Road to Nowhere

When looking at Korean cinema from 2000 to the present, 2002 stands out as a stellar year. Turning Gate, Chihwaseon, Camel(s), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Oasis were all released that year, as were the successful comedies Public Enemy and Jail Breakers, and the animated gem My Beautiful Girl, Mari (which deserves greater recognition). Yet there is another, often-overlooked film that is equally as impressive, and which holds an important place in Korean film history, for it is one of the few with an openly gay lead character — Kim In-shik's remarkable debut feature, Road Movie. Since the end of the Korean War, the road movie has served to address issues of national identity (owing to the country's tumultuous history and physical division), and of characters seeking to reclaim themselves after suffering a traumatic event. Road Movie is no different, and it makes for a welcome addition to a genre that includes such classics as Seopyeonje, Whale Hunting, and Out to the World. Utilizing the two-men-and-a-prostitute dynamic that is practically a staple of the genre, Road Movie takes an unflinching look at the consequences of the 1999 economic crash in a way that few other films have. Dae-shik (Hwang Jeong-min) is a former mountaineer who now spends most of his time with the homeless in a Seoul train station, where he functions as a leader of sorts. A homosexual man with a gruff macho exterior that intentionally masks a caring, damaged soul, his life seems purposeless until he meets Suk-won (Jung Chan), a stock broker who has lost both his job and wife following the market crash, and is now living on the streets as a suicidal drunk. After saving Suk-won's life (more than once), the two form an uneasy friendship, and soon hit the road in search of work. Along the way they meet Il-joo (Seo Rin), a frustrated prostitute trapped in a small seaside town who falls in love with the uninterested Dae-shik (who is of course in love with Suk-won). Life amongst the ill-fated trio is anything but harmonious — they fight, get drunk, get beaten, get arrested, and try to kill themselves. Repeatedly. Unlike other road movies, there's no obvious destination for our characters, and their quest is simply to determine if life is worth living. It's a fair question, given the Korea they live in, which is depicted as harsh, cruel, and unforgiving — where mere survival requires constant struggle. The Seoul of Road Movie isn't one of sunny streets with quaint restaurants and cafes. Shown entirely from the perspective of the have-nots, it's a city where a screaming, bleeding pregnant woman is ignored by those around her, and where motorcycle gangs lob Molotovs on a man being pushed to a hospital in a shopping cart. No other contemporary Korean film (save for the aptly titled Timeless Bottomless Bad Movie) has shown the capital city in this light, and Kim films the entire section in documentary-like fashion. Though the monochromatic grain of Seoul gives way to the sharp, vivid hues of the Korean landscape, there is no noticeable effect on our infernal trio. The road offers neither answers nor solutions, and only serves to magnify their pain. It's as if they are trapped in a limbo state, where no amount of beatings or attempts at self-destruction yields any results, nor lessens their torment — they're not even granted the privilege of dying. Some critics have classified the film as being part of the New Queer Cinema, but I disagree with that assessment. Road Movie isn't making any grand statements about homosexuality in Korea, nor does it set out to bring awareness or instigate change. It is first and foremost a film about human suffering, and the complex relationships that are formed between three disparate individuals. Dae-shik's relationship with Suk-won transcends any and all obvious notions about love and sex, and Kim seems more interested in challenging traditional masculine roles and identity, especially as depicted in the road movie genre. Road Movie is a four sternum-kicker film that is not only one of the most accomplished and impressive debut features, but easily one of the best Korean films of the last six years.

Comments

[Matt Prigge]

Good job resurrecting this, dude. I saw this a couple years back at a film fest and, while I seem to recall it going off the tracks at some point in the second hour, I was sure it would garner some attention for its memorably aggressive use of ellipses. Better late than never, suppose.

[Nadja R]

Road Movie has all the makings of an excellent film, but I could not get past the misogyny. The only women we see are three whores and two wives who have discarded their husbands. If it wasn't for that, my thoughts would be with yours.

[burritoboy]

Have not seen Road Movie, but I will heartily second your opinion of My Beautiful Girl Mari, which is perhaps the best animated movie I've ever seen.

[Adam]

Dude, you have to jump on the rare chance to see YEO Kyung-dong's OUT TO THE WORLD if such a chance is ever offerred to you. It adds many more layers to this film through the intended allusions and intertextuality. But, alas, it's one of many classic KFilms yet to be released on DVD.

[Duncan]

Well, I think Road Movie is pretty dire. Yes, it's well acted and nicely photographed,
but it has "Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse" all over it. The
last thing the world needs is another doomed-fag movie.

I do agree that it shouldn't be classified as New Queer Cinema, not that that category
means much anyhow. There's nothing new or 'queer' about it. It's a very standard
three-hanky Minority Movie: "See how They suffer! Feel sorry for them!" It has a lot in
common with Brokeback Mountain (a movie I like better, but not much) in that regard.
Straights could think, "There but for the grace of my straight genes go I," and gay men
could soak a few kleenexes and fantasize about sex with cowboys. (In real life, they'd
consider Jack and Ennis trailer trash rednecks and turn up their noses at them. Myself,
I'm reminded by Ledger's Ennis of a guy I dated for 5 years in the 1980s, except that 1)
this guy was a bottom and B) he wasn't a terrified basket case like Ennis.)

I disagree that Road Movie "isn't making any grand statements about homosexuality in
Korea, nor does it set out to bring awareness or instigate change." According to
interviews I've seen with the director, he was assigned to do a movie about Korean
homosexuals, so he did his research and came up with Road Movie. The DVD was packaged
with earnest material on Korean attitudes to homosexuality. So I'd say that making grand
statements, etc., is exactly what it's doing. Just not very well. It could have been
done differently, but writer/director Kim, like Annie Proulx, fell back on the cliche of
the doomed queer.

And I detect here in your comment the dread Universality Virus that also afflicted
Brokeback Mountain. I can't remember a gay-themed mainstream movie that *hasn't* been
touted and marketed as 'not about homosexuality, but about larger, more universal
themes.' Which of course is nonsense. Gay people (and women, and non-whites) are just as
"universal" as straight while males. Maybe more so.

I wouldn't call Dae-shik "openly gay" either. First, "openly gay" requires a cultural
context, which gay people have to construct against immense straight opposition, that
doesn't yet exist in Korea. Second, Dae-shik is full of self-loathing; if he doesn't
particularly hide his homosexuality, it's because he feels himself to be damned, with
nothing to lose, more like Oscar Wilde than Ian McKellen. I suppose I'm harping on this
because I find sniveling, whimpering queers to be such a drag in life as well as art.
There's a great bit in Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance where one character
whines, "Do you sometimes not loathe being gay?" The other snaps, "My dear, you play the
hand you're dealt.... If Helen Kelen could get through life, we surely can."

Some people have defended Road Movie, as they have Brokeback Mountain, by using the
cultural / historical context as an excuse: Jake and Ennis couldn't be happy because it was 1963,
when all gays had to hide in fear, and Wyoming instead of San Francisco. This is bogus on
both counts: there are still plenty of self-hating closet cases around, and horrific
antigay violence occurs in San Francisco and Greenwich Village, at least as much as in
Wyoming. Korea is a somewhat different case, but Dae-shik is not typical there either. (I
suspect that even a conflicted salaryman would have been much more threatening to Korean
audiences than a homeless bum.) Remember the cute guy at the beginning of Road Movie, who
begs Dae-shik to stay with him. I'd rather see a movie about him. The real problem is not
gay people, or even straight audiences (as Brokeback Mountain showed), but the cowardice
and bigotry of the movie industry. As in the US, it's likely to take independent,
marginal filmmakers to do better.

In Asia generally, and Korea in particular, there have been numerous portrayals of gay
characters that I found a lot more interesting than Road Movie: Stanley Kwan's Hold Me
Tight, for instance, or Julian Lee's The Accident. In Korea, there's a secondary but
important gay male character in Wanee and Junah (one of my favorite movies), and Bungee
Jumping of Their Own, despite its terminal liberalism, flirts with the issue nicely.
(There's also a tedious, pinched-faced queen in "The Most Beautiful Week of My Life," but
again, contrast the lovely kid who throws himself at him.)

For what it's worth, the gay Korean men I've talked to haven't much liked Road Movie.
(Often they're too closeted to rent it.) Unlike Brokeback Mountain, it didn't make much
of a splash in its country of origin. Brokeback Mountain may be doing better, though,
even in Korea: I've seen the DVD being played in Korean DVD stores. And now there's The
King and the Clown, which as a box-office and cultural phenomenon may be Korea's
Brokeback Mountain. I just got the DVD, but probably won't have a chance to watch it
until I get back to the US later this month.

[Filmbrain]

Duncan --

First off, thanks for your comment. Being neither gay nor Korean, my take on the film is obviously going to be different from someone who is one or both of the above.

Regarding the intent of the director, I've not had the opportunity to hear his thoughts on it. (The commentary track on the DVD is in Korean only, alas.) I did notice the featurette where they ask people on the street about their attitudes towards homosexuality. However, there is an additional commentary track by Tony Raynes who also argues that the film is not "about" homosexualiy in Korea.

As for Dae-shik and his suffering, I didn't look at it as "gay man suffering", nor am I convinced that that was the director's intention. All three of the characters are suffering, for reasons far greater than their sexuality. It's true that Dae-shik has lost something as a result, but I think his weltanschauung is rooted in something deeper.

It's interesting that you bring up Brokeback Mountain -- I was discussing Road Movie with a friend from Korea, and she referred to it as "our Brokeback". Again, I think individual perspective comes into play. To me, Brokeback was a tragic love story (universal) that just happened to be about two men.

I agree that I probably erred by referring to Dae-shik as openly gay. His openness to Il-joo notwithstanding, there is that level of self-loathing you refer to.

As for Wanee and Junah and Bungee Jumping of Their Own -- I like both films, but the homosexual characters felt more like narrative devices than fully formed characters -- as if they were included merely for dramatic effect.

I'm looking forward to King and The Clown, which I've just received.

[Duncan]

Filmbrain, thanks for the response.

The interview with Kim In-shik can be found at

http://www.koreanfilm.org/kiminsik.html

Writer-directors don't necessarily have the last word, and it's perfectly legitimate to watch a movie against the grain of the filmmaker's intention. (One of my favorite examples is Basic Instinct. It's pretty certain that Verhoeven meant it to be a serious misogynistic project, about evil women trying to destroy good men. But some feminist and lesbian critics saw it as a satire of male paranoia, and found it hilarious. When I saw it for the first time, I agreed with them. It helps that Michael Douglas's Nick is such a complete sleaze and Sharon Stone's Catherine is so likeable, almost wholesome. The movie makes much more sense as a jeer at straight men. But then, I like to see women one-upping men -- it was that aspect that made the first half of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance watchable for me.)

For what it's worth, though, Kim was assigned to make a road movie about a gay man and a straight man, and the gay man was to die at the end. The interview also reminded me that Dae-shik was *not* "open" with Suk-won, not until the latter caught him having sex with another man. As for Il-joo, American gay men are often more likely to come out to straight women than to straight men; the gay man-straight woman dyad is (in)famous. I can't remember if Dae-shik was out to his homeless compatriots; probably not, though. So "openly gay" just doesn't fit him. And I gather that there has been at least one other Korean film, Broken Branches, whose main character is a gay man. Haven't seen it yet.

I don't really remember anything else driving Dae-shik's suffering than his homosexuality, which cost him his marriage and his son. He seems like a one-note character to me, but that's a matter of personal interpretation I guess. I do need to watch it again. (Lately I've come to realize that I need to rewatch a number of Korean films, now that I know a lot more about Korean culture and Korean films than I did when I first saw them.)

I thought the gay character in Wanee and Junah was as well developed as a background character needs to be. I liked the fact that his gayness wasn't a problem, though like Wanee he was having relationship problems that, like hers, are resolved by the end of the movie. It's the way heterosexual and homosexual relationships are put on the same plane that I like about Wanee and Junah. There are no homosexual characters in Bungee Jumping, which merely literalizes the old "soul of a woman in the body of a man" metaphor.

I shut off Tony Rayns's commentary track after the first minute or so. I recall him saying something about the 'brutal' sex of the opening scene, which was so overtly stupid that I couldn't go on with it. (Yeah, and the similar sex scene in Sorum shows the brutality of heterosexuality!) Remember, it was Tony Rayns who claimed that Kim Ki-Duk's 3-Iron plagiarized Tsai Ming-Liang's Vive L'Amour, in an article which alternated some reasonable (IMO) criticism of Kim's films with hysterical personal attacks; I don't trust his critical judgment. I can't comment on his claim that Road Movie is not "about" homosexuality in Korea without hearing his arguments, but in general, as I argued before, such claims are bogus. Every queer film can be, and has been, read as being "about" something else. But without the queer tag, most such movies would have no reason for existence.

Brokeback Mountain is no exception. If it weren't about two men instead of a man and a woman, it would never have been made. That same-sex love (or in the case of BBM, sexual obsession) is as "universal" as heterosexual love is hardly news to us homos; but when straights pronounce a given gay work (or whites a black work) to be "universal" (and they all are), I always hear the sound of liberals patting themselves on the back for their tolerance. But that's just me.