No one's about to say that the creator of The Artist: Reborn doesn't have something to say. Kim Kyoung-won's dark comedy about a painter who skyrockets to fame after her supposed death is peppered with wry commentary about the art market, the creative process, and good old amoral capitalism. But, as the writer-director himself states, "It's like Frankenstein without the monster part." What's the missing monster exactly? Is it the art? Could be. The oils depicting floating mandalas and simpler geometric shapes are too minimal for Kandinsky, too muted for Hilma af Klimt. Is it the script? Also possible. Yet Kim's writerly shark jumps are intentionally outlandish: the artist's resurrection in the morgue is pure sight gag; the marketspeak of her fabricated backstory is satirical grotesquerie. ("Let's say she was raped by a priest!")
What's that leave us? The cast? Okay. So if so, who? Ryu Hyeon-kyeong's turn as the visionary abstractionist is out of sync with the other performers... as she should be; Park Jeong-min is overly earnest ...which seems appropriate, too. Lee Soon-jae and Moon Jong-won may be broader in their interpreations of a cultural minister and a cultural pariah but can you blame them? For me, it was as if nothing quite worked and nothing quite failed. "Nothing's wrong," the artist states near the end. I'd add, "Nothing's right either." But what are you looking for? Perfection?
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