Director: Park Jung Bum.

Starring: Park Jung Bum, Lee Seung Yeon, Park Myoung Hoon, Shin Hait Bit.

Running Time: 150 Minutes

Synopsis: Jung Chul (Park), is a down on his luck factory worker living through hard times. After he acquires a new job, he pitches a money saving scheme to the owners that puts him in good stead, but it comes at the cost of the workers.

Set in a grim rural part of South Korea, actor, director and writer Park Jung Bum, offers us a glum look into the working class. This is Park’s second feature after 2010’s THE JOURNALS OF MUSAN, and it’s clear Park is man who does things his way.

ALIVE is realistic in every sense of the word, which also means it displays the tedium and boredom of everyday life. Even the parts where conflict is present fail to heighten any sense of emotion or excitement. Everything just kind of happens with an air of “who cares”, which may in some way reflect the attitude towards these downtrodden workers. Unfortunately, it also makes for one of the longest 150 minutes of your life. With no humour, no pacing, and no clear goal, the film plods along at an excruciating pace.

It’s clear from the opening that we’re in for a long haul, as we get lengthy sequences of rock smashing and self harm. The jump cuts prove that these sections have been cut down, but certainly not cut down enough. Park makes his point about the tedium of protagonist Jeong Cheol’s life in a few minutes, but we are forced to sit through longer and longer moments of the daily grind.

The characters do represent some hope, with Jeong Cheol’s sister, Su Yeon (Lee), creating powerful moments as she auditions for a part in a play, using a recent self harm to draw emotion. Jeong Cheol himself is also a rather respectable protagonist, a man of good conscience and good mind, who is often set upon by his coworkers for doing what is “right”. It’s the perfect blend of circumstance to elicit some feeling and conflict, but nothing elevates to levels worthy of being put on film.

With an overcast look which furthers the dreariness, ALIVE is a film that would have been passable at 90 minutes, but with an hour on top of that it’s almost unbearable. Sometimes facts say more than a review can, and despite being screened at a festival where assumed fans of Korean cinema would gather, there were six walkouts. Usually I’d defend the film and say that all feature length pictures should be watched to the end, but ALIVE just goes nowhere and does so at a frustrating pace. If Park’s intention was to make the audience feel the annoyance at such a difficult and dull life, then he succeeded.

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