The life of a family begins to crumble in Chorokbam. On a green-tinted night, an elderly security guard (Lee Tae-hoon) finds a cat hanging from a piece of playground equipment. This bad omen sets the stage for the downfall of the guard and his family, which includes fights with his wife (Kim Min-kyung) about the guard’s bad habits and their son (Kang Gil-woo), who does not know whether he should marry his girlfriend (Kim Gook-hee).
Chorokbam, which translates into “Green Night,” is a very slow-burning drama and the debut feature from Korean filmmaker Yoon Seo-jin. While a technically profound film, which makes much use of green-tinted lighting, there isn’t particularly a lot to say about the film.
Chorokbam is such a slow-burn of a film that there isn’t a lot that happens in the film’s 89-minute running time. While thematically a movie about grief and depression, it is never entirely apparent what the film’s actual story is. Chorokbam has a few interesting individual moments, but it is ultimately a bit too slow-paced for my liking.
