Her son seems to be in his early twenties, a dark skinned South Korea, brooding and angry, and lashes out at his mother, his anger at being an bastard son of a doomed, inter-racial relationship and a mother that refuses to let go off the past. This man works for his mother's current boyfriend, a dog butcher. Their job is to find or buy dogs, tie a noose around their head, hang them, and then beat it to death with a bat (why? Does it tenderize the meat?). They then sell the meat.
Next set. Teenage girl with one bad eye. Long time back, her brother made a homemade gun and plays with her. The gun goes off, blinding her in one eye. She lets her hair fall on her bad eye, ashamed and embarrassed at it. She lives without a father, who is said to have died in the Korean war. She seems silent, angry, and lonely. At night, she has the puppy go under her dress, between her legs, while she moans.
Through the window, a teenage boy spies on her, feelings of lust and love overwhelming him. He is shy, meek, and is the son of a proud ex-soldier, who constantly brags about the three communists he has killed. On each payday, he is bullied by two younger boys, who takes his money and mock him by showing how their English is better than his.
They are angry, desperate, lonely people. Their lives and minds wrapped by the shadows of the War and the US Army Camp, who they have a strange relationship with. They bought respect and hate the Americans. They learn English but hate themselves for learning it. They are scared of them and do what they say, and again, the hate is self-inflicted.
"Address Unknown" is a world of damaged people in a damaged world and Ki-duk Kim has the courage and audacity to sometimes show in a dark, dark comedy manner. A desperate, desolate, barren existence that to tolerate it, we have to sometimes laugh at it. Even if we don't want to. But then, what else is to do?
3/5