Sunday, September 20, 2009

Review: Like You Know It All

From South Korea and writer/director Sang-soo Hong comes Like You Know It All (Jal aljido mothamyeonseo), the story of an art house film director and the folly of his day-to-day life.  Kim Tae-woo takes on the role of Ku Kyung-nam, a director of critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful movies.

The film begins with Kyung-nam attending a film festival as a judge.  Quickly, it becomes apparent that the festival is much more about long nights of drinking with arrogant industry men and young attractive women than it is about screening movies.  The screenings simply become a convenient time to catch up on sleep.  The partying leads to one young woman delivering Kyung-nam a tongue lashing for leaving her defenselessly drunk at the residence of one of the other revelers.  He soon leaves the festival, promising to review the movies on DVD instead.

Later, in one confusing scene, Kyung-nam visits the home of an old friend.  The friend dies, and Kyung-nam sleeps with his wife while trying to comfort her.  Moments later, the friend is once again alive, with no explanation as far as I could see, and throws a large rock at Kyung-nam, striking him in the face.

Kyung-nam's last adventure begins when he meets up with his college mentor, who he discovers has coincidentally married an ex-flame.  This encounter begins with an admittedly hilarious moment of foreboding, but drags on in a confusing and seemingly endless series of conversations.

The irony of this movie is that it seemed like it was directed by someone just like the main character that the movie intends to make fun of.  There were several funny moments on the film, but far too often I found myself wondering what was going on.  My imdb rating: 4/10.

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