Seung-wook Moon	...	(Director)
Seung-wook Moon	...	(Writer)
Hyeong-seong Jang	...	K
Hye-jeong Kang	...	Yuki
Ho-jung Kim	...	Anna
Hyun Sung Kim	...

Comments: Kang Hye-jung's first film. I forgot how good she is/was

Faces with history; faces in misery without being maudlin; faces in shadows. That's what most of this film is. The rest is frantic hand held chaos drenched in rain and flashing lights

There's some story going on in the background with narrative in fits and starts. Many times you'll think: "What the fuck happened between that last scene and this one? How did we get here?" Except it always doesn't matter. This is a film of scenes, not plot

It has the best shot of two naked people in a filthy shower room I've ever seen. Not sexy. Pure damage

The ocean scene. omg. The director must have said: "Okay we're going to do this. I want you to act like this and I'm going to shoot it like this". It's ridiculous, but I think the director earns it. Once this film finds its legs you're in a world where anything can happen. That's one of the most masterful things a director can do. Take you to a place where judgement goes to die

The film isn't "sci-fi". It's set 'in the (near) future' with some "oblivion virus" and 'acid rain' where some uncool societal shit goes down, but that stuff is so peripheral to this movie

Kang Hye-jung DOMs the opening of the film in an over-the-top way (but she's very capable of over-the-top) and then settles in. The magnificent Kim Ho-jung doms the rest of it in an understated, nearly motionless way. The handful of times she smiles in the film made me want to cry. Jang Hyun-sung, stuck in the middle of them, is surprisingly good. His face in the ocean scene, he has no idea where he is or what he's doing

The film seesaws between clean and beautiful when there's a lot of natural light, and grainy, shadowed filth when there's not. Gorgeous!

This director really knows how to shoot people's faces






ps - before watching this I tried Babylon. Made it to the scene "One tear or two?" before punting. The first scene in this movie answers that question. Holy serendipity

Summary: A woman named Anna arrives in a city afflicted by lethal acid rain in search of the oblivion virus - a virus which erases memories. An agency provides two staff to help her: the guide Yuki, who tracks outbreaks and rushes clients to the scene to seek infection, and their driver K, an orphan who is desperate to find his family. But the virus proves elusive, and Anna (whose bad memories are triggered by guilt over her dead child) is ready to give up - until she comes across evidence that this may not be her first visit to the city. Secrets unveiled, a new mystery unravels, The Butterfly takes us on an adventure full of remembrance, suspense, discovery, metamorphosis…and hopefully, one of the most unforgettable stories of a lifetime.