52 Films by Women Vol 7. 7. THE APARTMENT WITH TWO WOMEN (Director: Kim Se-in)
Few films have
depicted the brittle love-hate relationship between a mother and a daughter as
vividly as Korean writer-director Kim Se-in in her debut feature, The Apartment with Two Women. For Yoon Su-kyung (Yang Mal-bok), her twenty-something,
emotionally insular daughter, Kim Yi-jung (Lym Ji-ho) is an encumbrance. They
share a cluttered apartment with little privacy. When Yi-jung disappoints her
mother, she is beaten, receiving a series of swiping blows from which she
shields herself when not able to restrain her mother who, in spite of age, is
stronger. Yi-jung doesn’t have a saviour on the horizon.
The film put me in
mind of any number of Hollywood melodramas where a mother sinks her hopes,
dreams and finally frustrations in her daughter, who yearns to escape emotional
blackmail. But Kim Se-in takes the drama to physical extremes – Yoon Su-kyung
drives the family car at her daughter during one such row, claims it as an
accident and attempts to sue the car company, asking her daughter to accept
this version of events.
The Korean title
translates as ‘two women who share the same underwear’, a title that has a lot
more resonance given Kim Yi-jung’s outlet of frustration, cutting up her
mother’s briefs. Certainly, Yoon Su-kyung has more than her fair share of male
admirers, chief among them Yong-yeol (Yong Heung-ju) who blows hot and cold. In
an early scene he cups Su-kyung’s face in his hands for the longest time, then
hails a cab. He sends her gifts. He also has a teenage daughter, whose bedroom
is the setting for another set piece.
I would hesitate to
describe any scene in the film as ordinary. It is rooted in the rich pain of
maternal disappointment - motherhood as grief minus acceptance. Cultivating resentment is a form of self-harm,
like wrist cutting. It is a form of validation; I live because I suffer.
The film begins with
an intimate moment. Yi-jung is washing clothes in the bathroom sink. Next to
her Su-kyung is on the toilet. Without saying a word, Su-kyung removes her
briefs and passes them to Yi-jung to wash. Yi-jung does so, wringing them out.
Su-kyung gestures to pass them back to her. She puts them back on. When she
leaves the bathroom, she walks into a café (where I assume she works), raises
her skirt and dries her briefs by a heater whilst wearing them. In the
bathroom, Yi-jung removes her own briefs, spotted with blood from her period.
She retrieves a hot water bottle from the microwave, lies on the sofa and
places it on the stomach. She telephones her mother, asking her to buy Tylenol.
Mother – of course – forgets.
For someone with
such a barbed tongue, Su-kyung has a coterie of friends, including Yong-yeol. Group
conversation (about nudist beaches in Bali) is flirtatious. Su-kyung doesn’t
talk about her daughter, except to say that she cannot remember whether she
attended her graduation, a comment that elicits gasps of incredulity from the
group.
When Su-kyung
arrives back at the apartment, disappointed by not being invited back by Yong-yeol,
she criticizes Yi-jung for lying on the sofa. Needless to say, Su-kyung forgot
her daughter’s Tylenol.
Su-kyung thinks
nothing of striking her daughter. Depicting this, Kim Se-in places her camera
at a distance. Yi-jung vents her anger by cutting up her mother’s underwear.
Tension boils over.
Carrying two bags of shopping and a resentful expression, Yi-jung barges past a
family. A young girl is crying, her silver balloon having floated to the store
ceiling and popped. Attending to her, her family give her a red balloon. By
contrast, Yi-jung receives no such consolation. Getting into the car with the
shopping, she bears the brunt of her mother’s anger. Yi-jung gets out and
stands in front of the car, looking at her mother face on. Su-kyung drives the
car at her. The scene is shocking; Su-kyung is so determined to have the last
word that she is willing to severely injure her own daughter. Her anger has no
filter.
An investigation
begins at the scene of the incident. Su-kyung tells an insurance agent that the
car moved forward by itself. ‘It is a dangerous weapon.’ Whilst Yi-jung is
recovering in hospital, her mother asks her to sign a declaration that it was
an accident, so that she can take legal action against the car company. Yi-jung
refuses to do so. When approached in hospital to testify against her mother,
she agrees.
She returns home on
crutches. Su-kyung is still trying to get her to declare that it was the car
and not herself who was at fault. There is a court hearing; Su-kyung’s case is
thrown out. Yi-jung returns to work, where she works in accounts. She takes the
car. Upon learning that her daughter is still using it, Su-kyung covers the
entire chassis with post-it notes, each one declaring the car to be dangerous.
Discovering this, Yi-jung removes just enough of the post it notes – but not
all of them – to be able to drive the car without her visibility being
impaired.
Yi-jung is told by
her employer, an educational supplier, that she has been moved to sales. She is
asked to move to another desk in the far corner of the room. She is replaced in
her role. Yi-jung steals a USB stick from her replacement’s desk. She then asks
her replacement if they can swap chairs, Yi-jung having set hers at the correct
height. The wordless chair swap is shown in a medium close up showing the
chairs passing one another like ships. We don’t see the faces of the women
pushing them as if shielding their embarrassment. The shot of the two chairs
passing shows Kim Se-in’s control of the visual medium. So much is implied
through this short but telling gesture.
Yi-jung’s demotion
to sales is a form of humiliation. During an interaction with a potential
customer in which a male colleague is present, Yi-jung says nothing. She is
assured that she will do better.
Meanwhile,
Su-kyung’s relationship with Yong-yeol develops. They look at an apartment
together. Su-kyung is surprised to learn
that Yong-yeol wants her teenage daughter to live with them. Su-kyung appears
to be trading one daughter for another.
There is a flashback
in which Su-kyung attends a graduation ceremony with a teenage Yi-jung.
Yi-jung’s friends complement her for having such a beautiful mother. ‘But I’m
not her mother,’ Su-kyung explains. The teenage girls apologise for their
mistake.
What is the source
of Su-kyung’s anger? She tells Yi-jung that she sacrificed her life for her, that
Yi-jung demanded too much breast milk. In reality, Yi-jung is the product of a
failed relationship, a reminder of that Su-kyung doesn’t have a man in her
life. Su-kyung continues to imagine herself as a desirable young woman. She
can’t accept any of the joys of motherhood, closing herself off to them. She
also bears a scar from Caesarian delivery. Su-kyung also complains that her
daughter never moved out. ‘She doesn’t have enough money,’ she complains.
For her part,
Yi-jung remains socially awkward, befriending her replacement and returning the
USB stick to her. ‘It was in my box of things,’ she lies. Yi-jung helps her
colleague with the accounts and stands up for her when their employer discovers
mistakes. Yi-jung is told to keep out of the conversation; she isn’t at school.
The colleague allows Yi-jung to stay with her overnight but doesn’t not react
when Yi-jung suggests that they could be flatmates.
In a particularly
striking scene, Su-kyung receives a coat from Yong-yeol, whom she is due to
meet for dinner. She decides to turn up wearing her coat, negligee, underwear
and shoes – and nothing else. In the restaurant, Su-kyung discovers that Yong-yeol’s
daughter has the same coat. Su-kyung removes the coat, revealing her red
negligee, and leaves, walking home defiantly attracting stares but repelling
them with a fierce expression.
Yong-yeol’s daughter
is not so keen on Su-kyung either after Su-kyung entered her room to find a pen
and picks up a pink vibrator. After the initial shock, Su-kyung finds it
humorous. Yong-yeol’s daughter is less than pleased, regarding this discovery
as an intrusion.
In the end, Yi-jung
is forced to return home, finding her mother in a restaurant and helping
herself to Su-kyung’s food. There is an extraordinary moment in the apartment
when there is a power cut, Yi-jung illuminating her mother with her mobile
phone. She finds that they have vanilla ice cream, melting with the loss of
refrigeration. ‘When did you get this?’ Yi-jung asks. Su-kyung cannot
remember.
Kim Se-in doesn’t offer a cathartic finish. However, she has
captured something real. There is a sub-plot in which Su-kyung falls out with a
friend, eventually buying her a bun and sharing a grocery order. She is capable
for forgiveness even after extreme behaviour. Kim Se-in portrays a societal
problem inherent in one-parent families, mining it for well-observed drama. The
Apartment with Two Women will sear itself onto the viewer’s memory,
just as it did on mine.
Reviewed at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Filmhouse Screen Three, Princes Street. Sunday 14 August 2022, 15:30 screening
Comments
Post a Comment