[HanCinema's Film Review] "SHIVA, Throw Your Life"

Byeong-Tae (played by Park Ki-duk), from the moment he steps foot in India, clearly has preconceptions about the country. You probably have similar ones, if you've only ever heard the country described in terms of its mysticism and poverty. Unsurprisingly, when Byeong-Tae starts trying to do some actual filming, trouble arises as India quite clearly does not care about his problems, or those of the other Koreans who happen to show up over the course of this film.

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"SHIVA, Throw Your Life" is at its strongest when it engages the country of India on these real terms. For some time, I wasn't sure how many of the Indian people we see are actors or just happened to be random people on the street watching the movie's actual filming with genuine detachment. There's obvious comedy the the naive way these characters seem to expect the simple act of filming inside India to be able to describe the country accurately with no other context.

This comedy carries over into a great scene where Byeong-Tae discovers, to his alarm, that he has fallen trap to a scam. It's an event that seems really obvious in retrospect, and that was only made possible in the first place by Byeong-Tae's own foolish preconceptions. The scene is problematic, in the casual negative portrayal it gives of a presumably common problem in Indian culture, but this is forgiven by the fact that the situation was caused by Byeong-Tae's foolishness.

Inevitably Byung-Tae starts to learn what it means to understand the real India, but his education is so quick that the experience just feels shallow. Another character who up until that point seemed to get India pretty well (we first see this Korean women wearing a bindi for pity's sake) falls into trouble because...I guess random Indians are dangerous criminals? No, honestly, that's the only context or explanation we're given for what happens to her. Byung-Tae gets sent to jail in a similarly anticlimatic plot twist that's resolved just as pointlessly.

Earlier portions of the film reveled in the pointlessness of Byung-Tae's adventures. There's fun to be had just watching random stuff in the street that the man has no interest in filming. But when the actual storyline hits the same level of pointlessness, there's no irony or joy. It's just really annoying. I think Byung-Tae's supposed to have a love interest here, but I'm honestly not sure because "SHIVA, Throw Your Life" doesn't explore the idea in any meaningful detail. Conflicts appear and disappear at random, and it's extremely difficult to guess what the consistent point in the narrative is even supposed to be.

I like the movie a lot better when I was just getting the fact that nobody gets the fact about India. I would have much preferred if "SHIVA, Throw Your Life" has just continued on that track, and had Byung-Tae's revelations be minor ones, than have the film just straight up tell us that everybody has learned something without ever really explaining how or why. It's difficult to tell what the filmmakers were intending to accomplish here. Whatever it was, "SHIVA, Throw Your Life" is a disappointing experience that's just not worth seeking out.

Review by William Schwartz

"SHIVA, Throw Your Life" is directed by Lee Seong-gyou and features Park Ki-duk and Soo Hyun.