Mente. (2017)

STORY: Hyun-woo is stuck in the past, still in love with his ex-boyfriend after a breakup. The problem is that he is having a hard time moving on. His inability to let go is affecting his work and his attempts to date other guys. There are a number of scenes with long moments of silence and no dialog as we watch the main character deal with his obvious internal struggles; he looks so lost. The end is simply a thought-provoker. It's not happy or sad, just open-ended.

ACTING: Yo-han Kim did a great job at relaying the character's inner emotional turmoil. I could relate easily to the character. Also, the kiss with his roommate was quite sweet.

MUSIC: It's a short film so there were only a couple of pieces that lent to the main character's struggling emotions.

REWATCH VALUE: I will someday when I have a Korean BL binge.

OVERALL: This was all about the pain of living in the past and the emotional baggage that goes with it.

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Like a photograph, not a novel (Very light spoilers)

PLOT: This piece is less about any plot than about a feeling captured and depicted in snapshot moments. It's like a photograph or series of photographs in that way, which plays nicely upon the protagonist's occupation.

WRITING: It mostly makes sense and feels real, even the fanciful daydream sequence. I appreciate the casual pop culture references and efficient character building - we get to know the boss/friend and the new beau pretty well without spending much time on them. The only thing is I don't understand why the new guy stays with someone he knows is still hung up on an ex. That could have been made to make more sense, but he wasn't really the center of the story.

MEANING: The feeling is transmitted successfully, but it's specifically the feeling of lingering, melancholic heartbreak, so it isn't fun exactly. Perhaps it can be cathartic for the viewer to experience that trapped feeling externalized from oneself. Even if not, I think the short achieves something human and valuable in conveying without judgement or illusions the emotion at its core. We aren't asked to believe that the heartache made logical sense - in fact the color scheme in the daydream about the ex and later the literal gold gloss painted on the ex may have been a hint that the protagonist was deeply unreliable in how he perceived what he had lost (isn't that always how memory goes?). However, the point isn't that heartbreak was justified or reasonable; the point was capturing that specific flavor of it in a 25 minute container and gifting it (for 3-4 USD$) to the audience.

ACTING: Believable! I like the contrast between how tense and uncomfortable the exes are in reality versus how sweet and easy they were in the daydream.

DIRECTING & EDITING: I have no complaints, so it must have been good ;)

TECHNIQUE/STYLE: I think part of my high rating comes from the symbolism of color and lighting in the piece. It's not super deep, but it's intellectually fun to recognize the way the protagonist seems to live, especially right after his daydream, in a sort of grave-light world. He looked honestly like a corpse as he was resurfacing from his rosy remembrance back into his real life. While there was not (to my perception) any light effect when he revisited the grassy place with the new guy, you can feel the black-and-white, washed-out sentiment carried into that scene through his acting. Also, it doesn't take a genius to catch onto this symbolism - it's actually spelled out in a comment the ex makes to the protagonist near the end of the piece. A freebie smart person moment for viewers like me who like to feel clever.

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