Land of Scarecrows

Review

Gyeong-tae Roh’s sophomore film, Land of Scarecrows may feel familiar for those who have seen his first film The Last Dining Table. Atmospheric, beautiful and surreal, Land of Scarecrows is a quiet little film that should be seen.

The film’s slow moving pace may deceive you. Unlike most films that share a similar pacing, Land of Scarecrows has a lot of things going on in terms of plot. Jiyoung Chang (Sun-young Kim), a transgender Korean installation artist who adopted the name Jang Ji-suk, decides to go to the Philippines to find a bride. Jiyoung meets the beautiful Rain Lopez (Phuong Thi Bich). The two go back to Korea to start a life together. Meanwhile, Jiyoung’s previous partner, Seul Bi (Misun Lee) and her son, slow but sensitive Daechul (An Jin Shin) are dealing with the lack of a father figure in their life. Daechul questions the identity of his father. He is bad at his job and spends his afternoons eating kimbab on a park bench with his pet turtle. At the same time, an old lady deals with a sickness caused by industrial waste that has been dumped around the village.

There is no question that Roh has a very specific, stylized, unusual vision of Korea. The rural Korea that we see in …Scarecrows is a fantastical place. It’s a magical world where fish with human faces populate the rivers, a place where Korean princes restlessly search for the perfect Fillipino bride. The Korea in Land of Scarecrows is not Korea often seen in film. It reminds me of the rural environment in Joon-ho Bong’sMother.

It is amazing how the film still feels so quiet and scarce even with so many things actually happening at the same time. Roh juggles multiple thematic elements so discreetly throughout the film that …Scarecrows does not come across so heavy-handed. The film addresses issues of gender, nationalism and identity in a very humble and direct way. One thing that makes the film so effective is the lack of dialogue.

Land of Scarecrows is also quite funny. The comedy jumps at you oftentimes out of nowhere, which really helps with the slow pacing of the film.

While the beautifully shot film already shows so much through its impeccable cinematography, the ensemble cast portrays all the right emotions in pitch perfect performances. Combining moody ambient music and sounds with sparse dialogue, …Scarecrows avoids exposition almost completely. Instead, the film is made out of sequences of events. It follows one of the most basic rules of storytelling so well: showing not telling. Events keep unfolding, one after the other without somebody in the film telling you what’s happening.

With Land of the Scarecrows, Gyeong-tae Roh shows us that he not only has a very unique vision to contribute to Korean cinema, but also that socially relevant films don’t have to be so blatant and uninspired. Roh maintains his interest in big issues, making it applicable in a more specific, personal context.

Catch Land of Scarecrows at BAM, as part of the New York Korean Film Festival this Sunday (Oct. 3rd) at 6:50pm. Click here to buy tickets.

(Source: twitchfilm.net)