Futureless Things

Country: South Korea

Original title: Igeoshi uri-ui kkeutida (lit. This is the end of us)

Director: Kim Kyung Mook
Year: 2014

Small convenience store somewhere in South Korea. Various customers come in, various cashiers check in and out. Each consecutive shift brings in its own stories and sub-plots and thus the movie is filled with many episodes with different cast and different moods. I guess one can even risk a statement, that they belong to different movie genres. There is a main plot – story of the shop owner – but it is well hidden in the distant background for the most of the movie and only emerges at the end to provide a conclusion, much more decided than what I was expecting from a movie of this kind.

My first impression was that the makers were trying to use the store and the people populating it as an effigy of Korean society and I still think it's the right lead. The characters all seem to be archetypes of various attitudes rather than real people. Some sketchy background is given for some of them, but basically they are suspended in mid-air abstracts, with some very visible traits, but no actual personality (of course I doubt it would be possible to provide psychological depth for so many people in so little time anyway). Special reference is being made to country's economical situation and perspectives that people are facing. Mostly young people, but not exclusively.

As the story is not the main strength of the movie – to say the least – I'm quite sure that any prior knowledge of Korean culture enhances the experience a lot. Mine is rather poor, so I was not able to judge if the makers' observations were accurate or not. But even without it, it's not impossible to enjoy Futureless Things. Even though the movie is permeated with an undeniably bitter note (just as the title suggests), for the most part, it is quite light, funny and easy to watch. Of course, not all scenes are equally good and engaging, but all are at least decent. There was a point when I got a little tired, but it didn't last very long and I was satisfied in the end.