About This DVD

This mostly improvised second feature from Korean director Park Kiyong is the year's standout entry in a new and significant subgenre: the snail-paced Asian epic. Shot in 12 days on black-and-white digital video, Camel(s)--the oblique title refers to a poignant poem about exhaustion and survival, though I'm not sure about the "(s)"--is that rarest of films: a film of the present. In other words, it's defiantly about what it's about--loneliness, in this case--and nothing else.

Two escapist-minded middle-aged characters with no real past nor future (at least not together) meet, have dinner, go to a hotel, have sex, order some noodles, and do a lot of driving in silence--a lot of driving in silence. Park makes up for the lack of dialogue with a precise, Bressonian use of sound: Indeed, the tick-tock monotone of a lane-changing signal is enough to bore a hole into one's soul. An audacious exercise in DV minimalism (the 35mm blowup yields an astonishing grain), Camel(s) is something of a masterpiece: Even those who'll find it exasperating will find it unforgettable.

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