Chilsoo and Mansoo (DVD) (Korea Version) DVD Region All

Chilsoo (Park Joong Hoon) and Mansoo (Ahn Sung Ki) are a couple of downtrodden young men who work as building and billboard painters, desperately trying to make ends meet. Both have their own worries, with Chilsoo having difficulty holding onto his relationship with fast food worker Jina (Bae Chong Ok) and Mansoo suffering family problems as a result of his father being a convict. Things continue to go downhill until finally one day after finishing work on a giant rooftop advert, the two climb to the top and howl their anger at the world - unfortunately, their actions are taken as a suicide attempt by the police, and a great crowd gathers to see what they will do next.

Chilsoo and Mansoo is obviously first and foremost a slice of bitter social commentary, following the changing attitudes and struggles of young people in pre-democracy 1980s Korea. Chilsoo represents the frustrations of the emerging younger generation, chasing the money and dreams promised by advertising and education, but unable to hold down work and increasingly finding himself part of the lower class. Mansoo on the other hand is a slightly older man, in his case unable to secure proper employment due to his father being a political prisoner, representing a growing disillusionment with the ruling regime. Both are frustrated artists, with no real future or indeed chance to progress, increasingly spending their time sitting around and getting drunk in the dingy flat, and as such the film has a depressingly believable air of hopelessness. This is hammered home towards the end when Chilsoo and Mansoo's attempts to vocalise their dissatisfaction fall on deaf ears, underlining the increasing breakdown in communication between the state and people.

Another theme is the increasing encroachment of US culture in Korea which permeates the film, from the Burger King restaurant where Jina works, through to videogames and pop music, as well as the frequent appearance of the US flag - Chilsoo ironically spends a fair amount of the film wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the stars and stripes. US films are also everywhere, in posters and in the cinemas, with clips from the ludicrously patriotic Rocky 4 being shown. Chilsoo speaks of the US as a far off utopian dreamland where all his problems will be solved, reflecting the attitudes of many at the time. The climatic scene also has a certain irony to it, given that the billboard on which the two are perched is a lurid advert for a brand of American whiskey.

None of these lofty intellectual aspects of the film would work were it not for the fact that Chilsoo and Mansoo are both great, fascinating characters who are far more than mere cultural ciphers. An amusing odd couple who complement and play off each other well, they give the film a sense of balance beyond representing certain social types. Both are likeable and sympathetic, and their efforts to get by do make for some amusing moments amongst the gloom, including one funny scene in which Chilsoo persuades Mansoo to pretend to be an artist back from France to impress Jina and her friend, complete with pipe and beret (possibly another dig at Korean people assuming western styles and values). Ahn Sung Ki and Park Joong Hoon give excellent performances, and there is a real chemistry between the two, giving the film a genuine sense of camaraderie and shared struggle. The film;s other relationships are equally rich, such as the complex romance between Chilsoo and Jina, which develops in a manner neither traditional nor straightforward.

As a result, Chilsoo and Mansoo works well on a number of different levels, not only as a stinging examination of social woes but as an excellent and very human piece of storytelling. It is easy to see why the film caused such a stir during its original release, and the fact that it has lost none of its effectiveness or impact nearly twenty years later confirms its place as a classic of modern Korean cinema.

by James Mudge - BeyondHollywood.com