Futureless Things

The film is set in a convenience store, the most common and mundane thing that Koreans have in their country and culture. It reminded me a lot of K-dramas, because there is absolutely no modern K-drama that doesn’t feature a scene of a character eating ramen in a convenience store. I feel like the social and cultural importance of convenience stores in Korea have the same amount of importance of a sari-sari store in the Philippines.

Aside from convenience stores, the acting in the first few minutes of the film reminded me very much of a K-drama. I even recognized some actors, and I was thinking: “We’ll finally get to watch a normal film in class.” However, I shouldn’t have expected that, given the films we’ve watched before.

It’s like a mesh of all the mundane things–not only the convenience store, but also the things happening inside seemed boring at first glance: the gambling, the issue of North and South Korea, learning English, homosexuality; all that stuff. It tackled a lot of relevant issues in Korea, one would immediately think it’s a commentary. It’s mundane until someone is killed. It’s mundane until a cult-like crowd forms outside the convenience store. It’s mundane until magic happens and a man gets trapped inside a box. It’s mundane until the film ends with a random dance. It’s a crazy story about the menial things in life.

The stories revolve around the cashier and the different lives they have. Some of their lives are intertwined. I like the way that given the short amount of time they have each because of the large cast, we still get to see a glimpse of them and feel for them. I especially think that the convenience store is the perfect location for this, because people of all walks of life go to a convenience store. You can’t really dictate the kind of customers you have, because the convenience store has all sorts of basics and food that every human being needs.

I honestly feel like I didn’t understand the movie, but at the same time, I feel like there’s no point in trying to make sense of it in a way that I try to connect everything. It feels like the movie isn’t really asking to be taken that way.

It’s nice to see this side of the Korean film industry because I mostly watch the usual, all-too-familiar tearjerkers and dramas. Even the title Futureless Things is unique and would probably invoke some sort of curiosity. I have not figured out why that is the title, but I guess it has something to do with the way the stories were told–as if there is no timeline and everything is just happening in different universes, but in same forms. The concept of time is different.