Let's Finish!!! - Whang Cheol-Mean (Korea, 2007)
My assumption that the gratuitous exclamation marks of the title are there to remind us of the inspiration of this Korean road movie should be a safe one. The language of chat rooms, forums and ever proliferating 'meet up' websites that populate cyberspace (does anyone call it that anymore?). In this instance the subject of this website is suicide.
We learn from the pre-title sequence that the three protagonists, who go by their usernames: a restless male soul "LA"; in contrast a sullen and quiet male "Heballet"; and the host of the site a painfully vain girl "Joaquin", have decided on combining their money and efforts to drive away to eventually "finish!!!" themselves.
It is tempting to reach for a Freudian reading as the tripartite characterization offers room for such an interpretation. Much like Slavoj Žižek's character analysis of the wonderful Marx Brother's film Duck Soup in The Perverts Guide to Cinema, the characters of Let's Finish!!! fit the topological model of psychoanalytic identity in constant conflict.
LA who spends much of the journey wanting to satisfy his sense desires, often at a base level could be drawn as embodying Freud's Id. We see him devouring his instant noodles brutishly while the other two are more reserved. LA is the only character that brings along his pet dog for this journey. In another amusing sequence, LA goes begging in an attempt to quench his thirst, crying aloud "I'm so thirsty!" like a war cry. In the resulting violent encounter with a vending machine he is not dissimilar to Harpo Marx. The Id is sexual at its most primal, and he does not dissapoint. When Joaquin suggests the three of them share a hotel room, it is only LA that jumps to lascivious pre-conclusions, self declaring "I'm so horny".
Joaquin provides the group with a Superego, her constant demands and reprimands on the others. Spying through the others' luggage without their knowing and insisting to the annoyance of LA on playing a prepared suicide theme tune. Typified by a sequence when she is offered food, the nature of her complaints which border on automaton-esque monologue, is that things are never good enough. Even when alone she cannot escape her own demands, exemplified by her impossible vanity. She performs a lengthy self make-over in a roadside toilet, a nightly cosmetic face mask (even if it is in the car) and in a failed overdose bid she ritualistically beautifies the bathtub with flowers and petals. When asked why she brought vitamins with her on this final journey she provides the ridiculous answer that she does not want to die with black rings around her eyes.
Which leaves Heballet as the suffering intercessor that is the Ego. Perhaps it is a pitfall of the film's characterization but he is least often the focus of the film, bordering on being invisible whilst LA and Joaquin battle with each other.
In one scene by a river, Heballet is shown almost enjoying some peace until Joaquin returns with water and LA pesters him for not supporting his suggestion of getting beer, a full blown row between LA and Joaquin ensues while Heballet silently looks on. However, his silence does not does not signify a lack of resistance. In a pivotal scene Heballet abandons the two others and drives off in an attempt to escape the relentless demands and urges imposed on him by Joaquin and LA.
These power struggles are spread throughout the film, whether it is in dualistic or tripartite form, and it is not until the final sequence is there any sort of group harmony realised.
We learn from the pre-title sequence that the three protagonists, who go by their usernames: a restless male soul "LA"; in contrast a sullen and quiet male "Heballet"; and the host of the site a painfully vain girl "Joaquin", have decided on combining their money and efforts to drive away to eventually "finish!!!" themselves.
It is tempting to reach for a Freudian reading as the tripartite characterization offers room for such an interpretation. Much like Slavoj Žižek's character analysis of the wonderful Marx Brother's film Duck Soup in The Perverts Guide to Cinema, the characters of Let's Finish!!! fit the topological model of psychoanalytic identity in constant conflict.
LA who spends much of the journey wanting to satisfy his sense desires, often at a base level could be drawn as embodying Freud's Id. We see him devouring his instant noodles brutishly while the other two are more reserved. LA is the only character that brings along his pet dog for this journey. In another amusing sequence, LA goes begging in an attempt to quench his thirst, crying aloud "I'm so thirsty!" like a war cry. In the resulting violent encounter with a vending machine he is not dissimilar to Harpo Marx. The Id is sexual at its most primal, and he does not dissapoint. When Joaquin suggests the three of them share a hotel room, it is only LA that jumps to lascivious pre-conclusions, self declaring "I'm so horny".
Joaquin provides the group with a Superego, her constant demands and reprimands on the others. Spying through the others' luggage without their knowing and insisting to the annoyance of LA on playing a prepared suicide theme tune. Typified by a sequence when she is offered food, the nature of her complaints which border on automaton-esque monologue, is that things are never good enough. Even when alone she cannot escape her own demands, exemplified by her impossible vanity. She performs a lengthy self make-over in a roadside toilet, a nightly cosmetic face mask (even if it is in the car) and in a failed overdose bid she ritualistically beautifies the bathtub with flowers and petals. When asked why she brought vitamins with her on this final journey she provides the ridiculous answer that she does not want to die with black rings around her eyes.
Which leaves Heballet as the suffering intercessor that is the Ego. Perhaps it is a pitfall of the film's characterization but he is least often the focus of the film, bordering on being invisible whilst LA and Joaquin battle with each other.
In one scene by a river, Heballet is shown almost enjoying some peace until Joaquin returns with water and LA pesters him for not supporting his suggestion of getting beer, a full blown row between LA and Joaquin ensues while Heballet silently looks on. However, his silence does not does not signify a lack of resistance. In a pivotal scene Heballet abandons the two others and drives off in an attempt to escape the relentless demands and urges imposed on him by Joaquin and LA.
These power struggles are spread throughout the film, whether it is in dualistic or tripartite form, and it is not until the final sequence is there any sort of group harmony realised.
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