Finding Joy

Little dialogue in this South Korean melodrama concerning a German writer (Zollner) who becomes enamoured by a Korean dance student, representing a freedom his uptight wife (Shaw) and frustrated career prevents him from attaining.

It's plot-lite, more of an outline or short film in which there's a lot of eating, drinking, merriment (a dash of karaoke also) and then our tortured soul pacing the streets looking for the bright light of which he's lost sight and is desperate to find again. Needed more storyline to occupy its 75-minute duration, there's only so many wistful, longing looks out into the sunset that a film can sustain before it needs something more interesting to happen.

Probably not the ending I was expecting, but perhaps the right outcome all round, which might be disappointing for some, poignant for others. Visually and symbolically emotive, but ultimately lacking substance.