Persona (2019)

I'd like to begin by saying that I don't think Persona was my genre; if not by the fact that IU was in it, I would most likely never pay attention to it. Maybe I'd watch the 2nd and 4th episode, but that would be about it.

This was a quite odd and bold mini series, where each episode worked as a standalone production (each was produced by different people too). A big chunk of Persona was up to personal interpretation, therefore we were given often very unfolded, open storylines and characters. It was all abut what was shown and heard, what was truly given at the moment. And for that, I have to appreciate the effort. I wasn't used to this though, so it's hard to judge a series like this.

Someone in another website mentioned how the objective of this series was supposedly to depict human emotions, hence why the viewer would feel lost at times within the episodes. I slightly agree. In all honesty, even if I felt weirded out and lost most of the time, I ended this series with the feeling that I wanted more. More variety, more diversity of themes in such a short term. So much can be said about each episode if the audience pays enough attention...

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This movie consists of 4 mini-stories, each directed by different people.
Each story is different from each other.

The stories are vague, we do not know why these things are happening, we do not know how the stories end, etc. All of the films have an open ending, so you can imagine what happens to the characters. And we don't have a solid answer as to why these things are happening to certain characters, but there are clues and dialogues that help us get a better understanding. Different viewers will have a different interpretation of what happened in each film and what it is about because we all look at things differently.

+Spoiler below+
To elaborate on what I wrote above, I will write what I thought happened in "Love Set". This is kinda gonna be an English film essay. Lmao. I'll try to be brief and talk about the main points.

This film was my favorite, I loved the cinematography and IU swearing in English. There is a deeper meaning then I thought about this film. (I'd like to thank "judah" someone from MyDramaList that commented on an in-depth explanation on this film, their interpretation of this film helped me get a better understanding).

At first, I thought IU liked the man playing tennis, but it turned out to be her dad. We first see her English teacher playing tennis with her dad, we know they are in a relationship because IU doesn't want them to get married. When the English teacher and her dad play tennis, they both smile and deliberately moan loudly, like they do when they have s*x. IU doesn't like this, as we can tell by her facial expressions. Than when IU plays with her father, she moans but her dad laughs. The father and the daughter have this relationship with each other as well. (I know it's soo disgusting and creepy). This relationship can also be confirmed when the father tells IU after the match "don't make strange noises when you play with other guys" whilst IU is hugging her dad from behind, and the camera focuses on her spread apart legs. When IU and the teacher play tennis they do not loudly moan, it's quiet and real. The teacher knows what's going on between IU and her dad, which is why she wanted her to "end things with your dad". At the end of one match she says to IU I won't marry your dad, she strokes IU hands suggesting that she cares for her and wants her to stop being in that kind of relationship with her dad.

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Just like another user, I will review this miniseries separately because they're all completely different:

1) Love Set: I believe this is the most difficult short film to rate or even describe because it probably looks (or is) meaningless. I understand that cinema doesn't always need to have a meaning and I love directors who understand this and simply film something with no plot or story, it's an interesting point of view about this industry. However, I tried to give it a meaning, and this may be a reach, but to me it was about giving your all to something and how tired or hurt you can get in order to achieve that. We see IU falling down and scratching her knee, one of the tennis balls even hits her chest but she keeps going. She's tired, Doo Na is tired too, but IU wants to keep going because she wants to achieve her goal. However, Doo Na tells her that she wont' marry her father, even though IU lost. I took this as that sometimes you don't even need to work that hard to get something, maybe you just need to let things happen and follow the flow they will naturally have, whether you get it or not, don't try too much or hurt yourself trying to achieve something that may just naturally come to you.

2) Collector: I have to admit that I didn't know where this was going but I was loving it simply for the horrible character that IU was. But as the story progressed, I understood that this was about an abusive relationship. A woman who ghosted her partner for 10 days, a man who was nervous because he couldn't reach her and when she finally appears, he's trying his best not to be a bother, not to show his true emotions and concerns in fear that she may leave again. They spend the entire day together, but she's out of it, she's physically there but her mind and heart are somewhere else. He notices it, but he doesn't want to do anything that may make her go away. Shots from what looks like his mind appear with what seems to be his ex-girlfriend, blaming him for leaving her and telling him he brought this upon himself, he can't complain (someone who made a mistake and went into an abusive relationship trying to convince himself that he deserves the abuse). But at the end of the day he can't hold it any longer and expresses his fears, concerns, emotions. He wants to know what he means to her, but to his misfortune, he's nothing more than just another man in her life, and he knew. She asks him to be cool, to be someone that he's not, to give her something more. He eventually ends up pulling his heart out of his chest, meaning that he was willing to give her everything even if that meant that he would die just so she could be happy. That's the best interpretation of an abusive relationship that I have ever seen. At the end, she's shown with a bag of hearts from other men who she had abused before and she gives him a box with what seems to be himself trapped in his own mind, again, this time his ex is not there. I'd take this as a way to show that after someone gives their all in an abusive relationship they're left alone, tired, drained, with no energy, emotions (heart) to give to another person. Completely loved this one.

3) Kiss Burn: This one was the most fun and light short film, about two girls trying to revenge the mistreatment that one girl's abusive father has done. They try several ways but end up failing with all of them. It's about friendship and discovering new things (kiss, sexual arousal, smoking). They spend a few days trying to do it but at the end they give up and decide to go to the beach to release their stress. A mountain is shown catching fire through the ending scene and the credits, and we learn that the abusive father is a forest fireman, so we can say that the nature's way to avenge the father's abuse is by giving him work(?). To be honest, I couldn't find any deeper meaning in this one, nothing more than just an innocent friendship. Still, loved the acting and story.

4) Walking at Night: This is my favorite short film of the mini series. When I finished it, I literally thought in my head I did an standing ovation because of how vastly beautiful and deep this one was. A story about a couple reminiscing their old times, the times when they fell in love and spent a beautiful time together. However, the boyfriend is suddenly reminded that his girlfriend is dead and what he sees is not real; they're in a dream. I loved the director's portrayal of a dream in black and white, magical and mysterious. The fact that he suddenly remembered that she was dead was so accurate because sometimes when we're on a dream we forget things that happened in reality and suddenly remember them, that's exactly how they portrayed this and I loved it. He asks her why she died and she says that she was lonely, he wants to know if he made her feel like that (in a suicide, the people who are left often blame themselves wondering what wrong they did), she assures him that he was always for her, that it was the people who knew her that made her like that. I don't want to sound like I'm romanticizing suicide in no way, especially not when hers was so brutal, but I do love the perspective they give from a person who committed suicide and how lonely they were that they made this decision. The boyfriend starts to mumble what she said because he doesn't want to forget it when he wakes up, he knows in the dream that it's not his fault but he also knows that he will continue to blame himself if he doesn't remember it when he wakes up. I know many people have done this too, try very hard in the dream to retain as much as possible so that when we wake up we remember it. At some point he's saddened because he won't remember her, but she calms him by saying that at least they are together again. I just think this was way too beautiful, maybe I'm biased because of the topic but I loved it way too much. The quote at the end is the cherry on the cake, "dreams and death lead to nowhere. They will end up nowhere and eventually be forgotten. We are here, but no one will remember us. Everything is gone, and only the night remains."

Overall, I really loved this series. It was art, in the way that it leaves the door open for one's interpretation depending on one's life experiences and conceptions and I just truly love this type of cinema and I'm grateful to IU for portraying these wonderful roles, and also the rest of the cast and crew for all the films.

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[side note:
A little surprised at the justification of many of the negative reviews of this, but then again, the audience is probably going to be in the realm of a) kdrama fans b) koreaboos c) simply fans of IU's conventional beauty d) fans of IU's music (which I would like to say carry more intellect than other kpop fans, but..) and whatnot... Basically, these reviews are so shallow. You don't have to bloody understand everything you watch? Is there no one over the age of like 13 watching this?
I can understand negative reviews because of poor acting or plot, dadadada. But some people don't bother thinking for two seconds about what they're watching. I'm just noticing many reviewers glossing over the complexities and depth that I feel should be appreciated. Of course, I'm also only exposed to English reviewers, let alone to those written on the internet.]

I enjoyed what this collection of works was trying to do, some more than others, but all in all appreciated the layers and complexities of depth provided, that of which I am still ruminating on-- the best kinds of fiction does this, crawls around your head for days following. If I'm honest, my appreciation for the works is partly with the fact that it is created by Korean production in mind, and I'm sorry if that comes across as condescending in any way. I am glad IU was the one to take on this project.
I'd say a downfall of the project would be how short each of them are, because they couldn't really expand on what they were discussing but had a lot of potential to evoke thought and leave a lasting impression, had they'd been longer. The storylines (mostly No 1) were appropriate for the time constraint, but (2,3,4) somehow wanted to be more than its 20-30 minute form, if that makes sense.
Overall, they were far from perfect, but I can appreciate the intent and experimentation.

I really enjoyed the second one's ambiguity and mystery. I interpreted as a kind of discussion about society's superficiality, especially regarding modern 'romance', but also regarding femininity, female power dynamics, gender tropes. I love the way satire is used, I felt it was quite effective within the plot, given the time limitations. I think the characters had an interesting dimensionality to them, especially the male who I really identified with-- The insight into the workings of his mind was very very intriguing and raw, which I appreciated, especially in the Korean cinema scene, (this is hard to articulate--the concepts themselves are very abstract) but I loved the way it really captured the visceral way that the mind 'thinks'. Also the insecurity. The insanity. The vulnerability, rawness and foolishness that humans feel but hide from others. This one was more brave and not afraid to confront but was more serious. I liked that it didn't try so hard to be artsy-indie like 1 and 4 (or, more-so 4).
But beyond its meaning it was thrilling to watch. Not sure if it was intended but i felt it had a Charlie Kaufman influence to it, also reminded me a bit of Punch Drunk Love in some of the scenes inside the man's head.
I liked this one the most not just because it fit my taste but also because it had intention while still being interesting, and also was "unconventional" without relying on this to appeal or sacrificing the story.

I like how the first one left so much up to a kind of unsaid narrative, while using the game of tennis to make inferences to a story beyond the camera. The relationship between Doona and IU was pretty engaging and left me wondering what their history was. IU plays the naively strong sense of self that adolescents tend to have very nicely, which I only came to appreciate after the episode was over (seeing her other performances) because I initially read it as not-the-best acting. My bad.
Some things were vague, and I enjoy ambiguity to some extent, but there were times when it was a bit unnecessary or overdone. Like the ball placing into IU's hand or certain expressions they shared. I don't like things being spelt out to me, but some of it wasn't even trying to suggest anything, leaving it a bit abstract. When fiction pieces try to pull off this ambiguity, it is usually clear that this is what they are going for. But in this one I wasn't too sure whether it was trying to rely on subtext or just lacking substantial context. Nonetheless, I did enjoy trying to figure this one out and develop a hypothesis about it, which I believe is what interesting texts do, so I appreciate that.

I'm gonna skip the third one because I while I can appreciate it, I think it was pretty kdrama-esque and didn't stand out to me personally because I'm not into the "pop" genre(?) of kdrama-- so my comments would naturally be biased.

The fourth was what I was the most disappointed in. While the third I didn't have any expectation for after grasping its general premise and genre, this one I did, because I'm the most drawn to its themes and genre. While I do remember enjoying some aspects of this one, these unfortunately didn't remain in my memory long enough for me to comment on, ha. I don't even think I can articulate my thoughts on why I was disappointed in this one. I think the character and themes suited IU the most and yet the part was very lacking in substance. It felt very pseudo-intellectual to me. It tried but didn't deliver enough depth in my opinion, given its topics. I like what it tried to do very much, but I get this feeling that the scriptwriter/director didn't even fully grasp their own message/intentions. I think IU did better than them.
I'm sorry this isn't very specific, it's honestly because I can't remember the part very well but can only remember my reaction. I will definitely watch again to really come to terms with my thoughts on it and the messages better.

I feel like if I were to sum up my thoughts it would be: like what it tried to do, but didn't quite deliver to utmost potentials. Not that I'm expecting it to be perfect, just that it was a bit ambitious in its messages but failed to grasp the weight and complexity of them.

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Provocative, Deep, & Sadly Beautiful

Persona is a mini-series with four episodes, each clocking at about twenty-ish minutes each, and each episode is beautifully shot. The director caught every movement and shift of IU and the other actors in an entrancing way.

Each story has a meaning behind it, and really one you have to look for. The first episode is a little twisted in it's plotline, and didn't seem to have any real meaning to interpret, but the acting is very up close and personal in it. The stories do not connect in any way, but I think show the different sides of human nature (hence the name). It ultimately confronts the personas that we present to the world. This is definitely a look deeper kind of drama, and not made for a lighthearted watch.

While I have so many mixed feelings about Persona, I will probably watch again at some point to see if I can pick up on anything else. All in all, I would recommend if you're looking for a short watch with good acting, and not too many strings attached to the plotlines.

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It's my first time writing a review, but I felt like it was the right moment with this serie.
I wanted to depict what I felt while watching each episode, because I loved how each scenarios was a psychological travel that call out deep reflections.

Each episode has a different esthetic and scenery but It feels like a decortication process of this tricky human feeling of "Love and its variation" This special feeling that summons many different emotions such as : loneliness, jealousy, boredom, and tiredness.
Love in all its different aspects.
You can contemplate the personification of all these emotions through different storylines.

First episode, Love Set : A trouble tennis game between two girls who seems to be in a jealousy battle. They bet their own feeling to an intense game, full of violence and some points of erotism. It's really intimate, because the scenes contain many close-up shots, and it seems that the storyline was quite out.
But personally, I think everything is happening in gestures, faces expression and gazes. It's a battle of acceptance to each other emotions.

Second episode, Collector : A strange girl who seems to be emotionless, is collecting hearts, literally, in a surnatural quest of passion. She seems to be bored really fast, and seek the sparkles that ignite from new loves, new places. It is what I felt through this episode, her way to talk about her trip, the peacefulness she felt with the yoga and the fact that she seems bored by the limits of human body. It feels like she wants to test the extremes.
And naturally, what is more extreme than someone giving its beating heart to you...
The little box is significant, it seems to keep locked all the emotions of the male character. He keeps to restrain himself from blowing out until he gives his heart to the woman and finally lost his mind.

Third episode, Kiss Burn : I think there were many symbols inside this one. Passion through fire, anger, and getting rid of stress. These are the feelings I felt through the various plans.
"The adventure of the beach" and the kiss marks in the neck which relieved the stress of Hye Bok, a girl who was abused by his own father. This same father who seems to be abused by injustice. The passion of revenge which turns to be a fire that they had to put out and that ignites again. It's like an endless circle of situations who lead to an inevitable conclusion.

Fourth episode, Walking at Night : This one touched me the most. It's a simple discussion about memories and death with two lovers and how everything will eventually disappear in a blink of an eye. This makes us think deeper about the meaning of death, loneliness and love and how being surrounded by people won't prevent us to be alone.
I can quote this dialogue "Dreams & death lead to nowhere. They will end up nowhere and eventually be forgotten."

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"Love Set" was the most disappointing of the series, despite IU and the goat Bae Doona. Thankfully this didn't set the tone for the subsequent episodes. IU gives an incredibly kinetic performance though: emotionally volatile and so physical.

"Collector," though. Wow. This was my favorite. And co-starring Park Hae Soo, who gave a performance like the rent was due! The concept was extremely well done, something that avoided cliches and being trite. IU was perfectly cold and aloof as Eun, contrasted with Hae Soo's pleading, desperate boyfriend. I was also obsessed with the sterile white room where he's decapitated, a shot of surrealism in an already dark segment. The room in miniature inside the little box was also a brilliant touch and gave this a fairy tale vibe. Also, a young woman who demands the hearts of her lovers without giving hers in return, locking them in glass jars? Outstanding, just outstanding.

"Kiss Burn" was delightfully strange and funny, and "Walking at Night" was the perfect conclusion with its melancholy musings.

It's really nice to see IU distance herself from her wholesome image with an off beat project like this. I could definitely see her in a Bong Joon Ho or Hong Sang Soo film.

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4 cryptic and poetic storylines

It's a really short watch but it left too many questions in my mind that I'd probably think about for months. There were 4 completely separate storylines which is really mind-boggling. Also, I realize this type of things is not my cup of tea.

I would say there might be a lot of depth on this anthology and I've read quite a few review and critic and I'm so amazed how other people perspectives varies and it definitely help me appreciate this more.

If I'd be completely honest, if I just watched it without reading reviews or critic about it, I'll be just completely lost and think wth did I just watched? So maybe if you're the type of person who thinks really deeply, you would like this.

Also, I love seeing IU portray different roles and totally nailing it. It was just over an hour so I'd recommend it (also reading reviews and critics that will help you puzzle some pieces together.)

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Anthology of Arthouse Bizarre

PERSONA was a well-made Korean anthology of stories, but due to the one episode length span of each story there is only so much that can be conveyed in terms of character development and depth, and only so much that can take place, per story, so they don't really hit too deep not as other Korean dramas might, but they were still well made and acted, visually stunning and intriguing. In my opinion the writing struggled in these episodes, but do give the viewer pause to think.

Worth the watch mainly for the quality of the production and the acting by Eun-Ji Lee (IU) and Bae Doona, as well as the capable directing and visual effects.

LOVE SET [5/10]
COLLECTOR [7/10]
KISS BURN [8/10]
WALKING AT NIGHT [8/10]

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The Difference between 4 stories ..overall good watch

Honestly after reading negative reviews I wasn't sure if i should watch it or not but it was just 4 eps that's why i started watching this with 0 expections.
4 stories with different feelings emotions

1st : it's weird how they tried to portray the relationship between Doona (her English teacher) and IU 's character. The way they tried to showcase but but not making clear Lesbian character . Making In a very weird way . That's why most viewers didn't understand what was happening.

2nd : The way both portrayed the inner feelings one is Red Flag? another one is colourblind. It's the perfect example. He ignored all the hints she was giving. She wanted to be free but he was expecting real love that also with breaking Engegment with his ex lover.

3rd : it was kind of fluffy/funny and also dark end . Loved the friendship between those two ❤️

4th : heavy episode. For someone who is suicidal. it'll painful to watch. hated how her lover is suffering from the pain right now. Most Meaningful episode.?

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Interesting for the various directing approaches but not riveting

This anthology series is made of 4 episodes of 20 minutes, each one can be seen as a short movie featuring IU as the main star. Despite it being very different from what I'm used to watch in terms of dramas as well as feeling a bit too short in the episodes' length to be really comparable to a movie, I found the concept quite interesting in itself.

I was not as enticed by all the stories. My favourites are the 1st and the 2nd stories. Even for the stories that I enjoyed less, I still found the directing pretty great and eye-catching. It felt like an experimental project allowing the viewer to get into short snippets of the life of the characters with each time some very high quality production. Like the filmmaking which gave very different colours to each of the episode, I found the soundtrack for each of the story versatile and fitting well with each thematic.

I enjoyed the performance of IU in each of the episode, she plays very different characters and manages to convey a lot of emotions in a very short amount of time and has good chemistry with all the other actors and actresses.

I would recommend this to people looking for a different kind of storytelling, an hybrid piece between series and movies. It is a bit of an OVNI and difficult to really say at the end if I enjoyed it or not, but it is worth giving it a shot (especially if you like IU and given its shortness).

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