Hae-pi-ppeo-seu-de-i

I stumbled upon the 2017 South Korean comedy drama "Happy Bus Day" in 2021. I had not heard about it before, but of course I sat down to watch it, as I hadn't already seen it before.

Now, as I had never heard about the movie, I wasn't really sure what I was in for here, nor what to expect from director Seung-Won Lee.

But let me just say that while "Happy Bus Day" is a very offbeat and different movie from what you'd otherwise see in the same genre, then "Happy Bus Day" was really a remarkable and memorable movie. Now, I will say, however, that the bizarre storyline here might not be suitable or entertaining just as easily for everyone in the audience, as it can be somewhat of an acquired taste. I did, however, enjoy it.

The storyline in "Happy Bus Day" is about a very dysfunctional family that comes together for a family reunion that is not solely based on the enjoyment of getting together with loved ones, but also to end the life of a family member.

But actually the storyline told in "Happy Bus Day" is not one that would be given justice with written words only. Nay, this is a movie that has to be seen in order to be fully and properly taken in.

There were several factors that made "Happy Bus Day" memorable and enjoyable for me. Not only the storyline alone, but also the character gallery. Let me just say that the characters in "Happy Bus Day" were very eccentric and offbeat. Which made for some very detailed and memorable characters, and all likeable in their own ways and manners.

And they had managed to get together a great ensemble of actors and actresses to portray these offbeat characters on the screen. And the performers did so with excellent performances.

If you have the chance to sit down to watch "Happy Bus Day", then by all means do so. Because this movie was very, very unique and memorable. This was definitely a movie that took me by surprise. And I must admit that I actually wish to see another movie with these characters, because they were so richly detailed and portrayed on the screen.

My rating of Seung-Won Lee's 2017 movie "Happy Bus Day" lands on a very well-deserved seven out of ten stars. This is definitely a movie to keep an eye out for.

Beside its adequate home-video quality of the visual representation on the cruel family story, on top of the screaming off-screen sound that haunts all over the film's stage, the most impressive matter in "Happy Bus Day" is its alternative discourse that turns over the power relationship between the violence and its victim. The film's narrative emphasizes more on the active motivations and the tensions between different characters of the big family, where it therefore seemed not to be a place of oppression but a place with true agency of humanity that causes all the confrontation and violence.

Challenging the modernity discourse that used to deprive the power of victims by taking them over with the focus on suffering experience only, this film's narrative arrangement breaks up the absolute connection among the violence, the wound, and the victim with strong subjectivity of each character. Even though the sufferings as victims over violence can be an undeniable part of the story, the key of the film is still different characters' agency and the interactive complex among them all. With the deconstruction and reconstruction of the concept about violence, "Happy Bus Day" reaches into the questioning on the birth and the death of victimization, so as it creates the healing story of touching cruelty.