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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Wild Flowers"

Soo-hyang (played by Cho Soo-hyang), Eun-soo (played by Kwon Eun-soo) and Ha-dam (played by Jeong Ha-dam) are teen runaways. After an auspicious first encounter, they decide to stick together for awhile- which unfortunately leads to them becoming enlisted as prostitutes. If it's any comfort "Wild Flowers" implies that prostitution isn't a new experience for any of these girls. They do live on the street, after all, and turning tricks is about the only way uneducated teenage girls in that situation can manage to make money.

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...Oh, hm, I guess that's not actually terribly reassuring. Well, too bad. "Wild Flowers" isn't a terribly romantic film, even if sometimes it almost seems like one. Being homeless hasn't given the lead characters of this film any sort of deep, insightful look into the human condition. At best it's honed their survival instincts. They've all figured out that the best way to survive is to take life one day at a time, and keep an eye out for possible opportunities.

It would almost be uplifting advice except that they have to spend most of their energy avoiding life in a brothel. Bear in mind that the male characters in this movie aren't doing that much better. It turns out that being the guy who has to force teenage girls into prostitution really isn't any more fun a job than being the teenage girl. Oh Chang-kyung does get a turn as the only character in the movie who's unambiguously a terrible person. But the situation as a whole is bad enough that even if he wasn't there things wouldn't be great.

By the way, it's worth noting that while the lead characters are teen runaways they don't really look like teen runaways at all. They could easily pass as college students- particularly since they bum around in the Hongdae district of Seoul, home to multiple universities. The intent here is rather clearly to note that we really don't have any idea what's going on with the people who we see hanging out on the street. They could be anyone in any kind of bad situation.

There are few weaknesses in the actual construction of "Wild Flowers". The shaky cam at the beginning of the film gets to be a bit overbearing, although this does abate once the initial conflict has resolved. Beyond that the main issue is really just a lack of conflict. The entire story takes place over a few days. Mild spoiler alert- no one is actually meaningfully changed for the long term by their experiences. Short of an appearance by a well-meaning Horatio Alger character it's hard to imagine how anyone's situation here could really improve that much.

So that's what we're really left with here. A bleak, uncomfortable portrait of what life is like for a teen runaway. On some level I want to attack "Wild Flowers" for lacking a serious emotional catharsis but honestly? Life isn't like the movies. Sometimes the best people can hope for is that they don't part on mutually hostile terms. The leads in "Wild Flowers" are just dumb teenagers- and in the end it's probably unreasonable to expect much more from them.

Review by William Schwartz

"Wild Flowers" is directed by Park Suk-young and features Cho Soo-hyang, Kwon Eun-soo, Jeong Ha-dam and Lee Paul.

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