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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 19 November 2014
This article is a review of REVIVRE.Seen at the London Korean Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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"What we are selling is taste and image," Oh Jeongseok (Ahn Sung-ki)
A man falls in love with his wife after she passes. Intricate bereavement from maestro director Im Kwontaek is only a surprise because it is his 102nd film. Initially working backwards (à la MEMENTO, IRREVERSIBLE, 5X2), the narrative then reaches for greater ambition, by chopping up the timeline. At points it is not quite clear where, or when, we are in the story, and not in a bad way (contrast TRANSFORMERS say). Repeat viewings, one predicts, will reward.
A man falls in love with his wife after she passes. Intricate bereavement from maestro director Im Kwontaek is only a surprise because it is his 102nd film. Initially working backwards (à la MEMENTO, IRREVERSIBLE, 5X2), the narrative then reaches for greater ambition, by chopping up the timeline. At points it is not quite clear where, or when, we are in the story, and not in a bad way (contrast TRANSFORMERS say). Repeat viewings, one predicts, will reward.
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Black figures against striking white. Mourners on a funeral procession on a bleached rocky terrain. Widower Oh Jeongseok turns behind him and spies a striking woman, out of place, in red. Recalling the construct in THE MATRIX, where the pinup distracts Neo, we come to be fascinated by Jeongseok’s waking/unconscious dreams. Sublime initial imagery makes way for Jeongseok jolting awake at the sound of a life support machine's piercing flatline. Wife Jinkyoung (Kim Ho-jung) has passed. We jump backwards again, after breaking the news to his daughter and the heartbreaking wail over the phone, to the earliest point in the narrative: The diagnosis of the further outbreak of brain tumours in Jinkyoung, and the shaving of her head. Shorn of a major part of her femininity, and in a harsh light looking like a man, comes at the same time as the arrival of Choo Eun-joo (Kim Gyu-ri). Beauty and smarts, Eun-joo is the new Marketing Deputy at cosmetics company, Adelaide, to which Jeongseok is the Marketing Executive Director. Commentary on the value of superficial female attractiveness does not go unnoticed.
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Awakening a dormant desire in Jeongseok, Eun-joo might have been at the mercy of her boss. Patriarchal societal mores might have lead to abuse of power in the workplace. Only once does Jeongseok lose his cool, and remorse is etched into his face at raising his voice in veiled frustration. Fortuity, or lack thereof, scupper potential romantic encounters. A striking sequence, of him leaving in a taxi while Eun-joo looks on as colleagues converse and gently jostle in slow-motion, is enigmatically either a stylish indicator of mutual desire or inebriated wishful thinking.
Confronted by daughter Miyoung (Yeo Min-jeong), she accuses Jeongseok of never having loved her mother, and not showing the necessary spousal gratitude for Jinkyoung’s generosity. Those lines hit home only on an attempt at eradicating reminders.
Subtle, ambitious and moving.
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