Oasiseu

The premise of this story challenges both of its romantic leads to use their bodies to convey the characters' emotions. Jong-du, played by Sol Kyung-gu, is an awkward ex-con whose older brother calls him immature but he seems a little crazy, or maybe mentally deficient. His family reluctantly helps him out, but he is an embarrassment and a nuisance to them.

Gong-ju (Moon So-ri) is a woman with cerebral palsy whose family is just as bad as Jong-du's. When Jong-du begins to visit her an odd relationship develops, with each bringing the other an acceptance and appreciation neither has felt before.

Moon So-ri's performance is so convincing I actually thought she had c.p. until a fantasy sequence showed what Gong-ju imagined herself doing if she were not disabled. But it's not just the contortions of c.p. that she portrays. She manages to show every possible emotion within the confines of c.p. spasms and she brings the character to life with a fully developed range of emotions and intellect.

Sol Kyung-gu's body language is just as effective, though his performance is easily overshadowed by Moon So-ri's. He is by turns menacing, sweet, dim-witted, shy, playful, inconsiderate and contrite, and most of this comes out through his body language.

I saw this movie with English subtitles, but the acting is so effective that you almost don't need to read them.

p.s. keep three hankies handy

I rated "Oasis" as a MUST SEE. Yes, it may be difficult to watch all those cerebral palsy twitching scenes, but focusing on the heart of the story, you shall appreciate as the story unfolds. It's an intriguing human drama needed to be told - to rouse the malaise and complacency of society. We are so prone to being judgmental of others, taking things for granted - we are actually quite full of it ourselves, thinking we are 'normal' while others - those who seem to us acting not to the 'norm' we see or feel, are labeled as 'queers' or 'misfits'. We can be so callous and literally 'blind' - not taking the time to pause, step back and see beyond the faces or empathize the possible feelings or needs liken to ourselves.

Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong's insightful film "Oasis" (2002), sensitively and sensibly gave us a chance to see the true state of being and what's possible between two persons that are socially shunned and dismissed as 'non-entity' to the everyday world we live in. Yet to Sol Kyung-gu's Jong-du (the "General") and Moon So-ri's Gong-ju (the "Princess" Your Highness), they created a world that they mutually shared - alone and together, unbeknownst to the community outside of their energized circle. The two of them are self-sufficient, contented within, appreciating every minute of being alive, gently nurturing and genuinely enjoying each other's company.

The two main actors delivered poignant performances of their characters. The writing by director Lee essentially facilitated the core drama. Actress Moon's portrayal of her character is astounding - brings to mind Daniel Day-Lewis' gut-wrenching performance in Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot" (1989). Director Lee cleverly introduced segments where we see Moon's Gong-ju standing up, dancing around, singing and smiling in a non-spastic state. Such imagination is at once endearing and poetic, allowing us relief and pauses to entertain such thoughts along with her. Sol is just as amazing - beguilingly effortless in his portrayal of a simple-minded man (childlike if you will) yet entangled complexity reveals as family 'secrets' are picked up through the translations (thanks to subtitles by Tony Rayns - certainly provided clues to verbal interactions and plot progression). One wonders if Jong-du's three prior charges were somehow family 'endowed', conveniently using him since he doesn't care much one way or the other. Simple-minded he may be, uncomplicated by guilt, he is basically a kind-hearted and caring person. Subtle and simplistic, it takes talent and restraint to deliver this character, and Sol brilliantly complements Moon's Gong-ju. An unnerving powerful pairing.

There are sprinkled humor and we would smile and be just as delighted as the two of them. We get to see more clearly than the other people in the story: family members, neighbors, restaurant owners/customers, policemen/detectives. We feel the frustration when Gong-ju tried to express her side of the story - conveniently dismissed as part of her twitching agony. We worry for Jong-du when he doesn't speak up - then again who in the society's mind would believe a 'misfit'. We felt the helplessness - yet Lee ingeniously provided a logical and satisfying plot turn, even if it takes yielding to imagination - but why ever not (it could very well be providential). Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from the two lovebirds: they are simple and content with themselves (without 'guilt' complex), gutsy and confident in their own way of communicating to each other (with exclusive personal word references) and clarity of purpose in the deeds they do (be it turning up the radio or being high up on a tree). They are happy in spite of what happens - knowing each would continue on with bright hopes and tender loving for each other in their hearts.

This is a worthwhile film embracing humanity. Life's too short to expend energy on being angry at others. It's human to make mistakes. If we gripe less and focus on the positive, reciprocate respect and kindness to each other, take the time to appreciate this world we live in - 'oases' we'd be in.

I get to see a Korean Movie now and then, and, even though i didnt understand a word of dialogue in this film, it was easy to tell what was going on. Oasis is the tale of a mentally disabled man who has recently been released from prison. Shortly after leaving, he attempts to rape a young physically disabled woman in her apartment. He comes to his senses, and apologizes later, and forms a powerful bond of understanding. while to most americans, Gong- Ju's fantasies might seem a little...odd (the dancing woman and the elephant is a perfect example,) it just goes to show that our cinema has lost most (if not all) heart. I would strongly urge anyone who is into Korean cinema to watch this film, it is a truly touching experience.

"Oasis" is the story of the relationship of a man imprisoned by his mind with a woman imprisoned by her body. That they establish a relationship comes as much because of their handicaps as in spite of them.

I knew before seeing the film that Moon So-ri was an able-bodied actress. As a result, at first I wasn't convinced she was playing someone with cerebral palsy. But Lee Chang-dong does a brilliant thing. He films several scenes that become the imaginings and fantasies of Gong-ju, Moon's character, as an able-bodied woman. This had the effect on me of seeing Gong-ju as disabled. And it spells out clearly that cerebral palsy is a physical condition not a mental one.

Sol Kyung-gu as Jong-du is perfect. I've been describing Jong-du as "simple-minded" to others but that doesn't pinpoint his mental condition. I might say he is carefree but it's not just an attitude; he is carefree to the point of mental illness. His condition makes him act both bad (he's been in prison three times) and good (he absolutely sees right through Gong-ju's handicap and truly comes to care for her). While Gong-ju is frustrated over her condition and how others use her it, Jong-du appears so utterly accepting of his fate that he doesn't even defend himself. I can't stop thinking about how Mr. Sol has played this interesting character.

Both Gong-ju's and Jong-du's families scorn and pity their conditions. But watch how they also come to exploit them as well.

I highly recommend this film.

The director had been known in Korea as a novelist before he started to make films. That must be the reason why his films give us always the impression that they are deeply literary much more than cinematic.

"Oasis" is a very literary film like his other films, but it also gives us the specific pleasure to watch movies by the imaginary scenes dreamed by a handicapped woman named Gong-ju, for instance. These scenes are sentimental, but they are incredibly beautiful and delicate (these pigeons and butterflies flying in her room, for example). And the scene where Gong-ju sings a song to another protagonist Jong-du must be one of the most beautiful scenes of "confession of love" ever depicted by a film. That is the moment, I am sure, when this film takes suddenly on the features of something sacred.

The director says this is a film about "border" as well as "communication." And in order to show the difficulty of communication and/or of going across the border, he tried to make Jong-du an abominable and disgusting person, especially at the beginning of the film. If you feel uncomfortable when you start to watch this film, you should consider that such discomfort was intentional even though the behaviors by Jong-du seem to be extremely violent and selfish. And you should also be patient until the "miraculous" moment of the "mutation" (from vulgarity to holiness) comes. You will certainly forget about the discomfort you had felt.

And this is naturally a film about Love. It shows us just "one of" the forms of love, should I probably say, since the one shown in this film is too special and peculiar, but still I am tempted to say: "This is the Love."

I though of "The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator" by Gustave Flaubert, but I do not know if I should expect that the protagonists would be called under the name of the "saints" or so. And I also remembered the heroine Sarah of "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene. Sarah writes in her diary, thinking of her lover named Maurice, with whom she had decided not to meet again because of the promise with God: "I'm not at peace any more. I just want him like I used to in the old days. I want to be eating sandwiches with him. I want to be drinking with him in a bar. I'm tired and I don't want any more pain. I want Maurice. I want ordinary corrupt human love."

Once swore to God to separate from his lover, Sarah wants him always, being full of desires and wanting "corrupt human love" even just before her death. She stayed secular and even vulgar until the end, even though the author must have wished to lead her to the path toward God. And that is just why Sarah, that miserable mortal, stays always in my mind.

Same thing for Gong-ju and Jong-du. Their happiness may exist in this real world full of prejudice and discrimination, where ugly desire or ordinary cheapness of human life smears them. But it may also give them pleasure to love, to help each other, and/or to share something precious between them. They do not need God, but they just need each other.

Nobody knows whether or not the future will congratulate them in the end, but probably, as did the director, should I leave them in the room of Gong-ju, where many dusts floating in the air are shimmering with the sunlight, and Gong-ju seems to be smiling, reading the letter from Jong-du. We don't know if they will be able to finish their story, but anyway, they have started it. Everything is now up to them.

10/10.