Korean actor Steven Yeun deserves to be a household name. With his daintily pointed features he can play princes or intellectual paupers. He was totally convincing as a left-wing activist in class-war satire Sorry to Bother You. He’s even more compelling in Lee Chang-dong’s existential thriller as a debonair member of Korea’s one per cent.
The plot is based on a six-page story by Haruki Murakami. The latter’s work on the big screen can seem whimsical and portentous (see Norwegian Wood), but director Lee conjures up a mood that’s both genuinely weird and refreshingly casual.
Our impoverished hero is Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in, a master of the gormless glare), a budding writer from the country. In the big city he bumps into a girl from home. Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo) is a beguiling mix of Holly Golightly and Faye from Chungking Express. It’s possible that she’s economical with the truth. But Jong-su’s too smitten to care.
When Ben (Yeun) comes on the scene everything changes, albeit slowly. The verbal exchanges are full of ambiguity. In Ben’s fancy pad the trio discuss metaphors, though an intentional irony is that with Ben his words are both more literal, and more metaphorical, than they seem.
Basically Ben’s a tricky customer and even after two hours you’re desperate to know what he’ll do next (the last half-hour is crazily tense). The action, by the way, moves between Paju, Seoul and the countryside, with Chang-dong’s camera vibrantly sensitive to the ugly beauty of new wealth and rural decay. Wave your lighters in the air. This bleak movie is one of the year’s best.
