The first day was weak on selection so I took my time and picked out two films, one being Vespa, chosen because of my affection for Hungary's cinema and my hopes that it would be similar to last year's standout entry, Jermal. The other was HaHaHa, chosen because I like films about drunken camaraderie, and it had won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes, not to mention that Sang-Soo's other film in the festival, Oki's Movie, got a favorable write up in Cinemascope that piqued my interest and HaHaHa would provide me with a reference point.
A Hungarian film from director Diana Groo, Vespa is a gentle drama about a 12 year old boy named Lali (Sándor Tóth) who wins a chocolate bar in a card game, and, in turn, wins a Vespa by unwrapping the chocolate bar. The crux of the drama comes from the fact that the Vespa has to be picked up from Budapest, a significant distance from his poor hometown. Never having set foot outside of his home town, the boy experiences some trepidation in leaving, but nevertheless goes off on his own to pick up the Vespa. The film is incredibly well structured and designed, each character provoking interest as well as suiting a specific purpose as required by the plot (some people consider this coincidence, I consider it narrative) without becoming overly-expositional. The cinematography ranges from masterful (a scene where Lali crosses a bridge is particularly well-shot) to uninspired (the opening sequence which had the potential to be incredibly striking).
What I was hoping for from this film was this year's Jermal, and instead (not to be reductive) I got a relatively pleasant, agreeable version of the moment in The Wire when Bodie is first leaving Baltimore. Sitting in the truck as he tries to find Baltimore radio stations, Bodie is faced with a larger world and makes the observation that there is no reason to leave Baltimore, no matter how narrow that makes his world view. Lali faces the same sort of decision, except he never really makes a choice. He just sort of drifts along and witnesses atrocities of varying severity, never really taking charge. Not that that's a criticism of the film itself, only of his viability as a protagonist. The film has a relatively critical and courageous conclusion, if only that the obvious ending is so broadly avoided it's remarkable.
Winner of Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes, Hong Sang-Soo's drunken romantic comedy HaHaHa is both amusing and kind of touching. Boasting an infuriatingly terrible name, the film is remarkably relaxed for the most part and features some excellent acting from leads Sang-kyung Kim, Yoo Joon-sang, and Moon So-ri. But while the acting is top-notch and the story is engaging, the direction has some rough spots (which others seem to take for aesthetic pleasures) that I would rather be smoothed over; namely, the constant slipshod zooming. An associate of mine defended the haphazard employing of the zoom function as a "reminder that [Hong's] camera was still there, even if its not doing anything." Call me a formalist, but in my opinion every camera move should be meaningful and active, if the effect you are going for is to disconnect the viewer from the movie, then your subject matter/script should reflect that. In the case of HaHaHa, it is clearly not the overall striven for result, but this lousy trick achieves it nonetheless.
Besides that one gripe and a mise-en-scene which oscillates between utilitarian functionality and one-note "anti-composition" which I read as a lazy or misguided attempt at naturalism, HaHaHa is remarkably effective. It's funny and clever, making great use of the awkward nature of relationships and meetings, and the disconnect between one's expectations and reality. The film's standout character, Jo Munkyung (Sang-kyung Kim), is endearing precisely because he is absolutely ignorant of just how mistaken and ill-advised his every action is. This is a person who honestly doesn't understand why following a girl home after work and later breaking into her apartment to pet her dog would be considered weird. His continual misunderstandings with the girl he is attempting to court provide the film with its emotional core which actively involves the viewer whenever it's able to rise above the aesthetic missteps previously mentioned.
The Social Network was really great. I gotta had it to him, Jesse Eisenberg was terrific. Andrew Garfield too.
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