Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

You gotta see this. Genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1X5N679noM

[metalhead]

Gave up as soon as the horrid music kicked in by about the fourth minute or so. Instead of just proclaiming it to be genius, why not elaborate on WHY you think it is genius, then I might just try watching it again, albeit this time with the sound off.

[PatrickBateman]

Thanks! I love him, I'll watch this when I'm home.

[schwa]

Fair point, metalhead.

Park Chan-wook has a solid rep as a smart & gritty director, & its on show here. The concept is intriguing -- a collage cobbled together from thousands of youtube submissions loosely related to Seoul.

Commissioned by Seoul City Hall presumably as a promotional piece, I wonder if they knew what they were getting into? Theres a passed out drunk by a sidewalk, implied sex in the woods, & an implied bridge-jumping suicide, all before you even get to the title screen.

Theres a quirky randomness to the scenes & interviews throughout but several "storylines" develop & the film builds to a nice climax, featuring a metal concert among other things.

I thought the soundtrack was brilliant & ties it all together. An equally random mix of genres. Give it a chance, metalhead.

The whole thing is visually stunning, with loads of subtle detail. Dozens of memorable scenes. I got more out of it on second viewing than the first time through. A totally offbeat snapshot of life in Seoul.

Sorry about my too brief OP. I (perhaps mistakenly) assumed this film would immediately grab the attention of anyone familiar with or interested in Seoul. I stand by my use of the word "genius."

[Steelrails]

I fail to see how the music a the 4 minute mark is horrid. It's traditional Korean music. It's very appropriate for the setting and character of the video. What should it have been? KPop? Metal? I think only jazz or classical or possibly some sort of techno-y type stuff might work, but I think the artist is trying to set a traditional sound against the modern backdrop. What do you expect on a video about the capital of Korea?

[crosbystillsstash]

I think it's very well done.

[metalhead]

Thanks Schwa, sorry if I came across as being rude, it just irks me when I see list threads, youtube links etc without comments with content accompanying them. It's lazy and doesn't stir my interest at all. I'll give it a watch this weekend sometime, I don't think Park Chan-Wook is the best Asian director out there (hello, Miike Takashi!), but his style is decent enough. That, and I've heard from others that the flick is good.

Steelrails, I don't like ANY Korean music, even the copycat Korean metal that is out there, and I've seen more Korean metal bands live that I can count. They'll be needing to copy Japanese metal bands like Sigh, Sabbat, Gargoyle etc a lot more before anyone in the world ever pays them any attention. Again it's the same old thing - Korean metal bands copy styles of other metal bands without brining anything new to the table, and that just doesn't work in any metal genre. They're good musicians in general though so the potential is definitely there.

[r2b2ct]

This was really good. When I saw in the opening credits that this was sponsored by the Seoul city gov(not knowing who Park Chan-wook is), I was expecting shameless propaganda. The "bitter" is definitely present. It was really well done.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Superb work, thanks for sharing that Schwa. The guy is indeed brilliant.

[schwa]

No credit to me for sharing it here, I just stumbled upon it before someone else did. But yeh, quite the video isnt it? Its got fame written on it.

[PatrickGHBusan]

It is a great video. I showed it to my wife and she loved it too.

This guys is just brilliant.

[metalhead]

[caniff]

Pretty good (but nothing about it stood out to make it very memorable, imo).

[Scorpion]

[Scorpion]