Some
critics will reflexively compare this Korean relationship drama to that old HBO
show that ended its run a decade ago. However, the three stars of this import
were secure enough to allow a cameo appearance from BoA, the young and
glamorous “Queen of Korean Pop.” In fact, the forty-something cast looks
considerably younger than their long-faced American forerunners. They will
still inevitably mismanage their private lives in Kwon Chil-in’s Venus Talk (trailer here), which opens in
select theaters this Friday.
Frankly,
this trio of friends is not so interested in talking, but they have to do
something when they meet for brunch at Hae-young’s coffee shop. She is a single
mother with a grown daughter she can’t get out of the house and the best
boyfriend of the bunch. Sung-jae is mature, sensitive, and handy around the
house, but harbors been-there-done-that feelings about marriage. Mi-yeon
appears to be happily married, but her demands will put a strain on her
relationship with her Viagra-bootlegging husband, Jae-ho. Shin-hye is more
interested in her work as a television producer than any sort of romance, but a
drunken fling with Hyun-seung, a much younger colleague complicates her carefully
calibrated career.
Into
these lives great turmoil will fall, but they always stick together—after a bit
of judgmental cattiness. Sure, you probably suspect where Kwon and screenwriter
Lee Soo-a are headed and have a pretty good idea how they will get there, but
it must be said Venus is surprisingly
fair to the guys. Frankly, the women are at least as responsible for their
relationship angst and their partners, if not more so. This is particularly
true in the case of Mi-yeon and the woefully cringey Jae-ho.
While
never explicit, Venus is rather
saucy, especially by the standards of Korean cinema. Not for no reason, most of
the more suggestive scenes feature the photogenic Uhm Jung-hwa and Lee Jae-yoon
as the impressively fit Shin-hye and Hyun-seung, respectively. They have okay
chemistry together and Uhm nicely mixes attitude and professionalism in her
straight forward dramatic scenes.
Yet,
Cho Min-su once again steels the picture in a complete change of pace from her
soul-shattering turn in Kim Ki-duk’s bracing Pieta. As Hae-young, she brings more dignity, forgiveness, and
general humanity to Venus than you
would ever expect to find in a cougar-ish chick flick. In contrast, Moon So-ri
is stuck with the least sympathetic and most over-the-top of the lot, but she
fully commits to the voracious Mi-yeon nonetheless.
There
have been films like Venus before and
there will be plenty more like it to come. Even so, it is a credit to Kwon,
Uhm, and Cho how smooth it goes down, especially for those who do not have a
strong affinity for the genre. It is well executed, but never pushes the
envelope of women-centric relationship dramas. Mostly recommended as a women’s-night-out
movie, it opens this Friday (2/28) in Honolulu at the Consolidated Pearlridge
and in Vancouver at the Cineplex Silvercity.
