Not once does this film give into popular conventions. And I love it for that.
Snowpiercer is a film by Bong Joon Ho, this was a film with clear classist values with sci-fi undertones. The director did an excellent job bringing to life his ambitious vision; inspired by a French graphic novel (I have not read it, therefore I will not compare it).
Earth has succumbed to the effects of global warming and in a last ditch effort, humans release a chemical cooling agent into the atmosphere, in hopes to delay the inevitable. This fails; and in turn throws the planet into another Ice Age ending civilization as we know it. The precious few that remain, live in a train, created by its deranged genius Wilford; empowered with the God complex, Wilford forcibly creates a caste system in which the poor suffer inhumane conditions while the rich survive blissfully at the front of the train.
Visceral and intense, the film’s momentum happens rather quickly, as the characters are introduced one after another. They are all in agreement that living in the back of the train sucks, and what’s the point of holding onto erroneous ideals of class when society as a whole has already been reduced to a precious few, why not smash the socioeconomic barrier and attempt to progress humanity beyond the train.
As the gritty violence unfurls and the revolution begins, a lot of violence ensues in a leisurely fashion. I say leisurely, for the survivors even take a break from fighting to ring in the new year, enjoy sushi, and observe a classroom. I really enjoyed this aspect of the movie for Bong Joon Ho plays off the ethos of the survivors. There’s no where else to go but backwards or forward and atop of that aspect, what real purpose is there in fighting, when there’s virtually nothing left to fight over. The tight quarters of the train impacts the environment of its characters effectively thus making the film less about being a sci-fi action thriller and more of an allegory on humanity’s destructive nature.
Ed Harris plays an offshoot of Conrad’s deranged “Mr. Kurtz” or depending on how you look at it; Coppola’s Col. Kurtz. As he is a genius engineer that built the train and eventually adopts a philosophical view that eventually develops into an insane God complex, obsessed with keeping everyone on the train, as he decides who lives and who dies.
Depending on how you look at it the train in the film can be viewed as a metaphor, for like society’s thought process; narrow and enclosed, the train in itself is narrow and enclosed as it trudges forward in a never ending loop, doomed to repeat the same steps over and over again.
Bong Joon Ho took on an immense task readying this film for the international market, and it’s a true testament to his skill as a director of which English is not the primary language, yet he was still able to direct a cast that is comprised of mostly English speaking Caucasians, and still make an effective sci-fi film.
a psychoanalysis of an oedipal relationship between kim hye-ja’s nameless Mother and won bin’s mentally-handicapped do-joon, mother is a movie that i unfortunately could not love as much as i wanted to. perhaps its because i’m not a fan of kim hye-ja’s over the top acting (the same reason why i stopped watching the light in your eyes), that a character film built around her was bound to bore and frustrate me with her shaky voice and breathing. the plot was actually predictable with plenty of tropes.
bong’s films are sometimes about post-traumatic castrated males, with a good dose of social ire and commentary. but not really in mother. mother centers around the twisted and overbearing relationship between mother and child, that found little resonance or empathy in me. it offered no critique of people’s attitudes to the intellectually disabled (a rather kind depiction actually), slight critique of the welfare support for single mothers, and more criticism for the bumbling detectives and forensics for clumsily resolving the murder (a trope that is tired and more effective in memories of murder).
unfortunately won bin’s acting could not come to the fore, jin goo was one-dimensionally constructed, the police incompetent (but we already knew that, right), the schoolgirls nubile (waiting for a bong film that undoes this), so all we’re left with at the heart is kim hye-ja’s unloveable character with an over the top acting style that i don’t appreciate. chun woo-hee was the standout for me. – 3/10
