[HanCinema's Film Review] "Searching for the Elephant"

Why HanCinema users have an interest in "Searching for the Elephant" is a bit of a mystery to me. The fifteen year old film has been almost entirely forgotten, and the only version I could find had Thai subtitles. It is semi-erotic, but probably not as much as you're expecting. In fact, "Searching for the Elephant" probably isn't as graphic as you're expecting either. The early scene of finger mutilation is really about as intense as the film gets with its grotesue illusions.

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The meaning of the title took me a minute- it refers to elephants as a sort of fantasy. When our lead characters were kids, back in the eighties I presume, elephants were hard to come by in South Korea. As in, if they went to the zoo, there weren't any elephants. This metaphor extends to the present day, which is to say the late aughts, as the creature comforts of modernity are beyond what these men could have fathomed as children. But it's also driving them a little insane.

Literally, in the case of Hyeon-woo (played by Jang Hyuk), who suffers from schizophrenic episodes. Min-seok (played by Jo Dong-hyuk), is addicted to sex he only just barely even seems to enjoy. Then there's Jin-hyeok (played by Lee Sang-woo) who keeps getting warned by an English speaking suit that he needs to flee the country but spends most of the movie dithering. These three men are connected by their relationship with Soo-yeon (played by Lee Min-jung) who's really not as important a character as that makes her sound.

Not that anything that happens in this movie is important. "Searching for the Elephant" is weird for the sake of being weird, but in contrast to more typical weird films of this era, writer/director Jeong Seung-goo makes it fairly clear that this weirdness is largely self-imposed. The leads are incapable of achieving happiness in a normal life, and wrap themselves up in these elaborate fantasies.

The film is also so warped by their vantage point that the viewer is encouraged to believe in their weirdness rather than seek out more logical explanations. Most of the special effects budget probably went into the bizarre depiction of the apocalypse that shows up late in the movie. Without getting into too many spoilers, the main message "Searching for the Elephant" has regarding sex seems to be that modernity forces men to see women as objects of fantasy, furthering their alienation from the world around them.

It's a borderline profound message that was rather unfortunately undercut by the fact that this film had Jang Ja-yeon's final role, and she rather infamously killed herself from the despair of living in these men's world. Not that any of them are especially sympathetic, mind you, it just adds a very sad subtext to the whole affair that probably destroyed any chance Jeong Seung-goo had of making any more films. Sometimes, it just doesn't pay to be weird.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Searching for the Elephant" is directed by Jeong Seung-goo, and features Jang Hyuk, Jo Dong-hyuk, Lee Sang-woo, Lee Min-jung, Jeon Se-hyun, Hwang Woo-seul-hye. Release date in Korea: 2009/11/05.