Smoke (2019)

A fable about the pointlessness of conforming at all costs

WARNING: review is full of spoilers, and is basically an essay!
TLDR: a fascinating exploration of 'fitting in' at the expense of one's authenticity.

Jung Hyun and Jun Seok like each other, but their romance is short-lived. Min Jae (Jung Hyun’s ‘friend’) senses there’s something going on between the pair, and so sets off rumours at their school, and then tells Jung Hyun about said rumours. In response, Jung Hyun distances himself from Jun Seok, and ultimately brings an end to their relationship.

What’s fascinating is that it’s not the homophobic society, nor Min Jae (who is trying to help his friend in a weirdly homophobic way), preventing the pair from being together. Rather, it's Jung Hyun’s need to conform that brings an end to their relationship. His need to conform is at odds with Jun Seok’s indifference to how others perceive him, and is conveyed subtly on multiple occasions. Perhaps most pertinently, given the title of this short film, the contrast between them is hinted at when Jun Seok asks Jung Hyun why he smokes, and he simply says ’Because…’ He has no real response, because he smokes purely to fit in with his classmates. In contrast, when Min Jae asks Jun Seok if he smokes, Jun Seok says, ‘Why, do I have to?’ He knows smoking is ‘cool’, but couldn't care less.

This all comes to a head as rumours are swirling and Min Jae has proffered his words of warning to Jung Hyun. Jung Hyun can’t stand the whispered judgment of his peers and so brings things to an end with Jun Seok, symbolically smoking with classmates we've never even seen before as he does so.

The film ends with the camera lingering on Jung Hyun standing alone miserably, gazing at his classmates as they happily chat away, completely oblivious to him. Melancholy music kicks in, and one can’t help but sense that Jung Hyun is starting to grasp that he has lost everything and gained nothing. He has ended things with Jun Seok at the expense of his authenticity and happiness, because he couldn’t stand being gossip fodder for his classmates. And yet as he looks around, it’s clear his peers never really cared about his personal life to begin with; it’s old news to them. However, the pain of ending things with Jun Seok will remain. But hey, at least maybe he’ll stop smoking…

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Thought-provoking gay-themed short film

A gay-themed short film (not quite BL) that is quite worth watching. Just don't expect fluff and an escapist love story.

The short film touches on may gay-related issues, the first of which is the predicament of the less athletic, less conventionally masculine individual in a setting like an all-boys school (or simply any school). Jun Seok's reluctance to attend the PE class at the beginning of the film is obvious. (Maybe I'm projecting myself into him, but I think it's possible that he even deliberately turns up late, which will get him the punishment of running ten rounds, just so that he can avoid playing team sports with the other student for part of the lesson.)

Ironically, it is not Jun Seok but Jung-hyun who is clearly gay at first, as suggested by the way he glances as Jun Seok taking off his shirt and later by Jun Seok saying that he saw him looking at other guys. It's just Jung-hyun finds it easier to blend in with the crowd. This says a lot about inequality even amongst gay people as those happen to be more conventionally masculine tend to have a choice regarding how far they want to seem to blend in with the rest, and they might even end up ostracizing other gay people as a result.

What is surprising is that there isn't even a lot of overt homophobia featured in the film. Min Jae may appear to be the homophobic one who creates trouble for Jun Seok and Jun-hyun by spreading rumors about them. However, it is not entirely clear what his motivations are. Quite early on, we see Min Jae talking to his friends, mocking Jun Seok for being bad at dribbling the ball during PE. Interestingly, his mockery does not gain much traction, and his friends remind him that he sucks at it too. He then begins saying that Jun Seok is acting like a girl, but his friends do not seem to care either.

Eventually, it is Min Jae who finds out about Jun Seok and Jun-hyun's relationship when they have a date of sorts in a storeroom in school. (Has Min Jae been secretly following them around to confirm his suspicion about their relationship?) Min Jae then spreads rumors about Jun Seok and Jung-hyun--even though there is no indication that he has seen the two of them kissing or being. However, it is worth noting that he does not appear to be doing so to exact vengeance on Jung-hyun, who has earlier on told him off for mocking Jun Seok's poor dribbling skills during PE. On the contrary, he seems to be doing so to separate the couple and keep Jung-hyun firmly in his clique. Jung-hyun distances himself from Jun Seok after Min Jae tells him about the rumors (I assume he does not reveal that he is the one who spread the rumors to begin with)--and the purpose appears to be to separate the couple rather than to victimize them for being gay. Min Jae does not appear to want to harm Jung-hyun, after all.

I can only guess, then, that Min Jae's actions are possibly motivated by jealousy. (Remember the ironic similarity between him and Jun Seok? Maybe they are similar in more ways than one.) In an environment where people think that they are supposed to exhibit masculinity in a certain way, they may not even come to terms with their own sexual orientation. This is despite the relative nonchalance of the classmates. The classmates, both the guys in Min Jae's smokers' clique and the rest, may gossip, but the film doesn't show them bullying either Jun Seok or Jung-hyun. Yet, the pressure is always on the queer individuals, who do not know when the reactions of people around them can turn nasty. (This is quite realistic, from personal experience. Sometimes there is no overt bullying, but you may find it hard to belong even though people may not be deliberately doing nasty things to you either. Nonetheless, it still feels awful.)

In the end, while Jun Seok seems to be the most obvious victim in the film, Jung-hyun is also a tragic figure. As he himself seems to realize, he is, unlike Jun Seok, not used to being gossiped about. When he is the subject of gossip, he buckles under pressure. We might see that his privilege of being able to tell Min Jae off for mocking Jun Seok is predicated on how he is not perceived as being seen to be in the same league as Jun Seok. The moment he allows himself to be aligned with Jun Seok beyond being Jun Seok's friend, he will lose this privilege. Whatever he chooses, he has a high price to pay.

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