Collective Invention (2015)
I haven't watched a film in a while, in fact the last film I saw was Dot 2 Dot which I gave a scathing review for. I think it left a sour taste in my mouth. But I have been watching TV, and most notably Live staring Kwang-soo Lee. Kwang-soo Lee is quite a versatile actor. In Live he plays a serious policeman who struggles to prove his relevance in the world; in Busted he plays a comedic detective version of himself who's a bit goofy and silly; and in The Sound of Your Heart he plays a hopeless and slightly autistic webtoon artist. But perhaps his best performance yet is as a fish man in the film I'm reviewing today, the naffly named Collective Invention.
It is true that I found out about this film by IMDBing Kwang-soo, but I watched it for the fish man. The conceit of this film is that a pretty average lowlife loser, Park Goo (Kwang-soo Lee, Live), takes an experimental drug that turns him into a fish man. But what we get from there was not quite what I was expecting. This is a film, in very South Korean fashion, that deals with some mature themes despite its rather surreal and surface level comedic tones. It deals with family, love, acceptance, depression, purpose, suicide among others. It's nuanced in its themes and its portrayal of characters, but unfortunately despite all this it runs a little short. Let me try my best to explain.
You see on the one hand Collective Invention (directed and written by Oh-Kwang Kwon) is an incredible film about loneliness and purpose and acceptance. The fish man in question is essentially a metaphor for being and purpose as he is both ridiculed and praised by two different sides. There are brief references to homosexuality (very brief) among other forms of alienated groups who have essentially suffered from the same fate as him. The female character Joo-Jin (Bo-Young Park, Abyss) in the film has moments where she discusses the patriarchy and feminism which alludes to the Feminist movement; the main male character Sang-Won (Cheon-hee Lee, Deja Vu) who is a journalist is alienated by his colleagues for essentially being a community college graduate who they believe is simply trying to leech their jobs. And all of this culminates into an interesting film that broaches a topic heavily discussed in a unique way. The other themes and subject matter it talks about, including scientific advances and the lengths we'll go to achieve them, among other things such as law, suicide and depression, family and love, are all interesting too and add to this boiling pot of aromatic stew.
But you'll be through that stew pretty quickly and left wanting more. Collective Invention is about an hour and twenty minutes (taking away the end credits) which is ridiculously short and it shows. One of the main problems with this film is the obscene lack of fish man. It makes no sense and it is a hollow shell of itself because of it. The scenes in which Park Goo as a fish is in it are incredible; this is in part due to Kwang-soo's amazing performance in which he delivers believably depressed lines in a way that comes across as genuine and not just deadpan. But it's also down to the costume worn by Kwang-soo. The fish costume looks incredible, especially the soulless eyes that add to this sense of desperation and loss heard in Kwang-soo's performance. But, these scenes are few and far between and there are only two scenes I remember in which the fish man is prominent. For most other scenes he's either not present, or completely silent. It's perhaps a continuation of this metaphor, this feeling of isolation and alienation, and if so then yes they got it right. But the problem is that the character feels less nuanced than he should, and in fact more time spent with the character would benefit the film greatly. On top of that all of the other characters feel underdeveloped too. While their motivations are always clear, because so little time is spent properly discussing the many themes, we never get a clear idea for their character, or really any depth. And it's a shame because there are interesting themes on display here.
Another issue with the film is its tone. When the film starts its played off in a rather comedic way. For example, in an early scene during a flashback (which is essentially what the whole film is) the journalist Sang-Won meets Joo-Jin (who hooked up with Park Goo once before he became a fish man thus causing his infatuation with her) for the first time and interviews her. The whole scene is edited in a fast paced manner and even uses some funny editing gags to further the lighthearted tone. When they go to rescue Park Goo from the facility later the whole scene feels like something out of Pink Panther. This tone, and the editing gags, are not carried on and the rest of the film takes a serious turn. The whole thing is about the politics and morals of journalism and includes a very clear suicide scene. It just feels strange that it starts off so lighthearted, and perhaps if there had been more scenes with this tone and it transitioned better into a more serious tone later on this would be fine. But it doesn't and so it's quite a sudden transition when it happens.
I think ultimately though this films biggest fault is its lack of character development and relationship. For example, Park Goo's relationship with his dad is clearly a little rough around the edges, but because we don't see them ever interact together without other characters present we never see their relationship develop. At the end we're supposed to believe that his dad became a nice person, but it comes out of nowhere, because of the lack of development. The same can be said about Park Goo's relationship with Joo-Jin. When the film starts he turns up at her house as a fish man and explains to her what happened. Her first response is to sell him back to the lab that he escaped from. We know from this that she doesn't care about him, and he obviously cares about her. But they never go into any depth beyond this, and when they have an emotional confrontation later on it feels undeserved.
BUT... And I mean BIG BUTS... This film is still pretty great. The performances are awesome and while the cinematography is nothing to write home about, I have to give it credit for using lower quality camera equipment in scenes where the characters use lower grade camera equipment as opposed to just using the films usual camera to replicate it. This was still an interesting film to watch, and while sure it needed another hour to fully develop the themes and characters it's building up, it was still an incredibly insightful, enjoyable and engaging watch the whole way through. Some of the scenes, including one where Park Goo and Sang-Won talk in the bathroom, are incredible and honestly make the whole thing worth watching. This film is directed wonderfully by first time director Oh-Kwang Kwon and I really hope that they continues making films. This is worth a watch if you can find it online, and at least its short length means it's fast to get through (it's really well paced and scenes fly by in a good way, nothing drags.) Watch this if you can, it's well worth your time.
7/10
It is true that I found out about this film by IMDBing Kwang-soo, but I watched it for the fish man. The conceit of this film is that a pretty average lowlife loser, Park Goo (Kwang-soo Lee, Live), takes an experimental drug that turns him into a fish man. But what we get from there was not quite what I was expecting. This is a film, in very South Korean fashion, that deals with some mature themes despite its rather surreal and surface level comedic tones. It deals with family, love, acceptance, depression, purpose, suicide among others. It's nuanced in its themes and its portrayal of characters, but unfortunately despite all this it runs a little short. Let me try my best to explain.
You see on the one hand Collective Invention (directed and written by Oh-Kwang Kwon) is an incredible film about loneliness and purpose and acceptance. The fish man in question is essentially a metaphor for being and purpose as he is both ridiculed and praised by two different sides. There are brief references to homosexuality (very brief) among other forms of alienated groups who have essentially suffered from the same fate as him. The female character Joo-Jin (Bo-Young Park, Abyss) in the film has moments where she discusses the patriarchy and feminism which alludes to the Feminist movement; the main male character Sang-Won (Cheon-hee Lee, Deja Vu) who is a journalist is alienated by his colleagues for essentially being a community college graduate who they believe is simply trying to leech their jobs. And all of this culminates into an interesting film that broaches a topic heavily discussed in a unique way. The other themes and subject matter it talks about, including scientific advances and the lengths we'll go to achieve them, among other things such as law, suicide and depression, family and love, are all interesting too and add to this boiling pot of aromatic stew.
But you'll be through that stew pretty quickly and left wanting more. Collective Invention is about an hour and twenty minutes (taking away the end credits) which is ridiculously short and it shows. One of the main problems with this film is the obscene lack of fish man. It makes no sense and it is a hollow shell of itself because of it. The scenes in which Park Goo as a fish is in it are incredible; this is in part due to Kwang-soo's amazing performance in which he delivers believably depressed lines in a way that comes across as genuine and not just deadpan. But it's also down to the costume worn by Kwang-soo. The fish costume looks incredible, especially the soulless eyes that add to this sense of desperation and loss heard in Kwang-soo's performance. But, these scenes are few and far between and there are only two scenes I remember in which the fish man is prominent. For most other scenes he's either not present, or completely silent. It's perhaps a continuation of this metaphor, this feeling of isolation and alienation, and if so then yes they got it right. But the problem is that the character feels less nuanced than he should, and in fact more time spent with the character would benefit the film greatly. On top of that all of the other characters feel underdeveloped too. While their motivations are always clear, because so little time is spent properly discussing the many themes, we never get a clear idea for their character, or really any depth. And it's a shame because there are interesting themes on display here.
Another issue with the film is its tone. When the film starts its played off in a rather comedic way. For example, in an early scene during a flashback (which is essentially what the whole film is) the journalist Sang-Won meets Joo-Jin (who hooked up with Park Goo once before he became a fish man thus causing his infatuation with her) for the first time and interviews her. The whole scene is edited in a fast paced manner and even uses some funny editing gags to further the lighthearted tone. When they go to rescue Park Goo from the facility later the whole scene feels like something out of Pink Panther. This tone, and the editing gags, are not carried on and the rest of the film takes a serious turn. The whole thing is about the politics and morals of journalism and includes a very clear suicide scene. It just feels strange that it starts off so lighthearted, and perhaps if there had been more scenes with this tone and it transitioned better into a more serious tone later on this would be fine. But it doesn't and so it's quite a sudden transition when it happens.
I think ultimately though this films biggest fault is its lack of character development and relationship. For example, Park Goo's relationship with his dad is clearly a little rough around the edges, but because we don't see them ever interact together without other characters present we never see their relationship develop. At the end we're supposed to believe that his dad became a nice person, but it comes out of nowhere, because of the lack of development. The same can be said about Park Goo's relationship with Joo-Jin. When the film starts he turns up at her house as a fish man and explains to her what happened. Her first response is to sell him back to the lab that he escaped from. We know from this that she doesn't care about him, and he obviously cares about her. But they never go into any depth beyond this, and when they have an emotional confrontation later on it feels undeserved.
BUT... And I mean BIG BUTS... This film is still pretty great. The performances are awesome and while the cinematography is nothing to write home about, I have to give it credit for using lower quality camera equipment in scenes where the characters use lower grade camera equipment as opposed to just using the films usual camera to replicate it. This was still an interesting film to watch, and while sure it needed another hour to fully develop the themes and characters it's building up, it was still an incredibly insightful, enjoyable and engaging watch the whole way through. Some of the scenes, including one where Park Goo and Sang-Won talk in the bathroom, are incredible and honestly make the whole thing worth watching. This film is directed wonderfully by first time director Oh-Kwang Kwon and I really hope that they continues making films. This is worth a watch if you can find it online, and at least its short length means it's fast to get through (it's really well paced and scenes fly by in a good way, nothing drags.) Watch this if you can, it's well worth your time.
7/10
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