Sadly, Woke Culture Comes to Korea

Rating: 5/10 (17 February 2020)

After watching the similarly overrated "Host" a couple years ago, I wasn't keen to jump on the bandwagon for this one. But so many people told me how "amazing" and different it was and kept recommending that I see it. So after it won all these awards and they put it back in my local theater I broke down and saw it. Well, that was a waste of $13.50 and two hours. It's billed as a genre bending comedy/drama, but in my opinion it misses on both fronts. There's nothing especially humorous in the dialogue or even the situations. Poor family scams rich family for jobs and money. Ooh, that's so original, except that it's not. The fact that the poor family is so unsympathetic makes it just unbearable. They're vile and annoying. Is it a clever commentary on class structure in Korea? Not really. Just hamfisted platitudes. The rich couple come off as far more likeable in fact. As for drama, there really isn't much. Yeah, they try to take a dark turn towards the end and there is a feeble attempt to make things dramatic, but I just kept looking at my watch wondering when this bore-fest would end. Then it just kept dragging on.
And for the record, I spend lots of time in Asia, including Korea. I've seen lots of Asian films. I have Asian relatives and an Asian spouse. It's not cultural misunderstanding here. I just think, like that similarly shallow representation of mental illness in the even more boring "Joker" film, people want to praise something that they think brings attention to some uncomfortable issue. Guess what? Variations of this class structure have existed in Korea for hundreds of years. Things are better now than they were. There are plenty of options that don't involve scamming and murder. But if you can feel better about yourself by claiming to empathize with the lower economic stratum by suffering through this film, more power to you.