still in love
By Douglas Messerli
Jang Young Seon (screenwriter and director) 아직 끝나지 않았다 (A Naked Boy) / 2015 [22 minutes]
South Korean director Jang Young Seon’s A Naked Boy
features a high school history teacher, Jin- tae (Kim Young Pil) who is having
a very difficult time since one boy in his class of all-male students looks
very much like his childhood boyfriend Seok-joon, whom he left behind when he
moved to Seoul where he teaches. Moreover, the student, unlike all the others,
appears to him as completely naked.
The
boyfriend has long since married and has a son, and now Jin-tae, at 45 years of
age, is finally about to be married. As he himself admits later in the film to
Seok-joon’s son, he is not as handsome as Seok-joon, but he’s now nonetheless
found someone who wants to marry him. What a terrible moment to become daily
haunted by a nude classroom student (Ha Kyung). Jin-tae is unable even to sleep
at night. What’s more, the young boy seems to be almost flirting with him, or
at the very least mocking his teacher.
Over a
short school break, Jin Tae returns home to his mother’s house, happy just to
escape the daily vision of a beautiful nude boy in his classroom. In an attempt
to finally send away his demons, Jin Tae invites his boyhood lover’s son for
dinner; he dare not see the man himself, knowing that it would be disastrous
for both of them.
The
young man (Kim Jae Heung) is obviously surprised by the invitation, but even
more startled by his father’s friend’s comments. Jin-Tae admits not only that
the boy’s father and he were close friends but that, he liked him a lot, “I
really liked him….”
The boy
orders dinner and Jin-tae watches him eat, the strange couple joining up after
on a beach. As the boy finally rises to leave, the older man makes a truly
strange request, one that I don’t think you might find in any other movie.
Would the teenager be willing to ride the teacher piggy-back from where they
are standing to a post in the distance.
At
first, the boy is quite understandably a bit confused, even troubled by the
request. But eventually he agrees, and Jin-tae bends down so the quite sizable
teen might get on his back. As the ride commences, we suddenly observe another
boy in another time, obviously the boy Jin Tae carrying Seok-joon on his back,
these young men dressed in heavy winter coats.
Evidently, about leave their small town for ever, this ride was
Jin-tae’s only request of his childhood lover. As they reach his house,
Seok-joon asks might there not be some other way of saying goodbye, moving
toward Jin Tae to kiss him. But Jin-tae, the young boy, pulls away, turning to
go as Seok-joon moves off into the house.
At the
very last moment Seok-joon reappears to wish that his friend will “Be a great
man in Seoul.”
Putting
down Seok-joon’s son, the older man has now repeated the gesture of staying
goodbye, has carried the son of his lover off as a token of his love and
respect just as he had previously done with his father.
Back in
his school, Jin-tae encounters the beautiful “naked boy” in the hall once
again, but this time the boy is fully dressed. Relieved and finally believing
that he has laid his demons to rest, the teacher reaches out and strokes the
top of the boy’s head, leaving his hand there for just a little bit longer that
simple pat of affection. Both man and boy immediately know that the act has
represented a kind of transgression, and the boy quickly walks off.
As
Jin-tae turns to watch the boy, he realizes the student is once more totally
naked. He will not so easily lay his past to rest and certainly he must realize
that heterosexuality will not be an easy or even possible transition in his
life ahead, particularly since he is still in love with his boyhood sweetheart.
Los Angeles, October 5, 2023
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October
2023).
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