'Collective Invention,' wry portrayal of Korean society

From left, actors Lee Chun-hee, Kim Hee-won, Jang Gwang, Lee Kwang-soo, who develops the upper half of a fish, and actress Park Bo-young in a scene from the film "Collective Invention" / Courtesy of Filament Pictures

By Baek Byung-yeul

The black comedy "Collective Invention" is probably one of the more noteworthy films at this autumn's box-office with its lampooning sketches of society.

As its original Korean title "Mutant" indicates, "Collective Invention" revolves around a jobless, low-income man named Park Gu whose head mutates into that of a fish. The film was released in Korea on Oct. 22.

Park (Lee Kwang-soo) irregularly makes money by performing supporting roles in TV dramas. Tempted by the amount of money he can get paid, Park decides to take part in a clinical test for a pharmaceutical company for 300,000 won ($265) and undergoes a life-ruining experience as his head turns into fish's head after the experiment.

All he wants to do is to find a way to turn his head back, but, sadly or unjustly, things don't go the way the protagonist wants as he is surrounded by characters who proclaim themselves helpers with pure intentions.

After escaping from the laboratory, the half-fish, half-man visits a woman, who he had a one-night stand with, but the lady Ju-jin (Park Bo-young) sells him back to the pharmaceutical company for nickels and dimes.

Acknowledged the rumor of the existence of fish man, Sang-won (Lee Chun-hee) ― a temporary reporter of a major broadcaster while reporters at the TV station are out on a strike ― hears the whole story from Ju-jin. Excited to become a subject of TV news, Ju-jin persuades the reporter to sneak into the company and the two somehow succeed in Extracting Park Gu.

Sang-won, who strives to become a full-time journalist, submits the video footage showing Park and the country is soon embroiled with the fish man story.

With Park's father (Jang Gwang) demanding a large sum of compensation from the pharmaceutical company over his son's mutated head and a star lawyer (actor Kim Hee-won) using Park as a venture for his career, the uproar surrounding Park becomes even messier.

It is up to the audience to determine the relevance of Park's final choice in the turbulent situation, but "Collective Invention" has a lot to say in one film.

The director Kwon Oh-kwang tries to whip the sorry story of Park into the shape of a black comedy in the beginning and a social satire in the latter half. To achieve that, the director adapts various social issues that happened over the past decade such as scientist Hwang Woo-suk's cloning scandal, the MBC TV union workers' strike, high youth unemployment rate and even pro-North Korean controversies.

The director said the half-fish, half-man character was inspired by Rene Magritte's 1934 painting "The Collective Invention" depicting a fish with human legs.

"The mutant fish man was inspired by my favorite painter," he told reporters after a press preview at a theater in Wangsimni, Seoul, on Oct. 14. "After seeing the painting, I felt uncomfortable that the upper body is fish and the lower is human. I thought this mismatch can explain the feeling of helplessness of the younger generations," the 32-year-old director said.

"Collective Invention" is the feature debut of the director, who wrote the script for "Safe," a Golden Palm award-winning film at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in 2013.

Kwon, who's also known as a student of director Lee Chang-dong, who won the 2010 Cannes' Best Screenplay award with "Poetry," said he had a lot of advice when writing script and editing the film.

"I thank Lee who is my mentor. I received a lot of advice from him when I was working on the script and editing," Kwon said. Kwon studied film under Lee at the Korea National University of Arts.

"Lee provided both pros and cons about this film,. He also advised me on my attitude toward filmmaking," Kwon said.

Lee Kwang-soo, better known as a cast member of the popular SBS TV variety show "Running Man," features as the half-fish, half-man even though his face is only seen for a few minutes.

Lee said he was delighted to take the role as he liked the screenplay and could deeply empathize with the character.

"The fact that my face rarely appears in the scenes made me long to do this film," Lee said. "I really enjoyed the script and could empathize with it. I thought I am never going to have a role like this again."

When performing the jobless protagonist, Lee said he recollected the time when he didn't have any work. "When I was performing Park Gu, I recalled the time before I went to complete my compulsory military duty and after I made an acting debut. Though I have work to do now, I didn't know my future would be like," he said.

Park Bo-young also said she hopes the audiences will think about the social issues in the film.

"I am cautious to say as there are things that I have never undergone in the film. But I decided to participate in this film because I think it is my job to let the audience think about these issues," she said.