It’s the Delphi again and thus, it was a little more of the same: The producers were present, a bunch of people were waiting for getting in (like 40 minutes before the film started), but at least we had no problems getting tickets. We also had rather good seats and I swear I am never going to the Delphi again. It’s old, dirty and snobbish. Oh and the seats are horrible. Maybe I just wished I had seen some more movie theaters this year (Urania, Zoo Palast, the Berlinale Palast! ahhh), that is all.
Treeless Mountain
USA/South Korea 2008, So Yong Kim, 89′
There is not much to say about this movie, because it’s the type of movie where nothing actually happens: The main characters are little girls whose mother leaves them to their aunt one day. She says she’ll come back when the girls have filled up a little piggy with coins. And thus starts the girl’s wait for Godot…
So, what can I say? First of all, it’s like a copy of “Nobody Knows”. The atmosphere, the way the girls acted (although they are much younger of course), the extreme slow pacing, the evil world around them. If you like “Nobody Knows”, you’ll also like “Treeless Mountain”, it’s just as easy. The film is not sad or depressing, it has its little funny scenes and it conveys the girl’s feelings in a very non-sentimental way. It’s just like the press said, and I was prepared to see a movie like that. This is all there is to the movie in my opinion, and I think it does a good job at conveying that.
My favorite part about the film was the point when they climbed the “treeless mountain”, a hill of rocks, while they see their mother go away. It’s the screenshot featured on the posters of the film, and I think that alone tells you everything that the film does.
There is one thing that bugged me about the film personally: In my opinion, this film totally fails to show “childhood” itself. How many children grow up like that, unloved and left alone by their parents? Surely this is a horrible thing, yadda yadda, but the truth is that most children in Asian societies grow up in an environment of overdose of love, or at least expectations. You have to do great in school, have a lot of talents, grow tall and pretty and make it into a Western country, if possible into a good university and then into a large company. Why do people love to make these films about orphans (or at least unloved children)? I guess it’s because it’s easy to do that. Why some kid would shoot around at Virginia Tech – the question is too complex to make a beautiful movie out of it. And a beautiful movie, that’s all “Treeless Mountain” is, but since it is so beautiful, it would also be able to stand out if “Nobody Knows” didn’t come before.
Regarding the VT question; there is Bowling for Columbine, but I guess that’s really a documentary anyways.
Exactly. And there is no way you could call something by Michael Moore beautiful.
“If you like “Nobody Knows”, you’ll also like “Treeless Mountain”, it’s just as easy.” – Hohoho, now I want to convince myself of this easiness! New entry in my to-watch list.
Brr, Bowling for Columbine, hahaha. Another topic I would want to see tackled would be the “Russenkinder”, a swearword for children who were born to German mothers and Russians who raped them. This topic is extremely problematic, considering that it puts the German in a oh-so-victimized situation. (The truth is that these children most likely suffered the most under their fellow Germans who, for years, tried to conceal them and made them outcasts.) It’s comparatively easier to make the same story with a Norwegian woman who was forced into a relationship with a German by the Nazi regime. *hrr*
Well, well, the actors of “Nobody Knows” are ultimately better (and older, after all), I would also say that “Nobody Knows” is a little more sophisticated. But “Treeless Mountain” really turned out quite beautiful. I’m looking forward to how you’ll like it! You have to blog again! XD