Review of Treeless Mountain (2009) by Numna S — 23 Feb 2010

I'm not sure if it was the general lack of anything exciting or gripping, but I found this movie incredibly boring. Don't get me wrong, Treeless Mountain is gut-wrenching in how realistic and sympathetic it is, but it also isn't a lot of fun.

The plot follows sisters Jin (Hee-yeon Kim) and Bin (Song-hee Kim) after their mother (Soo-ah Lee) leaves them to search for their father. The intent is never made clear, but the repercussions come very quickly.

Jin is forced to mature much faster than any normal 6 year old would. She devises plans to try and bring their mother back and tries to cope with the anxiety of never seeing her mother again. It's all very unflinching in it's portrayal.

What works best about the film is how incredibly in-depth it feels. When you are a child, almost anything can be occupying. Mundane things like catching bugs or waiting for loved ones, coloring in books and searching for food; all of this happens on film.

This also happens to work against the film, for me at least. Why on Earth do I care about these two girls? Random exposition of their school days is seen in the beginning, but that doesn't help build their personalities. We just see them lose their mother and then are told to deal with it.

That can be seen as a metaphor, though, for the pain and suffering the little girls are going through. No one should have to endure the sadness that comes when your parents walk out on you and this film truly makes you feel what it would be like to have no one listen to you.

The acting is all extremely realistic, mainly to compliment how detailed the plot is. Both child stars have very little in the way of dialog, but their scenes often contain lines of, "Where is mom?" or tear filled moments based on loss. The adults are not given much in the way of development, but their acting feels very distant (much like adults sound like to children).

The cinematography has it's moment, but they are almost all contained at the end of the film. The beginning takes place in Seoul and the apartment complexes are just blah. Very gray and pale, it almost washes the film out at times. The middle takes place in another South Korean city (I'm not sure where), but it doesn't help change much about the general bland look of the film. The final scenes are on a farm and there are some haunting pictures captured (like a fire red sunset and a steady shot of clothes drying). It really sort of brings full circle that feeling of losing innocence.

I would recommend this film more, but I just cannot. It's far too un-engrossing to really be taken seriously. It certainly is a work of art, but it's one that is far too pretentious to really let you in. If this were a true look on childhood, there definitely would be more fun in the movie, even during a time of crisis. As it stands though, you couldn't go wrong with this if you wanted to understand how to cope with loss (or bore yourself to death).