Last year at the 2013 BFI London Film Festival (BFILFF, kiddies) I felt
like I let myself down. Of the four films I went to see, not one was Japanese.
American, check; Hong Kongian, check; Hungarian, you bet; Chinese, of course.
Japanese, no. Well, with the LFF's 58th incarnation, I felt I should put that
right.
Adding two Japanese films, I saw a total of six of the however-many
films that were on offer. Korean; check; British, check; Hungarian, not Czech;
Chinese, checkers; American, no...celebrate!
First stop, Korea, Southern variety, and the charming 'Hill of
Freedom'. Hong Sang-soo is the name of a director that I know. Having seen his
'Hahaha' a few years back, and remembering how it made me 'ha ha ha', I was
looking forward to what appeared to be another comedy involving reminiscing and
discussions over alcohol. Where 'Hahaha' used still photos while the conversation
continued to flow, 'Hill of Freedom' uses another inventive technique for this
not-always-so-subtle comedy.
Mori, played effectively by Japanese man Ryo Kase (you remember him),
is a Japanese man returning to Korea for two weeks looking for the Korean
student he fell in love with when working in Seoul as a language tutor. The
Korean student, Kwon, unaware of his return, has also recently returned to
Seoul after some time away recovering from illness under the care of a man
combining being both a preacher and doctor. She finds she has been left a
series of letters written by Mori in broken English. Dropping the letters, she
loses the chronological order that Mori had clearly put them in, yet failed to
date.
Kwon then begins to read the letters, which are acted out for us, but
with the order now lost so the film now becomes a sprawling collection of
mish-mash snips of Mori's time in Korea. This means things are seen before they
actually happen (sort of) creating confusion for the audience (sort of). The
chronology is not particularly distracting and adds a nice charm to the film,
as well as some comedy moments.
The real comedy here, however, is the fact that this is a Korean film,
centred around a Japanese man, that is acted largely in English. Mori's lack of
Korean means he bumbles his way about a corner of Seoul where everybody just so
happens to be relatively fluent in the Queen's. This presents lots of broken
conversations and odd phrases uttered between the two clashing cultures, with
'you're a strange man' being met with 'you're a strange man.' Confusion is
sometimes created and from thence the humour arose.
Mori's motivations are not always clear, in what is a short film, coming
to Korea while unemployed with no real plan upon arrival except see Kwon,
getting drunk with his guesthouse owner's nephew and flirting - and more - with
a local cafe worker. Though his lack of direction is often questioned by the
Koreans he comes into contact with, often mistaking him for an artist due to
his scruffy appearance and daily sleeping habits. He is a man searching for
something, whatever it may be.
But Hong keeps things light, showing that Mori is clearly troubled, but
not diving too far in. Being a short film, just over an hour, this is probably
a good thing, kept as a comedy, not a moody love story. The postscript ending
is a clear sign of this, concluding a postmodern film about post.
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