The first Korean LGBTQ+ film to burst through the doors of movie theaters
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
Released in 2002, Road Movie is widely regarded as the first Korean gay film, which is only a partial truth. Even in the 1960s and 1970s, works were produced that raised the theme currently labeled as LGBTQ+ with varying degrees of caution, such as the unfortunately lost Jealousy (Han Hyung-mo, 1960), or The Pollen of Flowers (Ha Kil-jong, 1972) and Ascetic: Woman and Woman (Kim Su-hyeon, 1976). The 1990s, along with cultural liberation, then brought the breakthrough, primarily with the appearance of independent filmmakers. Thanks to them, films like Mascara (Lee Hoon, 1995), Broken Branches (Park Jae-ho, 1996), or the short film Everyday is Like Sunday (1997) by director Lee Song Hee-il—who would later direct No Regret—were made. While the earliest films were virtually ignored by the public, the subsequent ones remained within the boundaries of art-house cinemas or underground festivals. Road Movie was the first film to fully embrace the theme of male love with absolute conviction and bring it into official theatrical distribution. It did not beat around the bush; it practically "kicked the door down on movie theaters."
The basic concept and the first draft of the screenplay for
Road Movie originated
from writer-director Kim Dae-woo; the dark-toned love triangle of those pushed
to the margins of society and its execution as a road movie were his vision.
However, Sidus Production Studio approached Kim In-sik to direct, who had
spent six years in France for his film studies and had just returned home
around that time. During his stay in the West, he presumably adopted not only
a mindset significantly more open than the Korean one, but also—as the
finished film already testifies—the raw, naturalistic vision of the French New
Wave. This placed the emphasis on an open, almost documentary-like depiction
of the subject, as well as on real filming locations and natural light instead
of studios. Although in the case of
Road Movie, this was
also a necessity due to the lack of investors. Because of the meager budget,
the film was often shot using almost guerrilla methods in locations that
provided the opportunity: streets, underpasses, cheap lodgings, or an
abandoned beach, occasionally using only a handheld camera.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
Although the film starts in medias res with scenes of intense and rather rough filmmaking/lovemaking between two men, we later have to realize that among the main characters, there is actually not a single homosexual man; the one we would think is, turns out to be bisexual. The director and the actors are all heterosexual, and Director Kim—by his own admission—had very little knowledge about the situation and problems of gay people and communities. This somewhat explains why the story is much more about universal feelings of love, as well as questions of friendship and trust, rather than mapping out the specificities of homosexual relationships, if there are any such specificities at all.
In only two scenes of the film do we encounter sexual contact between men, both times depicted in a rather explicit manner. These scenes convey that the lovemaking can only happen occasionally, taking advantage of the arising situation, stealthily, and under undignified circumstances. Although the aforementioned opening scene is followed by a breakup, meaning a partnership preceded it, even the physical contact visible in it lacks any particular intimacy, not to mention closeness between two human beings. These scenes seem to reflect the main character, Dae-sik’s (Hwang Jung-min) image of himself, and it is as if animality mixes within it with guilt and self-hatred over the act. This depiction indirectly contains the condemning opinion of society, which Dae-sik probably applies to himself.
After the main titles, we meet the other protagonist of our story, whose life
is just being completely wiped out. Suk-won (Jung Chan), a broker, loses his
entire fortune and ends up on the street among the homeless. He cannot count
on his wife either, who lets him know that she wants no part of the hardships
that come with the situation. From his first suicide attempt, he is saved by
Dae-sik, who takes charge of the man who has sunk into apathy. Even though
Suk-won hopes for three different escape options in vain, all of them close
before him, so he wants to throw his life away again. Dae-sik then decides to
buy two train tickets, and with this, the "great journey" of the two men
begins. Before that, however, a thing or two still happens in Seoul.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
The film takes care that nothing is said in words that would be about the
ostracization of gay people. Dae-sik’s situation is spoken for by the settings
of his life and the things that happen to him. Even in the very middle of the
capital, we are walking on the margins of society. Dae-sik is the leader of
those living in the underpasses, whose lives are about free food and escaping
from homeless shelters. Director Kim is not afraid to submerge into these
bowels of the urban hell. The film allows enough room for a few homeless
individuals to receive individual faces, and we see the struggle for ownership
of the "home" designated by cardboard boxes. Despite the fellowship of fate,
there is very little solidarity; here, everyone fights for themselves. The
scene in which the men turn toward the wall of the underpass and pretend to be
deaf and blind to their female companion who is about to give birth is
terrifying. If this were not enough, Kim hands out a snub to society as well,
whose "respectable" members prefer to see broken homeless people in media
reports; therefore, the crew warns the destitute to behave accordingly. The
endless vulnerability is alarmingly shown by the scene of the motorcycle
thugs, in which the lives of the homeless are expendable for the sake of sick
entertainment.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
However, the train rescues our heroes from here, and the sequences that until
then were either black-and-white or merely seemed to be are replaced by the
vibrant colors of nature. True to the essence of a road movie, we remain
constantly in motion, only the vehicles change, and various traveling
companions tag along with the two men or vanish from their side. Sometimes we
arrive at a particular station, which further shades our image of our heroes'
situation and also represents the milestones of their changing emotional
relationship. The common point is always emptiness and hopelessness.
Everyone's life falls into nothingness: that of the dismissed Min-seok (Jung
Hyung-gi), the prostitute longing for a companion, Il-joo (Seo Lin), and
Suk-won, who turns to drugs; interestingly, Dae-sik appears to be the most
resilient among them in enduring the hardships.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
Our two protagonists eke out a living from casual labor that exceeds their
strength, at the mercy of employers, and end up in police lockups where
authorities either do not know what to do with them or beat them up based on
false accusations. Suk-won relies more and more on Dae-sik, who represents
survival for the man who has lost his purpose. For a segment of the journey,
their duo turns into a love triangle when the prostitute hired for money,
Il-joo (Seo Lin), falls in love with Dae-sik, thereby offering a chance at a
new life to the man, whose orientation and love for Suk-won she is fully aware
of.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
It is impossible to know which of them suffers a greater shock when
Dae-sik's sexual orientation is exposed to Suk-won. Dae-sik is terrified that
he can no longer remain by Suk-won's side. Suk-won does make an attempt to
break away, which proves to be short-lived. He tries to stay beside Il-joo,
who was pushed away by Dae-sik, but even sex does not work between them, so
shortly after, we see him by Dae-sik's side again. Although he does not allow
the man to come close to him—who suffers from this but respects his request
nonetheless.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
The turning point of the story is learning about Dae-sik's personal catastrophe. It turns out that he has a wife who loves him and a child who misses him, but he had to leave them due to his differences and must keep his identity a secret from the outside world. He collapses after a conversation with his son (who only suspects that the man is his father) because he is confronted with the kind of fate he condemns his own child to by being unable to fulfill even his most basic obligations by his side as a man. In Suk-won, pity for Dae-sik awakens for the first time, but he is incapable of anything more than that. Their paired loneliness slowly becomes unbearable; Suk-won begins a process of self-destruction until finally Dae-sik, in order to save him, helps him find a way back to the life he had before they met.
The film changes its backdrop once again at this point, with a stunning pictorial quality dominating its imagery. Having completely lost the meaning of his life by renouncing his love, Dae-sik, the former "mountain man," is now enclosed by massive, barren rock faces, among which he prepares to commit suicide.
Standing at the crossroads, Suk-won tears up the photograph reminiscent of
Dae-sik in vain; he still cannot board the bus, and instead heads back to the
quarry where he finds the dying man. Every frame of the film takes on a
metaphorical meaning. Suk-won lays Dae-sik onto a mound of salt in a
warehouse, which with its whiteness not only symbolizes purity but also
possesses a cleansing, evil-expelling power in Korean rituals, ensuring the
sanctity of the place. Dae-sik asks for permission to love Suk-won. In
response, the man goes out in front of the hut, strips naked in the pouring
rain, and performs a ritual washing. He will not become a gay man, but he
understands the sincerity of Dae-sik's feelings, beside whom he found
protection and safety. Therefore, he offers Dae-sik the one thing that only he
is capable of giving him. There is no longer any strength left for lovemaking,
but this way Dae-sik could at least finish his life in Suk-won's embrace. The
journey back still awaits Suk-won, and
Road Movie concludes
with the image of a highway vanishing into the infinite.
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| (Author’s screenshot from Road Movie.) |
Kim In-sik's film was a powerful opening gambit for the theme. It is a lean
work that dispenses with melodramatic devices, in which even the musical
accompaniment is minimal. It is characterized by a well-thought-out structure
and the drawing of a grand arc that brought the film from its
documentary-style beginning to its lyrically symbolic conclusion. By doing so,
it lifted the figure of the protagonist out of the filth, and we bid farewell
to him at the end of the film as a deeply feeling human being living a painful
life.
How was the film received? Curiously enough, in a dual
manner. The viewing public was caught unprepared by what they saw; hence, the
film was a massive flop, financially as well. Many walked out of the movie
theaters, while the more conservative ones reacted with protests and boycotts.
At the same time, the Korean film profession stood mesmerized by the greatness
of the film, and the international film community celebrated it for its
audacity, with which it undisguisedly exposed the tragic reality. A veritable
downpour of domestic and international awards rained down upon both the film
and the main protagonist.
In connection with the film, an interview was conducted with director Kim In-sik, the English translation of which can be read here.
In it, the director mentions how difficult it was to find suitable cast members for the film. In the end, the characters of Road Movie—similar to the films with identical themes produced in the following years—were taken on by young actors who were still considered beginners in their careers, of whom it might be difficult to imagine today just how great a risk they exposed their careers to with this decision. Hwang Jung-min and Jung Chan, however, were not only brave but also highly talented, so both delivered magnificent performances. Since Hwang Jung-min is the doyen of actors today, the second member of the "100-million admissions" club, it is exciting to see what a mature character portrayal he was capable of even in this early role. The peculiar blend of raw power and emotionality radiating from his acting is particularly captivating. It is true for both the film and the protagonist that if it is not a diamond in the rough, it is certainly a black granite that shines even in its roughness.
In reality, the wave of comings-out in the Korean entertainment industry began
during these years, with Hong Suk-chun being the first to publicly acknowledge
his orientation in September 2000. An interview with the actor regarding the
consequences can also be found in the magazine, which complements and supports
the importance of
Road Movie's creation.
SOUTH KOREA | KIM IN-SIK (김인식) | ROAD MOVIE (로드무비) | 2002 | 111 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | B&W/COLOR
For those interested in the topic, I recommend reading my article on Sad Temptation, a two-part drama presented three years earlier by KBS television.
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