Time Writer | Minamino
Cult movie gluttony.
After 2022's "Determination to Break Up", Tang Wei became one of the most well-known actresses in the Korean film industry, not only nominated for the Best Actress at the Daejong Awards, but also won the Blue Dragon Award and the Baeksang Arts Award in a row.
Fans naturally expected her to participate in more film and television works, but there was no follow-up, and it was not until "Dreamland" released not long ago that Tang Wei appeared on the big screen again. It is worth mentioning that the film is also the second collaboration between Tang Wei and her husband Kim Tae-yong after 14 years.
"Dreamland"
However, many people were disappointed after watching "Dreamland" and gave bad reviews, its rating on the famous Korean website NAVER was only 6.4, if it weren't for Tang Wei and a group of other big-name stars to join, the film's reputation would have been even worse.
What kind of story does "Dreamland" tell? What are the places where it has been complained about?
The Korean version of "Her"
The story of "Dreamland" takes place in the near future, and human consciousness can be uploaded to the network cloud, forming a "data man" who will never die. After being processed by powerful algorithms, although they have no physical body, there is almost no difference between their consciousness and real humans.
This technology is widely used in the memory of the dead by the living, such as Bai Li played by Tang Wei, who died at the beginning of the movie, but before that, her consciousness was uploaded to the cloud, incarnated as an archaeologist, and through video calls, Bai Li was able to communicate with her mother and daughter in reality.
What's more, the "data people" who are uploaded to the cloud do not realize that they are dead, and they have another life in the virtual world, just like Neo in "The Matrix".
The operation of this virtual world is a company called "Dream Travel Agency", and their profit model is that one is a package service for video communication between customers and "data people", and the other is that customers pay to buy virtual items for "data people".
In addition, there is also a "manager" in the virtual world, who is the information bridge between the real background management and the "data person", responsible for stabilizing emotions and finding location.
On the basis of this series of sci-fi settings, "Dreamland" roughly tells four side stories.
The first is Bai Li in the virtual world, because her daughter was almost lost, and finally realized that she had died long ago in reality.
The second story focuses on Jeong-in, a girl in the real world, because her boyfriend Tae-joo is seriously ill and in a coma for a long time, she buys a "data man" package from the "Dream Travel Agency". When Tae-joo wakes up, Jeong-in is lost in a trance between Tae-joo and Tae-joo's "data man".
The other two stories with fewer scenes, one is that the old lady buys virtual items for the "data man" of her deceased grandson, and finally dies of exhaustion; The other is Hyun-so, an employee of "Dream Travel Agency", who accidentally discovers that a customer who has just passed away is actually his father who he has never met, and through the virtual world, Hyun-so regains the "father-son relationship".
The whole film continues to advance under the interweaving of these four side stories, just like the sci-fi film "Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, which uses AI's emotional companionship to human beings, as well as the awakening process of AI itself, to explore complex and ambiguous emotional topics in human nature.
It's all supported by stars
In fact, as early as 2019, Kim Tae-yong began to conceive and prepare for "Dreamland", and the main part of the film was also completed at the end of 2020, but due to the epidemic and the post-production of sci-fi scenes, the release date was delayed again and again, and it was not until June this year that the film finally debuted.
In addition to Tang Wei's strong joining, several other protagonists are also famous, and they are no strangers to audiences who often follow Korean film and television dramas.
Cheng Jun, who played with Tang Wei and played the "administrator" of the virtual world, is Kong Liu, who has starred in "The Melting Pot" and "Train to Busan", in addition to his handsome appearance, Kong Liu's delicate acting skills have always been praised.
The two staff members who play the role of "Dream Travel Agency" are Jung You-mi and Choi Woo-sik. The feminine charm of the former is vividly shown in "Kim Ji-young Born in 82", and Jung You-mi also created a classic image of being shackled by the family with the role of "Kim Ji-young" in the film.
As for the salty and sweet Choi Woo-sik, because of the two popular dramas "Ambiguous Man" and "That Year, Our Summer", his popularity has skyrocketed. In addition, he also participated in Bong Joon-ho's famous "Parasite", playing the youngest son of the Kim family.
And the younger Park Bo-kim and Bae so-ji, play a pair of infatuated men and women in "Dreamland" - Jeong-in and Tae-joo. In recent years, they have been thriving in the Korean drama market, and their representative works are "Moonlight Painted by Clouds" and "Introduction to Architecture".
It is worth mentioning that there is another Chinese actor in the lineup of this film - Bao Qijing, she plays Bai Li's mother, and her old and accurate performance makes her last crying scene the highlight of the whole film.
However, the problem is that although director Kim Tae-yong has the skill to gather stars, he does not have the ability to direct science fiction films. "Dreamland" is more like an ethical film that uses the concept of science fiction to flood with lyricism.
For example, the line of Bai Li played by Tang Wei, the biggest dilemma she faces in the film is how to realize that she is no longer alive, and the resulting inner twists and turns of the mother and daughter after facing her absence.
Bai Li was comfortable in the virtual world from the beginning, and gradually felt her mother's hostility and evasion, especially after her daughter Bai Jia's infinite thoughts about herself, she wanted to break through the barrier of the virtual world and arrive at her home on the other side of reality.
Further, "Dreamland" is actually repeating the theme of "Truman's World" - the virtual world's layers of constraints on the individual, and the individual's rebellion against the dream-making machine.
It's a pity that Kim Tae-yong is just in the climax, without any plot foreshadowing, so that Baek-ri is like Truman, piercing the wall of the virtual space, and after awakening consciousness, he tells his daughter a sad declaration that he is dead.
This kind of perfunctory and ingenious is also reflected in the couple of Jeongin and Taejoo.
Jungin misses Tae-joo too much, so he books a package at the "Dream Travel Agency" and gets along with the virtual Tae-joo day and night. But when the real Tae-joo woke up, he couldn't satisfy Jeong-in due to illness.
It is not difficult to find that in this tortuous and contradictory relationship, the ethical paradox caused by technology is also worth pondering. Because the virtual Taizhu is more "trouble-free", it is naturally more satisfying to Jeong-in; Although the sick Tae-joo is real, he is more likely to "make mistakes", which makes Jeong-in even more confused.
As a result, a sharp question is about to emerge: does technology make love more lazy and trouble-free?
But such a topic worth discussing, under the handling of Kim Tae-yong, became that after Jeong-in took a plane, she figured it out as if she had opened a hanging, she hugged and cried with the real Tae-joo, and waved goodbye to the virtual Tae-joo.
The struggles, hesitations, confusions, and pains are also wiped out.
In other words, all the key character choices in "Dreamland" have been replaced by the dazzling halo of the star, making the whole film a MV-style sensational collection, rather than a speculative feast of human nature and technology.
The low-profile version of Hong Changxiu
It is no accident that the light of "Dreamland" raises ethical dilemmas, but is unable to interpret them, and it has long existed in Kim Tae-yong's famous "Late Autumn".
"Late Autumn" is essentially about the false and real problems of love. Anna, played by Tang Wei, was injured twice in love and was imprisoned for it. During the mourning, Anna met a "love liar".
Whether she can find a serious feeling of love in a love relationship that is not serious from the beginning is the key to the whole movie.
At the same time, Hyun Bin's Hoon, who previously made a living by pleasing women, is also curious about whether he can pick the honey of love in his scene with Anna.
But Kim Tae-yong always let this dangerous relationship spin around on the periphery, why did Anna have a French tongue-to-mouth kiss with Hoon at the end? Why did you secretly agree to fall in love with that love liar? There is no solid and credible bridge in the whole film.
What is more interesting than "Dreamland" is that "Late Autumn" has more aura and a more focused narrative.
The passage in which Anna and Xun imitate a couple's conversation in the playground, and Xun uses the "good" and "bad" in Chinese to guess Anna's Chinese memories are impressive. Not only that, but the whole film revolves around Anna and Xun, the "temporary lovers", and this kind of narrative concentration makes the film's emotions stronger.
"Dreamland" is different, the scattered interspersing of four clues makes the film boring after it is out of focus.
To put it bluntly, Kim Tae-yong is a low-profile version of Hong Chang-so, who can only conceive an ingenious emotional dilemma and is unable to further explore it.
As for another reason for the popularity of "Late Autumn", it is naturally Tang Wei.
Before "Late Autumn", Tang Wei fell from the peak to the bottom in an instant because of "Lust and Caution", and was silent for several years. But it is also because of "Lust and Caution" that Tang Wei was deeply guided by Ang Lee and specialized in "acting" in performance, which made her equally amazing in "Late Autumn".
To put it simply, whether it is before or after "Lust and Caution", most of the roles played by Tang Wei are slightly sluggish and have no sense of life, which is difficult to convince people of the authenticity of the role.
The difference in "Lust and Caution" is that the character of Wang Jiazhi is itself carrying out a dangerous "performance" - disguised as a mistress to extract information from Mr. Yi.
Therefore, the "clumsy" and "wooden" in Tang Wei's performance also have credibility.
In "Late Autumn", Anna is also a character who has to be clumsily disguised in front of everyone - try not to let people see that she is in prison. Therefore, it is logical that she exudes timidity, evasion and fear from time to time.
This was further amplified by Tang Wei in "The Determination to Break Up" directed by Park Chan-wook. Ruilai in the movie is a beautiful but dangerous woman, whether it is the male protagonist played by Park Hae-il or the audience, they can't peek into the true secret of her heart.
But in "Dreamland", Bai Li played by Tang Wei is no longer a character who disguises himself, but a "data man" who is spied on by the outside world, and a more suitable candidate for this role may be Kim Min-hee who starred in "Miss", or Lee Young-ae in "Kind Gold", they are the kind of actresses who have a stronger sense of belief in the role.
It can be said that after "Daming Fenghua", Tang Wei's main battlefield has obviously shifted to the Korean film industry.
Whether it is living an idyllic life after marrying Kim Tae-yong and having a daughter, or mingling with Korean filmmakers, interacting with Jun Ji-hyun and Jung You-mi, or even having a close relationship with IU Lee Ji-eun, it all shows that Tang Wei has a close connection with the Korean entertainment industry.
In particular, the super high talk about "Late Autumn" and "The Determination to Break Up" in Korean society makes Tang Wei's future in the Korean film industry unlimited.
Although her performance in "Dreamland" was mediocre, it was not surprising that she was not satisfactory considering the fit of the role and the role.
After all, although Kim Tae-yong is Tang Wei's husband in life, it is difficult to become the Bole in his career. In the future, those who can fully tap the charm of this actress will still have to be first-line directors like Ang Lee and Park Chan-wook.
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