Please post your responses to Family Ties here. I suggest that you also read the article by Jeeyoung Shin, "Globalization and Korean Cinema". It might help to guide your thoughts.
Dealing with family issues, the film "Family Ties" clearly introduces typical rather than fresh melodramatic storyline. Regardless of its cliche "Korean" soap opera-like plots, the director evidently takes adavantage of its commonness; though the plot reflect minor uniqueness, it seems that changing the realistic family story just for the sake of "oh, that's new" line, would not be authentic. The film depicts the cliche Korean family story and that is what makes the story approperiate. Despite the typical melodrama in the film, the camera work begs to differ. In many scenes, camera attempts to capture both the expressions of characters and the distant backgrounds. This aided the audience in entering the world behind the screen and empathize with the story. One of the scenes which demonstrated such technique was the fireworks scene: the dark foreground was cherished by colorful sparks in the sky in the background. I was there. The film "Family Ties" achieves both the recognizable storyline and unique camera technique. The combination of two factors seems to balance the film as a calm yet dynamic piece of art.
The movie “Family Ties” presents us with three stories, all of which involve several characters involved in some type of relationship, paralleling each other with seemingly no coherence; thus, the movie seems a bit slow. All three stories actually reveal characters that are rather eccentric or socially inept to a certain degree. The interesting portion of this movie is the ability of people to create different types of relationships, which is a concept that can be embraced by a majority of viewers. The final portion of this film ties all of these stories together, revealing how all the people are interconnected in this melodramatic love/relationship movie. A feeling of resolvement occurs from character development and the maturing of characters and the relationships that were formed. Film and cinematographic effects seem rather typical as the director employed techniques that didn’t necessarily come across as extravagant or overdone.
Family Ties.....The structure of this movie is omnibus which several episodes are combined one another. First episode happens among Mira, Hyungchul, and Mushin, second one is about daughter Sunkyoung and mother Maja who has totally different styles of love, and the last story is about Chahyun who are always likely to help other people and Kungsuk who cannot understand her characteristics. The words that I came up with the most frequently during watching this movie were ‘unstable’, ‘risky’, and so on. Their relationships, entangled sophisticatedly, seemed that they might be broken soon with any reasons. However, even though their loves and relations look so abnormal, they ended up union as a name of family. Most of all, I could feel sympathy to this movie. That’s because while usually lives portrayed in the movies are described beautifully and spectaclely with some exaggerations, this movie showed the real our lives, like I was in the movie and observed their behavior or conversation next to them. I was happy because although all of them in the movie had their own difficulties or bad memories, they tried to overcome and they could be more mature in thoese processes.
It is definitely not easy to be a member of some random family all of a sudden, especially here in Korea where consanguinity is highly stressed. Therefore, it is hard to feel the affection(정) that exists under the name of family from strangers. In other words, it is this inexplicable emotion that cannot be felt by forcibly living together. There is this unbreakable “absoluteness” hidden in the word “family”. Although it’s true that this absoluteness contributes to the unity among the family members, on the other hand, it also has a characteristic of quickly sewing up the conflict among the family members instead of settling down the underlying problems. Even though you have this regrettable feeling, you do not spit it out, but hide it deeply inside yourself because they are your parents, brothers and sisters. And this conflict is not exposed right away, but when it is no longer controllable and after it comes to a head. This is probably why the movie tries to tell us that the kinship that we are familiar to is not the only family thing. Rather the movie suggests us to concentrate on human relations. The steps involved in building up human relationships are first encounter, flutter, passion, conflict, and reconciliation. However, without conflict, there will be no progress in the relationship and would just be in a stalemate. It is through this conflict where you figure out the other person’s demand and at the same time let that person realize what you want. But if these conditions are not understood from one or either side, we tend to say “Why are you doing this to me?” which is continually said in the film. Although the characters in the movie have affection for their loved ones, they get angry and grumble at the fact that they are ignoring them. However, all of this looked liked an indirect way of saying “Please love me” or “Know my love for you”. I guess the family that the movie is suggesting is not a car having all the passengers tied up heading to the same destination but a companion who by him or herself comes and sits next to you. And this is where a new family is born where the members are not blood tied. Also, Chae-yun’s knit work plays a vital role in constructing this new family. It was Kyung-suk and Chae-yun’s encounter that joined the two families and interestingly, Chae-yun was knitting when they first met in the train. Therefore it could be understood that the string used acts as the “Knot of relation”.
The common denominator of all the characters in this film is lonelieness by not having a normal, typical Korean family. Three stories’ protagonists, Mira, Sun-Kyung and Chae-Hyun’s lives circulates in the same ways as they don’t recognize and push away the people that can make them not lonely and still think that they need to be loved. Pretending not to be lonely by their acts of over-giving, hatred and indifference, the three people become one family in the end when they understand the true meaning of “being together as a family” during the unseen 20 years. When Mira fist met Moo-Shin, she is cold as ice despite Moo-Shin’s effort to get closer to her, but finally opens her mind to accept her as her family instead of her real brother, Hyung-chul. 20-year-old Chae-hyun is not an exception. Having a different childhood by having two mothers that are not even related by blood, she acts as if she always wants others attention and love, which ironically makes her boyfriend extremely lonely whom she is supposed to care the most. And he becomes longing for her love bottomless. When Sun-Kyung goes to see Woosik, his family is having dinner at the table, which is the only shot of our standard’s normal family figure which soon crashes when father’s affair‘s revealed. The families in this film consist of strangers; not related by blood and the film says that it doesn’t matter as long as they care for each other.
The film Family Ties allows us to peer into the lives of two families and witness the dynamic drama that occurs within the families. What’s interesting about this film is the pureness it exuberates. In no way is this film overly dramatic or consists of a complicated, hard to follow, “makes you think” kind of storyline. Rather, it simply deals with the simplicity of life presented in a simplistic manner. Although the plot deals with love, infidelity, and death, all the heavy elements required in making a perfect melodrama, this film seeks to address these topics in more subtle terms. In the scene in which Sun-Kyung goes to the house of her mother’s lover to confront him, one would expect a more dramatic outcome. However, this was not the case. Similarly, the scene of Sun-Kyung’s mother’s funeral did now rile up any intense emotion and even consisted of some comic relief (when the little brother did not know when to stop bowing). This subtly also achieved through the use of certain camera techniques and background music. Certain scenes that were shot through a hand held camera (scene where a character is walking away and the camera is following behind getting a shot of their backs) were often shaky and gave off the paparazzi vibe—this in effect made audiences feel as if they were experiencing the daily lives of these individuals alongside of them, making the audience forget that they were watching a film. Similarly, the background music used does not evoke any strong, intense emotions such as a melodrama or horror film would, but utilizes neutral fun melodies. However, this movie does have its moments unsubtly. In particular, the firework scene and the scene in which the objects that Sun-Kyung discovers in the suitcase are floating. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie’s purity as it reminded me a lot of films such a Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State.
Like Prof. Chung said before the movie, I think Korean title, “가족의 탄생” (Birth of Family) fits better than English title, “Family Ties.” This movie shows that it is not always family because they are a genetic family, and it is not non-family because they are not a genetic family. HyungChul leaves home saying he’ll be back until little ChaeHyun counts a hundred. After his leaving, ChaeHyun having sad face waits him in front of door like a daughter waiting for her dad or any other family member. The scene coming next is my favorite one in the movie. Little ChaeHyun’s sad mood changes and she jumps around the courtyard while the background has been dark and bright. Moreover, MuShin moves a dish toward Mira; I think all of these scenes mean time passing and they become a family. The construction is one of the best kind of omnibus movie!
This movie "가족의 탄생" was a movie about three stories that towards the end, come together to form a sense of completeness. I noticed that the camera was very mobile in that the movie itself felt like a documentary of the family's life. The three main stories featuring Mira, Sun-kyung, and Chae-hyun show how these families were able to overcome loneliness, financial struggle, and most importantly keeping the family together. I enjoy movies with stories that do not really make sense until you finish watching the movie and then it all comes together. Comparable to "Epitaph" yes, but I definitely enjoyed not having to grab onto my seat in fear of the next impending scene.
"Family Ties" shows that every family has its problems, may it be money problems or relational problems. What stands out to me the most is the cold front put up by Sun-kyung, the tenacious job-seeking, love-avoiding, brother-hitting, back-talking daughter who has problems expressing her feelings even to her own family. She takes out all of her anger on her mother for being a romantic who looks for love after the passing of her father. When in fact, the source of all Sung-kyung's anger and emotional issues begin with herself, most likely triggered by her father's death. After her mother's death there is a frame in the film that is a close-up of all the contents in one of Sun-kyung's suitcases. Inside there are pictures of her and her mother and things from her childhood. She gently sifts through the things, looks at the pictures and finally bawls for the first time (that the audience can see). She cries not because her mother has passed away, but because she realizes she can never tell her mother that she loves her, and regrets that she hadn't fully expressed herself when her mother was still alive. Now all she has left is her little brother and a suitcase full of inanimate objects, which the latter is incomparable to a walking and talking mother. (Anny Wong)
"Family Ties" deals with problematic lives of many people who are interrelated with each other. However this film does not just reveal problematic side of people's lives but reminds the audience that relationship that people establish with each other is not something that can be completely broken. When Chaehyun tells Mira that she broke up with Kyeongseok, instead of presenting an awkward situation of the scene, the next scene shows Mira keeps on insisting he should eat. The scene goes against most of the audience's expectation and thus seems rather funny but the important revelation in that scene is that the relationship between Chaehyun and Kyeongseok is not something that ends just because they break up. They have built their relationship with their whole heart and despite many hardships it can last. Moreover, the fact that the last scene in which Hyungchul brings a new girlfried has humorous factors hints that he will be accepted by his family again.
The movie "Family Ties" brought two families together that both experienced hardships. That sort of story line seems kind of corny and played out but the way that it fit together made it work. I thought it was interesting that the way that the camera shot the scenes changed for each story. For example, the first part of the movie the camera was set and still or moving smoothly. Unlike the second part of the movie about the sister, this part of the movie seemed to have the camera shaking a little giving a sense of reality. Then the last part of the movie about the young girl and guy it seemed to have both styles of shooting. I liked how the movie didn't get so dramatic, for example durning most scenes when something sad happens something funny happens at the right moments to keep the audience entertained and not sad. However, i thought that the scene where the sister starts floating and fireworks go off was too extreme and unnecessary. But i liked how you get to see the characters from the two beginning stories and can tell how much they matured in the case of the older sister or gotten closer for the case of the old wife and her sister in law.
In the movie "Family Ties" one scene struck me more than any other. I am talking about the initial suitcase scene when the daughter who ran away from home is trying to open it in and can't. The shot itself is visually great with her and the suitcase facing off in a neutral area with strong shadows and being of seemingly equal physical size due to her crouching on the ground. In the end of that take she cannot get the case open in in her frustration turns her back on it. Similar to the way she is dealing with her life, she struggles violently with her mother about their past and continually turns her back in a sort of push pull relationship. The second suitcase scene comes after she has tried earnestly to reconcile with her mother and after her mothers death. This time the take itself is different. it is from if I remember correctly a higher angle and has more light as well as the lack of violence. She finally gets the case open and discovers her childhood physically and metaphorically inside. She is grieved by the discovery, the memories, and the death of her mother and is overtaken by emotion.
These 2 takes along with the supporting back story about her and her mothers relationship make for an emotional and cinematic experience that would touch most anyone. The use of metaphors along with camera techniques make this a great part of a better movie about coming to terms with ones past and present and moving forward with the loved ones you have surrounded yourself with.
The scene that stayed with me is the shot with Mira and Mushin waiting for the return of Hyung-Chol. We get the passing of time with Mira and Mushin eating at the table watching the daughter play outside. It's clear the time is passing from the change in the amount of light and the insertion of a dog. While time is passing at an increased rate the two women are still moving in virtual real time which creates a cool effect. However neither talk to each other and remain transfixed on the girl. Throughout the movie I thought the passage of time was interesting. In the beginning we catch glimpses of each of the stories with no real indication of how they will be related. We then catch a majority each story separately until the end. This creates a satisfying culmination as we realize how the characters are interlinked and how strong family ties are.
“Family Ties” was a very touching and sentimental film compared to the other movies shown through this course. I feel like I was surprisingly engrossed in this film the most. I found it very clever how the director was about to tie all the separate family stories together into one interconnected web through the young couple (Chae Hyun and Kyung-suk). I thought the entire film concept was endearing and pleasurable to the viewer. Furthermore, I found myself connecting more with the characters in this film emotionally simply because I feel that the director put careful attention towards facial expressions and full body language. The entire essence of the characters was captured via close facial shots along with wider, fully-body shots as well.
Family Ties, originally titled "Birth of a Family" in the Korean language, is a movie that portrays the social issue of family problems. Given the title, family is an important theme for the structure of the movie. In the Korean culture, family image is a vital part of one's livelihood. Therefore, if something like an affair is found out within the family, it is best to not let the news out of the family circle. Interestingly, this film depicts how dysfuntional families handle their problems. In the second story, Yoo Sun-kyung's mother, whom she rarely gets along with, is having an affair with a married man who has a wife and two sons. Sun-kyung goes to the man's house and exposes him in front of his family. He admits his love for her mom to the horror of his family and asks Sun-kyung, "Are you happy now?" At the end of the second plot, Sun-kyung realizes exposing the affair did not help heal wounds as she is seen crying over the suitcase. A scene that stuck out to me occurs during the first story when Mira, Mu-shin and Chae-hyun are seen waiting for the return of Hyung-chul. The cinematography of this seen is creative in that while Mira and Mu-shin are sitting at the same meal eating inside the house, Chae-hyun can be seen outside doing various activities while day turns into night and then back into day. This scene portrays the amount of time they wait for Hyung-chul's return in a span of 5 - 10 seconds. I have never before seen time elapse demonstrated in this way.
"Family Ties" deals bonds that are undetachable. Even though direct translation of the title of this film would be "Birth of a Family", the title "Family Ties" seems to represent the film better. There no complete, whole families in this film. The audience never gets to see Hyungchul and Mira's parents. Hyungchul, Mira and Hyungchul's wife, Mushin seem to make a new family but eventually falls apart. Even though Hyungchul, who created the bond between Mira and Mushin, is gone, Mira and Mushin continue to live together and raise Mushin's daughter together. Even though Yunkyung seems indifferent to Kyungsuk, they form a new family under the ties that have been created through their mother. The tie Yunkyung has with her mother is like the kimchi she eats out of all the Japanese food she eats. It is something undetachable and carries value that is way deeper than what is shown on the surface. At the end of the movie, as the Korean title suggests, a new family is born. But this sense of family is not simply a bloodline, a biological one. Instead, when Hyungchul comes back, he is driven out of the house and out of the family.
In the film "Family Ties", the series of scenes that caught my attention were the unrealistic scenes of the seemingly separate stories. The first time this occurs is when the Mushin and Mira are eating a meal, but in the background young Chae Hyun is jumping around playing in fastforward mode. Time seems to be passing quickly outside, but inside time has slowed. The next unrealistic scene occurs when Sun-Kyung is crying after finally opening her mother's suitcase to find all her sentimental childhood knickknacks. The room is scattered with the objects, a shot portrays the objects slowly floating up around the focal point which happens to be Sun-Kyung crying on the bed. The objects are unfocused like they are being seen from peripheral vision, but Sun-Kyung is very clear. The last scene when Sun-Kyung is older and she is singing on television, she begins to float up into the sky with a bright smile. These scenes are symbolic of what are important to the characters. In the first, the two women seem unchanged in the darkness as they eat there meal but the child jumping around in the sunlight shows there purpose in life. In the second, the girl who just lost her mother finally is able to express her emotion and really come to terms with her true love for her thus begins to cry uncontrollably. The objects are in a way floating because they have meaning; they are her mother's love. The last scene shows the how much Kyung-Suk cares for his sister because in his imagination she is being lifted up into the beautiful sky with fireworks. She is the one who raised him and cared for him and he truly cares for her and loves her. The director uses these unrealistic elements in his film to really show what the main focus of the film will be--familial love.
Two scenes struck me quite powerfully. One was the scene in which ChaeHyun is playing in the background with shifting time as the two older ladies are eating continuously. The second scene is where Sun-kyung is sitting among the floating mementos of her childhood. These two scenes are far more surreal than expected for a melodrama reflecting a very possible and accessible family scenario. Each represent scenes of powerful emotion, and I would say the most powerful of the movie. The first one being of abandonment and lost hope as they wait for Hyung-chol to return. The second of regret and realization as Sun-kyung is only able to open the suitcase only after her mother's death. The rest of the movie had events with emotion like the confrontation of Sun-kyung's mother's lover, but were offset by the realistic portrayal of them. Frequently in movies the exaggeration of emotion is what makes it so striking, but here the extremeness of those two scenes is in the surrealism.
“A Family Tie” opens up in a unique way that consists of three different stories playing after one another that at first seem unrelated. However, these seemingly unrelated stories returned out to be, well, related in the end by the time the third story finishes. This film, impressively showing how personalities can be shaped by different family environment, moves along in a calm progression that is well suited for patient individuals who enjoys the movie. Also, the uniqueness of this film is the quirkiness and lack of melodrama, which made people to watch in a comfortable way compared to those cringe inducing Korean television dramas. This film does not emphasize the importance of gender role and a patriarchal system in family. May be this is why there is no main character in this film, in order to emphasize that the family as a whole is a one unit. In addition, looking at details and the techniques, this film’s performances are excellent and the camera work is stellar by film’s colors being over saturated just enough to lend an otherworldly beauty to the proceedings, leaving a very realistic environment.
I was transfixed by the cinematography of this film. I love the natural, soft lighting effect that pervades throughout Family Ties. This natural effect was accentuated by the neutral, natural colors that the characters often wore; together, these two aspects contributed to the real-life feel of the film. As an audience member, I got the sense that I was following and even participating in the lives of these characters – that they were real people and I was engrossed in their story, despite the lack of action and plot-progressing conflict. Though Family Ties was realistic, it was also very artistic – dull colors were accentuated with rainbows (scarf, blanket in room), when the man tells Sun-Kyung her mother is sick, she is facially emotionless but the camera shows water dripping off her glove, representing a hidden emotion within her. Finally, I also noticed that throughout Family Ties, characters are often looking out of windows or doors, contemplative. Also, it seemed to be a theme that all the women were used, hurting, and looking for love – which perpetuated their being used and hurting.
this film reminded me of the american movie Crash, in that seemingly separate stories play out but in the end turn out to be intimately interconnected. however, instead of being a gritty film like Crash, Family Ties took the classic Korean tried-and-true family drama route to paint a picture of the way that misfortune and chance shapes family life. in a way i found the film also to portray the inexplicable korean concept of Han--although each character is a victim, they all manage to transcend their pain. this culminates in the end, where the titular family, whose members' individual stories are before told separately, come together in a somewhat corny but revelatory sequence under fireworks to the music of Sun-kyung's choir. In light of Jeeyoung Shin's article and 2005's Crash, i found Family Ties to be an interesting "koreanization" of the interconnection drama, with a focus on the korean family unit instead of society and an element of melodrama.
The composition of this movie is representing the whole theme of this movie. In the last scene, all the characters in this movie appear in the subway platform. They look vague and ambiguous. They don’t seem to be related to each other. But when they become together under the word of ‘family’, they can be tighter than others. This movie breaks out the traditional meaning of family. They are not related with blood ties, but they can be tight under boundary of family. In the beginning of this movie, it describes about the three different stories which make audience get confuse. But at the end, all the characters of the movie are unified as family. That is important point of this movie.
This movie deals with humanity. Regardless "the blood," elements that makes a family vary just like two different people marry and make a family. Everyone in the movie has some kind of connections to one another, and diffrent feeling toward one another. The compositions tells the connections and the emotions in several scenes. For example, when SunKyung is emotionally lonely, viewers barely see her face, but when she is feeling some connection with her mother, the camera shows both in one scene. Hence when everyone forgets about their own issues and plays games all together like a big family during SunKyung's brother's sports meeting at the school, the camera captures no back of heads, counting the masks as faces. Sometimes the emotional connections are divided by a wall. For example, when MuShin and Mira are waiting for HyoungChul, they are building "Jung"(정). Also when actors do not share similar feelings, the camera captures them separately like when Mira and MuShin first met. Therefore the last scene shows who formed a family and whom are excluded divided by the front door of the house. Overall, the camera directly helps the viewers to diffrenciate the emotional connections between the characters.
Although "Family Ties" deals with deep, emotional issues such as death, cheating, and loneliness, I was surprised to find so many parts of this film so humorous and witty at the same time. Irony is used frequently in the film, such as when Mu-Shin's husband comes back years later with another girl, who is pregnant. In addition, I found it ironic when we see Sunk-Kyung years later. She dresses and has the same hair-style as her mother did before she passed away. This, I found ironic because Sun-Kyung seemed to so much despise all decisions her mother made, yet she developed similarities to her mom both internally and externally. Also, I found the "fantasy" images really fun and captivating, such as the part where Sun-Kyung's "past memories" begin to rise into the air. However, not all of the special effects were done so beautifully. The part where Sun-Kyung is singing and she rises into the air while fireworks are going off behind her seemed very easy and simplistic, techincally speaking, but I feel the director imagined this scene to play out this way, and in my opinion, this particular section gives the movie its extra charm. I found it humorous and even refreshing to see something as simple as a close-up of the actress using wonderful facial expressions with a dramatic, completely unrealistic background.
After watching “Family Ties,” I was a little dissatisfied by how neatly the plot tied itself together by connecting three almost indistinguishable time frames and stories. The tidiness of the “happy ending” seemed to detract from the realism of each of the individual stories. Nevertheless, I thought the movie was warm and funny, and the director made use of frames within houses to emphasize different moments of melancholy or loneliness within a place meant to fit a family, not just an individual. There is also the sense that time in the world outside the home moves differently than time within the home: we see ellipses of a child playing outside as two women eat dinner inside and the space of the television introduces an almost-kitschy world in which time and space are easily interwoven with fantasy and imagination.
"Family Ties" is like a collage of different love stories of families and lovers. Some scenes are longer and more detailed than others, like the scene in which Kyung-suk and Chae-hyun are on the bridge, having fun wrestling with each other. Other scenes, such as the part when the first episode simply ends with Mushin leaving Mira, are quite rapid and unexplained. Such editing causes the different scenes to weave into one another, until finally at the end the big picture can be seen. This technique seems to fit in well with both the Korean and English titles, 가족의 탄생 and Family Ties, for it shows how a family can be created by tieing such various seemingly unrelated people together by the power of love and friendship. Moreover, in a way this movie can seem like a big jigsaw puzzle that comes together as each of the pieces fit into their correct places. In the beginning, we are given the basic pieces that introduce us to the different settings of the episodes, and then the other details fill up as the stories go on.
I really liked this movie as "Family Ties". I noticed how different people come together under a roof. Even though your brother who disappeared after his army duty, and shows up all of sudden with a lady who looks so much older than him, his sister gladly accepts her. This movie might have been confusing, but like the way different pieces make into a one piece, its like how different people come together as a family.
I really enjoyed “Family Ties” because there were three separate stories and in the end all the stories combined into one. I felt that this movie really emphasized a person’s loneliness and how the “closest” people to you (such as family) could make you the most lonely or hurt. I liked the beginning of the movie because it showed the introduction of each character, yet the audience did not know the time period of each scene so it left the audiences imagination going. In the first story, I like the effects the director used to show that time was passing. The little girl was doing hopscotch one way…then doing it the other way…the dog was sitting on the ground…the little girl would run around…and while all this was happening, the two ladies continued to eat their food as if nothing was happening when in reality I’m sure a lot was going on. This story ends with the rain pouring and the older sister smoking a cigarette, which she would’ve never done if the brother did not come back into her life. I think this was to show that the older sister had now changed as well and how naïve she would not be about her brother anymore. The last scene for the second story also showed how she changed when she saw what was in the suitcase. She always felt as if she had to be strong so she could not be hurt in any way but when she finally opened the suitcase, it totally opened her emotions up as well. This movie was very enjoyable as well because I felt that many people could relate to the characters in the movie.
The movie "Family Ties" showed in many ways how families can be born with or without the genetic bond. Whether you are blood related or not the ties that bond you together never truly get broken. The movie showed that relationships between related people and relationships between people who are not related can be just as strong. There is a Chinese saying that goes " blood is stronger than water" but I think that this movie showed that this wasn't true and through hardships and conflicts with one another a stronger relationship is built. The director used different camera techniques to set the stories apart but then also tied them back together by the storyline. This was an interesting use of camerawork; to very obviously distinguish the stories yet make them seem coherent in the end.
Artistic images pervades throughout this film. (especially the view of Kyungsuk and Chaeyun playing on a bridge, and the river view with beautiful clouds and sunsets). Lights seem to play an important role as well. For example, usually Sunkyung is captured in a room with deem lights and darker surroundings, which adds a sense of her emotional isolation. Also, when Kyungsuk leaves after fighting with Chaeyun, the light turns off and shows Chaeyun’s silhouette. The whole scenes seem to flow smoothly without such a high climax and twist, in a slow motion. The flow of time is unclear. (young Chaeyun playing in the yard over days and nights implicitly indicates the passing of time). The tranquility of the film and the portrayal of daily life even feel beautiful. Overall, the film thematically deals with comical (jokes), dreamy (the fireworks and Sunkyung floating), eccentric (Hyungchul and Mushin), yet beautiful life that we live in. The ending scene where all the characters passes by each other, clearly gives a message that life is unexpected and someone who passes by today can become your family members in the future. The film shows how life is comical but tragic, beautiful yet eccentric
Unlike other people, I thought the title "Family Ties" was quite appropriate. To put it very simply, all the families were dysfunctional, suffering, scarred, poor and seemingly hopeless. Hyun Chul is introduced as someone wishing to start his screwed up life all over. He says, “Let's laugh away all our problems... I'll take care of everything. Let's just laugh.” But things shattered once the non-related daughter, Chae Yun, comes into the picture. She calls Mushin her mother, who refuses to embrace this girl who just got sent away by her father. The lack of love in that scene for this lost child, resulting in a complete breakdown of their short lived family unit, foreshadowed the theme for the rest of the movie: Family ties people together (I am aware that “ties” in the title was probably not meant in this way); Family is at the center and basis of life itself, and it is the source, the beginning of true love. The lighting throughout this movie was utilized in correspondence to the presence of true love. Most of the movie, the scenes took place in very dark houses, with lights off, or dim background lighting i.e. the shop, the broken light bulb in Mira's house, Sun Kyung's apartment never had lights, etc. This was always during times of tribulation and fighting. On the contrary, when there were signs of incipient love, scenes were typically in natural sunlight. For example, even when Sun Kyung visited the ajussi with malignant motives, he confessed he did love her mother, which took place in a very bright naturally lit room. Or towards the end of the movie when Kyung sung and Chae Yun were fighting, the lights kept going out, and then the following scene at the trainstation, it was the break of dawn, a new morning, when they started a fresh new relationship clearing all their dark past. Going back to the premise I presented earlier, one last example is of brother Hyun Chul when he returned at the end in the same manner. This time, however, the “family” is finally (born/tied) together. Hyun Chul is someone with no sense of family. This is what he represents, and the first time he came around, it tore everyone apart. His level of love is shallow and skin deep due to his lack of family sense. So there is presented this circular relationship between family and true love. Mira this time, kicks him out before he can ruin things again.
This movie’s English and Korean title has two different meaning, however, the storyline created from a combination of the two. This film not only shows the ties between new family members, but also the birth of a new family created from the old and new members together. This movie mainly tells the story of love and conflict between the seven family members: sibling quarrels, mother and daughter fights, and your everyday relationship fights between girlfriend and boyfriend. The plot of the story was quite surprising because viewers did not expect to see how the children grew up to become the characters Myung-Suk and Chae-Yeon. The computerized effects and the various use of light are noticeable in scenes such as where the memorial objects belonging to Sun-Kyung floats in thin-air, her body actually floating, the fireworks, and the shine from her brooch. Winter as the constant setting was made coherent throughout the movie.
In this film, director Kim Tae Yong explores the themes of love and family and how they relate to the emotional effects brought upon people as a result of disunited families. The film is split into three parts with the last part tying the first two parts together with Kyung Suk and Chae Hyun becoming acquaintances. Through these two characters, Tae Yong reveals the lasting effects of broken familial ties. Chae Hyun feels the effects of being abandoned by the father figures in her life which forces her to live with her two mother figures, Mira and Mu-Shin. From these effects, she is viewed as a young woman urgently seeking acceptance to the point in which she is considered to be "easy." Kyung Suk anticipates betrayal from Chae Hyun because of what he went through with his father who cheated on his own family in order to use Kyung Suk's mother. These lasting effects in both characters are apparent in the scene where Chae Hyun and Kyung Suk are talking in the hallway with the lights turning on and off. Tae Yong uses the lighting as a technique in this scene in which the light represents Chae Hyun's optimism and her search for acceptance, and the dark symbolizing the despair and betrayal Kyung Suk sees coming for himself.
We cannot choose our own family and family member never change. We just need to accept and understand everything about our family. Because ‘pure-blood’ is so important in Korean society, family occupies an important position on people’s mind. The “Family Ties” brings a question about the definition about family. The director produces the movie with an omnibus film technique. In first story, a lack of responsibility and incompetent Hyung-Chul thinks about family as god, family will understand anything that he does and his sister to be accept unreasonable demand, such as bringing 20 years older wife and wife’s daughter to sister’s house without asking. Second story is dealing with mother and daughter’s relationship. They will pass over the feeling of solidarity as the year flow away and unconditional support will exist by understanding others. Sometimes daughter blames her mom but she is destined to become like her mother after all. The last story has a love relationship idea. A couple is having a hard time to understand each other because they grew in different family environment. Through all the stories, every time characters are unable to understand others, they are questioning to a person “why are you doing this to me?” From this question, I see that we do not know ourselves and hard to understand when others admit mistakes. Plus, people need to show consideration for anything we dislike, and we want people must understand us. “Family Ties” strongly demonstrates that there will be many years to spend when stranger becomes a part of family and the movie provides family’s warm sympathy.
This film shows that having blood relations with the closest people around you does not necessarily make you a family. Complete strangers, even those that aren’t very fond of each other, can come together to form a loving family. This is evidenced by the women Mi-ra, Mu-shin, and Chae-yeon (Mu-shin’s ex-husband’s, ex-wife’s daughter), who were flimsily connected by Hyung-chul (Mi-ra’s younger brother and Mu-shin’s “wife”) but at the end of the film are portrayed as a close-knit, loving family. To strengthen the film’s message at the end of the film, Mi-ra rejects her brother and kicks him out of her house, as well as her life, when he tries to enter her life again, showing that blood is not always thicker than water. Another example of this is of Seon-gyung and her half-brother Gyeong-suk. Although Seon-gyung initially resents her half-brother, she gives up her future for her brother’s sake when their mother passes away. Although they are not completely related, Seon-gyung raises Gyeong-suk as her own brother and child, and the two grow into being a loving family. Both examples of family in the film, despite being odd and dysfunctional, demonstrate that complete blood relations do not automatically make you family, but love for one another is all that it takes to make a family.
For a while a rabbit mask faces the camera lens before the rebellious daughter/reluctant sister/brokenhearted girl/lively tour guide turns around, laughing, and faces the lens amidst her little stepbrother’s field trip at which she had fiercely declined to supervise. The lives explored in this film are all so very complicated and refreshingly real and quotidian – and every character lives numerous different hues of life, as though each wears a different mask for each setting. Nothing is “wrong” or “right” despite immediate appearances. Interesting use of light and color highlights the film throughout. As Sun-kyung realizes too late that her mother had actually truly loved her and remembered her every moment, the scene ends with a depiction of the girl sobbing with a pile of childhood toys and gifts surrounding her in bright colors – a nursery setting, symbolizing her (futile) desire to return back in time. As the couple talk in front of Mira’s traditional Korean home, an automatic light switches on and off as if to parallel their efforts to understand, see one another clearly. A most captivating line: “Knocking for what, between family??” The idea that family members can hurt one another without doing much harm is rightly rejected in this film. The line “Sorry. For everything” captures the essence of the mutual pain between sister and brother, mother and daughter, boyfriend and girlfriend, when hurtful words and actions are flung thoughtlessly. “Family Ties” is representative of Jeeyoung Shin’s idea that many current films “[mix] indigenous cultural elements with regional and Western influences.” Sun-kyung’s desire to depart somewhere distant, Mira and Mu-shin’s home that is representative of postwar Korean homes, and conservatively romantic relations between the young couple are specific to Korea in a globalized world. There is must hope – in the shots in which Mira and Mu-shin wordlessly eat at the dinner table awaiting Mira’s brother while seasons change, the little girl dances and skips in the center. She is eventually revealed as having become a beautiful, empathetic woman.
In the film Family Ties lead us through the lives of extremely diverse individuals through their serious ups and downs until the end where all the individuals' stories merge/meet together in a one place and finally form a one loving and understanding family. I think this movie beautifully pictures a low-class Korean family with a unique korean sensibility. For example, the film very effectively and poetically captures the subtle but strong tension between Mira and Mu-shin, the once married wife of Mira's younger brother. This tension between brother's sister and wife is a Korea's unique cultural occurance. To describe this the film shows the very still image of the two women seating in front of a awkward breakfast table while the scenery outside the door changes, indicating many years passing by. Also, the last scene the director successfully addresses the love and warmth of the family through the scene where all the members gather together in the yard to make winter Kim-Chi. I loved this poetic element of the film. There were few scenes where the directer intentionally put a computerized and unrealistic situations. In a sense it kind of seem unfit and some people laughed at it but for me i even loved that awkwardness and cheesiness. I consider it as the director's intention to adds to the warmth and humane element of the film by making it look little less professional.
This movie is extremely boring and meaningless up until the point where Kyung-suk visits Chae-yeon's house and everything "ties" together. In actuality, even families don't have such a tight relationship just as Hyung-chul and Mira do not have intimate relationship. Not only that, the only one with blood-relationship with Mira is rejected by her at the end of the movie. In a way, the title "Family Ties" is a better title than the korean one "The Birth of a Family" because family is made not by birth but family is made as people get together and have deeper relationship than the actual family. Lastly, I would like to ask a question if the director purposely placed Mira and Moo-shin together to criticize gay-lesbian issue. Although it is not implicitly told in the movie, Chae-yeon calling both Mira and Moo-shin as "mom" reminded me of adopted children having two moms.
Family Ties deals with people who are living in their own order, although their lives might be problematic. Most of the main characters who lead the movie are women, and this might be the reason for the director to shoot the scenes very smoothly and esthetically, such as showing the glow in the sky while Mira and Mushin having their dinner awkwardly. Daughters have the very moment of recognizing their mother as “women,” mot their moms. And for Sun-kyung, that was when her mom’s life was not much left. Her mom loving a man, even forgetting other people could be hurt by her love affair, makes Sun-kyung to feel complicated. This is the very moment of Sun-kyung to say “she was a big heart,” rather than “clumsy,” as Hyung-chul said to Sun-kyung. Mira’s unique family relationship is also centered to women. Mira, Mu-shin, and Chae-yeon, living their own lives, but tied in the name of “family” somewhat seems to be dumb, but at the same time very warm. Family Ties was a movie that cannot be only explained by ordinary relationship within a family, making the audience think about a new concept of family.
The movie Family Ties is probably another example of bad movie. Once again the flow of melodramatic concept transformed the movie into a typical soap-opera. The movie which is built upon three stories was a form of cliche, or rather irrelevant to the title of the movie. It rather depicted tragedy and corruption with in the family. However, the movie did have some innovative cinematography. There were scenes in which just the background change while the actual focus point remained constant. This was to illustrate the flow of time; however, it was also irrelevant. There were too many unnecessary scene that did not really connect to other. Hence the movie only showed parallelism between three story but once again it showed the same old story as any other antiquate movie that we have screened during class. After 2004, the time that Korea produced many world wide fame movie, it is evident that there is a decline in Korean Film industry. Moreover, instead of focusing on the originality, after the peak of 2004, Korean movies seems to lack the capacity to produce blockbusters that appeals to all audience.
The localized setting of much of this film reminded me of Christmas in August. The clothes the characters wear are usually very generic, and the first story (Mira's story) features almost nothing more than a typical, relatively old house. Perhaps because of this, and because I have a hard time keeping Korean names straight, I didn't realize that the third story (of Chae-yeon and her boyfriend) took places at least a decade after the first until very near the end. This ambiguity in time, I think, deliberately demonsrates the timeless quality of such family-oriented stories.
The women of this film are the ones in control. The men have much influence over them, but it is Mira, in the end, who kicks her brother out of the house, and Sun-kyung who kicks her ex-boyfriend out of her apartment. Finally, although it is Kyung-suk who always expresses frustration at Chae-yeon, it's ultimately up to Chae-yeon whether or not she wants to accept Kyung-suk back into her life. However, despite this new(?) "power" of women, it is clear that it never escapes the domestic stage, and so we must question whether or not the women are so newly empowered in this film. Furthermore, in the first two stories, at least, the women's decisions served to alienate them from their blood-related family members (though Mira did, presumably, take Mu-shin and Chae-yeon back into her home). Therefore, I'm not sure if the film can really serve as an example of the empowerment of women.
If one was going to stroll through the park on a Sunday after noon, it would be like watching "Family Ties". This movie was a laid back type, where there was no real tension, but just story telling, with no artistic cinematography, but just three stories interwoven to make a grand finale. The characters of the film were believable, maybe because the casting was well done, but this film would appeal to more of the female audience. "Family Ties" shed away from convential things that most viewers would think they would find in a Korean film, not a sad drama dealing with sorrow, but a funny film that deals with loss. Yes, the movie was sad in it's own way, but not a movie that would make one think afterwards. There were many funny parts, but only funny because of it's cultural boundaries it was in. The melodramatic element was minimal, but still there, it just was not the same feel that most international audiences would like to see in a Korean film. Like most Korean movies, it kept true to the importance of family, drawing on Confucian ideals about honor in family.
The film, Family Ties, was one of the films that I thoroughly enjoyed watching in this class. This movie was in its rawest form because family situations portrayed in this movie were real and plausible. Initially, Kim Tae Yong introduces two seperate families and depicts real family problems. As the film gradually continued, we the audience see how these two families tie together. What I appreciated about this movie was its authenticity to its truest form. In order to do that, Kim Tae Yong used more diegetic sounds with dialogue rather than non diegetic sounds. His lack of music editing and the use of natural sounds added to the reality of these family situations. An example of this was the scene when Kyung Suk breaks up with his girlfriend, Chae Hyun. We see a simple scene of them standing in the hallway. It is a long shot so that we are able to see their background and their body expressions. The only extra tool that the director utilized for this shot was a korean-style automatic light that would turn off on its own. The scene was mainly quiet and the lighting created the severity of the situtation. This scene shows how simple Kim Tae Yong kept this scenes in order to create a more real effect.
The film "Family Ties" projects three different stories that parallel one another. The director tries to connect these three stories by utilizing specific transition filming techniques such as slow motion, floating objects, and foreshadowing to show the flow of time/time of progression between each of the framed stories. The slow motion technique can be witnessed in the very first scenes where Mushin and Mira are looking out from their living room; watching the little girl run back and forth in the front yard in slow motion. This was used as a transition to move on to an unrelated story that was projected after. Towards the end of the second story, the character Sun-Kyung saw her mother from a far distance while she was trying to take a photo for this one couple. The standing presence of her mother in her focus of perspective created a big portion of a transition to Sun-Kyung opening her mother luggage bag. In this scene, objects starts to flow in the air, perhaps alluding to the growth of Sun-Kyung's mother's son. Although it wasn't a good of a smooth-transition, it reveals the progression of time for the little boy to grow up and start another story. Overall, the this movie projected a tragic story of the hardships the females had to face in everyday life in a domestic family, but at the same time shows the cirlce of life through the techniques I have previously mentioned.
The camera movement in "Family Ties" was interesting to me; I noticed that there was a lot of "natural" movement, in which the camera was handheld and moved with the actors. This really helped in making me think that I was in the same space as the actors, and helped accentuate the emotions that the actors were feeling. This made the actors' emotions seem pure and genuine. This, along with the combination of the three stories, highlighted the fact that love, feelings of regret or betrayal, death, and tragic mistakes (like Um Tae Woong's character) are in fact very real and are prevalent in daily life.
The movie describes big values of family. We cannot exactly define values of family, but there is something invisible power in the relationship called 'Family'. Even though family members have conflicts between themselves, they are willing to understand each other because they are family. However, Main families in the movie is not really family that we consider. Three women, Mira, Moosin and Cheyon, are family but they actually do not even have same blood. However we see their bond is stronger than any other families. Sun Kyung and Kyung suk's case is slightly different. They have same mother but have different father. In the view of Sun Kyung who do not have father hate her mother's life looking for love and hate her 'other brother' as well. However after her mother died, Sunkyung cries and realize the value of her mother's existence and keeps living with her 'other brother'. Director's concept of family is not limited to 'real family'. He emphasizes ties of human relationship not just family and relative relationship.
What I liked the most about Family Ties was that it had an independent modern style and it closely related to the American film form, yet everything about it promoted the lifestyle in Korea. The American format would be how the film began with three separate stories and made them collide at the end, similar to the American film "Crash" and "Love Actually." I also enjoyed how the film incorporated humor and tragedy together to deliver mixed emotions to the audience. In technical terms, I enjoyed the cinematography and lighting the most. The nondialogue scenes of the film were also interesting to watch, such as the moment when Mira and Mushin are eating together in silence while little Cheyon is playing outside. Overall I am glad that we got to watch this film, because it made me more interested in Korean cinema and also made me appreciate it more than before.
I thought "Family Ties" was very successful in making a heartwarming film with a Korean 'indie' flair. The handheld/voyeuristic camerawork wasn't overdone either. And more surprisingly the quirkier elements like the objects floating from the suitcase or the ending firework scene gave the film a new twist even if it was expected. Overall, the makers of this film checked off everything I had expected from the start: quirkyness, nonlinear narrative, packaged completely explained ending, handheld camerawork, moody palette, etc. and even though sometimes korean cinema can seem formulated and expected, it was the humor and the characters who made this film shine for me. -sophia rhee
i enjoyed that the disjunctive narratives were actually tied together by the end of the film. the music in the first sequence was very western and stringy creating a very disjointed mood between the characters. the second narrative had a lot of nondiegetic piano music which portrayed a sense of romanticized dreams of esccape marred by the death of the mother. the third narrative included both types of nondiegetic sound and linked all of the narratives on the audioscape. the nondiegetic music in all of the narratives was used to speed up time in connection to faster cut shots. -James Seiling
Dealing with family issues, the film "Family Ties" clearly introduces typical rather than fresh melodramatic storyline. Regardless of its cliche "Korean" soap opera-like plots, the director evidently takes adavantage of its commonness; though the plot reflect minor uniqueness, it seems that changing the realistic family story just for the sake of "oh, that's new" line, would not be authentic. The film depicts the cliche Korean family story and that is what makes the story approperiate. Despite the typical melodrama in the film, the camera work begs to differ. In many scenes, camera attempts to capture both the expressions of characters and the distant backgrounds. This aided the audience in entering the world behind the screen and empathize with the story. One of the scenes which demonstrated such technique was the fireworks scene: the dark foreground was cherished by colorful sparks in the sky in the background. I was there. The film "Family Ties" achieves both the recognizable storyline and unique camera technique. The combination of two factors seems to balance the film as a calm yet dynamic piece of art.
ReplyDeleteThe movie “Family Ties” presents us with three stories, all of which involve several characters involved in some type of relationship, paralleling each other with seemingly no coherence; thus, the movie seems a bit slow. All three stories actually reveal characters that are rather eccentric or socially inept to a certain degree. The interesting portion of this movie is the ability of people to create different types of relationships, which is a concept that can be embraced by a majority of viewers. The final portion of this film ties all of these stories together, revealing how all the people are interconnected in this melodramatic love/relationship movie. A feeling of resolvement occurs from character development and the maturing of characters and the relationships that were formed. Film and cinematographic effects seem rather typical as the director employed techniques that didn’t necessarily come across as extravagant or overdone.
ReplyDeleteFamily Ties.....The structure of this movie is omnibus which several episodes are combined one another. First episode happens among Mira, Hyungchul, and Mushin, second one is about daughter Sunkyoung and mother Maja who has totally different styles of love, and the last story is about Chahyun who are always likely to help other people and Kungsuk who cannot understand her characteristics. The words that I came up with the most frequently during watching this movie were ‘unstable’, ‘risky’, and so on. Their relationships, entangled sophisticatedly, seemed that they might be broken soon with any reasons. However, even though their loves and relations look so abnormal, they ended up union as a name of family. Most of all, I could feel sympathy to this movie. That’s because while usually lives portrayed in the movies are described beautifully and spectaclely with some exaggerations, this movie showed the real our lives, like I was in the movie and observed their behavior or conversation next to them. I was happy because although all of them in the movie had their own difficulties or bad memories, they tried to overcome and they could be more mature in thoese processes.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely not easy to be a member of some random family all of a sudden, especially here in Korea where consanguinity is highly stressed. Therefore, it is hard to feel the affection(정) that exists under the name of family from strangers. In other words, it is this inexplicable emotion that cannot be felt by forcibly living together. There is this unbreakable “absoluteness” hidden in the word “family”. Although it’s true that this absoluteness contributes to the unity among the family members, on the other hand, it also has a characteristic of quickly sewing up the conflict among the family members instead of settling down the underlying problems. Even though you have this regrettable feeling, you do not spit it out, but hide it deeply inside yourself because they are your parents, brothers and sisters. And this conflict is not exposed right away, but when it is no longer controllable and after it comes to a head. This is probably why the movie tries to tell us that the kinship that we are familiar to is not the only family thing. Rather the movie suggests us to concentrate on human relations. The steps involved in building up human relationships are first encounter, flutter, passion, conflict, and reconciliation. However, without conflict, there will be no progress in the relationship and would just be in a stalemate. It is through this conflict where you figure out the other person’s demand and at the same time let that person realize what you want. But if these conditions are not understood from one or either side, we tend to say “Why are you doing this to me?” which is continually said in the film. Although the characters in the movie have affection for their loved ones, they get angry and grumble at the fact that they are ignoring them. However, all of this looked liked an indirect way of saying “Please love me” or “Know my love for you”. I guess the family that the movie is suggesting is not a car having all the passengers tied up heading to the same destination but a companion who by him or herself comes and sits next to you. And this is where a new family is born where the members are not blood tied. Also, Chae-yun’s knit work plays a vital role in constructing this new family. It was Kyung-suk and Chae-yun’s encounter that joined the two families and interestingly, Chae-yun was knitting when they first met in the train. Therefore it could be understood that the string used acts as the “Knot of relation”.
ReplyDeleteThe common denominator of all the characters in this film is lonelieness by not having a normal, typical Korean family. Three stories’ protagonists, Mira, Sun-Kyung and Chae-Hyun’s lives circulates in the same ways as they don’t recognize and push away the people that can make them not lonely and still think that they need to be loved. Pretending not to be lonely by their acts of over-giving, hatred and indifference, the three people become one family in the end when they understand the true meaning of “being together as a family” during the unseen 20 years. When Mira fist met Moo-Shin, she is cold as ice despite Moo-Shin’s effort to get closer to her, but finally opens her mind to accept her as her family instead of her real brother, Hyung-chul. 20-year-old Chae-hyun is not an exception. Having a different childhood by having two mothers that are not even related by blood, she acts as if she always wants others attention and love, which ironically makes her boyfriend extremely lonely whom she is supposed to care the most. And he becomes longing for her love bottomless.
ReplyDeleteWhen Sun-Kyung goes to see Woosik, his family is having dinner at the table, which is the only shot of our standard’s normal family figure which soon crashes when father’s affair‘s revealed. The families in this film consist of strangers; not related by blood and the film says that it doesn’t matter as long as they care for each other.
The film Family Ties allows us to peer into the lives of two families and witness the dynamic drama that occurs within the families. What’s interesting about this film is the pureness it exuberates. In no way is this film overly dramatic or consists of a complicated, hard to follow, “makes you think” kind of storyline. Rather, it simply deals with the simplicity of life presented in a simplistic manner. Although the plot deals with love, infidelity, and death, all the heavy elements required in making a perfect melodrama, this film seeks to address these topics in more subtle terms. In the scene in which Sun-Kyung goes to the house of her mother’s lover to confront him, one would expect a more dramatic outcome. However, this was not the case. Similarly, the scene of Sun-Kyung’s mother’s funeral did now rile up any intense emotion and even consisted of some comic relief (when the little brother did not know when to stop bowing). This subtly also achieved through the use of certain camera techniques and background music. Certain scenes that were shot through a hand held camera (scene where a character is walking away and the camera is following behind getting a shot of their backs) were often shaky and gave off the paparazzi vibe—this in effect made audiences feel as if they were experiencing the daily lives of these individuals alongside of them, making the audience forget that they were watching a film. Similarly, the background music used does not evoke any strong, intense emotions such as a melodrama or horror film would, but utilizes neutral fun melodies. However, this movie does have its moments unsubtly. In particular, the firework scene and the scene in which the objects that Sun-Kyung discovers in the suitcase are floating. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie’s purity as it reminded me a lot of films such a Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State.
ReplyDeleteLike Prof. Chung said before the movie, I think Korean title, “가족의 탄생” (Birth of Family) fits better than English title, “Family Ties.” This movie shows that it is not always family because they are a genetic family, and it is not non-family because they are not a genetic family. HyungChul leaves home saying he’ll be back until little ChaeHyun counts a hundred. After his leaving, ChaeHyun having sad face waits him in front of door like a daughter waiting for her dad or any other family member. The scene coming next is my favorite one in the movie. Little ChaeHyun’s sad mood changes and she jumps around the courtyard while the background has been dark and bright. Moreover, MuShin moves a dish toward Mira; I think all of these scenes mean time passing and they become a family. The construction is one of the best kind of omnibus movie!
ReplyDeleteThis movie "가족의 탄생" was a movie about three stories that towards the end, come together to form a sense of completeness. I noticed that the camera was very mobile in that the movie itself felt like a documentary of the family's life. The three main stories featuring Mira, Sun-kyung, and Chae-hyun show how these families were able to overcome loneliness, financial struggle, and most importantly keeping the family together. I enjoy movies with stories that do not really make sense until you finish watching the movie and then it all comes together. Comparable to "Epitaph" yes, but I definitely enjoyed not having to grab onto my seat in fear of the next impending scene.
ReplyDelete"Family Ties" shows that every family has its problems, may it be money problems or relational problems. What stands out to me the most is the cold front put up by Sun-kyung, the tenacious job-seeking, love-avoiding, brother-hitting, back-talking daughter who has problems expressing her feelings even to her own family. She takes out all of her anger on her mother for being a romantic who looks for love after the passing of her father. When in fact, the source of all Sung-kyung's anger and emotional issues begin with herself, most likely triggered by her father's death. After her mother's death there is a frame in the film that is a close-up of all the contents in one of Sun-kyung's suitcases. Inside there are pictures of her and her mother and things from her childhood. She gently sifts through the things, looks at the pictures and finally bawls for the first time (that the audience can see). She cries not because her mother has passed away, but because she realizes she can never tell her mother that she loves her, and regrets that she hadn't fully expressed herself when her mother was still alive. Now all she has left is her little brother and a suitcase full of inanimate objects, which the latter is incomparable to a walking and talking mother. (Anny Wong)
ReplyDelete"Family Ties" deals with problematic lives of many people who are interrelated with each other. However this film does not just reveal problematic side of people's lives but reminds the audience that relationship that people establish with each other is not something that can be completely broken. When Chaehyun tells Mira that she broke up with Kyeongseok, instead of presenting an awkward situation of the scene, the next scene shows Mira keeps on insisting he should eat. The scene goes against most of the audience's expectation and thus seems rather funny but the important revelation in that scene is that the relationship between Chaehyun and Kyeongseok is not something that ends just because they break up. They have built their relationship with their whole heart and despite many hardships it can last. Moreover, the fact that the last scene in which Hyungchul brings a new girlfried has humorous factors hints that he will be accepted by his family again.
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Family Ties" brought two families together that both experienced hardships. That sort of story line seems kind of corny and played out but the way that it fit together made it work. I thought it was interesting that the way that the camera shot the scenes changed for each story. For example, the first part of the movie the camera was set and still or moving smoothly. Unlike the second part of the movie about the sister, this part of the movie seemed to have the camera shaking a little giving a sense of reality. Then the last part of the movie about the young girl and guy it seemed to have both styles of shooting. I liked how the movie didn't get so dramatic, for example durning most scenes when something sad happens something funny happens at the right moments to keep the audience entertained and not sad. However, i thought that the scene where the sister starts floating and fireworks go off was too extreme and unnecessary. But i liked how you get to see the characters from the two beginning stories and can tell how much they matured in the case of the older sister or gotten closer for the case of the old wife and her sister in law.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie "Family Ties" one scene struck me more than any other. I am talking about the initial suitcase scene when the daughter who ran away from home is trying to open it in and can't. The shot itself is visually great with her and the suitcase facing off in a neutral area with strong shadows and being of seemingly equal physical size due to her crouching on the ground. In the end of that take she cannot get the case open in in her frustration turns her back on it. Similar to the way she is dealing with her life, she struggles violently with her mother about their past and continually turns her back in a sort of push pull relationship. The second suitcase scene comes after she has tried earnestly to reconcile with her mother and after her mothers death. This time the take itself is different. it is from if I remember correctly a higher angle and has more light as well as the lack of violence. She finally gets the case open and discovers her childhood physically and metaphorically inside. She is grieved by the discovery, the memories, and the death of her mother and is overtaken by emotion.
ReplyDeleteThese 2 takes along with the supporting back story about her and her mothers relationship make for an emotional and cinematic experience that would touch most anyone. The use of metaphors along with camera techniques make this a great part of a better movie about coming to terms with ones past and present and moving forward with the loved ones you have surrounded yourself with.
The scene that stayed with me is the shot with Mira and Mushin waiting for the return of Hyung-Chol. We get the passing of time with Mira and Mushin eating at the table watching the daughter play outside. It's clear the time is passing from the change in the amount of light and the insertion of a dog. While time is passing at an increased rate the two women are still moving in virtual real time which creates a cool effect. However neither talk to each other and remain transfixed on the girl. Throughout the movie I thought the passage of time was interesting. In the beginning we catch glimpses of each of the stories with no real indication of how they will be related. We then catch a majority each story separately until the end. This creates a satisfying culmination as we realize how the characters are interlinked and how strong family ties are.
ReplyDelete“Family Ties” was a very touching and sentimental film compared to the other movies shown through this course. I feel like I was surprisingly engrossed in this film the most. I found it very clever how the director was about to tie all the separate family stories together into one interconnected web through the young couple (Chae Hyun and Kyung-suk). I thought the entire film concept was endearing and pleasurable to the viewer. Furthermore, I found myself connecting more with the characters in this film emotionally simply because I feel that the director put careful attention towards facial expressions and full body language. The entire essence of the characters was captured via close facial shots along with wider, fully-body shots as well.
ReplyDeleteFamily Ties, originally titled "Birth of a Family" in the Korean language, is a movie that portrays the social issue of family problems. Given the title, family is an important theme for the structure of the movie. In the Korean culture, family image is a vital part of one's livelihood. Therefore, if something like an affair is found out within the family, it is best to not let the news out of the family circle. Interestingly, this film depicts how dysfuntional families handle their problems. In the second story, Yoo Sun-kyung's mother, whom she rarely gets along with, is having an affair with a married man who has a wife and two sons. Sun-kyung goes to the man's house and exposes him in front of his family. He admits his love for her mom to the horror of his family and asks Sun-kyung, "Are you happy now?" At the end of the second plot, Sun-kyung realizes exposing the affair did not help heal wounds as she is seen crying over the suitcase. A scene that stuck out to me occurs during the first story when Mira, Mu-shin and Chae-hyun are seen waiting for the return of Hyung-chul. The cinematography of this seen is creative in that while Mira and Mu-shin are sitting at the same meal eating inside the house, Chae-hyun can be seen outside doing various activities while day turns into night and then back into day. This scene portrays the amount of time they wait for Hyung-chul's return in a span of 5 - 10 seconds. I have never before seen time elapse demonstrated in this way.
ReplyDelete"Family Ties" deals bonds that are undetachable. Even though direct translation of the title of this film would be "Birth of a Family", the title "Family Ties" seems to represent the film better. There no complete, whole families in this film. The audience never gets to see Hyungchul and Mira's parents. Hyungchul, Mira and Hyungchul's wife, Mushin seem to make a new family but eventually falls apart. Even though Hyungchul, who created the bond between Mira and Mushin, is gone, Mira and Mushin continue to live together and raise Mushin's daughter together. Even though Yunkyung seems indifferent to Kyungsuk, they form a new family under the ties that have been created through their mother. The tie Yunkyung has with her mother is like the kimchi she eats out of all the Japanese food she eats. It is something undetachable and carries value that is way deeper than what is shown on the surface. At the end of the movie, as the Korean title suggests, a new family is born. But this sense of family is not simply a bloodline, a biological one. Instead, when Hyungchul comes back, he is driven out of the house and out of the family.
ReplyDeleteIn the film "Family Ties", the series of scenes that caught my attention were the unrealistic scenes of the seemingly separate stories. The first time this occurs is when the Mushin and Mira are eating a meal, but in the background young Chae Hyun is jumping around playing in fastforward mode. Time seems to be passing quickly outside, but inside time has slowed. The next unrealistic scene occurs when Sun-Kyung is crying after finally opening her mother's suitcase to find all her sentimental childhood knickknacks. The room is scattered with the objects, a shot portrays the objects slowly floating up around the focal point which happens to be Sun-Kyung crying on the bed. The objects are unfocused like they are being seen from peripheral vision, but Sun-Kyung is very clear. The last scene when Sun-Kyung is older and she is singing on television, she begins to float up into the sky with a bright smile. These scenes are symbolic of what are important to the characters. In the first, the two women seem unchanged in the darkness as they eat there meal but the child jumping around in the sunlight shows there purpose in life. In the second, the girl who just lost her mother finally is able to express her emotion and really come to terms with her true love for her thus begins to cry uncontrollably. The objects are in a way floating because they have meaning; they are her mother's love. The last scene shows the how much Kyung-Suk cares for his sister because in his imagination she is being lifted up into the beautiful sky with fireworks. She is the one who raised him and cared for him and he truly cares for her and loves her. The director uses these unrealistic elements in his film to really show what the main focus of the film will be--familial love.
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ReplyDeleteTwo scenes struck me quite powerfully. One was the scene in which ChaeHyun is playing in the background with shifting time as the two older ladies are eating continuously. The second scene is where Sun-kyung is sitting among the floating mementos of her childhood. These two scenes are far more surreal than expected for a melodrama reflecting a very possible and accessible family scenario. Each represent scenes of powerful emotion, and I would say the most powerful of the movie. The first one being of abandonment and lost hope as they wait for Hyung-chol to return. The second of regret and realization as Sun-kyung is only able to open the suitcase only after her mother's death. The rest of the movie had events with emotion like the confrontation of Sun-kyung's mother's lover, but were offset by the realistic portrayal of them. Frequently in movies the exaggeration of emotion is what makes it so striking, but here the extremeness of those two scenes is in the surrealism.
ReplyDelete“A Family Tie” opens up in a unique way that consists of three different stories playing after one another that at first seem unrelated. However, these seemingly unrelated stories returned out to be, well, related in the end by the time the third story finishes. This film, impressively showing how personalities can be shaped by different family environment, moves along in a calm progression that is well suited for patient individuals who enjoys the movie. Also, the uniqueness of this film is the quirkiness and lack of melodrama, which made people to watch in a comfortable way compared to those cringe inducing Korean television dramas. This film does not emphasize the importance of gender role and a patriarchal system in family. May be this is why there is no main character in this film, in order to emphasize that the family as a whole is a one unit. In addition, looking at details and the techniques, this film’s performances are excellent and the camera work is stellar by film’s colors being over saturated just enough to lend an otherworldly beauty to the proceedings, leaving a very realistic environment.
ReplyDeleteI was transfixed by the cinematography of this film. I love the natural, soft lighting effect that pervades throughout Family Ties. This natural effect was accentuated by the neutral, natural colors that the characters often wore; together, these two aspects contributed to the real-life feel of the film. As an audience member, I got the sense that I was following and even participating in the lives of these characters – that they were real people and I was engrossed in their story, despite the lack of action and plot-progressing conflict. Though Family Ties was realistic, it was also very artistic – dull colors were accentuated with rainbows (scarf, blanket in room), when the man tells Sun-Kyung her mother is sick, she is facially emotionless but the camera shows water dripping off her glove, representing a hidden emotion within her. Finally, I also noticed that throughout Family Ties, characters are often looking out of windows or doors, contemplative. Also, it seemed to be a theme that all the women were used, hurting, and looking for love – which perpetuated their being used and hurting.
ReplyDeletethis film reminded me of the american movie Crash, in that seemingly separate stories play out but in the end turn out to be intimately interconnected. however, instead of being a gritty film like Crash, Family Ties took the classic Korean tried-and-true family drama route to paint a picture of the way that misfortune and chance shapes family life. in a way i found the film also to portray the inexplicable korean concept of Han--although each character is a victim, they all manage to transcend their pain. this culminates in the end, where the titular family, whose members' individual stories are before told separately, come together in a somewhat corny but revelatory sequence under fireworks to the music of Sun-kyung's choir. In light of Jeeyoung Shin's article and 2005's Crash, i found Family Ties to be an interesting "koreanization" of the interconnection drama, with a focus on the korean family unit instead of society and an element of melodrama.
ReplyDeleteThe composition of this movie is representing the whole theme of this movie. In the last scene, all the characters in this movie appear in the subway platform. They look vague and ambiguous. They don’t seem to be related to each other. But when they become together under the word of ‘family’, they can be tighter than others. This movie breaks out the traditional meaning of family. They are not related with blood ties, but they can be tight under boundary of family. In the beginning of this movie, it describes about the three different stories which make audience get confuse. But at the end, all the characters of the movie are unified as family. That is important point of this movie.
ReplyDeleteThis movie deals with humanity. Regardless "the blood," elements that makes a family vary just like two different people marry and make a family. Everyone in the movie has some kind of connections to one another, and diffrent feeling toward one another. The compositions tells the connections and the emotions in several scenes. For example, when SunKyung is emotionally lonely, viewers barely see her face, but when she is feeling some connection with her mother, the camera shows both in one scene. Hence when everyone forgets about their own issues and plays games all together like a big family during SunKyung's brother's sports meeting at the school, the camera captures no back of heads, counting the masks as faces. Sometimes the emotional connections are divided by a wall. For example, when MuShin and Mira are waiting for HyoungChul, they are building "Jung"(정). Also when actors do not share similar feelings, the camera captures them separately like when Mira and MuShin first met. Therefore the last scene shows who formed a family and whom are excluded divided by the front door of the house. Overall, the camera directly helps the viewers to diffrenciate the emotional connections between the characters.
ReplyDeleteAlthough "Family Ties" deals with deep, emotional issues such as death, cheating, and loneliness, I was surprised to find so many parts of this film so humorous and witty at the same time. Irony is used frequently in the film, such as when Mu-Shin's husband comes back years later with another girl, who is pregnant. In addition, I found it ironic when we see Sunk-Kyung years later. She dresses and has the same hair-style as her mother did before she passed away. This, I found ironic because Sun-Kyung seemed to so much despise all decisions her mother made, yet she developed similarities to her mom both internally and externally. Also, I found the "fantasy" images really fun and captivating, such as the part where Sun-Kyung's "past memories" begin to rise into the air. However, not all of the special effects were done so beautifully. The part where Sun-Kyung is singing and she rises into the air while fireworks are going off behind her seemed very easy and simplistic, techincally speaking, but I feel the director imagined this scene to play out this way, and in my opinion, this particular section gives the movie its extra charm. I found it humorous and even refreshing to see something as simple as a close-up of the actress using wonderful facial expressions with a dramatic, completely unrealistic background.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching “Family Ties,” I was a little dissatisfied by how neatly the plot tied itself together by connecting three almost indistinguishable time frames and stories. The tidiness of the “happy ending” seemed to detract from the realism of each of the individual stories. Nevertheless, I thought the movie was warm and funny, and the director made use of frames within houses to emphasize different moments of melancholy or loneliness within a place meant to fit a family, not just an individual. There is also the sense that time in the world outside the home moves differently than time within the home: we see ellipses of a child playing outside as two women eat dinner inside and the space of the television introduces an almost-kitschy world in which time and space are easily interwoven with fantasy and imagination.
ReplyDelete"Family Ties" is like a collage of different love stories of families and lovers. Some scenes are longer and more detailed than others, like the scene in which Kyung-suk and Chae-hyun are on the bridge, having fun wrestling with each other. Other scenes, such as the part when the first episode simply ends with Mushin leaving Mira, are quite rapid and unexplained. Such editing causes the different scenes to weave into one another, until finally at the end the big picture can be seen. This technique seems to fit in well with both the Korean and English titles, 가족의 탄생 and Family Ties, for it shows how a family can be created by tieing such various seemingly unrelated people together by the power of love and friendship.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, in a way this movie can seem like a big jigsaw puzzle that comes together as each of the pieces fit into their correct places. In the beginning, we are given the basic pieces that introduce us to the different settings of the episodes, and then the other details fill up as the stories go on.
I really liked this movie as "Family Ties". I noticed how different people come together under a roof. Even though your brother who disappeared after his army duty, and shows up all of sudden with a lady who looks so much older than him, his sister gladly accepts her. This movie might have been confusing, but like the way different pieces make into a one piece, its like how different people come together as a family.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed “Family Ties” because there were three separate stories and in the end all the stories combined into one. I felt that this movie really emphasized a person’s loneliness and how the “closest” people to you (such as family) could make you the most lonely or hurt. I liked the beginning of the movie because it showed the introduction of each character, yet the audience did not know the time period of each scene so it left the audiences imagination going. In the first story, I like the effects the director used to show that time was passing. The little girl was doing hopscotch one way…then doing it the other way…the dog was sitting on the ground…the little girl would run around…and while all this was happening, the two ladies continued to eat their food as if nothing was happening when in reality I’m sure a lot was going on. This story ends with the rain pouring and the older sister smoking a cigarette, which she would’ve never done if the brother did not come back into her life. I think this was to show that the older sister had now changed as well and how naïve she would not be about her brother anymore. The last scene for the second story also showed how she changed when she saw what was in the suitcase. She always felt as if she had to be strong so she could not be hurt in any way but when she finally opened the suitcase, it totally opened her emotions up as well. This movie was very enjoyable as well because I felt that many people could relate to the characters in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Family Ties" showed in many ways how families can be born with or without the genetic bond. Whether you are blood related or not the ties that bond you together never truly get broken. The movie showed that relationships between related people and relationships between people who are not related can be just as strong. There is a Chinese saying that goes " blood is stronger than water" but I think that this movie showed that this wasn't true and through hardships and conflicts with one another a stronger relationship is built. The director used different camera techniques to set the stories apart but then also tied them back together by the storyline. This was an interesting use of camerawork; to very obviously distinguish the stories yet make them seem coherent in the end.
ReplyDeleteArtistic images pervades throughout this film. (especially the view of Kyungsuk and Chaeyun playing on a bridge, and the river view with beautiful clouds and sunsets). Lights seem to play an important role as well. For example, usually Sunkyung is captured in a room with deem lights and darker surroundings, which adds a sense of her emotional isolation. Also, when Kyungsuk leaves after fighting with Chaeyun, the light turns off and shows Chaeyun’s silhouette. The whole scenes seem to flow smoothly without such a high climax and twist, in a slow motion. The flow of time is unclear. (young Chaeyun playing in the yard over days and nights implicitly indicates the passing of time). The tranquility of the film and the portrayal of daily life even feel beautiful. Overall, the film thematically deals with comical (jokes), dreamy (the fireworks and Sunkyung floating), eccentric (Hyungchul and Mushin), yet beautiful life that we live in. The ending scene where all the characters passes by each other, clearly gives a message that life is unexpected and someone who passes by today can become your family members in the future. The film shows how life is comical but tragic, beautiful yet eccentric
ReplyDeleteUnlike other people, I thought the title "Family Ties" was quite appropriate. To put it very simply, all the families were dysfunctional, suffering, scarred, poor and seemingly hopeless. Hyun Chul is introduced as someone wishing to start his screwed up life all over. He says, “Let's laugh away all our problems... I'll take care of everything. Let's just laugh.” But things shattered once the non-related daughter, Chae Yun, comes into the picture. She calls Mushin her mother, who refuses to embrace this girl who just got sent away by her father. The lack of love in that scene for this lost child, resulting in a complete breakdown of their short lived family unit, foreshadowed the theme for the rest of the movie: Family ties people together (I am aware that “ties” in the title was probably not meant in this way); Family is at the center and basis of life itself, and it is the source, the beginning of true love.
ReplyDeleteThe lighting throughout this movie was utilized in correspondence to the presence of true love. Most of the movie, the scenes took place in very dark houses, with lights off, or dim background lighting i.e. the shop, the broken light bulb in Mira's house, Sun Kyung's apartment never had lights, etc. This was always during times of tribulation and fighting. On the contrary, when there were signs of incipient love, scenes were typically in natural sunlight. For example, even when Sun Kyung visited the ajussi with malignant motives, he confessed he did love her mother, which took place in a very bright naturally lit room. Or towards the end of the movie when Kyung sung and Chae Yun were fighting, the lights kept going out, and then the following scene at the trainstation, it was the break of dawn, a new morning, when they started a fresh new relationship clearing all their dark past.
Going back to the premise I presented earlier, one last example is of brother Hyun Chul when he returned at the end in the same manner. This time, however, the “family” is finally (born/tied) together. Hyun Chul is someone with no sense of family. This is what he represents, and the first time he came around, it tore everyone apart. His level of love is shallow and skin deep due to his lack of family sense. So there is presented this circular relationship between family and true love. Mira this time, kicks him out before he can ruin things again.
This movie’s English and Korean title has two different meaning, however, the storyline created from a combination of the two. This film not only shows the ties between new family members, but also the birth of a new family created from the old and new members together. This movie mainly tells the story of love and conflict between the seven family members: sibling quarrels, mother and daughter fights, and your everyday relationship fights between girlfriend and boyfriend. The plot of the story was quite surprising because viewers did not expect to see how the children grew up to become the characters Myung-Suk and Chae-Yeon. The computerized effects and the various use of light are noticeable in scenes such as where the memorial objects belonging to Sun-Kyung floats in thin-air, her body actually floating, the fireworks, and the shine from her brooch. Winter as the constant setting was made coherent throughout the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn this film, director Kim Tae Yong explores the themes of love and family and how they relate to the emotional effects brought upon people as a result of disunited families. The film is split into three parts with the last part tying the first two parts together with Kyung Suk and Chae Hyun becoming acquaintances. Through these two characters, Tae Yong reveals the lasting effects of broken familial ties. Chae Hyun feels the effects of being abandoned by the father figures in her life which forces her to live with her two mother figures, Mira and Mu-Shin. From these effects, she is viewed as a young woman urgently seeking acceptance to the point in which she is considered to be "easy." Kyung Suk anticipates betrayal from Chae Hyun because of what he went through with his father who cheated on his own family in order to use Kyung Suk's mother. These lasting effects in both characters are apparent in the scene where Chae Hyun and Kyung Suk are talking in the hallway with the lights turning on and off. Tae Yong uses the lighting as a technique in this scene in which the light represents Chae Hyun's optimism and her search for acceptance, and the dark symbolizing the despair and betrayal Kyung Suk sees coming for himself.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot choose our own family and family member never change. We just need to accept and understand everything about our family. Because ‘pure-blood’ is so important in Korean society, family occupies an important position on people’s mind. The “Family Ties” brings a question about the definition about family. The director produces the movie with an omnibus film technique.
ReplyDeleteIn first story, a lack of responsibility and incompetent Hyung-Chul thinks about family as god, family will understand anything that he does and his sister to be accept unreasonable demand, such as bringing 20 years older wife and wife’s daughter to sister’s house without asking. Second story is dealing with mother and daughter’s relationship. They will pass over the feeling of solidarity as the year flow away and unconditional support will exist by understanding others. Sometimes daughter blames her mom but she is destined to become like her mother after all. The last story has a love relationship idea. A couple is having a hard time to understand each other because they grew in different family environment.
Through all the stories, every time characters are unable to understand others, they are questioning to a person “why are you doing this to me?” From this question, I see that we do not know ourselves and hard to understand when others admit mistakes. Plus, people need to show consideration for anything we dislike, and we want people must understand us. “Family Ties” strongly demonstrates that there will be many years to spend when stranger becomes a part of family and the movie provides family’s warm sympathy.
This film shows that having blood relations with the closest people around you does not necessarily make you a family. Complete strangers, even those that aren’t very fond of each other, can come together to form a loving family. This is evidenced by the women Mi-ra, Mu-shin, and Chae-yeon (Mu-shin’s ex-husband’s, ex-wife’s daughter), who were flimsily connected by Hyung-chul (Mi-ra’s younger brother and Mu-shin’s “wife”) but at the end of the film are portrayed as a close-knit, loving family. To strengthen the film’s message at the end of the film, Mi-ra rejects her brother and kicks him out of her house, as well as her life, when he tries to enter her life again, showing that blood is not always thicker than water. Another example of this is of Seon-gyung and her half-brother Gyeong-suk. Although Seon-gyung initially resents her half-brother, she gives up her future for her brother’s sake when their mother passes away. Although they are not completely related, Seon-gyung raises Gyeong-suk as her own brother and child, and the two grow into being a loving family. Both examples of family in the film, despite being odd and dysfunctional, demonstrate that complete blood relations do not automatically make you family, but love for one another is all that it takes to make a family.
ReplyDeleteFor a while a rabbit mask faces the camera lens before the rebellious daughter/reluctant sister/brokenhearted girl/lively tour guide turns around, laughing, and faces the lens amidst her little stepbrother’s field trip at which she had fiercely declined to supervise. The lives explored in this film are all so very complicated and refreshingly real and quotidian – and every character lives numerous different hues of life, as though each wears a different mask for each setting. Nothing is “wrong” or “right” despite immediate appearances. Interesting use of light and color highlights the film throughout. As Sun-kyung realizes too late that her mother had actually truly loved her and remembered her every moment, the scene ends with a depiction of the girl sobbing with a pile of childhood toys and gifts surrounding her in bright colors – a nursery setting, symbolizing her (futile) desire to return back in time. As the couple talk in front of Mira’s traditional Korean home, an automatic light switches on and off as if to parallel their efforts to understand, see one another clearly. A most captivating line: “Knocking for what, between family??” The idea that family members can hurt one another without doing much harm is rightly rejected in this film. The line “Sorry. For everything” captures the essence of the mutual pain between sister and brother, mother and daughter, boyfriend and girlfriend, when hurtful words and actions are flung thoughtlessly. “Family Ties” is representative of Jeeyoung Shin’s idea that many current films “[mix] indigenous cultural elements with regional and Western influences.” Sun-kyung’s desire to depart somewhere distant, Mira and Mu-shin’s home that is representative of postwar Korean homes, and conservatively romantic relations between the young couple are specific to Korea in a globalized world. There is must hope – in the shots in which Mira and Mu-shin wordlessly eat at the dinner table awaiting Mira’s brother while seasons change, the little girl dances and skips in the center. She is eventually revealed as having become a beautiful, empathetic woman.
ReplyDeleteIn the film Family Ties lead us through the lives of extremely diverse individuals through their serious ups and downs until the end where all the individuals' stories merge/meet together in a one place and finally form a one loving and understanding family. I think this movie beautifully pictures a low-class Korean family with a unique korean sensibility. For example, the film very effectively and poetically captures the subtle but strong tension between Mira and Mu-shin, the once married wife of Mira's younger brother. This tension between brother's sister and wife is a Korea's unique cultural occurance. To describe this the film shows the very still image of the two women seating in front of a awkward breakfast table while the scenery outside the door changes, indicating many years passing by. Also, the last scene the director successfully addresses the love and warmth of the family through the scene where all the members gather together in the yard to make winter Kim-Chi. I loved this poetic element of the film. There were few scenes where the directer intentionally put a computerized and unrealistic situations. In a sense it kind of seem unfit and some people laughed at it but for me i even loved that awkwardness and cheesiness. I consider it as the director's intention to adds to the warmth and humane element of the film by making it look little less professional.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is extremely boring and meaningless up until the point where Kyung-suk visits Chae-yeon's house and everything "ties" together. In actuality, even families don't have such a tight relationship just as Hyung-chul and Mira do not have intimate relationship. Not only that, the only one with blood-relationship with Mira is rejected by her at the end of the movie. In a way, the title "Family Ties" is a better title than the korean one "The Birth of a Family" because family is made not by birth but family is made as people get together and have deeper relationship than the actual family. Lastly, I would like to ask a question if the director purposely placed Mira and Moo-shin together to criticize gay-lesbian issue. Although it is not implicitly told in the movie, Chae-yeon calling both Mira and Moo-shin as "mom" reminded me of adopted children having two moms.
ReplyDelete- JunHwan Kim
Family Ties deals with people who are living in their own order, although their lives might be problematic. Most of the main characters who lead the movie are women, and this might be the reason for the director to shoot the scenes very smoothly and esthetically, such as showing the glow in the sky while Mira and Mushin having their dinner awkwardly.
ReplyDeleteDaughters have the very moment of recognizing their mother as “women,” mot their moms. And for Sun-kyung, that was when her mom’s life was not much left. Her mom loving a man, even forgetting other people could be hurt by her love affair, makes Sun-kyung to feel complicated. This is the very moment of Sun-kyung to say “she was a big heart,” rather than “clumsy,” as Hyung-chul said to Sun-kyung.
Mira’s unique family relationship is also centered to women. Mira, Mu-shin, and Chae-yeon, living their own lives, but tied in the name of “family” somewhat seems to be dumb, but at the same time very warm. Family Ties was a movie that cannot be only explained by ordinary relationship within a family, making the audience think about a new concept of family.
The movie Family Ties is probably another example of bad movie. Once again the flow of melodramatic concept transformed the movie into a typical soap-opera. The movie which is built upon three stories was a form of cliche, or rather irrelevant to the title of the movie. It rather depicted tragedy and corruption with in the family. However, the movie did have some innovative cinematography. There were scenes in which just the background change while the actual focus point remained constant. This was to illustrate the flow of time; however, it was also irrelevant. There were too many unnecessary scene that did not really connect to other. Hence the movie only showed parallelism between three story but once again it showed the same old story as any other antiquate movie that we have screened during class. After 2004, the time that Korea produced many world wide fame movie, it is evident that there is a decline in Korean Film industry. Moreover, instead of focusing on the originality, after the peak of 2004, Korean movies seems to lack the capacity to produce blockbusters that appeals to all audience.
ReplyDeleteThe localized setting of much of this film reminded me of Christmas in August. The clothes the characters wear are usually very generic, and the first story (Mira's story) features almost nothing more than a typical, relatively old house. Perhaps because of this, and because I have a hard time keeping Korean names straight, I didn't realize that the third story (of Chae-yeon and her boyfriend) took places at least a decade after the first until very near the end. This ambiguity in time, I think, deliberately demonsrates the timeless quality of such family-oriented stories.
ReplyDeleteThe women of this film are the ones in control. The men have much influence over them, but it is Mira, in the end, who kicks her brother out of the house, and Sun-kyung who kicks her ex-boyfriend out of her apartment. Finally, although it is Kyung-suk who always expresses frustration at Chae-yeon, it's ultimately up to Chae-yeon whether or not she wants to accept Kyung-suk back into her life. However, despite this new(?) "power" of women, it is clear that it never escapes the domestic stage, and so we must question whether or not the women are so newly empowered in this film. Furthermore, in the first two stories, at least, the women's decisions served to alienate them from their blood-related family members (though Mira did, presumably, take Mu-shin and Chae-yeon back into her home). Therefore, I'm not sure if the film can really serve as an example of the empowerment of women.
If one was going to stroll through the park on a Sunday after noon, it would be like watching "Family Ties". This movie was a laid back type, where there was no real tension, but just story telling, with no artistic cinematography, but just three stories interwoven to make a grand finale. The characters of the film were believable, maybe because the casting was well done, but this film would appeal to more of the female audience. "Family Ties" shed away from convential things that most viewers would think they would find in a Korean film, not a sad drama dealing with sorrow, but a funny film that deals with loss. Yes, the movie was sad in it's own way, but not a movie that would make one think afterwards. There were many funny parts, but only funny because of it's cultural boundaries it was in. The melodramatic element was minimal, but still there, it just was not the same feel that most international audiences would like to see in a Korean film. Like most Korean movies, it kept true to the importance of family, drawing on Confucian ideals about honor in family.
ReplyDeleteThe film, Family Ties, was one of the films that I thoroughly enjoyed watching in this class. This movie was in its rawest form because family situations portrayed in this movie were real and plausible. Initially, Kim Tae Yong introduces two seperate families and depicts real family problems. As the film gradually continued, we the audience see how these two families tie together. What I appreciated about this movie was its authenticity to its truest form. In order to do that, Kim Tae Yong used more diegetic sounds with dialogue rather than non diegetic sounds. His lack of music editing and the use of natural sounds added to the reality of these family situations. An example of this was the scene when Kyung Suk breaks up with his girlfriend, Chae Hyun. We see a simple scene of them standing in the hallway. It is a long shot so that we are able to see their background and their body expressions. The only extra tool that the director utilized for this shot was a korean-style automatic light that would turn off on its own. The scene was mainly quiet and the lighting created the severity of the situtation. This scene shows how simple Kim Tae Yong kept this scenes in order to create a more real effect.
ReplyDeleteThe film "Family Ties" projects three different stories that parallel one another. The director tries to connect these three stories by utilizing specific transition filming techniques such as slow motion, floating objects, and foreshadowing to show the flow of time/time of progression between each of the framed stories. The slow motion technique can be witnessed in the very first scenes where Mushin and Mira are looking out from their living room; watching the little girl run back and forth in the front yard in slow motion. This was used as a transition to move on to an unrelated story that was projected after. Towards the end of the second story, the character Sun-Kyung saw her mother from a far distance while she was trying to take a photo for this one couple. The standing presence of her mother in her focus of perspective created a big portion of a transition to Sun-Kyung opening her mother luggage bag. In this scene, objects starts to flow in the air, perhaps alluding to the growth of Sun-Kyung's mother's son. Although it wasn't a good of a smooth-transition, it reveals the progression of time for the little boy to grow up and start another story. Overall, the this movie projected a tragic story of the hardships the females had to face in everyday life in a domestic family, but at the same time shows the cirlce of life through the techniques I have previously mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe camera movement in "Family Ties" was interesting to me; I noticed that there was a lot of "natural" movement, in which the camera was handheld and moved with the actors. This really helped in making me think that I was in the same space as the actors, and helped accentuate the emotions that the actors were feeling. This made the actors' emotions seem pure and genuine. This, along with the combination of the three stories, highlighted the fact that love, feelings of regret or betrayal, death, and tragic mistakes (like Um Tae Woong's character) are in fact very real and are prevalent in daily life.
ReplyDeleteThe movie describes big values of family. We cannot exactly define values of family, but there is something invisible power in the relationship called 'Family'. Even though family members have conflicts between themselves, they are willing to understand each other because they are family.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Main families in the movie is not really family that we consider.
Three women, Mira, Moosin and Cheyon, are family but they actually do not even have same blood. However we see their bond is stronger than any other families.
Sun Kyung and Kyung suk's case is slightly different. They have same mother but have different father. In the view of Sun Kyung who do not have father hate her mother's life looking for love and hate her 'other brother' as well. However after her mother died, Sunkyung cries and realize the value of her mother's existence and keeps living with her 'other brother'.
Director's concept of family is not limited to 'real family'. He emphasizes ties of human relationship not just family and relative relationship.
What I liked the most about Family Ties was that it had an independent modern style and it closely related to the American film form, yet everything about it promoted the lifestyle in Korea. The American format would be how the film began with three separate stories and made them collide at the end, similar to the American film "Crash" and "Love Actually." I also enjoyed how the film incorporated humor and tragedy together to deliver mixed emotions to the audience. In technical terms, I enjoyed the cinematography and lighting the most. The nondialogue scenes of the film were also interesting to watch, such as the moment when Mira and Mushin are eating together in silence while little Cheyon is playing outside. Overall I am glad that we got to watch this film, because it made me more interested in Korean cinema and also made me appreciate it more than before.
ReplyDeleteI thought "Family Ties" was very successful in making a heartwarming film with a Korean 'indie' flair. The handheld/voyeuristic camerawork wasn't overdone either. And more surprisingly the quirkier elements like the objects floating from the suitcase or the ending firework scene gave the film a new twist even if it was expected. Overall, the makers of this film checked off everything I had expected from the start: quirkyness, nonlinear narrative, packaged completely explained ending, handheld camerawork, moody palette, etc. and even though sometimes korean cinema can seem formulated and expected, it was the humor and the characters who made this film shine for me. -sophia rhee
ReplyDeletei enjoyed that the disjunctive narratives were actually tied together by the end of the film. the music in the first sequence was very western and stringy creating a very disjointed mood between the characters. the second narrative had a lot of nondiegetic piano music which portrayed a sense of romanticized dreams of esccape marred by the death of the mother. the third narrative included both types of nondiegetic sound and linked all of the narratives on the audioscape. the nondiegetic music in all of the narratives was used to speed up time in connection to faster cut shots.
ReplyDelete-James Seiling