[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Peter Pan Formula"

With only 3,067 admissions from its theatrical run in 2006, it's a bit of a mystery to me why "The Peter Pan Formula" was trending on HanCinema yesterday. The bleak drama film did see some exposure on the international film festival circuit back then in the later Korean Wave period. But as far as I can tell the main version floating around today, even on the Korean Internet, is a two-part VCD rip, where the English subtitles on the second half are very much out of sync.

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It's an oddly appropriate metaphor for the actual text of the film. Han-soo (played by On Joo-wan) is a talented swimmer who isn't doing great emotionally even when listening to generic encouragement from his coach. But Han-soo's mental state takes a turn for the worse when his mother attempts suicide without quite succeeding. Han-soo has to deal with the bills associated with all that in addition to his worsening sense of ennui.

The first, most important thing to understand about "The Peter Pan Formula" is that this movie doesn't really go anywhere. Which again, is sort of the point- Han-soo doesn't see any sort of future for himself, which makes it awfully difficult for him to motivate himself to do much of anything except masturbate. Han-soo's behavior is pathetic, and a little messed up, and no other character in the movie is able to much to help him because the main impression they have toward him is one of pity.

One interesting exception to this is Mi-jin (played by Ok Ji-young) who only really has one conversation with Han-soo in the whole movie. But they have a big common point in that they're both dealing with their mothers being in the hospital in ways that aren't great. We can almost see the outlines of these two as the stars of a completely different film, where Han-soo forms an emotional connection with her instead of developing an unhealthy crush on his neighbor Yoon-hee (played by Kim Ho-jung), the music teacher.

"The Peter Pan Formula" implies that Han-soo and Yoon-hee had never spoken to each other before his mother's death despite their being neighbors. But that's just one of the many discouraging commentaries on 2006 era modernity that writer/director Jo Chang-ho has for the viewer. In one subplot, Han-soo turns to crime in order to deal with debt collectors who look like and apparently actually are employees for a credit card company that just act like stereotypical gangsters.

While writer/director Jo Chang-ho didn't have an especially successful career making South Korean films, he did make another one after this with similar themes- "Another Way" which starred Kim Jae-wook and Seo Yea-ji as suicidal strangers in the bleak, snowy Chuncheon. The tone of "The Peter Pan Formula" is quite similar to that, with Han-soo in a seaside town mostly crushed by overwhelming depression that only abates on the rare occasion he's able to have a pleasant, casual conversation with a peer who knows what it's like to feel so ambivalent.

Written by William Schwartz

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"The Peter Pan Formula" is directed by Jo Chang-ho, and features On Joo-wan, Kim Ho-jung, Ok Ji-young, Park Min-ji, Son Hee-soon, Park Yong-jin. Release date in Korea: 2006/04/13.