[THE APARTMENT WITH TWO WOMEN] - A prison named Family

[The Apartment with Two Women, 2021] is a Korean film released on November 10, 2022 in Korea. Director Kim Se-in, a rookie from the Korean Film Academy (KAFA), directed the film. It became a hot topic by winning multiple awards at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in 2021.

 

The main poster of The Apartment with Two Women

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Storyline

Lee Jung (actress Lim Ji-ho) in her late 20s and SuKyung (actress Yang Mal-bok) in her 50s are mother and daughter relationships. The two also share something that's inside enough to wear the same underwear. However, Lee has mixed feelings of anger, frustration, and depression for not receiving the love she deserves from her mother SuKyung. On the contrary, the mother, SuKyung, feeds, dresses, and does everything to act as a person, and it is annoying and sometimes irritating for her grown daughter to whine emotionally like a baby. As usual, the mother and daughter, who were bickering with each other, have a hand-to-hand fight in the car of the mart parking lot. Lee, who could not stand the almost one-sided assault of SuKyung, runs out of the car, and SuKyung, who was looking at it, cannot stand the emotion of the moment and rush to Lee. After the insurance company employee arrives, SuKyung is trying to blame the car company for not being able to stop the car due to a sudden rash. However, Lee tells the insurance company employee that her mother, SuKyung, intentionally ran into her. The mother and daughter's emotional fight eventually leads to the court, and SuKyung, who lost the trial, kicks Lee Jung out of the house. Lee, who has no home to go back to in an instant, will stay at the house of her co-worker Moon So-hee (actress Jung Bo-ram). Lee stays at So-hee's house for a while and shares her feelings and stories with her. However, as time goes by, Lee's interest in So-hee becomes a burden to So-hee. Eventually, Lee comes back home after facing So-hee, who avoids her. Meanwhile, while Lee is away, SuKyung goes through the process of combining housekeeping with her boyfriend "Jong-yeol (actor Yang Heung-ju)" who she meets seriously. However, because of the friction between Jong-yeol's daughter, So-ra (actress Kwon Jeong-eun), and SuKyung, SuKyung also returns home without fulfilling her wishes. As an extension of the emotion that still has nothing solved, the mother and daughter are back together without understanding each other's minds and thoughts as if they were running a parallel line with no end. Will Lee Jung and SuKyung be able to break away from the anger and depression in each other's hearts and make progress in their relationship?

A realistic character and story feels like based on a true story.

The characters and narratives in the movie [The Apartment with Two Women] are very realistic. It's easy to believe that it's based on the director's autobiographical stories. However, the stories and characters in the movie are all fiction based on director Kim Se-in's imagination. However, it is said that the emotions that the director herself felt in the relationship with her mother were reflected in the relationship between SuKyung and Lee Jung - mother and daughter. It is said that the director Kim was questioned that only friendly and beautiful mother and daughter were depicted in media such as popular movies and TV dramas. Because that wasn't all about the mother and daughter that she experienced and saw and heard around her. From that question, she naturally started the scenario and eventually completed the story that touched the audience's skin. Director Kim is said to have referred to many newspaper articles to investigate the scenario. The sudden acceleration of the car, an incident in which the conflict between SuKyung and Lee surfaced in the drama, is also an episode created by taking hints from news articles. In fact, there are many victims who lost their families through sudden attacks, but few individuals against large companies won the trial. People's belief that there could be no defects in products made by large companies, like some social blind faith, was behind this phenomenon. The director said that she felt this belief similar to the maternal myth that a mother who gave birth to a child would naturally have motherhood. That's why she naturally brought the subject of sudden acceleration into the movie. She thought that the setting of the JwaHoonBang Shop (A shop where you sit and warm to release toxins from your body), the workplace of SuKyung, was unique and fits well with the characteristics of the character. Director Kim has been going to public baths with her mother since she was young, and there was a place where she can JwaHoon. As she watched the clothes she wore for the JwaHoon swell up in smoke, the director Kim said she got the impression that the shape was like a fetal movement. Inspired by that image, the setting of a JwaHoonBang Shop came into the movie. In the JwaHoonBang Shop, SuKyung listens to people's various stories and play a role in comforting their feelings. Paradoxically, however, SuKyng do not seem to be able to communicate properly with their daughter Lee at home. Lee's job is an employee of a children's study book publishing company. When selling books related to children, publishers sometimes use the guilt of motherhood. "Other mothers are already doing everything to their children. You're not good enough as a mother." This kind of nuance is laid down in book sales promotions. Lee is a person who takes the mother's motherhood for granted. She also has anger and depression that she should have received such love, but she couldn't. Director Kim set up the character's job with the idea that this job, which continues to stimulate mothers' motherhood, can be connected to Lee's usual thoughts about her mother. Along with the two characters, SuKyung and Lee, the small apartment where the two live together also plays an important role like another character in the movie. SuKyung and Lee have mixed feelings for each other. Like the feelings of the two, there are a lot of things stretched out in the small apartment without throwing away what needs to be thrown away and organizing what needs to be organized. Also, the room of Lee seems to be occupied by furniture and props that have been used since her childhood. Lee's character, who is not seen trying to find her own identity after puberty, is expressed through space and art. Outside of Lee's room, various decorations decorated by SuKyung are occupied, which is also an expression of the relationship between SuKyung and Lee. In this way, the movie [The Apartment with Two Women] is coming to the audience with the impression that it is so realistic, paying attention to the character and story as well as the expression of the space in the movie and the details of small props.

Actresses and actors who showed realistic daily acting.

The movie [The Apartment with Two Women] is also a work of excellent actors. First of all, Yang Mal-bok, who played the role of SuKyung, said that after reading the scenario, she recalled her mother and herself in the relationship between the SuKyung and Lee Jung. Yang's mother also gave harsh physical punishment to her children and spat out hurtful words, just like the scene of SuKyung in the movie. But as a mother, she was also a person who had to 'live' through hard times to feed and dress her children, Yang remembered her mother. When she thought of her mother from daughter's point of view, she thought, "My mother is really unfriendly!". But over time, she could understand her mother's position and thoughts that were not seen in her childhood. Through that understanding of her mother, she was able to express the character of SuKyung more deeply and naturally. Director Kim said that in order to make the audience sympathize with SuKyung character that can be seen as unkind to people, there must be the charm of the actress playing the character. Also, SuKyung is a figure with different faces that show different images in each situation. She is always a witch full of irritation and anger in front of her daughter Lee Jung, but she is a girl who wants to be loved in front of her lover Jong-yeol, and an ordinary person in front of shop customers. Director Kim said that Yang was a good actress to perform in various spectra. Lim Ji-ho, who plays the role of Lee Jung, hesitated to apply for the audition after seeing the audition announcement for the first time, and sent an e-mail belatedly at dawn of the deadline. Director said she cast actor Lim because she thought that Lim's big clear eyes fit well with Lee Jung's character, which has to express many things with her eyes. After reading the scenario, Lim, who thought, "Who on earth can write such a thing?" said she had a lot of conversations with great interest in director Kim at the audition hall. Lim's voice texture and the atmosphere of the actress also fit well with Lee Jung's character Kim had in mind, so she decided to cast Lim. In the case of actress Jung Bo-ram, who plays So-hee, director Kim said that she remained in her memory with a strong impression after she first got to know actor Jung through other works. And when they met for the casting of the movie, she found actress Moon So-hee, who matched So-hee's character with the keyword "appropriate kindness" naturally led to the casting. In the case of Jong-yeol, who is the partner of SuKyung, there was a risk that the lines he uttered could be too cheesy or feel like a fraud. However, director Kim already knew the friendly side and plain image of actor Yang Heung-joo, who played the role through other works. And she thought that such an actor's image could neutralize the cheesy impression that Jong-yeol's character could convey to the audience. In addition, each of the various characters in the movie, such as Jong-yeol's daughter So-ra and children's book publisher Manager Park (actor Choi Kyung-joon), are doing their part, enriching the story of the movie.

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Elena Ferrante of Korea

Throughout the movie, I personally came to think that it was similar to Elena Ferrante's works. I first learned about the existence of an artist named Elena Ferrante through a work called [Lost Daughter, 2022]. After that, I became interested in the author and found and read Elena Ferrante's early work, [L'amore Molesto, 1999]. I think the story of [The Apartment with Two Women] that overturns the maternal myth that many people have has a point that is closely connected to the sentiment of the movie [Lost Daughter, 2022]. Elena Ferrante, a writer who also wrote the phrase, "Mother is just a daughter playing mother after all." Elena Ferrante is now Italy's most important female writer and best-selling author who is loved and praised by the public and critics. But her identity is completely lost in mystery. As for her, it is revealed that she was born in Naples, Italy, and that she left her hometown early and majored in classical literature and spent many years abroad. All other information about her is veiled. Ferrante, who thinks only her work shows the artist, allows interviews only in writing without appearing in any media. Even the name Elena Ferrante is her pen name, but no one knows the exact information about her. If I personally participated in the conversation with the director Kim, I wanted to ask if she knew the writer Elena Ferrante or if she was influenced by Elena Ferrante's works. If she dosen't know Elena Ferrante, I wanted to encourage her to read Elena Ferrante's works. I would like to applaud the creators who have the courage to honestly bring out and unfold stories that many people have experienced in their lives and are sympathetic to, but couldn't bring up because of the weight or rejection of the story. Elena Ferrante of Italy or Kim Se-in of Korea are among those people. What do you think about the movie? Please communicate with me through the comments!

 

[The Apartment with Two Women] The main trailer