I think the best way to describe the movie Futureless Things is just utter chaos. The film doesn’t really have a linear story that connects the different scenes shown throughout the film. Instead, it is more like an episodic kind of story that is only tied together by the location of it all, the convenience store. The film, because of all that I have said about it thus far, is very confusing and hard to follow (especially because it is in Korean). From using the same actor but as a different character to having scenes that are just outrageous and unbelievable such as the lady with the box, the whole film can sometimes seem like nonsense to the audience, but just like with other things in life, there’s more to it than meets the eye. When I was able to research more on the film, I was able to learn about the intricacies and small details that seemed unrealistic and overexaggerated for such a grounded and true to life film. Scenes such as the mother and daughter who talked down to the cashier on duty and the other cashier who was berated by a customer because of the North vs South Korea dispute reflect different aspects of Korean society that can be seen today. Of course, as someone who is not Korean and not knowing a lot about Korea, I was not able to relate to a lot of the sort of inside jokes that pertain to Korean culture. All in all, I think Futureless Things, as a movie that shows a commentary on real life, is a good (some might even say great) film because it is a very relatable and close to home type of film. Other than the over-the-top and weird scenes that I mentioned before, a lot of what happens in the film can be seen happening in real life all over the world. Scenes such as one of the customers arguing with the cashier and telling the cashier that “the customer is always right” are things that employees deal with every single day. Another relatable theme in the film is the story of the owner of the convenience store. In the film, we see the store owner toiling away and be a hands-on type of owner that is always visiting his establishment and making sure things are going well. In the end, all his efforts go to waste and his store was not profitable enough. To make things worse, the store was even robbed and left in a disastrous state, and this is also what led to him killing himself in the back room of the store. The film’s commentary on working conditions, Korean society, and, basically, the different struggles that normal people go through with their life is a really interesting and well thought out movie. Even though it may be a struggle to keep up with everything that goes on throughout the film, it is definitely worth the effort because there is a lot you could take away from watching this film.

Honestly. So. Lost.

This Korean drama will have you saying (pardon my french). WTF, at just about every scene. It was another eclectic film that does have a deeper meaning (which I get into more later). Other than the weird butt poo happening, I enjoyed the move because of how korean drama films are known to grip and captivate the hearts of their viewers around the world. And Futureless Thing does not drift away from this stereotype at all. This film tackles the current state of modern urban living in South Korea as it is set almost entirely in a convenience store and zooming in on the shifts the workers cover each day. Convenience stores are such a staple in South Korea which makes it even more relatable to the audience. The film does a great job in balancing between the typical art house flick and a relaxing comical movie whose sole goal is to entertain. The humor in this movie is one of its highlights, as it shows the idiosyncrasies in Korean culture. What makes this comedy just something out of this world, though, isn’t just the many different characters and the different situations each of them get into through how they interact with one another, but most of all the scathin socio-criticism that lies beneath the surface. This makes it so that for one to truly understand the depth of the humor, they would have to be familiar with Korean society in order to get all the references. The movie also utilizes the use of music very well, which allows viewers to be fully immersed in the movie. Overall, Futureless things is more than just a comedy with outstanding humor, but the drama and the problems in Korean society depicted by the film make it a highly impressive move that will stick with any viewer for a very long time.

At first glance, I’d say Futureless Things is just a simple film. There’s nothing interesting or unique about it. It’s more of like a documentary about the day to day work and encounters of different workers in a convenience store during their shifts with a really sad ending about the owner. However, if I look closely and actually focus on the subtle imagery and themes, I’d realize there’s more to it. This was hard for me because after researching about the film, it turns out most of the themes in the film were about Korean culture. So, since I’m not Korean, it wasn’t easy to get.

The main characters in the film were the clerks working for the convenience store. It is very much likely that these characters are the ones being referred to by the title as “Futureless Things”. It could be a reach but it could mean that these workers are used merely as objects or tools by the companies that own these convenience stores to work for them. They could easily be replaced by someone else who needs the job, which could explain the ‘futureless’ part. Some of the characters are even shown in the film looking or applying for other jobs, or are clearly yearning for something else and not a job as a clerk. For example, there was a guy who was practicing for his acting auditions.

Of all places, why is it set in a convenience store and not somewhere else? This is interesting because all throughout the movie, the location never changed. If the goal of the cast was to set the scene wherein everyone with different beliefs, hopes, and dreams come together to collectively present the varying culture in Korea, then a convenience store is the perfect place. Anyone and everyone can come in and out of a convenience store.

A lot of themes or issues in Korea are also presented in the film. Some of them are racism, language/(il)literacy, plastic surgery, and religious diversity. A girl, who used to live in North Korea but is now a South Korean citizen, was working as a clerk in the convenience store peacefully until one rude customer noticed her thick North Korean accent. She was harassed sexually and verbally by the said customer. He only left when she threatened to call the police. Another clerk was also presented as someone who didn’t know how to speak English. He tried so hard learning and practicing it with the customers who only found it offensive or rude. Plastic surgery was also shown through an Arabic-looking woman with a bandage on her nose. She, then, showed the clerk a picture of a South Korean girl that she wants to look like. Lastly, there was a guy who tried every single religious practice there is just to get lucky in the lottery scratch and win game. After he left, a guy who wanted to introduce the ‘right’ Jesus arrived, and then, another guy who only talked about Philosophy and nothing else.

Futureless Things was honestly a very interesting movie for me. Regardless if I understood the flow of the whole movie or the connection of each and every one of the scenes or characters, I still enjoyed focusing on the different underlying themes and issues related to the Korean culture. I’m hoping a movie like this will be made again but about the Filipino culture if there’s none yet.

Convenience stores have become part of Koreans’ lives over the last 25 years. In 2012, their number reached around 24,000 in Korea, which meant that there is one convenience store for every 2,000 Koreans. Korea even has a higher number of convenience stores compared to US, where this store originated, and Japan and Taiwan, which are considered as convenience store paradises. In the movie Futureless Things (2014), the director was able to deliver a message through the setting—the convenience store, and several symbols that mirror the different themes of the movie.

The convenience store is the perfect setting for the film for it symbolizes the presence of the intersection of the different aspects in everyone’s life. Here, anyone can go in and out. It is one of the most basic things that is embedded in every Korean’s culture. Furthermore, it acts as a melting pot of different people with varying hopes, dreams and religions. It is like a grounded blank space of some sort that even when you look at the workers, they have different desires. Aside from being employees, they also have different distinct characteristics: gay and lesbian couples, aspiring actor, aspiring English speaker, to name a few. If the movie is set in a different place like an office, for example, there are certain structures and stereotypes which may pertain to predetermined roles, unlike in the convenience store where the characterization remains unpredictable. In addition, since it is small and enclosed, viewers are able to see everything—that each person is caught up in different kinds of stories and identities. Even conflicts are observed because there lacks the element of boundaries or limitations, just like the couple who was fighting just because of the flavor of the condom that they were trying to look for. Its transitory nature becomes a good convergence for all these different people with their own stories already set. It is able to satirize the common interactions between social classes, and it cuts through race, class, gender, nationality, sexual orientation and political affiliation.

In the whole duration of the movie, it can also be observed that there were a lot of references to the Korean culture that we are not fully aware of. In fact, they have used different symbols to show tidbits of Korean culture. One of the symbols used in the movie is lottery. This symbolized the frequent gambling in the Korean society. In the movie, the customer did not only turn to God, but also recited the Buddhist mantra to be able to pocket the jackpot prize. This particular symbol is just one of the other imagery used to show the different themes of movie.

Furthermore, the movie was also successful in making the clock as a transition device to further create an intertwined story at the end. In the movie, just when we think that we are trying to get to know more about the character, we get cut off by the clock. After this, we see another employee who is not related to the other one. What is the clock for? At the beginning, one may observe that the scenes seemed like they weren’t in order or that they don’t fit together. The narrative is not in a chronological order, but viewers become aware where and when they are in the shop within the twelve-hour timeframe because of this clock. Every time the clock is shown, another convenience store employee takes on his/her shift. The clock made it seem that although there are different employees, their stories are still intertwined. Aside from showing a day in a life of an employee, the clock may also symbolize a feeling of time pressure—that time is running out. Evidently, time has ran out for one of the characters as seen in the suicide incident in the ending of the movie.

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.

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.

At first glance, Futureless Things seems like a light movie, but after watching three movies in this class, I should have expected a twist. At first, it has a little sweet romance in the beginning in the movie, and slowly, we see the pattern that the movie is structured in a way that a store clerk leads a mini-story. These mini-stories then all connect together that affect the main story of the movie.

This movie also tackles a couple of themes or issues that are prevalent in the Korean culture.

Racism

Currently, there exists an unspoken racism in South Korea against North Koreans. Koreans make up 96% of the country, making them one of the least diverse countries. Since they have limited interactions with other ethnicities, this could explain the discrimination that they practice.

This was depicted in the movie when a homeless man was harassing the store clerk (Min-hee). The store clerk is ethnically North Korean but became a South Korean citizen. The homeless man discriminated Min-hee in different ways:

1. He used the North Korean accent on the store clerk.

2. When the man wasn’t able to pay for the remaining 10 cents, he even called her “commies” and told her to “tell that guy Kim Jong Un (who is the current leader of North Korea) to pay it back.”

3. After a while, he came back to the store and frantically started grabbing items from the store. When asked by the North Korean store clerk, the man said that North Korea is firing a nuclear missile. He was worried that when war broke out, South Koreans would be wiped out, innocent people would be killed, and women would get raped. It was quite obvious at this point that it wasn’t true at all.

Despite the store clerk being a South Korean citizen, there still exists a discrimination against those who are of North Korean ethnicity.

This shows that even the beggar from South Korea thinks that North Koreans who are living decently are below him

Language/Literacy

In Korea, not many Koreans can speak English well. Being literate in English is a prestige because it signifies that the person is rich or well-educated.

English is taught in public schools but the best English speakers are those who can afford an education (usually abroad) that can teach them  how to speak in English well. It is very common in Korea for parents to send their children to another country to learn English.

As seen in Ki-Sun’s part, he is trying to learn English during store hours. He was caught by the store owner and reprimanded him how store hours shouldn’t be used to learn English.

Ki-Sun was also discriminated by one of the customers from the store. The mother and her daughter came into the store speaking in English, but when he tried to talk to them in English, they ignored him instead of replying. When the mother was going to pay, she talked to him in Korean, knowing well enough that the clerk tried to talk to her in English.

There is a discrimination in Korea against those who are not capable of speaking in English well.

Plastic Surgery Culture

Plastic surgery has become a culture in Korea. It is very common for women to enhance a certain part on their face.

This was shown in the movie in 2 different parts.

First, it was during Sung-joon’s (the DJ) part. We can see how the woman was looking for food that has the least calories or at least food with calories that is below a certain calorie amount. After a few while, she came back and started grabbing anything her eye can see.

The second time this theme was tackled was in Ki-Sun’s (the person trying to learn English during store hours) part. 3 women who were wearing hijab came to the store. One woman removed a part of her hijab, showing how she recently underwent a nose surgery, and asked Ki-Sun whether she looked like a Korean celebrity.

These scenes show how there is an obsession to look like a Korean idol. A Korean idol is typically skinny, fair-skinned, has a small nose, double-eyelids and a prominent jaw.

Diversity of Religion

In Hyun-soo’s (actor) part, we encountered a man who buys a lottery ticket and does all kinds of prayers before scratching it. Everytime he wins, he makes use of his winnings to buy another lottery ticket. He turns to different gods for them to bless him with a win. But when he stopped buying tickets, he neglected the paraphernalia he used to pray to different gods. He only turns to a religion when he needs something in return.

The third man the Hyun-soo met was the typical door-to-door religious person we meet. We feel compelled to listen to them out of respect for their religion.

The last person however, has an interesting outlook at religion. He makes use of philosophy of religion to tell Hyun-soo what cigarette he wants to buy.

There is an equal distribution of the major religions in Korea. They are able to coexist with each other. Any religion is widely accepted. According to korea.net, Korea is a country where all the world’s major religions, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam, peacefully coexist with shamanism.

A lesbian couple, a gambler, an out-of-school youth, a mysterious woman with magical powers and a North Korean escapee – these were just some of the characters that built the weird and surreal plot of Kim Kyung-mook’s third feature film, Futureless Things (2014). I was extremely excited to watch this particular movie because of my fascination with Korean culture and media, and I was pleasantly surprised with how different it was compared to the mainstream stuff that I usually consume and enjoy. The humor covers a wide range of blunt to dark to just plain dumb, and it does a great job of making fun of the characters and their issues without reducing them down to their Korean cultural stereotypes. The plot itself is made up of a bunch of subplots that feature different characters that don’t seem to be connected in any way. There is no obvious unified narrative, but that doesn’t stop you from trying to figure out what all the characters – who cross paths in one way or another  – have in common. The fact that all the events happen in the same small convenience store immediately set me off trying to find clues that might tie it all up together. Why a convenience store? What was so important about it that the whole movie had to be set there? It was the one question that I couldn’t avoid. Looking back, I realize that the setting of such an ordinary, seemingly boring place where anyone from anywhere could come in was a great way to emphasize the futureless-ness of the individuals in the film. Despite coming from different backgrounds, they all seemed to be pining for one thing, and these things were perfectly common, normal things to desire. That could have been the one unifying factor for all them – the fact that they wanted something better.

The title of the movie itself lends a hand in further understanding the situations of all the characters. While they may not really know each other all that well, they do all work in the same place and have a handful of similar experiences, the main being employees at the convenience store. They don’t really have much of a choice in most cases and are forced to stick with their jobs until further notice. They are stripped of their agency and cannot act nearly as freely as they’d like, making them more akin to being used as “things” instead of actual people. This sad reality is something that most of them seem to have been enduring since before the events of the movie started, and it makes you wonder if it’ll ever be any different. They continue to wish for something better, but the hopelessness of the characters about their own lives and the discontinuity of the subplots seem to point to something futureless instead.

Personally, I’m not a fan of leaving loose ends untied. I don’t like not knowing or having at least a suggestion of what might happen in the end. Futureless Things stays true to its title by leaving its audience completely puzzled as to how and why everything was connected somehow. As much as I tried to find some sort of explanation for all the random people fading into the screen and dancing while flashing creepy smiles at the camera, I really couldn’t figure it out. I guess we’ll never really know what happens to any of them in the future. Maybe they themselves don’t know either.  

Futureless Things (2014) was not the film I was expecting it to be. Within the first ten minutes or so, I mistakenly thought I had grasped what seemed to be a simple plot about young love. It was initially quite difficult for me to understand that the film contained several different narratives, following an episodic structure. Although these narratives intertwined, and were grounded in the fact that all scenes occurred in and around the convenience store, they remained independent of each other.

Choosing a convenience store as the main setting gave the filmmaker an opportunity to present us with an odd, mishmashed cast of characters. After all, a convenience store does not discriminate based on age, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. If you come into a convenience store, more often than not, you need something specific, whether it be a bottle of water, a pack of cigarettes, or a strange package that has the ability to talk to you – however, there’s not much to do once you’ve accomplished your task. Although the moments we spent with each group of characters were fleeting, they were impactful nonetheless. We saw the gambler who prayed to many different Gods, the North Korean clerk being harassed by a customer, the aspiring actor trying to make it to his casting call, and many more. I enjoyed the different comedic forms that the director experimented with – although it may be argued that the film is inconsistent, I found each and every “episode” refreshing.

I’ve recently become fascinated with K-Pop and K-Dramas, but I’m no expert on Korean culture, therefore making it impossible for me to pick up on all the social commentary embedded in the film. However, one of my particular favorite scenes was the interaction between the clerk and the English-speaking mother and daughter. It reminded me of the Philippines in the sense that there is a certain prestige attached to people who can speak and understand English. Even if you’re in your own country, you’re expected to adjust to English-speakers instead of the other way around. This is also evident in the way that the clerk was learning English on his shift and trying his absolute best to converse with the Middle Eastern women by using the sentences he had learned by listening to his tape.

There is a transitory nature to being a shop assistant – most of the protagonists we saw were working part-time as they pursued a better future and a bigger dream. Their futures are uncertain, but there is a glimmer of hope that they won’t be working at a convenience store forever. These people would definitely abandon their shop clerk jobs immediately after a better opportunity presented itself. Even the customers themselves float in and out of the store. Their presence is transient. However, the convenience store remains a constant in the life of its franchiser – he was buried in debt, could barely keep the business running smoothly, and was placed under constant evaluation by his superiors. Crushed under the weight of this responsibility, he eventually commits suicide.

Futureless Things started normally. Really, really normal. I honestly really wished it was just a normal gay movie. And it would’ve been great for me. But it didn’t and it honestly reminded me of Schizopolis – a bunch of mini-stories rolled into one film without giving so much consideration to the cohesiveness of each part.

Futureless Things showed the life in a convenience store, all the things that (can) happen. The film spanned through different shifts with different clerks and (types of) customers. Some are your typical customers, some borderline weird, and some are just utterly otherworldly.

While one might wonder why the filmmakers chose to use as a convenience store as the film’s main setting, a convenience doesn’t necessarily give off the best vibes in the first place. A convenience store primarily thrives on the idea that people have no time to do some decent shopping. Honestly, convenience stores look like just some institutionalized version of provincial sari-sari stores with capitalists at the helm.

One of the things that got me in the film was that it featured two LGBT couples. And, truth be told, I was initially excited to watch this movie after watching that clip of Ki-Chul and his boyfriend kissing on YouTube. It surely got my hopes up that this would be a gay movie.

One of the things I was able to totally relate was the part wherein someone was praying to all the gods known to mankind whilst trying his luck at the lottery. Then shop clerk’s is visible. He was supposed to be in some other place instead of that convenience store. Despite telling his boss that he had to leave early, his boss simply keeps him ignored and effectively wasting his time. By that time he was able to get out, the allotted audition time for him had already lapsed and he had already missed his chance. And, for his case, it was a rare chance.

One weird thing in the movie was the “cool” guy, the box, and the woman. Nothing was explained in that scene, not before, during, nor after. And, up to this point, I’m still confused as to how or why it happened beyond what was simply shown during that part’s runtime.

Maybe, the most futureless about this movie was at the part of the store owner. No one knew that the store had been performing on the red except for the owner. He tried to keep his business afloat but, ultimately, his property was seized by law enforcers. What was so futureless about him? It is that he literally chose to let go of all the possibilities left for him. He committed suicide. And that was such a dark part of the movie.

The last part of the movie wherein they were dancing makes it such an anticlimactic ending for me. It reminds me of all the typical Filipino-film ending wherein there’s a gathering of the cast and they all just dance and it really serves no value for me. It’s probably one of the worst ways to end a movie for me. But, aside from that, there was literally nothing in the movie that ties all of the stories together aside from the convenience store?