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Between his financially successful 1998 film, The Affair, and his immensely successful Untold Scandal in 2003, E J-yong directed a film that did not perform well financially, Asako in Ruby Shoes. Lee Jung-jae, who was also featured in E's debut, plays E U-in, a Korean civil servant bored and unfulfilled in his job and life. Void of a circle of friends, U-in spends his nights cruising internet porn sites. His voyeurism does not stop with his nighttime activities, however, for he also engages in stalking a woman unavailable to him, a young, punkish woman (Kim Min-heui) whose hair is dyed a fire-y Run Lola Run-ish red. One day U-in receives a spam email that he proceeds to reinforce by clicking on the provided link. He is asked to type in his perfect woman and he proceeds to type in the demographics of Mia, the object of his daytime gaze. From here, the titular character is created from U-in's gaze, Asako in Ruby Shoes.

The women behind the gaze that is Asako is a young Japanese named Aya (Tachibana Misato) who has found her life to be similarly soulless. Having decided on a unique form of suicide, she plans to hold her breath across the International Date Line so as to confuse whether she died today or yesterday, she decides to forgo her future and stop attending her pre-college classes. Getting a job at a health club, she befriends a co-worker, Rie (Awata Urara), a slightly manic-depressive loner who is attracted to Middle Eastern men. After eventually being fired from the health club, Aya decides to pursue a "modeling" gig in order to afford her trip to the International Date Line and to fully pay for the object of her gaze, the Dorothy-esque Ruby Shoes.

A Korean/Japanese production, E appears to be presenting a play within a play. That is, the global nature of this production, jumping back and forth from Korea and Japan, is represented in each main character feeling out of place in their respective "homes." Where U-in's retreats to the internet represent a need to escape from his place in life, Aya's flight to her death is really a desire to travel outside of the confines of her home life. When U-in attends a banquet to raise funds for his friend's Committee to Establish a New Chinatown in Korea, he says he "feels kinda shitty . . ." realizing he's the only one of Korean ethnicity in the hall. His friend relates. "Feeling strange and out of place? I probably feel the same way in Korea." Whereas Chinese immigrants are presented to question who is truly at home in Korea, and what "home" really means, the Japanese side of the equation features an Iranian character who is eventually displaced. Other characters present similar continuity with the global questions, as does the irony that U-in works as a public servant for a "public" he very much wants to leave.

Lee Jung-jae is perfect casting for this role. Lee possesses the kind of face that allows for the effortless conveyance of innocence and humility. I've only seen Lee in four of his films and have always felt as if I was eating Papa Bear's or Mama Bear's porridge, that is, a little too much and a little too little in his portrayals. However, E U-in is Baby Bear's porridge for Lee. Just right. Tachibana Misato presents a nice subtle range in her role, with a wonderful scene where she must playfully lie when caught hopping the fence into her late grandmother's home. The supporting cast of Kim Min-huei and Awata Urara provide excellent caricatures with the appropriate depth to not appear as if emerging from a vacuum.

Asako in Ruby Shoes has a slow pace, the type of film I prefer, and the camera angles and mise-en-scenes allow for some beautiful images, such as an above view of U-in lying naked and eating watermelon between his legs while submerged in an icy bathtub on a hot day. Although the film is not about the complicated issues surrounding internet porn, (Aya's foray into that world is quite tame and U-in is presented to us as not someone who visits the more extreme sites out there), the ending still poses some problems, appearing too clean and easy. However, although not successful financially, E was quite successful in presenting to us his artistic gifts. Where Asako in Ruby Shoes also succeeds is in providing yet another challenge to views of a homogeneous South Korea by presenting to us the Asian side of modern globalization.      (Adam Hartzell)

(Trailer: 300k)

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