A
mystery in Paris sounds romantic, but this one is anything but. Sang-ho could
desperately use the help of an Inspector Maigret, but he is very much on his
own in the cold, foreign city. He will guide us through the gutters and
prostitutes’ working corners in Jeon Soo-il’s A Korean in Paris (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Sang-ho
originally came to Paris on his honeymoon with Yeon-hwa, but we he stepped away
to buy cigarettes, she was abducted, presumably by some sort of sex trafficking
racket. Just how the affluent Sang-ho was reduced to sleeping in the street is
never explained in blow-by-blow terms, but here he is nonetheless. Sang-ho
regularly haunts areas where Asian prostitutes congregate, solely in the hopes
someone will recognize a laminated picture of Yeon-hwa.
Apparently,
it has “just” been a few year’s since Yeon-hwa’s disappearance, but today’s
Sang-ho looks like a completely different person than the man seen in flashbacks
with her. The time on the street and his extreme alienation from French society
have caused his social skills to deteriorate along with his body. As a result,
he is rather confused when Chang, a French Korean prostitute, reaches out with
an offer of platonic friendship. Despite his lingering doubts, Sang-ho keeps
plugging away, falling deeper into the abyss.
Actually,
it is even more depressing than that. A
Korean in Paris is no An American in
Paris. It makes The Lower Depths look
like The Sound of Music. However, it
is quite a fine film. There is something quite remarkable about Cho Jae-hyeon’s
minimalist performance as Sang-ho. He is almost completely closed-off and
soul-dead, yet something about him feels primed to explode. At times, Mi-kwan
Lock’s Chang is even more frightfully vulnerable and exposed, but the
frustrated humanity she conveys is just devastating. Based on her turn, the
French-born, Madagascar-raised Lock should be a rising international star to
contend with.
