Min
Yong-geun’s “Re-encounter” is a story about allowing oneself to reopen
closed doors and to face the shadows of our past. Despair may run thick
through the film and you will have to wait till the final scene to see
if there is any chance of hope in this grey and somber melodrama.
“Re-encounter” was awarded Best Picture at the 36th Seoul Independent Film Festival; it also scooped the Best Director awards at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival.
The
film is smothered in melodramatic themes of miscommunication and
despair. Our leading lady (Hye-hwa played by Yoo Da-in) is a simple girl
whose world has been coloured grey after the loss of her daughter. The
father (Yoo Yeon-seok as Han-soo) left just before the birth of their
child. While Hye-hwa’s mother is largely supportive of her daughter,
Han-soo’s family is not so eager to contribute to their future together.
After having disappeared for five years, Han-soo reappears and informs
his high school sweetheart that their child did not die in the hospital
but is alive and has been adopted.
Before
Han-soo arrives back on the scene we are presented with Hye-hwa, as she
exists in the aftermath of that is her life. She works at an animal
hospital/shelter, taking deserted and sick animals off the street
wherever she can. Haunted by issues of abandonment, her house is crowed
with the dogs she feels she cannot turn her back on. In addition to her
dog hording, she keeps all her fingernail clippings in a film case. Our
heroine is stuck in the present, unable to resolve or conquer the
terrible happenings of her past and, subsequently, incapable of moving
towards the future.
“Re-encounter”
is driven by its ability to invoke strong emotions surrounding
desolation and personal loss. This occurs largely through visual
elements in the film rather than through dialogue. Miscommunication is
everywhere, and the things that get unsaid or lost are tragic and all
too human. It is these situations in which the characters’ find
themselves that define our reaction to them and director/writer Min
Yong-geun guides us with intent through this moving tale. In one scene
Han-soo is trapped at a couples home that he believes have adopted their
adopted daughter. As the married couple explain to him that he is
mistaken we are only invited to watch from a distance, too far to hear
the words but close enough to the character to see the effect. These
kind of directorial decisions made “Re-encounter” a film where actions
really do speak louder than words.
Throughout
the film we are enticed with small fragments of hope, all of which
prove to be nothing more than stunted rays of light lost in the
melancholy. But this is a melodrama after all and one would have to
describe the symbolic final scene as more hopeful than happy - an
emotion that I happily walked away from the cinema with.
-Christoper J. Wheeler
Please feel free to comment on this review. Discussions are welcomed!
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