Futureless Things

Futureless Things was anything but an ordinary Korean movie. It seemed like a strange yet well-thought tactic to use a convenience store as the only setting for the film which is also the only consistent part of the entire film. Usually, films with only one setting could either be very boring or interesting to watch. Futureless Things is the latter. I like how the characters were in some way all connected through their work in the convenience store, despite being totally different individuals. 

The film’s characters played the biggest role in making the storyline come together. There were many shifts in protagonists and they each had their own story to tell which I personally found enjoyable to watch. Although I think that film viewers such as I would have been more attached to the characters if they would have been given more screen time. It felt like typical customer interactions between cashiers and customers — limited and fleeting. The film missed the opportunity to delve more into the lives of the protagonists instead of showing just brief scenes of their life in the convenience store. Moreover, the characters had to deal with so much prejudice and drama from the customers which gave the film its comedic aspect. A particular scene which showed this was when one of the women from Malaysia got a nose job to look more like a Korean woman. It touched on the prejudice that women who are dressed in all black are from the Middle East while also tapping on the common nature of Koreans to undergo plastic surgery. 

Despite what many people say about the film, I did not find it weird or confusing in a way. I enjoyed how simple the movie is and at the same time also complex. The simplicity of it comes from the setting which is a convenience store — a go-to place for many to get what they need. On the other hand, the complex part comes from the various plot lines of the characters in the film. Yet, the simplicity and complexity of Futureless Things intersect since the convenience store then transforms from being a basic space into in a sense, a deeper space because of the events that took place there. A scene that was both comedic and dark was the Marlboro scene wherein the customer had a very lengthy monologue about existence and reason only to buy a red Marlboro cigarette pack. I would say that this was my favourite scene to watch since it was so funny and made me think about my Philosophy class. On the contrary, a scene that I found quite strange and irrelevant to the story was the one involving the box lady and the frustrated DJ. I found that it did not fit in the film and made no sense in telling the story of the protagonist for this scene, the DJ. 

In the end, I realized why the title of the movie is Futureless Things. The characters were like objects or tools being used to run the convenience store and they all had no future — from the guy who missed his audition to the woman who is broke and just got fired up until the guy who tries so hard to learn English but ultimately can’t. There is an unexpected dark feel to the movie that leaves an impact to viewers and showing them how monotonous life can be at times.