[K-FILM REVIEWS] 녹색의자 (Green Chair)

07/08/2005 - Starmax
녹색의자 (Green Chair)
2005 - 2 Disc
Director: 박철수 (Park Chul-Soo)
Starring: 서정 (Seo Jung), 심지호 (Shim Ji-Ho), 오윤홍 (Oh Yoon-Hong)

FILM: 7
Never someone to make a 'normal' film, Park Chul-Soo comes back to the big screen after a long hiatus. Even though it took close to two years to see 'Green Chair' on the big screen in Korea, it toured several Film Festivals all over the world, including Sundance. This is Park's first film since 2000's 봉자 (Bong-Ja). Looking at the simple theme of the film, an off kilter take on 원조교제 (Dating a minor, exactly like the Japanese 援助小才), one could think Park spends the entire film criticizing social reactions to the crime, and how the law reacts to it, but it's not the case. Instead, the film is a quirky and unique mixture of different styles. The first act would easily earn the title 맛있는 섹스 그리고 사랑 (Sweet Sex and Love), which was former adult video icon Bong Man-Dae's debut film, but ended up focusing more on the sound effects of its sex scenes than the actual film. The sex scenes here might be as revealing as Bong's film, but there's none of the almost vulgar attention to 'certain' details, and the sweetness of the two characters' lovemaking is emphasized instead of their sexual positions. The second half is more like a gentle Hong Sang-Soo film, without all the social monsters he presents in his films: Park explores a little how society reacts to a woman sleeping with a minor, and their attitudes even after she's paid her price. He also in some ways connects sexual desire with food, but with none of the sleaziness in films of other directors interested in that connection, like Bigas Luna. And the third is probably the major selling point of the film, a bizarro world Rohmer-styled party, where all the majors characters talk honestly in a very abstract and interesting style. But while the film is often charming, sexy in ways other 'erotic dramas' (term Park dislikes, for obvious reasons) could never be, and even well written, there are some problems. The most evident is Shim Ji-Ho's acting, which is inadequate at best, terrible in his worst moments. While his body language conveys the age of the character in a realistic manner, his attempts to sound and look like a 19 year old man are completely inept, most of the times resulting in phony situations which ruin the flow of the film. And also, while the film is not particularly pretentious, there's a certain preachiness and pseudo-intellectualism to it which kind of irks the more populist part of my psyche. Some of the scenes in this film just scream 'I'm shooting an art film' without making much of a statement, and that's quite a problem in a film which never tries to engage the viewer with something other than interesting questions. I can't say I've been excited by Park's films since 1997's 산부인과 (Push! Push!), but 'Green Chair' is an interesting, albeit flawed take on May-December romances, and its quirky wit and sweet sexyness make up for some average acting (from Shim Ji-Ho) and weird choices.

VIDEO: 7.5
Quite a nice transfer. Great colours with natural skin tones, nice detail and all. But there's some anti-aliasing problems and some edge enhancement.
AUDIO: 7
Nothing out of the ordinary, but solid audio track with nice, clear dialogue. Music is almost never used, and 90% of the film is dialogue, so it wouldn't be much of a workout for your sound system anyway. Some minor sync problems in the middle, but not much of an annoyance.
SUBTITLES: 7.5
Generally very good, but a few spelling mistakes and the usual laziness with the finer details of the Korean language take half a point off.
EXTREA FEATURES: 7.5
All on the second disc are the two Trailers (Adult Version and Normal) and a great 90 Minutes Documentary. Unlike other DVDs full of pop-ups, questions, stylish graphics and the like, this is just video. But it's a fascinating feature exploring how Park Chul-Soo works, in a very quick, almost TV Drama-like style. There are a few interviews mixed with the shooting footage, but most of the documentary shows Park's modus operandi on the set, the way he interacts with actors and crew, the way he reacts and guides his cast. Really interesting.
VALUE FOR MONEY: 7
This is not a film for everybody, especially if you've never seen a Park Chul-Soo film. Part sweet, part irritating, it swings between playful sexual innocence and dark social commentary, but without the pretentious tone which ruins most of those films. I can't say I loved it, but I was intrigued by it. And Seo Jung is excellent.
OVERALL: 7.21