Futureless Things

This was such a bizarre film.

Not that I didn’t like it, it was just bizarre in my opinion.

The film’s narrative revolved around the convenience store employees’ experiences while on a shift. There were the gay couple, the lesbian couple, the woman from North Korea, the guy who was eager to learn English, the DJ guy, the minor boy, the theater actor, the man in his 40’s (I think), and of course the owner of the store branch.

Why is the title ’Futureless Things‘? As was mentioned in class, maybe the reason why this film about convenience store employees was made in the first place was because we never really pay attention to them. We don’t know them, we don’t know their stories, or their dreams and ambitions in life, but we do know that they’re supposed to do their job—scan items bought by the customers, update inventory, and arrange the shelves. And so with this, they are treated as mere things that we use as if they’re robots who do not have lives of their own outside of the job. As portrayed in the film, I guess you could assume that they are futureless in the sense that none of them really have concrete and assured futures. Such mundanity would then be interesting to make a film about. And it was! For the most part, the film really banked on its bizarreness and its very diverse and interesting choice of story arcs of both the employees and the customers. I particularly liked the theater actor’s because it made me realize that it really shouldn’t be the employee’s problem if no one is there to replace him. He had already finished his shift, therefore he was technically already free to go. Also, it’s not like he wanted to leave the store for no reason. It’s just that specific day when he had something important scheduled, something that could fulfill his dreams and potentially determine his future. The owner should have been considerate, understanding, and fair because it really was his problem already. Sadly, this isn’t just a Korean thing, though. Even in the Philippines, employers treat employees as if they’re robots who should obey everything they say and not complain. It’s just very unfair.

I have seen some reviews of this film online and I read that there were a lot of references to Korean culture and norms present in it. I honestly wish I understood all of them. Films with specific cultural references are always so intriguing to me because I find it really cool how different countries experience something that’s fairly universal—a convenience store. It’s also amazing how those story arcs kind of unfolded in only one location. It worked really well. There was a shift from a sunny, bright atmosphere in the beginning of the film to an eerie almost apocalyptic-like vibe to it at the end of the film. That one location giving us different atmospheres and different stories was really cool.

I wonder how would it be like if it was set in the Philippine context? That seems very interesting to me!