VIFF 2020: Beauty Water
viff 2020There is a lot to unpack in Cho Kyung-hun's Beauty Water. A wonderfully constructed animated feature that sets its sight on creating social discourse on beauty and happiness while intertwined in a body horror genre, the film gives its audience engaging albeit interesting results, to say the least.
The animation aesthetic utilised is a mixture of traditional animation meets hyper anime, and director Cho Kyung-hun does a wonderful job of implementing such aesthetic changes in his material to elicit mood and tone. It is an interesting element to curate, considering Cho Kyung-hun and writer Lee Han-bin explore shades of identifying disorders and the standard of beauty in a subverted expression.
In times of awe and lust, in which the film showcases main character Yaeji's transformation, the film will change into the aforementioned anime aesthetic, where everything is larger than life with intense, overpowering brightness of colour. However, the opposite occurs in moments of Yaeji's despair. The world becomes darker and broods an eerie sentimentality. It is simplistic mise-en-scène but done with a nuance that is wholeheartedly effective and immersive by cinematographer Moon Seong-cheo.
Furthermore, the reflection of social change in Yaeji's status offers a unique but eye-opening account of the social demands put on to young women. This theme – but more so the tone – is undeniably abstract and, for many, it will be in the same vein as Robert Zemerick's Death Becomes Her or fall completely flat on its face. However, this exploration of confidence and lust for beauty is a tremendously weighted element with deeply rooted allegories layered throughout.
The biggest hit or miss, depending on how the viewer is immersed with the proceeding running time, arrives in the Beauty Water's third act, when a twist of sorts occurs. Granted, this twist does feel contextually apt with the abstract nature of the story but comes too left-field from the proceeding tonal nature of the film. Ultimately, this same twist undercuts the poignant and compelling nature of particular hard-hitting and relevant discourse. It does not quite throw the film off, but undoubtedly is a bump in the road.
