Tears

After spending five months in Garibong-dong, a district in Seoul, Director Lim Sang-Soo's Tears was a movie based on his recollection of those five months. Han, a young runaway, and Chang, an over-the-top teen, are close friends. Chang is a foulmouthed, womanizer while Han is a quiet and humble virgin. As they venture into the streets of Garibong-dong and jump from apartment to apartment, they encounter a young hooker, Lan, and Seri, a paint-sniffing young woman who finds comfort in the hands of Han. And this forms the unlikely group of teenagers facing the hardships of street life.

What more can I say? What else is there to say after that? I mean come on! Hookers, drugs, runaways-sounds like another KIDS ripoff. Heh. Well, here's the thing. The movie was shot totally in Digital Video format and it looks as if the movie itself was a documentary on young teenagers and their lives in these unforgiving streets. Tears is a gritty and shocking tale of the spirit of untamed youth and the wildness that ensues.

Taking cues from his experience in a homeless-ridden district in Seoul, Lim Sang-Soo set out to display the graphic nature of his work. While filming on DV mainly to conserve cost, the movie actually benefits from the look and feel. The characters and their relationships come to life as each scene grows more and more distinct in flavor. From the beginning, we have Han and Chang at a little get together in a café with friends . . . and hookers! At that moment, I knew I was watching one of those documentary-type films. And when Chang begins to use the hookers as punching bags and sexual objects, hell, that just solidified my case.

I commend the director for his rawness in Tears. He takes us into a world where confusion and despair are of the ordinary and pain is just the icing on the cake. There are scenes where we see women being punched in the face and slammed on the ground. Other scenes where we see how desperate they are to leave their world behind by inhaling paint fumes because they probably can't afford a decent form of illegal drug to abuse. It's shocking, yet melancholic the way these teens are depicted on screen. The sex scenes, yes the sex scenes, are even worse. The horrible past experiences of one of the girls creep up on her as she can't perform in bed even if she's in the mood. And the other girl comes to terms with her escort service occupation as she's confronted by her own father. This is just some of the many truths that'll be unveiled to the viewers as they watch the movie.

What moves this movie in the forward direction is of course its unknown cast. Believable is an understatement as we see these teens trudge down the mean streets. Chang is a bleached blonde young man with a taste for sexual intercourse and beer. His life is all about living off his sexual partners' apartment and cash. Han, the runaway, is probably the staple point of the film. He's ordinary in many ways and seems to be the conflict in the story. Here is a young man with the rest of his life ahead of him, yet he wants to escape that and follow a crowd that may or may not be alive the next day. Lan is a prostitute with a thing for braids. She loves Chang and is solely committed to making him happy even though she knows of his cheating ways. Her life will never reach further than her one room apartment. And lastly, the most troubled of the group is Seri, an attractive young lady who rides like the wind on her motorcycle. She finds the open arms of Han and sees that he is everything she needs to move on in her life. But she must first forget about being raped by a family member while she was younger because it's troubling her sexual performance with Han. And she must persevere and defeat her paint-sniffing ways before actually moving on. These four characters make up the stereotypical teens from the street. And it remains the stronghold of this film.

As much as the characters were believable enough, the ending is left to be desired. The director builds up this growing relationship among the four and then suddenly jerks it into another direction. It left a very foul taste in my mouth and it wasn't the Twix cookie bars I was eating. Tears take us through a candid look at sex, drugs, and . . . sniffing. If it's a documentary-type movie that's gritty and raw you're looking for or if you're looking for some topless nude shots, then Tears is your choice. Other than that, no real justifiable reason to watch or get it.