Camel(s) (2001) User Reviews

A rewarding film if you can find it

[nabokov-2 · 9/10 · 10 July 2003]

Hemingway said that for all good stories, only a small fraction of the issue is visible, like an iceberg, with the bulk of its real substance submerged beneath the surface. Such is the case with Park Ki-yong's truly excellent film Camel(s). Shot in digital black and white and transferred to 35mm, it tells the story of an isolated (one presumes) tryst between a middle-aged man and woman, in a tawdry seaside town (alas they never make it to the more idealized island they had planned on visiting). Details are deliberately scarce. We learn that both are married with middle-class jobs-he's an undertaker and she's a pharmacist-and that they met after the man filled a prescription for chronic headaches. Beyond this, they seem to have little history. The man is surprised when the woman knows his name (she recalls it from his insurance card) and it isn't until they're en route in his friend's borrowed car that the man learns the woman's name at all. Both principals give superbly understated performances, conveying the weariness, sorrow and neediness that are the apparent catalysts for their rendez-vous. Like camels, both the man and the woman seem to share a dromedary's capacity for suffering in silence (it's said that a camel's eyes are always wet). Most interesting in this film are the ways the lovers avoid real conversation-as if to forestall any potential entanglement-and the nuance with which Park Ki-yong depicts all the necessary but uncomfortable rituals that precede and supercede the couple's needy lovemaking. Ki-yong simplifies everything, yet portrays a startling complexity of submerged motive. Camel(s) is not for all tastes, but if one can endure this film's near-glacial pace, with long, static takes and minimal dialogue, the film makes for rewarding viewing, with a wealth of profundity and insight into the two camels of the title.

life is too short

[jboston-1 · 4/10 · 10 November 2005]

possible spoilers contained

even if the art-house crowd can convince themselves that there is something meritorious in this film i strongly refute it and suggest that life is way too short to sit through 90 minutes of this - the film could have been condensed into a 3 minute short and the same message would have come across - happiness while not guaranteed in arranged marriage is short-lived and ultimately doomed in adultery. the protagonists are uninteresting and under-developed, the long periods of protracted silence merely frustrate and the film's only positive (and it is not much of a redeeming feature) that i can find is the black and white cinematography

Sadly I didn't catch the whole movie,

[Atavisten · 9/10 · 9 April 2005]

but for atmosphere and realism this is about as good as it gets. Simply shot in black and white with (handheld?)cameras almost not moving at all and with very long scenes with no cuts. Its about adultery and the uncertainty and awkwardness around it. We get not only the adultery itself, but we get long sequences basically recording the silences and awkward conversation in between what they actually hunger for, the sex. We follow them like actually sitting in the room with them looking mute at them while they dine or while they drive. The ambiance it creates with so few clips and long sequences like this is very powerful and I can watch it hours on end. Movies not often make me sad, but this I could only take a few minutes of before I got wet in my eyes. It so intimate its real.