So Yong Kim, Parts & Labor (08/01/10)

Jean-Paul Sartre’s maxim that “hell is other people” has already led me to think that the great philosopher must have been a regular visitor to his local cinema.

There can be very few of us who have never had a film-going experience at least slightly marred by the behaviour of others. For me, Treeless Mountain is a good example. For the first ten minutes of the film the woman next to me rustled through her handbag before finally extracting a tube of hand cream which she urgently applied. Then there was the man directly behind me who thought it acceptable to chow down on a Golden Delicious during the screening, with each mastication challenging the film’s soundtrack for acoustic dominance.

Before you ascribe my complaints to post–Christmas grumpiness, I should point out that I mention these disturbances purely to illustrate the nature of Treeless Mountain. Had this film been an action blockbuster then apple man might have timed each bite to coincide with a convenient explosion or gunfight. However, this charming Korean tale is a film of considerable calm which requires the rapt attention of its audience along with collective peace and quiet.

The second feature from the director So Yong Kim, Treeless Mountain is the story of two young girls, Jin (Hee Yeon Kim) who is aged seven and her six year old sister Bin (Song Hee Kim.) Both children live with their mother (Soo Ah Lee) in Seoul and have recently been abandoned by their father. No real explanation is given as to why but either he must have been completely heartless or utterly desperate as the children appear to be the very definition of the word ‘adorable.’ Their mother is no quitter and she decides to go in search of her absent husband, leaving the girls in the care of their ‘Big Aunt’ (Mi Hyang Kim) who lives in a small town.

This proves to be a bad move as ‘Big Aunt’ is more like a wicked stepmother. She treats the girls as little irritants rather than sweet infants and is not shy in chiding them for their mere existence. ‘Big Aunt’ finds her true love at the bottom of a bottle and when she is not occupying a bar stool she can be found lying drunk on the floor. Left to fend for themselves, the children cling on to one token of hope, a bright red piggy bank left them by their mother along with a promise that she will return when it is full.

With this in mind, the girls set out to make money with an ingenuity and ruthlessness that in another life would surely see them snapped up by Alan Sugar. They capture grasshoppers from the surrounding countryside, cook them up on a make-shift barbecue and sell them as snacks to the locals. Entomophilies and vegans are warned that this involves scenes of terrible insect cruelty with the poor crickets impaled on sticks and roasted alive. If this is likely to upset you then I suggest that you give this film a miss or at least look away at the appropriate moments. This is a clash of cultural sensibilities of course, for in the West we prefer to feed insects to jungle dwelling Z-listers. At the same time, the children’s actions confirm one universal truth; behind even the cutest looking child’s face lies a potential little monster.

The flambéed bug business proves to be mighty lucrative and, despite the onset of a supply problem, the money box becomes full to the brim. The girls wait patiently for the bus that will reunite them with their mother. Will she return or will the little ones be doomed to live out their young lives as the wards of their uncaring aunt?

Treeless Mountain is a pretty spot on portrayal of childhood which may wear a cloak of serenity but portrays events which are possibly calamitous and life-changing for Bin and Jin. It is especially good at showing how children adapt to the little let downs and minor disasters that life hurls at them. The youngsters, reeling from the incomprehensible injustices of the adult world, seek out happiness, opportunity and, eventually, family love where they can.

With the children occupying most of the scenes and the camera rarely rising above their head height ,‘Treeless Mountain’ can genuinely be seen to be giving us a child’s eye view of the world. Its authenticity may be explained by the fact that So Yong Kim has based her film on her own experience both as a mother and as a child whose family was abandoned by the father.

There are only two professional actors in this film playing the roles of the mother and the aunt. The other performers are all amateurs sought out especially for their roles. This gives the film a warm, naturalistic feel with the two little girls both being enchanting. Their performances were apparently coaxed out of them by off-screen prompting from a very patient director.

Korean cinema continues to delight in its quality and variety, throwing up a monster movie at one moment, a serial killer thriller the next and occasionally simple little gems such as this. If you are willing and able to give Treeless Mountain your time then you will probably find your spirits enriched in return.

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