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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
"Even though it's difficult
to be a human being, let's not turn into monsters."
That initially throwaway piece of advice echoes -
sometimes comically, sometimes poignantly - throughout
acclaimed director Hong Sang-Soo's brilliant 2002
film Turning Gate. The film is deceptively
simple; there isn't a traditional plot per se, but
as events unfold, the filmmakers' more novelistic
approach to storytelling pays off in spades, leading
to a memorable, wholly satisfying finale.
After being passed over for
a role in an upcoming film, actor Kim Kyung-Soo (Kim
Sang-Kyung from Memories of Murder) leaves
Seoul to visit his old pal, Sung-Woo (Kim Hak-Sun).
While in Chuncheon, they take a ferry ride to see
the fabled "Turning Gate." The two of them never actually
make it to the gate, but along the way, Sung-Woo tells
his friend about the legend attached to it. Take note:
it's a story revealed only in passing, but it actually
comes to have a greater meaning as the film develops.
During the first half of
the movie, the men meet up with Nyung-Suk (Ye Ji-Won),
who quickly becomes smitten with Kyung-Soo. After
a stolen moment of fervent kissing, Nyung-Suk and
Kyung-Soo find time to be alone and end up embarking
on a passionate one-night stand. Nyung-Suk falls hard
for Kyung-Soo, and numerous complications arise for
everyone involved, resulting in our hapless hero taking
the next train back to Seoul not long afterwards.
While on the train, Kyung-Soo
finds himself sitting next to the beautiful Sun-Young
(Chu Sang-Mi, from Everybody Has Secrets).
She claims to recognize Kyung-Soo from his acting
jobs, but he doesn't have a clue who she is. When
she gets off the train at her stop, Kyung-Soo is impelled
to follow her. After a humorous encounter involving
her nosy family members, the two find time to get
to know each other. But what initially seems like
a case of "love at first sight" (or "lust at first
sight" anyway) turns out to be much more as Sun-Young
reveals more about her past connection to Kyung-Soo.
Not long after, he falls deeply in love with her (maybe!),
and perhaps she with him. However, the legend of the
Turning Gate, likely forgotten by even the most attentive
viewer, soon comes into play in the most fitting of
ways.
As the narrative anchor of
the film, Kim Sang-Kyung makes for an interesting
leading man, perhaps mostly because the unsympathetic
Kyung-Soo is so far from the traditional protagonist
in a mainstream film. He is clumsy, dull, and perpetually
awkward throughout most of the film, yet still fascinating
in the context of his interactions with the two women,
especially in his late-coming epiphany in the second
half of the film. Ye Ji-Won is believable as the clingy
Nyung-Suk, whereas the beautiful Chu Sang-Mi is impressive
as Kyung-Soo's "dream woman," conveying an alluring
image of both intelligence and strength, especially
in comparison to rather weak-willed Kyung-Soo.
The numerous connections
between the first and second halves of the story,
as well as Hong Sang-Soo's unobtrusive, naturalistic
storytelling method make Turning Gate the kind
of movie that warrants a second and even a third viewing,
as little incidents and bits of dialogue are actually
interconnected in ways one might not necessarily catch
the first time around. Although some may be put off
by the quiet aimlessness of the initial portions of
the film, it becomes increasingly relevant to its
more obviously involving second half. Refreshingly
frank in its depiction of sexuality, Turning Gate
is yet another movie about missed opportunities and
second chances at love. The film offers no firm answers
as to whether fate or coincidence is at play in our
romantic entanglements, only that it is neither of
these things that determine whether we become monsters
in the end. As Kyung-Soo perhaps learns at the story's
close, it is not our destiny, but our choices that
matter the most. (Calvin McMillin, 2007)
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