Connect with us

Film Festivals

We Will Be OK review [LKFF 2015]: “A fine feature on many levels.”

We Will Be OK review: The majority of the scripting feels like a film made by actors for actors.

We Will Be OK review

We Will Be OK review

The frustration of actors seems to be a growing problem in the profession. With media expanding there’s now greater diversity in how to enter the scene, but it makes it even harder to break out as a star. This is the focus of Baek Jae Ho’s interesting if flawed film We Will Be OK. Maybe that title is a positive message he wishes to relay to fellow actors since Baek also stars in the film as a struggling actor.

Sang Seok, again tellingly played by an actor with the same name Kim Sang Seok, is just one of many struggling actors. He searches for his big break and laments with friends over the difficulties and missed opportunities. Sang Seok visits the Busan International Film Festival, which We Will Be OK would eventually screen at itself, which ignites his dreams of one day attending the festival. He goes to the point of lying to a girl about appearing in one of the festival’s films, only to discover that, despite being an actor, he is unable to improvise and come up with even a decent title for his fake movie.

We Will Be OK review

We Will Be OK review

Upon returning home he hears that his friend and fellow actor, comically played by the film’s director Baek Jae Ho, is making his own film and there’s a part for Sang Seok. As the filming commences it becomes clear just how desperate and underprepared the group of wannabe filmmakers truly are. Jae Ho (the director using his own name as well) wishes to shoot on an iPhone, and hasn’t organised the correct permits to film. It’s a style of guerilla filmmaking, but the setbacks just become embarrassing.

The film suitably begins to blur life and reality, with Sang Seok’s frustrating turning into his own screenplay. The ideas of actors making films to better their careers at times criticises the actors, and the industry itself. Outsiders will of course know there is no single or perfect way to enter the industry, but the struggles our likable protagonists undergo are both saddening and comical.

We Will Be OK review

We Will Be OK review

Shot with a fairly realistic style, Baek adds quirks to truly liven up his somewhat autobiographical film. Sang Seok pursues a woman he sees a few rooftops over and ends up in her karaoke bar where she acts as a companion for lonely singers. Again the film looks at this as perhaps a rendition of sweet unrequited love, but also as a self serving action of the protagonist who just needs to feel better. Meanwhile the realistic shooting style is paired with a more surreal subplot in which Seong Seok dreads the end of the world (being set in 2012), while also coming down with a sickness that results in sudden vomiting. Is the world truly coming to an end, is Seong Seok really dying, or is it just all in his mind as a manifestation of his fears about a failing career.

We Will Be OK is a fine feature on many levels, with interesting ideas incorporated into a character driven narrative. Unfortunately, the film is quite esoteric in the audience it has to reach. The majority of the scripting feels like a film made by actors for actors. I can imagine many aspiring actors can relate to some of the scenarios on display here, such as friends suddenly getting roles, or passing up on passion projects for those quick money commercials. It’s not a depressing film, but it isn’t all that jolly either. However, the final shot is simply genius, leaving us with some magnificent questions to ponder.

We Will Be OK review by Luke Ryan Baldock, November, 2015.

We Will Be OK screened at the London Korean Film Festival 2015 as part of their Busan International Film Festival strand.

Luke likes many things, films and penguins being among them. He's loved films since the age of 9, when STARGATE and BATMAN FOREVER changed the landscape of modern cinema as we know it. His love of film extends to all aspects of his life, with trips abroad being planned around film locations and only buying products featured in Will Smith movies. His favourite films include SEVEN SAMURAI, PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, IN BRUGES, LONE STAR, GODZILLA, and a thousand others.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Pingback: LKFF 2015: the reviews | London Korean Links

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Latest Posts

More in Film Festivals