It seems the 1995 film “Kids” still sends ripples across the movie industry, with Lee Hwan implementing a similar approach for his movie about young adults, although the focus here seems to be more on the visuals and impression rather than context itself, while the influence of Kim Ki-duk is equally evident.
“Young Adult Matters” is available from Echelon Studios
High schooler Se-jin seems to be a kind of sociopath, since her reactions to what is happening in her life are minimal if any and her overall actions equally perplexing. Se-jin lives with her younger sister, and frequently spends her time slashing her arms and uploading the deed on Instagram feeds, something that has caused her to be intensely bullied in school. The one who bullies her, however, is Eun-jeong, a girl who also happens to be her lesbian lover who tortures her in school and then searches for her during the night to apologize and make up. Furthermore, Se-jin retains an erotic relationship with the principal's teacher son, Sang-seop, an affair that eventually leaves her pregnant. A freak accident of her bully/lover and the discovery of her pregnancy and subsequent harsh punishment of her lover causes her to leave her house in search for an abortion, in a series of events that still seem to leave her completely unfazed.
While on the street, she meets another runaway, Joo-yeong, and the two of them form a rather intense friendship, with the latter trying to protect the utterly innocent and naive Se-jin. Their interactions with a middle-aged man who proves to have one thing in his mind, brings them together with two more young misfits, Jae-pil and Sin-ji. The four of them try to raise enough money for Se-jin to get an abortion, including getting a job at a night club and signing up for medical testing, but their efforts end up in failure and even violence. As time passes, the pressure mounts.
Se-jin is a rather peculiar character. Her innocence seems completely unnatural, to the point that is difficult to understand why she is that way, if she is in the spectrum for example, of if her attitude is the result of some kind of shock in her life. Her suicidal tendencies, her promiscuousness which leads to relationships with people who seem to just exploit her, as both her initial lovers highlight, the fact that she does not understand the implications of being pregnant at such an age, all create a rather illogical portrait. That such a character is the center of the narrative creates the most significant issue for the film, as both her actions and the ones of the people around her occasionally seems rather inexplicable, in a style that seems to draw from the persona of Jesus and his relationship with his students.
At the same time, however, the adventures Se-jin and her friends experience also serve a distinct, frequently militant purpose, of criticizing all the major institutions that form the world of the grown-ups, in an approach that could be described as blasphemous on occasion. School, parents, religion (church) all get their share here, with the overwhelming majority of grown-ups in the movie presented as people willing to exploit the youth for their own, frequently despicable gain. At the same time however, the critique also includes the youths themselves, who seem to roam without their purpose inside their own lives, with the frustration emerging from the fact that they have no kind of guidance in their lives, eventually resulting in violence, with them being both the victims and the perpetrators on occasion.
This last aspect also fits one of Lee Hwan's purpose, to shock his audience, a goal he achieves a number of times, although his approach is intensely on the nose sometimes, to the point that some incidents look comic-book like, as in the freak accident of Eun-jeong. On the other hand, the scene where the four severe their ties permanently is rather impactful through its violence, also implementing a slight melodramatic element, that works quite well though.
Lee Hwan also wants to present elements of youth culture in S. Korea, and to do so, he has included a number of sequences filled with music, usually showing Se-jin roller skating in various locations, including the streets at night and the Han river during the day. Hip hop, trap and electronic sounds fill these scenes, which boast music video aesthetics while providing a much welcome relief from all the bleakness of the story. Furthermore, Kim Hyun-oc's cinematography finds one of its apogees in those scenes, as both the framing and the (neon) lighting are exquisite.
Lee Yoo-mi gives an intriguing performance as Se-jin, despite the fact that her character could have been written in better fashion. EXID Kpop star Hani is convincing as a kind of “bodyguard” type, with the violent scene close to the end being the apogee of her performance. Lee Hwan himself as Jae-pil is also quite good, with his interaction with the club manager, the scenes where he is unable to express his feelings for Se-jin and the moment he erupts being among the best in the movie, in a style much reminiscent of Kim Ki-duk's.
“Young Adult Matters” is quite messy in its narrative and its polemic occasionally seems not to have a specific target. At the same time, however, it is beautiful, intriguing, well acted and quite entertaining, and definitely deserves a watch on the big screen.
