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The Butterfly
Tornado Alley
The price of loneliness
Aloners is a film written and directed by Hong Sung Eun, the only full-length film she’s done thus far. Which is disappointing because I quite liked her take on the price of loneliness and would love to see what else she has to offer. This film followed a young woman unable to reach past her own defenses to connect with anyone around her, further pushing her deeper inside herself.
Jin Ah works at a credit card call center where she has to daily deal with rude customers and a frustrated time traveler. She lives alone. Eats alone. Smokes alone. Rides the bus alone. At a job where the employees have been zombified by the mind-numbing monotony, she works alone. Her relentless routine is challenged when she’s ordered to train Su Jin, the bubbly new employee. Su Jin has moved from her hometown to work in the bigger city and has no friends or family, leaving her alone. The only family Jin Ah has is her estranged father who had abandoned their family and swindled her as well. Jin Ah’s equally reclusive neighbor is found a week after he died buried under a fallen wall of magazines in his apartment. Suddenly and achingly, Jin Ah is forced to face her solitary existence.
Gong Seung Yeon perfectly captured Jin Ah’s tightly wound personality walking through her life where every day was just the same. Jin Ah was a prisoner in a castle, surrounded by a crocodile infested moat, a prison she had created herself. Earphones ever present to ward off any potential human contact, her only companions were her phone and television. A new neighbor asked, “Do you make a habit of being pissed off all the time?” And that was the key to Jin Ah, she wasn’t just an introvert, she was a tight ball of repressed anger and pain. Each new hit cracked away at her immaculately structured defenses
Being alone is something everyone faces at one time or another, chronic loneliness is a silent destructive force and the pain of it was palpable with the characters in this film. Director Hong slowly and subtly showed varying viewpoints on how people deal with loss and grief and the importance of human connection to help heal those wounds. If you are a fan of slow, slice of life films this might be one to try.
1 Aug 2024
Jin Ah works at a credit card call center where she has to daily deal with rude customers and a frustrated time traveler. She lives alone. Eats alone. Smokes alone. Rides the bus alone. At a job where the employees have been zombified by the mind-numbing monotony, she works alone. Her relentless routine is challenged when she’s ordered to train Su Jin, the bubbly new employee. Su Jin has moved from her hometown to work in the bigger city and has no friends or family, leaving her alone. The only family Jin Ah has is her estranged father who had abandoned their family and swindled her as well. Jin Ah’s equally reclusive neighbor is found a week after he died buried under a fallen wall of magazines in his apartment. Suddenly and achingly, Jin Ah is forced to face her solitary existence.
Gong Seung Yeon perfectly captured Jin Ah’s tightly wound personality walking through her life where every day was just the same. Jin Ah was a prisoner in a castle, surrounded by a crocodile infested moat, a prison she had created herself. Earphones ever present to ward off any potential human contact, her only companions were her phone and television. A new neighbor asked, “Do you make a habit of being pissed off all the time?” And that was the key to Jin Ah, she wasn’t just an introvert, she was a tight ball of repressed anger and pain. Each new hit cracked away at her immaculately structured defenses
Being alone is something everyone faces at one time or another, chronic loneliness is a silent destructive force and the pain of it was palpable with the characters in this film. Director Hong slowly and subtly showed varying viewpoints on how people deal with loss and grief and the importance of human connection to help heal those wounds. If you are a fan of slow, slice of life films this might be one to try.
1 Aug 2024
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