Search - Green Chair on DVD

Jung Suh(Seo Jeong) steals the show, a moving erotic drama..

Woopak | Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell | 06/25/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Green Chair is a tale of forbidden love between a 32 year old divorcee and a 19 year old college student. Based on a true story, GREEN CHAIR is the first film in four years from controversial director Park Chul-Soo, best known for "301,302". Seo Jeong (THE ISLE, Spider Forest) plays Kim Mun-hee, a nice 32-year-old woman who's making whoopee with a 19 year old boy, Hyeon ( Shim Ji-ho). Unfortunately for them, 20 is the age of consent in Korea, and she's arrested, locked up and sentenced to community service.

Upon her release, Mun-hee tries to ditch the handsome young 19 year old, but he just won't go away(looking at Korean bombshell Seo Jeong, I wouldn't want to leave either). Instead they shack up in a motel and have a few more days of exhausting sex(who wouldn't). Eventually, doubts start to creep into Mun-hee's mind, and even though she is in love with him, she decides to end the affair. However, Mun-hee couldn't resist Hyun's persistence and their relationship enters a new phase.

At first impression, Park Chul-Soo's Green Chair may seem like a straightforward tale of erotic sex and the occasional sense of guilt, but it ends up being a lot more than that. The First act of the film is highly explicit (quite tame when compared to the Korean erotica Summertime), there is quite a bit of nudity, Seo Jeong is in her birthday suit in the first few minutes. The film doesn't merely focus on eroticism, so I don't think it will turn off a lot of viewers. When things start to settle down and we get to observe all the details of Hyun and Mun-hee's unusual relationship, from Hyun's fondness for cooking to Mun-hee's preferences when it comes to mattreses and other stuff, the film presents such dimensions with warmth and humor, that results in a nuanced, touching and subversive love story. Characters are well developed and I did kind of sympathize with the lovers' plight.

Green Chair draws its strength from Park's inimitable style of directing and its great cast. Seo-Jeong or Jung Suh(same actress, you can't help but be enamored with her), renowned for her role in Kim Ki-Duk's "THE ISLE", brings a slightly unhinged vitality and raw appeal to the character of Mun-hee; while newcomer Shim Ji-ho(as Hyun) gives passion and confidence to his character. Oh Yun-Hong(Power of Kangwon province) plays Mun-hee's friend who takes the lovebirds in. The warm chemistry/camaderie shared between the 3 characters is one of the film's key strengths.

People who are only looking for pervy kicks will be disappointed and will be better off watching late night Cinemax instead. While there's plenty of sex on display and quite frankly they are nicely shot, the movie is more focused in the essential drama of problems and complications which are unavoidably inherent in every sex-based relationship, compounded when one partner is risking it all to stay in it.

I own the 1-disc region-3 release. From my experience, Asian releases of Asian movies have the best transfers.
PICTURE/AUDIO: Anamorphic widescreen 1.78. Clean, sharp and colors are accurate. PQ is very good. 5.1 Dolby/2.0 Surround in Korean language. English Subtitles are well-translated and very visible.
In Closing:
GREEN CHAIR is not a perfect film, but it is funny and beautiful with its poetic digressions. It is a pro-sex movie with a touch of human drama. It is a bit on the "artsy" side but I hope it gives you some ideas. It has been selected in the New York Asian film festival.

RECOMMENDED! 3 ½ stars
"

More than a Decade's Difference

Daitokuji31 | Black Glass | 06/24/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Green Chair opens with the thirty-two-year old Kim Mun-hee and her nineteen-year old lover Hyun embracing after a long day of lovemaking. When Mun-hee starts to leave, Hyun stops her and begs her to make love to him one more time. However, instead of making love to him, Mun-hee reassures him that she wants to continue their relationship which began when the two happened to meet at a music store. Yet, there is a problem. Hyun is not of age to have consensual sex with an adult, so when their affair is discovered, Mun-hee is sent to prison. Mun-hee is soon released and is determined to stay away from Hyun, who is still a minor, but he meets her at the gate of the prison and although surrounded by reporters, hugs her.

Unsteady and worried about ruining Hyun's future, Mun-hee nonetheless accompanies Hyun and after sharing the meal together, spend days in seedy hotel rooms making love. Hyun, who learned about sex from Mun-hee is a bit clumsy at lovemaking, and his clumsiness and eagerness make Mun-hee believe that he does not truly care for her but only the sex so after a fight the two split, but upon arrival at her friend Su-jin's home, Hyun is there waiting for her and the trio attempt to make a life together, but can Mun-hee and Hyun's affair that seems to be based more on sex than love and affection truly last?

Starring the statuesque beauty Suh Jung, who also starred in Kim Ki-duk's The Isle, The Green Chair tackles the question of where does lust and physical attraction end and love begins. Mun-hee having been trapped in an apparently loveless and sexually unfulfilling marriage turns to Hyun to experience not only sexual fulfillment but emotional fulfillment as well. Her reluctance to restart their relationship after her time in prison is not so much based on her worries about how society views her or what she believes is the "proper" thing to do, but because she thinks that Hyun would dump her and that's she would be alone again which explains why she becomes so mad after Hyun rejoins her at Su-jin's home. It is this aspect of the film that makes The Green Chair truly worth watching.

A number of The Green Chair's opening sequences are quite steamy, but they also have an edge of innocence to them when Mun-hee coaches Hyun in the ways to be a better lover in order not only to fulfill her desires but his as well. Well acted and quite touching at moments, The Green Chair does derail a bit at the end of the film which is quite hokey after the relative seriousness of the rest of the film, but it does not hurt the film too much as a whole."

Age of consent

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 07/28/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"An affair between a 19 year old man and a 32 year old divorced woman doesn't seem so shocking to most Americans. It is even the kind of thing that would be applauded on a show like Sex and the City, and the woman would probably get little more than a few snide looks and maybe pats on the back. But apparently it is a jailing offense in Korea, where stricter laws bind the morality of a country.

This is where "Green Chair" ("Noksaek uija") begins. A passionate encounter is consumated and ends abruptly, with the older woman, Mun-hee, jailed and the young man, Hyun, confused and longing for his lover. Soon released, what Mun-hee thought was just sex and youthful desire becomes more as Hyun refuses to let her go, and pursues her with a passion she thought long lost in her jaded world view.

Even though it is based on a true story, "Green Chair" is not the most original of films. This kind of love story has been played out time and again on screen and in newspapers, with much more shocking variances in ages. However, when dealing with an unoriginal story, what matters most are the director's style and the actor's ability, and how they make the most of the material to present the tale.

Director Cheol-su Park has plenty of style, and knows how to position his actors for maximum effect. The first part of the film, detailing the lovers stay at a hotel where Mun-hee teaches Hyun about the more intimate relations between a man and a woman, is incredibly sexy. The realism with which the scenes are handled makes it much more intimate and enticing, without cheesy music or artistic framing and heaving breasts. One could easily picture these acts as actually taking place, and probably are in hotels all over the world. Moving away from the sensual, Park steers the film to the difficult part of relationships, when lust has run its course and two human beings must decide if they can overcome the differences that separate them and make a life together. There are shades of Betty Blue here, especially when the two make home with a friend, Jean, and live their unusual lifestyle, and even a hint of In the Realm of the Senses, but with none of the obsessive insanity. Just the good parts.

All of the actors also aquit themselves with style and grace. The beautiful Jung Suh is irresistable as Mun-hee, and makes me wish I had someone like her to show me the ways of adults when I was 19. Relative newcommer Ji-ho Shim is also excellent as Hyun, projecting innocence and unworldliness without appearing naïve.

Not that it is a perfect film. The steamy first half is too seperated from the second, and one wonders where the passion went. The story takes some strange turns, not all of which are for the good of the story, but it eventually comes back on course. But the good outweighs the bad, and "Green Chair" is definitely a film to see."