Fukuoka

Zhang Lu's 2020 Korean film follows a secondhand bookseller from Seoul on a journey to Japan. He takes a young woman with him and goes to see a friend from university; the two men loved the same woman years ago. The film refuses to deliver a reckoning. The two men talk without opening the old matter directly; the young woman with them moves through the narrative almost as in a dream and who she is stays unclear. Zhang Lu is known for using cities as characters. The streets, bars and bookshops of Fukuoka sit inside the narrative; languages mix and the film sometimes skips translation. Park So-dam is in the cast. Who it's for: those who like slow East Asian drama and ambiguous narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting explanation; the film does not close its questions.