[HanCinema's Film Review] "Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star"

Ridiculously racy title notwithstanding, there's very little actual sex in "Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star". Instead, most of the titillation comes in the form of foreplay. Which is reasonably interesting in its own right. Foreplay tends to be pretty underrated. Women orgasm differently than men do, and yet so much porn makes it seem like penetration is the be-all and end-all of sexual intercourse. For Jin-hee (played by Han Ji-eun-I), self-discovery comes with the realization that physical intimacy is about more than genitalia.

My apologies if the language here is a tad explicit- there's not really any other way to discuss "Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star" except on explicitly sexualized terms. Director Jang Seong-soo appears to have been influenced a fair amount by artistic sex films from the sixties- movies which, to any modern day observer, make almost no sense, because of the degree to which these films were just plain incomprehensibe. Mostly to help distinguish them from actual porn.

What makes "Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star" interesting is that there aren't really any artistic pretensions along these lines, and yet the film doesn't really qualify as standard porn either. Jin-hee, as if in a dream, meets a man (played by Choi Ri-ho) who apparently exists solely to make her feel beautiful, and the film as a whole is an exploration of this topic. In the deepest, darkest fantasy of a woman, what does she really want?

As it turns out the answer to this question isn't anything bizarre and weird like sadomachism. Indeed, Jin-hee initially meets her dream man by stepping out of a weird sexy party, their having mutually decided there wasn't actually any point to watching peculiar sexual acts committed by masked performers. Nor is the answer anything as dull as housework. Food does play an important part of the proceedings, but for the implied eroticism. Jin-hee's dream beau cooks because he likes it, not to save Jin-hee the prospect of drudgery.

Instead, it's just foreplay. And not necessarily foreplay in the bedroom either. Sometimes Jin-hee and her boyfriend go to the park, and they don't do anything exhibionist. They hang out, and enjoy each other's company. They don't even have any serious deep intellectual conversations or anything like that. There's merely this greater idea that the best kind of lover is one you can just share time with in the beautiful outdoors, touching softly while gentle guitar music plays in the background.

"Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star" is a pornographic film that shies away from explicit content. This is less out of any sense of moderation but more because director Jang Seong-soo has latched on to this fairly interesting notion that actually, touch is what really matters. It's that sense that marks the attractive depth of a physical relationship rather than the visuals of the genitalia and implied orgasm.

That much, at least, does explain why so many people are fine having sex in the dark, and are further satisfied with just the prospect of a little snuggling afterwords. It also explains why there's no real actual story to speak of in "Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star", although really, does a product like this need one? Sometimes love affairs end for no good reason, no hard feelings. Just...it's time to move on.

Review by William Schwartz

"Sometimes I Want To Be A Porn Star" is directed by Jang Seong-soo and features Han Ji-eun-I, Choi Ri-ho, Park Ji-soo and is narrated by Seo Kab-sook.