What's love got to do with it? Well, Park Kun-young's melancholic romance A Distant Place is the first Korean movie I've seen while snuggling with a Korean-American sweetheart in my bed. I'd share his thoughts on the film but he'd had a long week and fell asleep early on, although his cuddle didn't prevent me from watching this sad little drama 'til the end. His snores weren't commentary! Then again, this cinematic love affair isn't one I'd hope on either of us so I was perfectly fine with him dreaming the night's entertainment away.
The picture's two gay men — a painter-turned-sheepfarmhand (Kang Gil-woo) and a pretty boy poet-turned-teacher (Hong Kyung) — have a tough road ahead of them. Not only is the town less than accepting of any friends of Dorothy but the farmhand's sister (Lee Sang-hee) has reappeared after five years to reclaim the adorable little girl (Kim Si-ha) that he's been raising amidst the sheep. The elderly rancher (Gi Ju-bong) would like his queer handyman and the kid to stay on; the rancher's daughter would like more than that but she also doesn't get bent out of shape when she finds out he'd rather shack up with a dude. As to granny (Choi Geum-soon), she eventually wanders as much as her mind which sets off a series of disastrous events springing out of the cruelty in the closet. Slow-moving but far-from-dull, A Distant Place is a quiet film ideal for quiet nights made quite better by a warm friendly body curled up next to you in bed.
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