I have been gradually building up a collection of Korean film DVDs at home. I have become so used to buying original DVDs while I was in the UK that I have decided to steer clear of pirated products back at home. Korean originals range in price from about RM17 (£2.60) to about RM40 (£6.15). So, they are amongst the more affordable originals and Korean cinema is perfectly watchable.
I watched this film today about a race horse and his jockey. It’s called Lump of Sugar. On the surface, it is just another sad story about horse racing and horse trading. At a slightly deeper level, it is about the relationship and love between a girl and a horse. At an even deeper level, it is about living with humility and dying with dignity. Going further, it is a classic film about love and loss. The story itself was fairly straightforward and predictable throughout. However, as a result of the acting, I was literally driven to tears at the end.
A movie needs to be fairly good to evoke any sort of emotional response from me. Because of the weirdness in how my brain works, most films end up as an exercise in film making for me. When I watch a film, I am constantly analysing it for storyline errors and how the elements were synthesised into the final scene. I don’t do this actively but it is already trained as a natural response from me to any sort of stimuli. I am just weird that way.
I am beginning to learn which Korean film companies produce better films and which ones are sub standard. I am also learning which local distributor tends to bring in the more famous films and which ones bring in the less popular ones. All this will help me in selecting future Korean films to add to my collection. Now, if I could only find a copy of The Classic on the shelf somewhere. That was another film that drove me to tears when I watched it with a housemate of mine several years ago.
Anyway, here is the trailer for a Lump of Sugar (it’s in Korean!):
Sybreon Ones Nought 