This intriguing film is set in 1971, starting in rural South Korea and ending up in Vietnam in the throes of the Vietnam War. The title character is living with her slightly overbearing mother-in-law, while, we learn, her husband has enlisted in the military.
It is suspected and suggested, that he enlisted to get away from his wife because the marriage might have been forced upon him, turning his girlfriend and lover into his mistress, a situation he is none too happy with.
Sunny is a good and proper rural Korean housewife trying to do her duty in a loveless marriage and living with her mother-in-law, but when she learns that her husband has been sent into combat in Vietnam without even telling her, and then being blamed for it by her mother-in-law, she decides to go to Vietnam, determined to find her husband.
The movie establishes from the start that she enjoys singing, and the only way for her to go to Vietnam is as an entertainer. Hilarity ensues. Or not.
It's intriguing subject matter. I didn't even know Korean troops participated in combat in the Vietnam War, and for Korean civilians going there voluntarily as entertainment profiteers is sort of whaaaa? I actually haven't done any research to confirm that occurred, though.
I think the Korean title (님은 먼곳에, Nimeun meongose) is the worst, generically translating to "My Love is Far Away". The English and Chinese titles are better, with the Chinese title perhaps being the best: 亂世玫瑰, which translates roughly to "A Rose in a Messed Up World".
The English title is good because it focuses on the title character. The Chinese title is better because it describes the title character. She is the rose, but I also suspect that being a rose symbolizes being a woman in a world full of men and men's affairs (the mother-in-law counts as being part of the men's world).
She is thrown in a world that is run by men, occupied by men. She's swept into its currents. The men make up much of the action and movement in the film, but she's quietly the film's center. The men busily buzz around pursuing only their own goals, while she has her own.
She holds onto her conservative rural values, but transforms when necessary with her one goal in mind: find her husband. We don't know how far she goes, but she eventually gets to the top of the U.S. command, and therefore Korean command, to get what she wants.
The male lead character also bears noting. He's a total sleaze, yet he has a likable charm about him. He's kind of an asshole, but not a total asshole. This is to say the actor did a really good job in the portrayal, balancing these different characteristics.
I liked the film a lot, although it didn't hold up so well upon second viewing. Interesting to note about the film is how the Vietcong are handled. They were fierce fighters indeed, but the film also portrays a humane side to their struggle that we usually don't like to acknowledge, because, hey, we lost.
Fresh 7 out of 10 tomatoes.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, 2010)
But, man, this is one weird-ass film. I just don't think I get it.
I don't want to just outright pan it and say it's horrible, but I didn't really get it. When I pan a film, it's usually for specific reasons – faults in logic, incredibility, character problems, poor filmmaking, etc. – but this film is just weird. The narrative is one that is just so unlike anything I've seen before that I have no idea how to comment on this film.
It doesn't look like a filmmaking fail, it does look like the director was very intentional about what he was doing and how. And I do think this is the first Thai film I've seen, and though I'm sure this is pretty out there for Thai audiences, too, I'm amenable to the suggestion that there are aesthetic and cultural factors I'm not accustomed to.
The film strained my patience. You really have to be awake and alert for this film. At times I felt my eyelids get heavy and when I opened them I thought I'd fallen asleep for any number of minutes, then I'd rewind to find I had missed all of 15 seconds.
It's a slow film, much of the scenes and dialogue seem pretty random. Some shots are lingered upon for inexplicably long times, and I'm a fan of Hou Hsiao Hsien films, and he's king of the long shot, so I'm usually not fazed by a shot which seems nothing is happening. But HHH is often conveying something. In this film, nothing is happening in those shots.
There is something of a story arc, but it meanders and bends and then heads off in a weird direction, but then ends up not too far from where it started or where it's supposed to end, but then jumps into a different dimension altogether. It was with quite some relief and satisfaction when the credits started rolling. Couldn't have come too soon.
I don't think I can pass this film, but I don't think I'm qualified to pan it, so I'm going to give it a nominal rotten 5 out 10 tomatoes. I don't even think I can recommend it to anyone except someone in the super artsy fartsy crowd. I also think it needs to be viewed on a big screen in a theater where it demands your undivided attention. And don't be too put off when she has sex with a fish.
