CRITIQUE – For his first film, Koya Kamura adapts the novel by Elisa Shua Dusapin and demonstrates impressive maturity to describe the fragile bond between two beings.
Lemon sole, cuttlefish, octopus or fugu, deadly if not prepared properly, fish is everywhere in Sokcho, a coastal city in the far northeast of South Korea, no far from the border. On the market stalls, where Soo-ha's mother works. In the plates, prepared in particular in the kitchens of the modest hotel where Soo-ha is the only employee (Bella Kim, a revelation). In language, a metaphor served in all sauces: « Time is merciless, it slips like a loach through the fingers », « with its round head, it looks like a fugu ». Or even « the French are beautiful. We look at them with eyes wide open, mouths agape, like a fish in front of a piece of zucchini. », said the mother. In the past, she loved a Frenchman passing through Sokcho. He is Soo-ha's father but he never knew it, returning to France before the pregnancy. At least that's the official version.
Soo-ha sought to get closer to this unknown father by studying French. And the arrival of a Frenchman gives him the opportunity to speak this foreign and familiar language at the same time. A French fantasy, a fantasy father. Yan Kerrand, comic strip artist, has the features of Roschdy Zem. Beautiful face, six-day beard, warm voice, tall figure. He plans to stay for a few days or a few weeks. She gives him a tiny, monastic room in the annex to the pension.
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A hole in the partition allows him to observe this solitary traveler with ink-stained fingers. Google tells him that he is a renowned artist, somewhat in crisis of inspiration. Soo-ha abandons her boyfriend, obsessed with the idea of leaving the grayness of Sokcho to join Seoul and pursue a career as a model.
Dreamlike escapes or inner visions
She serves as Kerrand's guide in the demilitarized zone which separates the two Koreas, takes him to dinner in a restaurant, shows him how to hold his chopsticks. She could be his daughter. Or his girlfriend. Kerrand, too rude, too hasty, too absorbed in his work, refuses to taste Soo-ha's dishes. Even the beef bourguignon that she cooks for him cools on her landing.
For his first feature film, based on the novel by Elisa Shua Dusapin, Koya Kamura films with impressive maturity the fragile bond between these two beings. No doubt because dual culture is not something theoretical for him – he is Franco-Japanese. And in front of his camera, Sokcho, a seaside town under the snow, is not just a graphic landscape. Soo-ha is a body in winter, numb, hidden under shapeless clothes. The animated sequences of Agnès Patron, dreamlike escapes or interior visions, represent most of the women gironde, fleshy buttocks and opulent breasts, without us knowing if they are monstrous or fantastic.
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There is also this guest at the boarding house with her face covered in bandages behind her dark glasses. She looks like H. G. Wells' Invisible Man. We will learn that she underwent cosmetic surgery. A very widespread phenomenon in South Korea, where women in particular have to fight against terrible pressure on physical beauty. Soo-ha still resists, like a little girl who refuses to grow up, or like a woman who chooses to live her life.
The note of Figaro : 3/4
