YONHAP NEWS

(Movie Review) "Members of the Funeral," a literary black comedy undermined by its own wit

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- Watching "Members of the Funeral" is a lot like reading an esoteric classic novel: while the director clearly has no shortage of ideas, he combines them into such a complicated head-scratcher that the film ends up appearing to be strictly "for festivals", not "for cinemas."

Somewhat convinced of its own profundity, the feature by South Korean director Baek Seung-bin was awarded by the Pusan International Film Festival and screened at the non-competition Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival, which acidly called it "another example of a first-time filmmaker's reach exceeding his grasp." The film has however also been invited by several more festivals, including the Hong Kong Film Festival and the Melbourne Film Festival.

   Despite the flurry of arthouse invitations, general moviegoers may get creases on their foreheads trying to grasp this literary-flavored film, a product of the Korean Academy of Film Arts' (KOFIC) first film project.

   It begins with a sombre tone, as a group of grim-looking people gather at a boy's funeral. They call each other mom, dad, daughter, wife and husband, but don't seem to have a clue about one another.

   As each member slowly reveals his or her story that lays bare the association with death and the darkness of a dysfunctional "family", audiences laugh at the wit, while fidgeting uncomfortably at the vague familiarity of the characters.

   Jun-gi (Yoo Ha-bok) recollects his first funeral, the death of his father 26 years ago, which unleashed repressed homosexual yearnings that lead to the death of his first gay lover.

   Jeong-hee (Park Myeong-sin) remembers the death of her musician parents and a cruel literary-professor grandfather who fostered her, but is not consumed up by grief, rather by anger at her shattered dreams of becoming a mystery writer.

Teenage A-mi (Kim Byeol) is obsessed with death after her best friend died. A-mi's spends her days photographing dead animals and ends up taking an after-school job cleaning dead bodies, but she appears the least among the three to be influenced by death.

   As the trio, who may or may not be family members, silently recall their relations with the deceased boy Hee-jun (Lee Ju-seung), audiences realize that these distorted members may actually be characters of the boy's unpublished book under the same title as the film.

   The director admits he may have been driven too much by his literary ambitions.

   "The story was, at first, something I had wanted to write a novel about," Baek told audiences at the film's preview Thursday. "Some people at the Berlinale asked me if the movie was trying to be clever and posey, but that's the least of my intentions."

   "I merely wanted to show how traumatized characters drive a dreamer boy into death and are eventually locked in a story the dead boy created," he said.

   Made with just 80 million won (US$52,800), the debut by Baek should be applauded for its intensity and skill in joining a cinematic story with literary references. Filled with tangled flashbacks from the past and the present, the director also manages superbly not to lose audiences along the way.

   But the film is likely to be a disappointment for audiences who know by now that commercial and critical success are not necessarily diametrically opposed.
The movie, sponsored by South Korea's largest entertainment firm CJ Entertainment, will be screened at CJ CGV Apgujeongdong in southern Seoul from March 12.

   hayney@yna.co.kr
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