Alive

Description

Shot in a wintry palette that will have audiences feeling a chill in their bones, Park Jung-bum’s Alive is a remarkable accomplishment, an intimate, yet emotionally epic tale of souls living on the fringes of their own dreams. In a remote mountain village, Jeong-choel (played by Park himself in a revelatory performance) ekes out a hardscrabble existence, determined to improve his lot in life despite his dire circumstances. Living in a tent outside the ruins of his former home and forced to leave a backbreaking construction job due to unpaid wages, he has assumed responsibility for his emotionally disturbed sister and her daughter, both of whom harbor dreams and nightmares of their own. A filmmaker of nuance and touching empathy, Park does not waste a single moment of his film’s nearly three-hour running time, exploring each character’s story through carefully choreographed, unflinching long takes, some of which took up to 80 attempts to accomplish. As Park explores how people can be inexorably tied to one another—no matter how well-meaning or self-destructive the intent, everyone’s actions have ramifications for everyone else—Alive emerges as a bold, uncompromising vision from a filmmaker in complete control of his craft. —Doug Jones

Film Details