Apr
21
2007
Solace
Posted by luna6 Leave a Comment
Movie : Solace / Telling Things When Falling Love / Salanghal ddae iyagihaneun geotdeul
Year : 2006
Country : South Korea
Director : Seung-wook Byeon
Starring : Suk-kyu Han (In-Gu), Ji-su Kim (Hye-Ran), Han-wi Lee (In-Seop)
Run Time : 114 Minutes
Rating : 5.0
Users Rating: 7.2 
(5 votes)
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Plot Synopsis : In-ku owns a small retail pharmacy, while taking care of his mentally disabled brother. In the past, he was set for marriage, until his fiance’s parents refused to allow the marriage because of his brother.
Hye-ran runs a small retail booth in Dongdaemyun Shopping Center. Often, she resorts to selling counterfeit merchandise to make ends meet. When her father passed away, he left her saddled with his large debts.
As fate has it, In-Ku and Hye-Ran meet in a chance encounter and find solace in each other’s company. As they grow closer to each other, so does their problems.
Movie Review : “Solace” is a strange movie to classify. Not exactly a big budget Korean film nor a low budget indie film. Difficult situations exists in both of the main character’s lives, but the problems lack the more common Korean melodramatic flair to cause an outpouring of empathy for either characters. Their lives are tough, but not quite bleak enough or dark enough to elicit heartfelt sympathy. If anything, all signs point to a “realistic” film that carries with it a mix bag of realistic good and bad.
The positives of having such a film like this, is seeing things that have not been shown much in Korean movies. Hye-Ran works in a clothing booth that often peddles counterfeit goods. Her booth is situated somewhere in the DongDaeMun shopping center, which is a well known shopping center in Seoul. If you have ever been there before, which I have, you may wonder what their lives are like when they are not selling clothes in their booths. For In-Kuh, his biggest problem in life would be the responsibilities of having a mentally handicapped brother. This portion didn’t get overly dramatic which I appreciated, yet kept its realistic feel by showing In-Kuh’s frustrations at appropriate time. Also, his job as a pharmacist was kind of cool as well, something you don’t often see in Korean movies, yet there’s one of these pharmacies on every block in Korea.
The negatives of having such a realistic film is that the film sometimes forgets the importance of having a compelling story behind all these scenes that are done realistically. The filmmaker’s desire to focus on such moments, often led to questionable scenes, like the scene where In-Ku takes a whizz in the sink (was that necessary?) or the movie harping on the mentally disabled brother’s fetish to masturbate with girlie magazines. Furthermore the characters of In-Ku (played by Suk-kyu Han of Swiri/Christmas In August fame) and Hye-Ran (played by Ji-su Kim) were portrayed in a manner were empathy was often hard to conjure for their characters. On a side note, I do firmly believe that Suk-kyu Han’s family tree and Patrick Swayze’s family tree crossed paths somewhere in the distant past. The resemblance is uncanny at times.
Although, the problems that afflicted the characters in Solace were something most people could relate too, the story itself was bland enough that whatever connections were made in the film were lost somewhere in the second half of the film. Granted, Solace was interesting at times, but more often than not the movie was just “bland” and combined with the performances, which were instantly forgettable, you have a movie that’s probably going to be remembered for nothing at all.
Here’s my own spin on a popular philosophical question…”If you thought about a tree falling in an empty forest and the next day you can’t remember having such thoughts, did the tree actually fall in your mind?” That’s a dilemma you will likely encounter after watching Solace.
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2006 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |