[K-Movie Night] Shades of the Heart » Dramabeans

[K-Movie Night] Shades of the Heart

by Dramaddictally

Welcome to K-Movie Night — a once-a-month feature where we microwave some popcorn, put on a face mask, and get cozy with a Korean movie from yesteryear. With so many films finally streaming (with subs!), now is the time to get caught up on all those movies we missed featuring our favorite drama actors.

Each month, we’ll pick a flick, write a review, and meet you back here to discuss whether or not it’s worth a watch. Super simple. All you have to do is kick up your feet and join us in the comments!

 
MOVIE REVIEW

I was so wowed by the performances in the recently wrapped drama When Life Gives You Tangerines that I couldn’t wait to see IU back on my screen. That’s how I landed on this little indie movie from 2021 called Shades of the Heart.

Unfortunately, IU only appears in the first ten minutes, even though she’s billed as part of the main cast. Story-wise, there’s a reason for that. But, if you came here (like I did) mostly because you wanted to see more of the actress’s talents, I’m giving you a heads up before you even begin, so you won’t be sorely disappointed.

Nonetheless, there’s a movie to review, so let’s get to it.

We open in a café, where a woman (IU) is sleeping at a table and the man sitting across from her waits patiently. When she wakes, she doesn’t know who he is at first, but then realizes her friend had set them up on a blind date. He’s a novelist, but she says she doesn’t like made-up stories. So, he begins to tell her one until she’s captivated, and then drops the story with a non-ending — the point is to show how people get wrapped up in stories, even if they’re not “real.”

We come to learn before too long that neither of these people are who they appear to be. She is actually an elderly woman who’s remembering her youth, as she sits across the table looking at her novelist son, CHANG-SEOK (Yeon Woo-jin), whom she believes is her late husband (evidently he looks just like his father). This is the last we’ll see of IU, but it’s first in a series of extended conversations, stitched together to form the film.

Chang-seok is the protagonist, and the only character that threads all the way through the movie. He’s just returned to Korea after seven years abroad and there’s a sadness about him that we won’t fully understand until later. He’s just finished a novel, which is about to be published, and the film’s second conversation scene is with an editor at the publishing company. She asks what he’s writing next, and he says he thinks he’s done; that was the story he wanted to tell.

In what turns out to be a stream of serious and sad conversations, this second one moved me the most. I don’t want to give away the content because each new interaction has its own subtle surprises, but when this editor reveals a personal story of her own, the themes of the movie become clear. We’re toeing a line between fact and fiction and also between life and death. Chang-seok says that if your story has a point of view, then it’s a novel, even if every word you write is true.

We won’t find out until the last segment what his novel (that is, his life story) is about, but then, in retrospect, we’re able to make a lot of assumptions about the film’s open ending due to the parallels that were set up. Along the way, we’re introduced to various situations that toy with the boundary between life and death (Chang-seok is alive but looks like his deceased father. A bird in the park is half dead and may or may not survive. There’s a baby that’s never born – and the list will go on).

In terms of direction, the visual mood fits the dialogue, as it’s set in winter, with heavy coats and a lack of light, where it all looks bleak. There’s a scene with two people smoking in a park after the sun goes down and during their entire talk, I could only hear the words and see the lit cigarettes, while everything else was black. It’s that kind of slow movie.

The interesting part about the perspective, though, is that while the novelist flits from person to person having serious conversations, he’s always the one listening. That is, he’s the storyteller, but it’s his companions that are telling the stories. When we finally learn his story at the end, it’s through what seems to be a dream, and not because he’s offloading his own sadness onto someone else (the way he’s been a receptacle for all the other characters’ woes).

By the end, I saw this as a tale about loneliness, particularly that caused by loss and grief. Each new encounter introduces us to someone who’s lost something (whether it’s a loved one or their own memories) and the incredible loneliness that’s overhanging it. I mean, even as Chang-seok speaks to these people, it doesn’t seem to cut through the isolated feeling for either party.

But I have to say that by the fourth conversation (this one with a bartender), I was bored. I understood the format and the themes, and I just wasn’t so intrigued by hearing more of what felt like the same by then. And I wish I could say that what it lacked in story it made up for in visuals, but it’s mostly just dark. (To be fair, this movie had a very low budget. Something to the tune of only $155,000, which is not a lot to work with.)

I did have an uptick in interest again right at the end, when we learn the protagonist’s own heartache, but even though I found the movie intriguing, I didn’t find it that emotionally affecting. The line between fact and fiction is well-woven and it brings food for thought at the conclusion, but this isn’t a story I was still thinking about the next day. Still, with a short run time of only an hour and twenty minutes, at least it got in, did what it wanted to do, and got out.

If you’re interested in thought experiments, indie vibes, and personal stories of grief, give this one a shot. But if you want depth in your characters, even pacing, or to see more of IU, you won’t find it here.

Join us in May for the next K-Movie Night and let’s make a party of it! We’ll be watching Antique (2008) and posting the review during the last week of the month.

Want to participate in the comments when it posts? You’ve got 3 weeks to watch! Rather wait for the review before you decide to stream it? We’ve got you covered.

 
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