Overflowing with smart ideas, „Guitar in the Bucket” is a dystopian take on the consumer culture and capitalism. In the film's world everything can be monetised and turned into a service. In an image that keeps being used repeatedly, goods and humans flow out of vending machines to provide the most abstract services. You can hire someone to be your walking partner (to be able to hold a conversation with them you will have to pay extra though). If you are not careful, and a random man makes you start laughing in a park, you may have to renumerate him too. And if you want to go to Dream Town and follow your greatest fantasies: well, you would have to have a truckload of coins prepared for that as well.
“Guitar in the Bucket” is screening at ShortShorts
The characters of “Guitar in the Bucket” move through the grey world zombie-like. They are lacking in agency, and there seems to be little hope for their dreams about the future. The director, Kim Bu-young, smartly uses slapstick humour to undercut the seriousness which would otherwise ooze from the film. Despite that, “Guitar in the Bucket” seems a bit too static in its treatment of the overarching themes. It happens so because the nameless protagonist wanders through the city without a clear aim, other than making money to fulfil her dreams of becoming a guitar player. Short vignettes we are witnessing contribute to the world-building, but offer little insight into how the main character is going to achieve her goal or breakaway from the futile cycle. The film does not conclude in a way that offers a challenge to the established status quo. In “Guitar in the Bucket” enslavement to the free-market dictum is here to stay.
The bleak outlook on the capitalist reality is further communicated through the imagery of “Guitar in the Bucket”. Minimalist animation relies on a colour palette consisting of greys, yellows and greens. Character design is devoid of detail, as the film's world seems to be inhabited by thousands of doppelgängers. This, of course, contributes to the overall feeling of malaise and futility. Access to dreams is refused to the protagonist in a visual way too: her life is literally colourless and monotonous, with days spent in a grim reality that offers no room for change.
