The development of rotoscoping techniques, first seen in Richard Linklater's Waking Life, has given filmmakers an entirely new kind of imagery to work with. By shooting actual footage and then converting it into animation, a director can create a strong sense of realism while at the same time remaining free to experiment with color, texture, and various added or subtracted visual details. In Korea, Choe Equan's Life Is Cool ranks as the first feature film to adopt this technique. Although it didn't garner much publicity when it opened in theaters in summer 2008, the film is worth viewers' time for a number of reasons.
The story opens with a man named Il-kwon (veteran comic actor Kim Soo-ro) on a plane back to Korea from the US. Sliding into a business class seat, he immediately sets his sights on the attractive woman sitting next to him. However he hits on her so obviously and obnoxiously that she soon gets a stewardess to send him back to economy class where he belongs.
After the plane lands, Il-kwon is met at the airport by two friends: Tae-young (Kang Sung-jin, Attack The Gas Station), who teaches at an after-school institute and feels frustrated with the state of his career, and Sung-hoon (debut actor Kim Jin-su), who is an interpreter for an African-American basketball player participating in the Korea league. Neither of the two men suffer from Il-kwon's lack of tact, but in their own ways they are just as desperate for romance. The rather sad state of their love lives is thrown into relief when Il-kwon announces the reason for his month-long trip back to Korea before resuming his graduate studies: he has come to find a wife. At first, they do their best to help him in his mission. However among the many blind dates arranged for Il-kwon in that month, there appears a woman named Yeonu (Park Ye-jin, Memento Mori) who will set all three hearts aflame.
The setup for Life Is Cool (Korean title: She Was Pretty) sounds like a romantic comedy, however Choe is going for an entirely different tone here. What we get is a comparatively clear-eyed, realistic depiction of the lives of three men in their 30s. This may not sound very interesting, but Choe is skilled at filling out the characters' lives with interesting details and little twists. As for the animation, there is little in the film that could not have been expressed in live action, and that director admits this. However there is a clash between the realistic story and the unrealistic images which gives the film a distinctive tone. Given that the film is essentially about three men's romantic delusions, it's appropriate that as you watch it, the tension between reality and fantasy remains always at the front of your mind.
The animation also filters our perceptions of the acting performances. In the case of Yeonu, the reduced level of visual detail helps to give her character an aura of mystery, while also perhaps suggesting that none of the men are really “seeing” her clearly. Nonetheless one downside to the rotoscoping technique in this film is that many of the director's attempts to lighten the mood with humor fall flat. These are very talented comic actors, however they are just not as effective with animated faces.
No amount of technology or visual effects can transform a bad movie into a good one, so it is encouraging that this film, which will inevitably be remembered for its rotoscoped images, relies so much on its script. Weak stories have been the biggest hurdle for Korean animated films as they have attempted to make a name for themselves at home and abroad. In that sense, this film is a good start.
Darcy Paquet