Chae Min-seo stars as a deeply troubled young woman in VEGETARIAN
VEGETARIAN (CHAESIKJUUIJA) (Lim Woo-seong, 2009)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, March 17, $12, 5:30
Series runs through March 18
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
Japan Society’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” series turns to the subjects of food, sex, and obsession with Lim Woo-seong’s creepy debut, Vegetarian, which caused quite a stir when it played at the Pusan and Sundance Film Festivals. Based on a short story by Han Gang, the psychological drama stars Chae Min-seo as Yeong-hye, a young woman whose dreams lead her to suddenly become a fierce vegetarian, alienating her from her husband, Gil Soo (Kim Young-jae), and her family; a scene in which her father, during his birthday party, tries to force meat into her mouth is particularly unnerving. As Yeong-hye teeters on the edge of sanity, she stirs something deep within her brother-in-law, Cho Min-ho (Kim Hyun-sung), an artist mired in a creative funk. The film slips a bit as it gets more luridly disturbing before returning to the more interesting relationship between Yeong-hye and her older sister, Ji-hye (Kim Yeo-jin), who is desperately trying to save her from permanently losing her mind. Evoking both Todd Haynes’s Safe (1995) and Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (1996), writer-director Lim sustains a tense mood with the help of cinematographer Kang Chang-bae and composer Jeong Yong-jin, exploring just how far obsession can go. Vegetarian might not be a diatribe about vegetarianism, but it still is likely to put you off your lunch, so eat carefully either before or afterward. Among the other films screening this weekend at Japan Society are Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses, Hideo Nakata’s Chaos, Mochizuki Rokuro’s Minazuki, and Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis.