Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

[HanCinema's Film Review] "18 - Eighteen Noir"

Dong-do (played by Lee Jae-eung) loves movies, neglecting his studies just so he can watch more, giving his mom the excuse of how movies are themselves studying, since they help him learn about the real world. Yeah, that's probably the first clue that Dong-do really doesn't have the most discerning sense of judgment, so of course he jumps at the chance to make friends with some teens who are exactly the kind of cool types the movies tend to glamorize. The consequences are...well, actually not that extreme in the immediate sense.

Advertisement

Where "18 - Eighteen Noir" most excels is in its exploration of a world that in many ways is made up. Yes, there are lots of high school gang fights in this movie, but none of the characters are in a serious gang. We're not dealing with life-and-death situations here. These young men deal with coolness via intimidation and confidence, and for the most part fights are stopped because one side decides to buckle under and accept that the other side is stronger and cooler than they are.

And given that the most intimidating confident guy in the room tends to get everything he wants in life, chicks included, it's no surprise at all that a major conflict point is Yeon-hee (played by Seo Joo-ah), one of just two girls in the group, and also the only one without a boyfriend. Yeon-hee's presence in the movie is actually quite minor except for the fact that she's a girl. In a group of mostly teenage boys of course this is going to be a point of contention and machismo, given that the whole point of the group is to just, well, be cool.

The result is a surprisingly artificial plot. Dong-do's new friends aren't bad people, but they really are wasting their time doing dumb stuff instead of studying. Dong-do has internalized the viewpoint (no doubt heavily influenced by all the Western films he watches) that cool creative people spend all their time smoking and drinking, spending money and not ever actually doing anything relevant, just as long as it's fun. It takes forever for "18 - Eighteen Noir" to get to its actual story, and when we finally do arrive, the conflict is pretty clearly a preventable one.

There's an excellent line in a late scene- noting that if the characters die, it will be a tragedy, and if they don't, well, life will move on. It's a fairly poignant observation of the narrative logic of films, that all the events up until a point can change in meaning entirely depending on the ending. Unfortunately, by pointing out this interpretative problem of film, "18 - Eighteen Noir" itself becomes a bit of an engima in the end.

What was Dong-do supposed to learn anyway? That life isn't like the movies? Strange then that there's so little discussion of his hobby- alhough that's probably part of the point. He's only interacting with film on a very casual level, and we never see directly how his relationship to media changes throughout the movie. Although this too is probably part of my own limitations as a critic. I always analyze this stuff. Dong-do may be more of a hero for the reader out there- the person who enjoys the movies, maybe even romanticizes them, but ultimately learns the most by fumbling through real life, whatever the motivation.

This review was written by William Schwartz as a part of HanCinema's PiFan (Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival) coverage.

"18 - Eighteen Noir" is directed by Han Yun-sun and features Lee Jae-eung, Cha Yup, Lee Ik-jun, Bae Yoo-ram and Seo Joo-ah.

❎ Try Ad-free