Walking at Night: to be gone and forgotten
Walking at Night is one segment/story from a South Korean anthology web series titled Persona, released on Netflix on 2019. Persona as quoted from their description is an exploration of different personas in an eclectic collection of four works by critically acclaimed Korean directors. There are four episodes with different stories in the series and each episode is less than 30 minutes long.
The first time I heard about the series, I remember wanting to watch it immediately. One of the reasons is obviously that its main cast, Lee Ji-Eun- widely known as IU, South Korean super talented singer-songwriter-actress who has been in the industry for more than ten years. But then, of course, me being a procrastinator, didn’t watch it until 4 or 5 months after it was released. The first episode was alright, but I remember I had to stop watching the second episode because it was too “bloody”. And just like that, I don’t finish the whole series until a few weeks ago.
Walking at Night is the last episode of the series, and it was stuck in my head for a good amount of time. The piece is written and directed by South Korean film director and screenwriter Kim Jong-Kwan. Kim Jong-Kwan wrote an intriguing story of a man and a woman on their evening stroll, reminiscing their past, and having a deep conversation about dreams and death. The 20 minutes long short movie is beautifully shot and presented in the best way possible: black and white.
Now, stop here if you don’t want any spoiler.
The movie starts with the sounds of insects chirping and wind blowing, a perfect rendition of hot summer days. A man and a woman are seen in the frame, walking side by side, as she starts to talk about her sister’s death. The man was upset because of the topic she brought up and later remembered that in fact she too had died. He cried, mourning the death of his lover. The two continued their walk as they revisited places from their memory. They were walking while holding their hand as they walked through the streets and soon the man realized that they were in a dream.
Two lovers separated by death, reunited through a dream. His dead lover came to see him once before she disappears completely, although she knew he will forget everything once he woke up. They revisited the restaurant they used to go to, sat across from each other, and had a conversation. And that’s when they talked about why she killed herself. The man was mumbling to himself and trying to remember the reason so he does not forget after he woke up. She tried to convince him that it was not his fault, to which he replied “I will keep blaming myself until the day I die.”
I love how the movie is in black and white. The simple visual allows me to focus more on the dialogue and the emotion conveyed by the characters, also the sounds of the surrounding made the overall setting feels a lot more realistic. The music and the lighting in the movies also play a big part in the movie. In the scene where the man realized that they were in his dream, the lights dimmed and the music stopped, turning them into two silhouettes and a complete silence just before they speak as if the dream was perfectly made for them.
The premise of the movie might look simple, a mere conversation between two lovers. But there are many thought-provoking dialogues on love, life, and death. After I watched the movie I think a lot about loss — losing a loved one, loneliness that kills, and both dreams and death that are slowly disappearing from our memory as if it’s meant to be forgotten. Nothing lasts forever.
At the end of the movie both of them hug and hold each other dearly, knowing that their time together will end. Everything was gone as she said goodbye, leaving nothing but the night.
Hakone, 19 Mei 2020
