The Moon Is... The Sun's Dream

I love foreign cinema. Ironically, I haven't done enough diving into South Korean cinema as I'd like. Ironically (again), my favorite foreign movie is Oldboy. I'm planning on getting through many Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon-Ho movies before I go onto other directors. I found this rare debut by Park Chan-Wook on YouTube, and I gotta say I wasn't impressed. The story of the gangster in love doesn't reach its full potential. It's like watching a collection of all these short stories only related to the main plot by point of shared minor characters, and the plot only starts to tie-up all its ends in the second half. The cast of characters don't look like they're having any fun at all. They're too quiet, and they don't seem to try to act. I'll admit, I liked the score. The deep, smooth jazz ropes a strong, almost sensual feel to the movie. And I think Park's sense of cinematography was very spot-on and skillful for his debut feature film. The final compliment I have is that the ending was decent. But both this film and Park himself hadn't reached their full potential, and it's a shame that movies don't get the second chance that people do.

So it turns out that Park Chan-wook was learning the ropes while making this, his debut feature, which perhaps explains why it's so disappointing. The basic storyline is fine in itself and there are some quality performances here, but the biggest flaw is Park himself: his direction is all over the place, like he learnt every trick in the film school book and just has to include it in his movie. I frequently felt like I was watching a trailer, with hurried editing and a seeming inability to craft coherent action or incident.