Sumin is a photographer documenting the gentrification and changes of his neighborhood. One day, as he’s taking more photos, he witnesses the murder of a woman. The killers come after him and he wakes up naked on what looks to be a gazebo in his neighborhood. Odd things happen; Sumin is rendered unconscious and wakes up in odd places over and over again. Alone, or Hongmin in its original language, was directed by Hong-min Park who co-wrote it with Hye-jin Cha.
The film is built in a way where the lead character of Sumin lives many events and those events may or may not be connected to each other. The story built with these does bring up questions but answers few of them. The film moves at a good pace, but with no established goal or point to it, it all feels a bit useless. Why is Sumin going through this? Is he alive? Is he dead and this is his purgatory? Was something lost in translation? The proceedings are somewhat interesting but not captivating which makes the film feel long even with its pace moving things along nicely.
The cast for this film is fairly small and everything revolves around Sumin who is played by Lee Ju-won. His performance is good with some nuances but with nothing really standing out which makes his presence a bit monotone through the film. However, it does feel like it may have been the point as his character seems to lead a bit of a humdrum life leasing to a less than exciting personality.
There is one scene with a major special effect and it’s quite good. However, to not spot it, details will not be discussed. The effect is, well, effective and well done. The sound accompanying it is a bit cringe-inducing, in a good way. A few other bloody bits are found here and there and they all look realistic as well, even when how they happen feels out of context for their scene.
As is the case with a lot of middle of the road films, neither great nor horrendous, Alone is hard to review without making it sound worse than it is. Alone is not a bad film and it has some good ideas, it’s just that the execution comes off as rather bland and that despite all of its efforts, it fails at really captivating the attention of its viewer. It may very well be a case of a film that is just not for everyone, so feel free to give it a try.