Author: Fang Hanjun
"In Columbus" (also translated "In the City of Columbus" 2017) directed by Korean director Wan Delan, focuses on Columbus, Indiana, a small town that gathers the essence of Western architecture. It is indeed a difficult problem for a drama film to integrate these carefully created architectural arts by humans. Fortunately, the movie is in it from the perspective and confusion of an outsider. It is said that architecture is solidified music, but a good architecture not only brings beauty, but is also endowed with soul.
The art of architecture, you look at it, and it stares at you. You enjoy it, it also fulfills itself, this is a win-win situation for each other. This film reminds me of another French film "The Wisdom of God" (2015) that condenses architecture. The protagonist's marriage is on the verge of collapse. As an architectural designer, he runs alone to Rome, Italy and other places, traveling through Among these classic buildings, the thinking about emotions is triggered, thus saving the lifeless marriage and moving towards a new life.
"In Columbus" and "The Wisdom of God" are the same in that they are both extremely quiet, the kind of contemplative power, enough to penetrate the clouds in the distance. The considerations in "In Columbus" are undoubtedly Eastern. The director is from the East, and the protagonist Kim (John Cho), a cultural scholar from a Korean publishing house, suddenly fainted and was hospitalized because of his father who studies religious architecture. He came to visit. But he did not fulfill the responsibility of a son, and was unwilling to take care of his father's bedside, but liked to wander in this small town.
Even these exquisite buildings cannot easily ease the conflict between him and his father. After he met Kathy (Haley Lu Richardson), a local girl who was in graduate school, the two wandered among these various architectural art groups and talked eloquently. They discussed the texture and characteristics of buildings in front of the buildings designed by master architects such as Alan Lemro and Bosek, but this was only to cover up their own anxiety and anxiety. Compared with the spiritually innate architecture, Jin appears to be indifferent. This mechanical feeling may stem from the dazedness of a stranger.
At the same time, the interactions between Casey and the young man Gabriel, and between Jin and the old father and daughter's assistant Ellenor, were extremely rigid and failed to show the proper temperament and agility. This just fits with the quiet tone of the film. If architecture is always the silent protagonist, then the exchange and collision between Kim and Casey seems to be a bit of a nuisance or borderline. After all, what King asked about, and what Casey explained, always seemed hard to hit a point. It's just that everyone is talking about it, which makes people confused. Overall, the plot is dull.
If their communication encounters intestinal obstruction, what is the significance of the display of Bingjing architecture. When the excessive perspective and background of the characters, under the background of distant and empty music, become a "totem" display under the building, what the film brings to the audience is also mythical, light, and even flashy. of. Although Jin's expression seemed preoccupied and insisted not to compromise with his comatose old father, his heart was anxious and hard to fathom, which just corresponded to this glimpse of architectural art.
As for King's consolation to Kathy in front of the Quantum Library, asking her to obey her mother, or Kathy's questioning how King could treat a comatose old father like this, these are all superficial. Kim, stalking between the two women, Casey and Ellenor, got nowhere. A man who is afraid that his father will be brought back to Seoul after he recovers, for fear of dying there, requires him to wear sackcloth and filial piety, which is a ridiculous custom. In this way, the film's lightness in the plot makes it difficult to touch people's hearts.
But "In Columbus" excels in mirror language. Every frame is extremely quiet, and the combination of people wandering in these architectural arts has a contemplative charm, so that we can completely ignore the dialogue between them and the plot involved. It is a prose-poetic breeze swaying. Architectural art has truly become a quiet extension of film art, thus broadening the connotation and direction of these architectural arts. This is subtle, clever, worry-free, and spare no effort.
Dedication to creating a film under the shroud of architectural art is always apprehensive. When Kim and Kathy first met, there was a wall between them, and they walked slowly on each side. As a result, architecture becomes the master of the film, and they compress the space of the Son of Man, which is what makes the film intriguing. It seems that buildings can transform into a virtual existence under the materialization of time and space. Figures in the architectural background are destined to be powerless and difficult to think about.
The superficial communication between Casey and Kim that we have seen is actually just saying that we humans need to communicate, which is not necessarily a necessary communication. After a hundred years, the son of man is destined to live a tragic life like a hurricane. The fact is, when Jin bids farewell to Kathy, she is about to go to another country, and at the same time, Jin will also return to Seoul, they do not belong to this small town, only these various buildings, all year round, still stand here. In Columbus, they came and went. People come and go, it turns out that we are not just a passer-by.
2017, 11, 19
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