Busan 2024 Review: KIKE WILL HIT A HOME RUN, and So Does This Kaurismaki-esque Korean Indie Delight
Possibly the highlight among the new Korean Indies on show at the Busan International Film Festival this year (though this critic hasn't quite seen everything yet), Kike Will Hit a Home Run is a quirky, charming and assured follow-up from director Park Song-yeol.
The film is very much cut from the same cloth as his debut film Hot in Day, Cold at Night, which screened in Busan three years ago, but it builds on that film's more modest achievements with a tighter story and clear stylistic aims that heighten both the film's visual appeal and emotional throughline.
Director Park and producer Won Hyang-na, who are also married off-screen, once again appear as a married couple quietly struggling to get by in the big city. Things start out okay for Young-tae and Mi-joo as the film begins with them moving into a decent new home as they build their life together.
Their outlook is soon not quite so rosy, however, when a business opportunity falls through for Young-tae. Seeking to live to his perceived societal role as the male provider, Young-tae suddenly packs and vanishes, leaving behind a note stating simply that 'Kike will hit a home run', suggesting that he will return once he has made it and is ready to provide.
In any other film, Young-tae's sudden disappearance and curt message would be the sign of a cowardly cad, but Park's film operates on a very different wavelength. Young-tae and Mi-joo understand each other in a way that doesn't necessitate traditional communication. Mi-joo accepts Young-tae's mission without emotion and just gets on it with it during his absence.
Young-tae and Mi-joo behave in a very unemotional manner with one another, but within the deadpan exterior of their relationship exists a deep well of trust and emotion. These characters understand one another and if they were to express those emotions openly they would only be doing it for us.
The dry and wry nature of their relationship clearly calls to mind the work of Aki Kaurismaki, particularly his latest film Fallen Leaves, which became a minor cult sensation in Korea, far and away outperforming all of his other films.
It isn't just Young-tae and Mi-joo that call to mind the deadpan Finnish master. The film echoes the clever framing, strict blocking and strong colour schemes of his work. That said, while the film wears its influences on its sleeve, it never feels like a Kaurismaki-lite copy. Rather, it's a dollop of style and homage that lifts up director Park's tone and themes.
The film also builds on the work done by other indie auteurs in Korea, who have employed the liberalized digital cinema medium to shine a light on the lives and struggles of normal couples trying to get by. Among these is another director-producer couple, director Jang Kun-jae and his producing partner and wife Kim Woo-ri, whose life and modest struggles inspired the brilliant 2012 film Sleepless Night.
Kike Will Hit a Home Run is filled with droll humour but it also seethes with a low hum of anger. There are no specific villains here, but whenever Young-tae drives drunk and rude bigwigs home as a designated driver and deals with shifty loan sharks we can perceive snatches of the iniquities in a society that makes life such as a struggle for an honest couple like Young-tae and Mi-joo.
Yet despite their hardships, this couple is often able to carve out their own little parcels of joy, such as when they try to make takoyaki together at home or engage in a prolonged snowball fight as brilliant white snowflakes silently drift overheard.
Endearing and sweet as well as stylish and sharp, Kike Will Hit a Home Run is a bold step forward for Park Song-yeol and Won Hyang-na.
