And Thereafter

DIR: Hosup Lee | USA/S. Korea | 2003 | 56min
In English and Korean with English subtitles.
Followed by Lest We Forget

SHOWTIMES:
Wed. Sept 29 | 10:00am | Pacific Cinematheque
Thur. Set. 30 | 6:00pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 5

Oy. I'm afraid this is going to sound a little more like a rant than my usual objective reviewer cool.

Each year at VIFF, i seem to gravitate towards at least one documentary about family dysfunction. Ironically, i was trying to stay away from that as a theme this year but found myself at And Thereafter anyhow. This documentary is ostensibly about a Korean war bride living in American (see, that's why i went). What you'll get if you decide to see it for yourself is a story of a Korean war bride living in America with her abusive husband Bill and (grown) children. Things were apparently pretty nice when the couple first married but devolved into a nightmare once Bill returned from a tour in Vietnam - climaxing, perhaps, with Bill trying to force his wife into adopting a hooker from Korea with him, then trying to have her committed. Wait - now that i've thought about it, worse was definitely still to come but i won't spoil that revelation.

Basically, And Thereafter is an hour of watching a woman, already isolated from the rest of society by language, poverty and lack of education, whose family seems to hate her. At least 6 specific points during the screening, i desperately wanted to leave but didn't, hoping there might be some glimmer of hope in the film. There are a couple of moments of tenderness that are surprising. Occasionally, the subtext of this woman's relationship to her husband emerges and one starts to grasp where the director might have taken this film had he not been so concerned with family dysfunction - Bill is obsessed with his glory days of military service and, at times, wants his wife to be grateful for what America did for (or to, depending on where you sit) her country Korea.

Though i wouldn't exactly recommend that people rush out to see this tomorrow night, i would like to have someone to talk to about this film. I didn't even get started on those bratty middle-aged children.