Beol-sae looks at
the first sight like a modern shomingeki-film and at the same time
like a Korean feminist pendant to Hou Hsiao Hsien´s autobiographical
masterpiece of modern Asian cinema Tong Nien wang shi (A Time
to live and a Time to die). Premiered and awarded last year at the
festival of Pusan/Korea Beol-sae was one of the highlights I
have seen this year at the generation-section of the Berlin film
festival which surprised me me in the last years with an impressive
diversity of cinematic forms.
In her first long feature,
Kim Bo-ra introduces herself as a unique stylist for the future of
cinema.
The film takes place
during some months in Seoul in the year 1994. Its narration evolves
around the young teenage girl Eunhee. Consequently, the narration is
built of every day episodes, at first seemingly incidental later they
seemed like intensified by themselves more and more in an almost
uncanny way. Eunhee, her friends, brother, sister and parents are
common people we know from so much films by Ozu or Naruse. The
(living) space, in this case closed rooms plays an important role:
kitchen, living room, bed room, the class room of the school or the
hospital where Eunhee has to admit herself during the middle of the
film. The narration is fragmented through these small every day
situations, quarrels with parents, friends or the brother, the first
kiss.
The best example for this
very unorthodox narrative style is a kind of love story
As the film proceeds,
Eunhee develops feelings for the teacher of the calligraphy school.
At first an optional narrative sub story like a hint, later in
retrospect it appears as one of the crucial moments in this film.
The film is about the
history of the intimate life and social environment of Eunhee but
punctuated with four drastic events. First of all, her uncle, an
alcoholic passes away, a tragedy which affects the family but which
won´t be recorded in any history book. Later there is a hint to the
football championship in the USA and the death of a leader in North
Korea. These are signs of history where the film is embedded. Another
tragic event, the collapse of a big bridge causes many lives,
including a person close to Eunhee. This is the moment when global
history directly affects the private sphere of the protagonists. The
episodic narration turns into a huge gravitation field
Kim Bo-ra´s film is an
exquisite meditation about the relationship between history and human
identities and it shows a maturity of an old master which one can´t
usually expect in a first long feature film.
In the last 30 years and
especially in Asian cinema, some directors cultivated long shots
without any cut and very close to André Bazin´s use of the term .
Two different names come to my mind. First of all, the Taiwanese
Hou Hsiao Hsien. His extreme long shots appear to me as real time
blocs among the film. Another Taiwanese, Tsai Ming-liang uses long
shots in a more artificial way. In his sequences time appears as
expanded like the set is much to near an event horizon of a Black
hole. Kim Bo-ra works here with another variation more close to Hou
Hsiao Hsien but with a totally different accent. In some of her long
shots, when even the camera is unmoved (or hardly moved) the movement
of the protagonists sometimes pauses in almost frozen gestures. The
cinematic movement is suspended for a while. These moments also
suspend the narration for a moment. They suspend the cinematic
illusion of space, time and movement and what we call world as it
appears on the screen.
In other moments, actions
of violence: Eunhee is beaten by her brother, the father shows sign
of outrage in his aggressive behavior. There is a moment when Eunhee
is alone in her room, totally enraged. Her movements appear nearly
like an explosion in this mostly quiet film. It seems she rebels
against the restrictions forced on her by the very specific Korean
society of the 1990s, by all representatives of authority (teacher,
parents, the elder brother) but also by the limitations of the frame
of the screen which appears as the visualization of all restrictions
of this world she is exposed to.
Even though this film is
about young people, even though this film is focusing on urban every
day life, there is a current underneath which evokes in me this
undefinable taste of transientness. When the film ends it leaves on
me the impression of a memory like sculptured for the eternity while
we whom this memory is shared with are confronted with the own
mortality.
In 138 minutes a whole
human life is sensible. When the film is over , I felt this
exhausting euphoria between admiration and being heartbroken, between
being happy to have seen such a great film but with the eyes full of
tears. I felt such a thing this year only with two other films,
Driveways by Andrew Ahn and Bulbul can sing by Rima
Das.
Like these films, Beol-sae
does not just leaves the impression of a film I just saw. It is a
film I lived with, breathed with and dwelt in for a while.
Rüdiger Tomczak
Beol-sae won the
Grand Prix of the Jury of Generation 14plus, Bulbul can sing,
my other darling from this festival by Rima Das won a special
mention.
Screening
17.February, 16.00, Haus
der Kulturen der Welt.
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