No Regret
I'm going to jump forward now, and review a Korean movie I watched last night called No Regret. It had an immediate impact on me so I thought I would write about it while its impressions are still fresh in my mind.
Summary: A young factory worker Su-min is struggling to make ends meet, and works numerous jobs. He's openly gay but has never had a relationship. When working as a for-hire driver one night, he meets Jae-min, drunk at a bar, and drives him home. Jae-min is instantly smitten but Su-min baulks and runs away, even though he is obviously attracted to him. When he loses his job at the factory, Su-min ends up working as a male prostitute at a host bar. Jae-min continues to pursue him obsessively, to the point where Su-min threatens to kill him if he doesn't stop following him. Eventually feelings develop further, but it's at this point that the story suddenly turns upside down and Su-min becomes desperate. Su-min makes a decision that could lead to total catastrophe.
I really enjoyed this movie, it's very well made and far superior to anything else I've watched over the past few weeks. Even though it has a number of BL elements, I wouldn't define it as a BL drama though, it's much more unconventional and original than that. This is cinema with its own distinctive flavour and tone, it's far removed from the formulaic romanticised world of BL.
It's almost unremittingly bleak and grim in every aspect of its look and feel - you live the life of a manual worker and prostitute so closely with Su-min that you breathe his despair with him, you live his sharp descent from innocent young tradesman to jaded prostitute. And yet somehow it's also a beautifully generous, love-filled movie. Full credit has to go to the director Leesong Hee-il for succeeding with the balance of tones here, and the really impressive performance of the actor playing Su-min.
Some scenes will stay with me for a long time: Jae-min ready to pull the host bar apart in his search for Su-min; a forlorn and windswept wintry beach landscape; Jae-min enduring a formal dinner in a restaurant by silently gripping the blade of a steak knife under the table, blood dripping from his palm; one of the characters' heartbreakingly emotional plea for his love to the other on a rooftop. There a sex scene that takes things very far in front of the camera, but it's far from distasteful or gratuitous - very unusual for a gay movie from any country. (The only other gay movie I can think of with a lovemaking scene that's similar is "Weekend" but that scene was much more coy and subdued.) But more memorable than all of these scenes is the final 20 minutes of the movie, which is something really fine and magnificent in all its horror and off-kilter sweetness. Those few final shots before the end credits roll will take your breath away. I don't think I've ever seen a gay movie end so beautifully and so unconventionally. I can see that some people won't like it though, it's pretty challenging and doesn't announce its intentions as a happy ending.
If you have any interest in BL at all - indeed, queer cinema in general - watch this movie.
Rating: 16 out of 20.
Ending: Unconventionally happy
Summary: A young factory worker Su-min is struggling to make ends meet, and works numerous jobs. He's openly gay but has never had a relationship. When working as a for-hire driver one night, he meets Jae-min, drunk at a bar, and drives him home. Jae-min is instantly smitten but Su-min baulks and runs away, even though he is obviously attracted to him. When he loses his job at the factory, Su-min ends up working as a male prostitute at a host bar. Jae-min continues to pursue him obsessively, to the point where Su-min threatens to kill him if he doesn't stop following him. Eventually feelings develop further, but it's at this point that the story suddenly turns upside down and Su-min becomes desperate. Su-min makes a decision that could lead to total catastrophe.
I really enjoyed this movie, it's very well made and far superior to anything else I've watched over the past few weeks. Even though it has a number of BL elements, I wouldn't define it as a BL drama though, it's much more unconventional and original than that. This is cinema with its own distinctive flavour and tone, it's far removed from the formulaic romanticised world of BL.
It's almost unremittingly bleak and grim in every aspect of its look and feel - you live the life of a manual worker and prostitute so closely with Su-min that you breathe his despair with him, you live his sharp descent from innocent young tradesman to jaded prostitute. And yet somehow it's also a beautifully generous, love-filled movie. Full credit has to go to the director Leesong Hee-il for succeeding with the balance of tones here, and the really impressive performance of the actor playing Su-min.
Some scenes will stay with me for a long time: Jae-min ready to pull the host bar apart in his search for Su-min; a forlorn and windswept wintry beach landscape; Jae-min enduring a formal dinner in a restaurant by silently gripping the blade of a steak knife under the table, blood dripping from his palm; one of the characters' heartbreakingly emotional plea for his love to the other on a rooftop. There a sex scene that takes things very far in front of the camera, but it's far from distasteful or gratuitous - very unusual for a gay movie from any country. (The only other gay movie I can think of with a lovemaking scene that's similar is "Weekend" but that scene was much more coy and subdued.) But more memorable than all of these scenes is the final 20 minutes of the movie, which is something really fine and magnificent in all its horror and off-kilter sweetness. Those few final shots before the end credits roll will take your breath away. I don't think I've ever seen a gay movie end so beautifully and so unconventionally. I can see that some people won't like it though, it's pretty challenging and doesn't announce its intentions as a happy ending.
If you have any interest in BL at all - indeed, queer cinema in general - watch this movie.
Rating: 16 out of 20.
Ending: Unconventionally happy
Comments
https://youtu.be/IZnqySXy7x8