ID :
67443
Wed, 06/24/2009 - 12:51
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(Movie Review) 'Something to do Before Dying'





(Movie Review) Slow and colorless, 'Dying' deserves credit for experimental approach
(ATTN: photos available)
By Shin Hae-in

SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) -- Its plot is bleak, its pace is meandering. Still,
"Something to do Before Dying" makes a worthy attempt to break the mold, with its
tragic heroine dominating the film's full 83 minutes -- eating, talking and
mourning all by herself.
Whether that's a sufficiently redeeming quality is another question.
Su-yeon (Namgung Eun-suk) is an ordinary 20-something Seoulite who decides to end
her humdrum life one day, and begins to search for the "easiest and least
painful" way to die.
She scours the Internet for advice, visits pharmacies to collect sleeping pills
and sits at a neighborhood playground murmuring to herself. She calls up friends
and family members with whom it appears she hasn't spoke in a long while,
offering them her belongings and telling them she loves them.
The film tracks each of these steps, slowly, without nuance, dragging the
audience along for a one-person-show. Darkly, it offers little more than subtle
indications about the value of choosing life over death -- a subject that feels
especially timely following the suicides of former President Roh Moo-hyun and
several high-profile Korean celebrities.
Roaming around her neighborhood late one night, Su-yeon wonders what people will
think of her after she is gone and worries what will happen at work without her,
but manages to wash up and prepare a nice meal for herself. These are the kind of
everyday actions that will simply be forgotten, she observes, once she is dead.
As she sighs that no one is waiting for her at home, the camera shifts to a shot
of Su-yeon's puppy staring longingly at the door in her dark house. Feeding her
pets and taking pictures of herself, she wonders whether it would be a waste to
"die so young."
Despite the film's overall disappointing outcome, director Park Sung-bum deserves
credit for having the guts to cast a little-known actress as his only heroine,
especially with transforming robots and terminators from Hollywood expected to
dominate local screens in the coming weeks.
Park's decision to create such a somber film may come as a surprise for
moviegoers who saw his first feature "My Girls Boy (2007)," a bouncy comedy that
featured romance, sex and jealousy.
In an earlier interview with a local monthly film magazine, the 39-year-old said
he had wanted to talk about "something (suicide) people may have thought about at
least once" in their lives in the most "bold and honest manner." Park, who is
currently staying overseas according to distributors, did not make it to the
preview of his second feature Tuesday night.
"Something???" will open nationwide July 9 at both on-line and off-line theaters.
Its distributor, Emotion Contents Network, has made agreements with some 60
domestic Web sites to offer the film on the Internet.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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