If they really came to our planet one day, what would they do? Attack? Mingle? Body-snatch? Do a sight-seeing tour, or apply for their residence permits and settle down? To put in other words: what would we do, if they were already here but largely ignoring us? In Jude Chun's offbeat sci-fi comedy/ drama with musical elements “Unidentified”, the aliens are seemingly doing just that. They have been parked in the skies since 1993, with no intention to descend. No one knows what they are up to, and if they are up to anything at all.
Unidentified is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
People are coming up with their theories and ‘experiences' – some claiming of having met the visitors. Confessions in German, Hungarian, Turkish, Khmer, French, Yoruba, Polish, Japanese and Korean are heard, the eccentrics talking about their encounters of the third kind. A cellist performs his composition from another world, and a twentysomething man is telling how he was an astronaut flying from planet to planet. As it turns out, they are not the only ones pondering about the other life. Aliens are among people, plagued by the same existential questions as an average human, but not into inventing scenarios to get their answers.
Ironic when it should, “Unidentified” is an exploration of millennial herzschmerz and the generational sense of forlornness, confusion and angst about the current state of things. It is mocking the denialists of the obvious, and the blind faith in theories, at the same time mourning the destruction of our eco-system.There are no generations younger or older in the film, they are hidden in the corners of Seoul, uninvolved in the plot. The legacy of previous generations is scrutinized through the selection of material. Find footage blends in, showing animals in their natural habitats threatened by pollution and natural catastrophes. When we see the city streets overflowing with garbage, it's the millennials who come to collect it and dispose of it in a proper manner. “It is not easy to find a place to call home in this universe” says a millennial man at the very end of the film while taking photographs during a trip on his motorbike. He is the alter ego of writer/ director Jude Chun who is shortly after seen behind the lense of his Sony camera.
Another young man is walking the streets of Seoul with a sandwich board stating that UFO's are not real. The giant spaceship above his head is obviously not a proof enough, and one can only presume what kind of wild theories are hiding in his head. Chemtrails, CIA, the God lizard… We've heard it all since the beginning of 2020: the conspiracy theories coming from every person with too much time on their hands and an access to the internet, googling for information from inconvential thinkers, as they love to be called. In fact, aliens are also having their doubts about the origin of chaos. Two of them (Hyoin Kim & Hohyeon Jeon) are wildly discussing why they forefathers had boarded the Earth in the first place. Their theories are diametrically opposed. At the end of the day, everyone feels alien, the earthlings and the visitors alike. It's comforting to see that the extraterrestrials have the same awkward dating situations and their political arguments, each screaming their own truth. They also have their rituals which are performed
With spaceships hovering above their heads, people continue going about their business. The only thing that is different is the skyline, and their suspicion that they also could be from another world. The alienation is a common denominator for both species. During its beaming 80 minutes of runtime, “Unidentified” tells more about the malaise of our modern consumerism-obsessed world and its consequences than many ‘to-be-taken-seriously' films.
The film has brought Best Cinematography Award at BendFilm Festival to Bae JIn Baek, a relative newcomer who was previously only behind the lens of Bason Beak's short “Headless” in 2022. His hand-held camera is barely every shaky, pacing with the actors in the same rhythm throughout the film. Original score by Noe Gonzales has it all – the unearthly lightness and the pressing burden of the earthly life. The special effects, done with modest means but nothing short of excellent are there to create that special feeling of detachment.
Screenings in Rotterdam have marked the film's European premiere.
