Baeksekin (1994)
6/10
Humored oddity
20 December 2023
"White Man" tells the odd story of an office worker who finds a severed index finger on a parking lot and decides to keep it, using it in awkward manners.

Please, leave some malice aside because it's not what you think but to describe it here the finger use one might find it just too weird and not funny. It's all unusual and amusing.

Bong Joon Ho's first film venture (while most claim as "Incoherence" being the first this was shot in 1993) isn't concerned about a possible "Blue Velvet" investigative scenario about the lost finger, it's more focused on the man who found it, his place in life as a white collar man (hence the title, it's not about race) and a social commentary about those who have and those who have not in South Korea's society, exemplified by a moment where the man's car breaks and he has to make a long stairs climbing as the city on the background reveal plenty of poor houses against the more wealth places where the man lives at the top of the stairs. And what can one say if not that from here it was a long way up to "Parasite" and Joon Ho has mantained consistence through his work and analysis on human behavior and social/cultural clashes.

He showed plenty of great quality with his images and editing, aligned with a non typical dark sense of humor but the story is somewhat engaging. It feels as if missing something. It's memorable but not that much - I prefered "Incoherence" a great deal more. Still fun and great to look at it. 6/10.
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