Oh Ji-ho in ‘La Belle’
A writer’s surrealistic journey of love and passion
By Fung L. Yong
LA BELLE (starring Oh Ji-ho) depicts a gorgeous but reclusive writer’s surrealistic journey of love and passion. Characterized by breathtaking cinematography and contemporary scenes, this art film sweeps the audience into a realm of sensuality while enthralling them with its minimalist features. Beautifully intense but heart-wrenchingly tragic, it portrays the tumultuous yet poignant relationship between two mismatched lovers with vastly different personalities. Simple but emotionally-charged, it projects an elegantly crafted view of love and passion in varying shades and tones.
Minimalist décor
The writer’s apartment has a minimalist design that is reduced to its essentials, graced by natural textures and soothing colors. Containing basic geometry with tasteful and clean finishes, its open plan kitchen and living room are ornamented by straight components, pleasing negative spaces, and remarkable floor-length windows. Furnished with industrial and space-age style utilities, the lovely abode is replete with white walls, white curtains, and white bed-sheets. Accentuating its white elegance are a tastefully decorated table with matching chairs, silvery gray pebbles, and gnarled trees in white pots. Amidst the whiteness are patches of black that keep the writer constant company, including a fountain pen, leather-bound diary, jacket, trousers, boxers, and side-swept bangs.
It is in this sanctuary that the introspective owner (Oh Ji-ho) composes to endure being alone, to dwell in the extensive absence of la belle. It is also in this solitary world of whiteness where he fuels his obsession with sorrowful prose, strives to conquer it with a fatalistic mind, and bears the heartbreaking consequences with a pulverized soul.
Riveting conversations
One drizzly night, la belle (Lee Ji-hyeon) shows up unexpectedly at his apartment with hardly any luggage, tortured and shunned by an abusive boyfriend. Pleasantly surprised, the handsome writer wonders what actually brings her into his life. Her reason is succinct; noticing that the apartment is still brightly lit, she decides to come up and stay with him. She always acts as if she would remain with him, yet he never knows when she would make an abrupt exit again.
She feels like a different woman each time she returns to the apartment; however, he finds her ever-changing masks unsettling. One evening, after painting her lips crimson, she feels like a different woman again. This time she feels like a woman who really wants to sleep. After urging him to reflect on what she has said, she bewitchingly invites him to touch her alluring lips.
Observing that modeling must be a challenging job, he hopes to visit her on location someday. However, she curtly denies his request, justifying that while others only see her body from the outside, he can view it from the inside. Always placing her on the pedestal, he professes that he loves everything about her, especially her body. On the beach, she cursorily inquires what he normally thinks of whenever he sees her body. He smilingly reveals that it is different every time; however, at that sunny moment, he thinks of food.
After reading a novel for a few minutes, she concludes that it contains too many coincidences. However, he reiterates that everything is a coincidence when one thinks about it. After scanning a few more pages, she provides the following summary: Two people encountered chance but abandoned it. Chance then cursed their fate, crumbling their relationship and setting them asunder; they met by chance again, but died like beggars.
When she contends that the couple probably did not how to take a chance on love, he insists that people should welcome chance and love wholeheartedly. He also believes that a couple should die at the very moment when they become unhappy with each other. Shrugging, she utters that it sounds like her own story. When he deduces that the novel is about two lovers who were unable to forget about yesterday, it dawns upon her that “yesterday” sounds different each time it is pronounced. Then she starts repeating the word with different intonations. He follows suit, and together they repeatedly say “yesterday” until their voices drift off.
When she postulates that she cannot imagine herself staying long with a man, he affirms that she will remain with him if she falls in love. When he avouches that it is good to love someone, she rejoins that she has never loved anybody, does not love anybody, and will never love anybody. When asked if she has ever been happy, she curls her lips, muttering that she has never been happy, not even once. In stark contrast to her state of mind, he declares that he is extremely happy because he is in love. Nevertheless, when asked what he is going to do if she still feels miserable ten or twenty years from then or fares even worse, he asserts that he will help terminate her unfortunate existence.
The writer’s obsession
The writer creates a distant place from which la belle emerges; it is also a sequestered place where he fruitlessly awaits her return. To survive her prolonged absence, he retreats to an imaginary world where he explores the meaning and purpose of love, including its more sinister aspects. In his vivid imagination lies someone whom he deeply loves even when she is not around. Oftentimes he waits in desolation, falling into a disturbed asleep on the sofa or bed. Waiting in uncertainty is like insanity as she is beyond his loneliness, pain, and suffering. Just as he is teetering at the brink, she reappears, often in the wee hours and a contemptible sight to behold.
When it comes to love, he is not a peacock with its feathers perked, but an emotionally incarcerated man who wants to slough his skin. La belle brings apprehension and longing into his serene life; loving her is as frightening as can be; it is like never knowing when to be frightened. Asked whether it would upset her if he thinks of another woman while they are together, she says absolutely not, confident that he will always cherish her regardless of her whereabouts and moods.
It is said that people in love always look forward to basking in the warm morning light; he is hopelessly in love with her, yet he experiences the chilly gloom of twilight all the time. He is in pain with her, yet she is beyond his agony, solitude, and despair. It is also said that the path of people in love is like the light of dawn that shines increasingly brighter until full day. He is irredeemably in love, yet his way is like the elusive twilight that plunges him into the abysmal depths of hopelessness and yearning.
La belle’s web
La belle always behaves as if nothing substantial has happened after being physically, mentally, or emotionally abused by her boyfriend. Lying supine on the glossy parquet floor, she tells the writer that her feelings are just a little bit hurt, adding that she has already forgotten the man who makes her squirm and weep. Leaning tranquilly against the ornate windowsill at a balmy moonlit night, she proclaims that she can forgive anybody under such ethereal circumstances.
Teasing that it is a present, she seductively drops a raw egg-yolk from her mouth into his, sealing it with a tender kiss. Gushing that she misses him even after a short time, she relishes the soul food that he has freshly cooked for her. Resting her dainty feet on the bed with her lithe body stretched on the floor, she nudges him to narrate an interesting story.
After a protracted absence, she abruptly shows up and queries how he has gotten by. When he counter-questions, she nonchalantly responds that she is just curious about how he lives, sometimes. Upon knowing that he leads a boring life, she wonders whether he has ever felt bored of a woman like her. When he answers no, she asks him to inform her if he ever feels tiresome, adding that she despises herself too.
Drenched and chilled to the bone, she collapses into the writer’s arms, declaring that she is unable to forget her sadistic boyfriend. In a drunken frenzy, she smashes everything in the apartment that she can lay hands on, screaming that he is not her lover and that he does not know how much pain she is harboring. Staggering toward the impeccably lined bookshelf, she shrieks if he is sorry to see the cuts and bruises inflicted by another man, if it is painful for him to notice how pathetic and worthless she is. She commands him not to fool himself into thinking that she loves him, hollering that she knows love just as much as he does.
Viciously calling him an idiot, she screams that it is revolting to look into his meek eyes. Claiming that she is not that easy, she hisses that she is not his girlfriend and that she wants to end her life every day. Commanding him not to touch her body, she shrieks that she will take the abuse because that is how she loves. Persisting that she only loves one person, she demonstrates a strong desire to return to the abusive boyfriend.
In a drunken stupor, she reciprocates the writer’s welcoming touch with sarcasm, mumbling that at least the landowner is free, and is always at home. In jarring tones, she hums that she is suffocating, and does not want to be a doll who tries too many summer lovers.
Toxic love
Despised and humiliated by a stonehearted man whom she loves without condition, la belle vents her anger and frustration on the writer, pushing him into the depths of loneliness and despair. To conceal her crushed self-esteem, she maintains that the cold and aloof boyfriend is no longer on her mind and that he has only hurt her slightly. To obliterate her own sorrow and shame, she tempts the writer to look at the gaudy body art on her bare back, to dance with her, or to embrace her. To gain his attention, she lies with the innocence of a little girl, flirts with the cuteness of a puppy, or seduces with the charm of an exotic dancer. To find respite, she cuddles like a baby in his assuring arms, curls up like a kitten in his plush bed, or performs tricks like a magician in his sitting room.
Although she finds his sensitivity and docility despicable, she still returns to the writer whenever she is exhausted, intoxicated, or brutalized by the boyfriend. Treating him as her surrogate lover, she expects the writer to hug her whenever she feels downtrodden, cook for her whenever she is famished, massage her whenever she is tired, caress her whenever she feels beleaguered, or entertain her whenever she feels restless. Seeking refuge in the writer’s loving arms while desperately waiting for the harsh ringtones, she pretends that she is in love and is loved.
The writer’s obsession
As the abusive rival slumps under the cold light of his shimmering razor blade, he saunters toward his white haven in a calm and collected demeanor. From its bloodstained reflection, he knows that he has eliminated the perpetrator who has mercilessly inflicted excruciating pain on la belle. As he approaches, he lifts his head and sees her leaning happily out of the window, her white blouse bellowing in the wind. By releasing her from the forbidden past, he believes that her body, mind, and soul is finally all his to treasure.
In a white land-cruiser he shuttles her to an enchanting beach, hoping to create a world where he can turn fantasy into reality. He assumes that in time she will throw all the emotional baggage into oblivion and become entirely his for good. Miles away from the hustle and bustle, he strives to create an idyllic world of their very own, nothing less than a utopia of sunshine, love, and bliss.
He rents an Airstream coach and pitches a white tent on the glistening sand. For a while he experiences the simple serenity and fulfillment that he craves. Seemingly to have forgotten her masochistic past, la belle asks him to say something into a crystal bottle, what is in his mind right then and there. Bantering that it is like an abstract souvenir, she persuades him to save all his moments of ecstasy in it.
He is still deep in slumber when she answers the phone; someone informs her that her sadistic lover has been slashed to death on the stomach. Dumbfounded by the news, she becomes distraught and totters toward the sea. Under the cold rain, he helplessly witnesses her graceful body gradually being swallowed up by large undulating waves. Miraculously, she returns to the coach unpronounced, casually gathers her personal effects, and predictably, leaves him without breathing a single syllable.
Tragic ending
Reminiscing that memories are meant to be forgotten, he leaves consistent strings of lonesome footprints on the sand. Unexpectedly, he sees her again; this time she is leaning against the railing of an observation tower, staring aimlessly into the unknown distance. Incarcerated by the gripping spell that she has cast upon his entire being, he joins her without the slightest hesitation. Physically close but emotionally distant, they rivet their eyes upon the horizon, impaled by unrequited love while struggling to be liberated from their own demons.
Blurred by uncontrollable tears, he does not see her at the place that he has created; neither does he see himself at the place where her vacillating heart dwells. Softly nuzzling her silky head on his ever-willing shoulder, she whispers that she misses him, the way she always does whenever she is filled with self-loathing and anguish. Gazing doggedly into her expressive childlike eyes, he is determined that it will be the last time she is leaving him.
His forbearance is synonymous with the ominous silence right before a storm that yields utter destruction. Like a hurricane of catastrophic proportions, he finally erupts. No longer able to tolerate her presence or absence anymore, he tenderly wraps his hands around the delicate neck that he used to caress. As he tearfully tightens his grip, she hardly puts up a struggle. Unable to win the heart of a brutal man whom she is addicted to, she too has lost the will to live. Unable to withstand the disillusionment and torture of a passionate relationship devoid of love, or to continue the incessant waiting for a physical presence without a soul, he not only kills the coldblooded rival but also strangles her to death. Sadly, tragedy is the only way for him to escape from the losing side of an ill-starred love triangle. (New Sarawak Tribune, February 4, 2012)
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