"Press"

After twenty years in prison Yeong-il (played byJin Yong-wook) has been released into the freedom of the outside world. This "freedom" largely consists in Yeong-il going to work everyday, operating a press machine to create flat metal surfaces for industrial use. Yeong-il's makes a hobby of trying to fix one old pressing machine in particular, which while old and somewhat dangerous, is still largely functional. The device is difficult to repair largely because it's from a bygone era. So, too, is Yeong-il's inability to adjust to the world.

The painful loneliness of Yeong-il's solitary existence is quite sharp. Time and again Yeong-il meets someone who initially seems to be friendly yet the moment Yeong-il becomes bold enough to try and make a pass at friendship, well, things go bad. To add insult to injury Yeong-il repeatedly hears the well-meaning but completely useless advice of "go find a friend". After a certain point, there really is just something very fantastically insulting about the implication that Yeong-il's failures up until now are a result of his not trying hard enough.

It especially doesn't help that the people Yeong-il meets tend to be completely self-involved, far more likely to try and scam or bully him than make any sincere effort kindness. One especially unsettling scene involves Yeong-il committing a violent act. This horrifies Yeong-il, yet all the same, Yeong-il is able to achieve more respect in a single unfocused moment of savagery than was possible in the entire runtime of the film up until that point.

DirectorChoi Jeong-minvery effectively frames the bleak pointlessness of Yeong-il's life with a very drab landscape. Few if any people are present in the urban background. Even the somewhat crowded church scenes are surprisingly lonely, for the simple reason that Yeong-il does not know anyone or anything about life except how to propely operate and maintain a pressing machine, a skill of fairly limited utility. And Yeong-il is forced to give up even that much upon realizing that his degraded sense of self-worth may lead him to make an impulsively bad decision.

The sense of emotional ennui in"Press"is absolutely fantastic. I too felt my emotionally drained as Yeong-il's lack of progress becomes crushed, just as surely as the metal that goes in the press. What keeps"Press"from becoming mauldin, though, is how creepily relatable Yeong-il's problems are. What he's really lacking are friends or any form of a support network. While ex-cons have it worse in that department than most, everyone has those generally awful moments.

The main flaw in"Press"is a lack of suitable exposition. It's a little vague initially why Yeong-il is so socially awkward, even if in retrospect the explanation is fairly obvious. Likewise, the final sequence involves story information that appears to have been withheld from the viewer for no particularly good reason save that directorChoi Jeong-min's style features minimal dialogue. Even so,"Press"remains an immensely strong if depressing work of cinema that is well worth your time.

Review by William Schwartz

"Press"is directed byChoi Jeong-minand featuresJin Yong-wook,Mok Gyoo-ri,Kim Hak-ryongandChoi Eul.