WILD BOARS RUN AMOK: THE 2010 NY ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

by David Wilentz

(Beginning is omissioned)

Korea delivers what could be the most depressing film of the whole line-up, Animal Town. Exposition is exchanged for a brooding, moody atmosphere as a story of an ex-con trying to reform is paralleled with that of a gloomy man who owns a printing company. We gradually learn the horrible truths about each man’s existence and their connection. Animal Town recalls Fassbinder’s Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? Deliberate, real-time chronicles of each man’s quotidian lifestyle and shocking moments of violence elicit the pure dread that plagues the two main characters. Beneath it all lays a subtext of dire economic strife. When the ex-con can barely get enough work at his construction job he becomes a cab driver, where he is told business for cabbies these days is pretty dry. While a film like Chaw takes a pessimistic look at society, Animal Town’s bleakness is devastating.

http://brooklynrail.org/2010/06/film/wild-boars-run-amok-the-2o1o-ny-asian-film-festival