[HanCinema's Film Review] "Eclipse"

At the time of its release, "Eclipse" was not a particularly important film at the South Korean box office. Much of its significance is retrospective- it built up the acting credentials of Choi Tae-joon, who plays the handsome, friendly, but ultimately mentally unbalanced high school student Se-joon. Mun Ka-young also stars as Eun-yeong, a girl who gets caught between Se-joon and the actual main character Yoon-jae played by Kim Shi-hoo. Choi Tae-joon and Mun Ka-young had their moment as leading stars although they've since gone back to supporting roles.

Advertisement

You'd never guess this from "Eclipse" itself, though, which isn't really a powerful acting project so much as a grim, underexposited mystery. Yoon-jae just moved to a new school and his mother is sick and under the burden of severe medical bills. All the girls at school think Yoon-jae is super cute, and Se-joon responds to this by recruiting Yoon-jae for a very suspicious job that doesn't seem to technically be illegal but does involve the high school students going to nightclubs.

Ironically enough Kim Shi-hoo is the performer here who gets to do the most acting. He's furious at his mother for even considering trying to ask his uncle for money. This leads to Yoon-jae begging Se-joon for this work opportunity. From that point forward, Yoon-jae is mainly just in denial over how bad the overall situation really is. Meanwhile, Se-joon is investing way too much in his relationship with Yoon-jae despite their not even really being friends so much as co-workers.

Choi Tae-joon does make for a fairly effective ambiguous, brooding character who's so hard to read it comes as a genuine surprise when he lashes out. A pity his subsequent acting roles never took advantage of this. Mun Ka-young likewise works in her role as a friendly schoolgirl who is, through no fault of her own, even more clueless about what's going on than Yoon-jae. She's cute enough to be appealing but frequently feels, very appropriately, like a character from a completely different movie who wandered into this one by accident.

As a coming of age story, "Eclipse" is actually quite effective in terms of depicting characters whose motivations are so vastly different, and who are similarly incapable of grasping just how different their motivations are. The miscommunication caused by this inevitably leads to tragedy. Se-joon is just barely self-aware enough to realize that he's not right in the head but has no idea how to cope with any of his feelings.

I should be clear that despite this movie apparently having become something of a cult hit throughout southeast Asia in boys' love fandoms, this isn't really a boys' love movie at all. "Eclipse" is fairly typical of mid-teen era South Korean independent films that depicted teenagers with social problems. "Eclipse" isn't a bad movie by any means, but it's also not especially noteworthy compared to any others released during this trend.

Written by William Schwartz

___________

"Eclipse" is directed by Jeong Hee-seong, and features Choi Tae-joon, Kim Shi-hoo, Mun Ka-young, Han Jung-woo, Kim Min-gyu, Lee Seung-yeon-I. Release date in Korea: 2016/03/30.