Futureless Things

Kim Kyung – Mook’s film, Futureless Things, uses satirical comedy to portray harsh realities in South Korea. Although, it could also be said that this state of affairs is also present and widespread in other developing countries such as ours. The main conflict in the film was the survival of the convenience store, although I did not really figure it out until towards the end of the film.

 Uncommonly, the film only used one setting in the movie, a convenience store and for the most time, I was waiting for the film to leave the convenience store to follow a character, but it never happened. Instead, it showed different characters, who were all part-time workers, and the random stories they experience during their shifts. At first, it seems that these stories were not connected due to the way the film was structured but towards the end, one will see how it is all tied together by the performance of the convenience store. One would wonder why Kim Kyung – Mook particularly chose a convenience store as a setting for this movie, but personally I found it brilliant. Convenience stores attract all kinds of people, varying from businessmen to homeless people. The variety of characters and their personal stories, all contributed to the demise of the convenience store and proved the setting to be a great choice. Personally, I do not think a different setting would have made the film any better than it is. Example, if it was set in an office, although one can argue that there also many different personalities in an office, it would take away the random and absurd storied of the customers that go to the convenience store throughout the day. Furthermore, one could also suggest that maybe a grocery would have also been an excellent choice, but what makes the convenience store a better choice was the intimacy. Unlike a grocery, a convenience store is much smaller thus making the interactions between the setting and characters more personal. The cashier in a convenience store does not even need to move from his or her place, in order to spot pilfering.

At first I found the movie really confusing and I could not make sense of what was happening. Until I figured out the reason why the clock was always shown, which was Kim Kyung – Mook’s way of telling the audience that the prior shift has passed. But even then, I was not really sure of what was going on in the film. I did not find any connections from the stories of each worker and customer, it seemed like it was just a bunch of random work stories you would talk about with your friends. The movie went on with this flow, but in the end it made sense. To my own surprise, I found the film amusing, given that I have a bias towards English and Hollywood films. Despite the confusing and disorganized structure, Kim Kyung – Mook was able to tie it altogether because of the convenience store.