From the first films I saw by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, inserted in the aesthetics of Asian cinema of hyperviolence, to this 22-minute short, there is a leap to a jovial tone, although the theme of death and his magnificent visual style prevail. If "Oldboy" was urban, cruel and lethal like the present times, "Life Is But a Dream" is rural, gentle and vital like all past times that were probably better.
Produced by Apple and Moho Film, Park made this short with an iPhone 13 Pro. It tells the story of an undertaker (Yoo) who steals the coffin of an already dead swordsman (Park), to bury a warrior (Kim), in gratitude for the help that she gave to a community of peasants. But the swordsman's ghost is not willing to give up his box, much less when the ghost of the warrior appears. The two young people fight in a game of dominance and control, without missing a touch of coquetry and mutual admiration, which will have a happy resolution.
I already knew about the Mexicans, and now I feel happy to find another culture that sees death as an event worthy of celebration, that see the passage of the dead to another dimension as a liberating event, and not only as an occasion to mourn a dear one and cry for reamining alive without the dead person. Park uses cultural paraphernalias, icons and colors that make the film a celebration of the way South Korea views death. Admirable.
