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<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Honeyjoon”<\/p>\n
Chelsea Christer goes from documentary (\u201cBleeding Audio\u201d) to fiction with her short \u201cOut For Delivery.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a dark comedy which follows a woman whose desire to achieve death with dignity falls considerably short of her efforts.<\/p>\n
That woman is Joanna, who wants an early demise for understandable reasons.\u00a0 She has two months left before she suffers complete organ failure.\u00a0 Nothing current medical science can offer will ensure she won\u2019t live her last days painfully and miserably.\u00a0 Rather than have the last days of her life be ones of continual suffering, she opts to exercise her rights under the state\u2019s death with dignity law.\u00a0 But even as Joanna\u2019s life clock ticks towards the end, she\u2019ll experience even now the consequences of the gap between a law\u2019s promise and the reality of seeing that law\u2019s delivery.<\/p>\n
The ways those shortcomings play out provides the gallows humor of Christer\u2019s short.\u00a0 The film\u2019s title, for example, references the means by which Joanna will supposedly receive the needed drugs for her procedure. \u00a0 The film\u2019s script never feels like it\u2019s wedging jokes into the story.\u00a0 What happens to the film\u2019s protagonist never seems as if it\u2019s coming at her expense.\u00a0 Instead, it\u2019s a grimly funny way for the viewer to deal with the soul-crushing sense of the universe\u2019s indifference to humans\u2019 individual fates.<\/p>\n
Had what happened to Joanna occurred to somebody who knows they have many months or years of life in their future, these events would be annoying at best.\u00a0 As she\u2019s painfully aware given her stress over the proverbial ticking clock, her willingness to give grace becomes an unaffordable luxury.<\/p>\n
Ironically, it\u2019s with the James Johnson Funeral Home driver that Joanna finds what the death with dignity law fails to provide.\u00a0 Still, as the credits roll, couldn\u2019t the driver have saved himself a little hassle?<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
James Choi\u2019s drama \u201cBefore The Call\u201d revolves around a conundrum.\u00a0 Why would a Korean-American who\u2019s spent at least his formative years in the United States return to Korea to enlist in that country\u2019s military?<\/p>\n
Admittedly in this story, there\u2019s a need for the South Korean Army to have more soldiers.\u00a0 In the film\u2019s opening minutes, the viewer learns that there are rising tensions with North Korea and some foreign crises which have sparked South Korean concerns about foreign entanglements.\u00a0 It could be argued that early 20-ish Korean-American Jinwoo didn\u2019t personally need to return to Seoul to enlist in the Korean military.\u00a0 Yet he\u2019s chosen to do so, and Choi\u2019s film follows him on the day before he\u2019s about to risk life and limb for a country that\u2019s not his current residence.<\/p>\n
Why Jinwoo has chosen to take this radical act is never directly spelled out in the film.\u00a0 Instead, Choi has chosen to let the film\u2019s viewer observe Jinwoo\u2019s last day of freedom to find clues to the answer.\u00a0 This film does not offer grand emotional speeches to explain Jinwoo\u2019s character.\u00a0 Instead, letters home from the film\u2019s protagonist help hint at his later uncertainty. The director respects the viewer enough to not spoonfeed them the answers.<\/p>\n
Jinwoo\u2019s activities over this day can be summed up very quickly.\u00a0 They are: breakfast and dinner with his father, lunch with old childhood friend Minji, and a game of pool with a peer who\u2019s already done his military service.\u00a0 Bedtime will be followed by Minji\u2019s driving Jinwoo to the military recruitment station. \u00a0 Otherwise, there are many shots of the protagonist\u2019s random wandering through Seoul\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n
While the conversations Jinwoo has over the course of the day never touch directly on his motivations for deliberately risking his life, there are some reasons that can be ruled out.\u00a0 Jinwoo doesn\u2019t appear to be either an idealist or a nationalist.\u00a0 If this writer were to hazard a guess, it would be to say that the film\u2019s protagonist seeks an affirmation of his masculinity that American culture does not afford him.\u00a0 American cultural examples of masculinity generally don\u2019t include Asian males in the A-list.\u00a0 Jinwoo, the film says, grew up in America at a time when his Korean male peers performed their military service.\u00a0 So for the film\u2019s protagonist, joining the Korean military could be a chance to deal with his FOMO regarding a \u201cformative\u201d masculine experience.<\/p>\n
Childhood friend Minji provides an interesting foil for Jinwoo.\u00a0 Whereas the film\u2019s protagonist wants to play a traditional male role of warrior, she\u2019s rejected retrograde expectations regarding women\u2019s roles in Korean society.\u00a0 Interestingly, when Jinwoo writes from the battlefield, his letters are sent to Minji.\u00a0 Equally importantly, what he says in these letters display his lack of certainty, a failure to display male egotistical self-assurance.<\/p>\n
Choi never judges the wisdom or folly of Jinwoo\u2019s decision.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a bitter irony voiced by the protagonist\u2019s veteran peer.\u00a0 It\u2019s publicly rationalized that military service aids the country\u2019s fight for freedom.\u00a0 Yet such service is in defense of a society with huge social restrictions on what actions a person can take individually.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Jacque Rabie\u2019s documentary short \u201cHyodo\u2019s Paradise\u201d might make the careless viewer think the film\u2019s central subject is an object of pity.\u00a0 Though he doesn\u2019t lead a prosperous life where he has a large social circle, the viewer instead walks away with a sense of respect for the titular Hyodo.<\/p>\n
The full name of Rabie\u2019s subject is Hyodo Yoshitaka.\u00a0 He lives in Yashio, a small Japanese town 20 miles north of Tokyo.\u00a0 This 49-year-old going on 50 runs an unusual establishment that\u2019s the paradise referred to in the film\u2019s title.\u00a0 The name of that establishment, the Adult Museum (the place\u2019s name in English) houses a collection of hundreds of sex dolls.\u00a0 They include a nurse doll and a silicon sex doll with movable limbs and fake pubic hair.<\/p>\n
In a way, Hyodo\u2019s sex doll collection might be called an adult extension of his childhood fascination with cyborgs and robots.\u00a0 The first sex doll he obtained was one found in a dumpster.\u00a0 Four years later, he bought his first humanoid sex toy.\u00a0 Owning sex dolls to Hyodo is not a source of embarrassment.\u00a0 To him, the dolls he displays serve as tools to make concrete the dioramas of his mind.\u00a0 The viewer sees examples of this in such posed scenarios as occupants of a totaled car and soldiers in wartime.<\/p>\n
The visual power of those scenarios is not a mistake.\u00a0 His photos of such natural phenomena as flowing rivers and blooming flowers show that he does have an eye for strong visual imagery.<\/p>\n
Hyodo\u2019s relationship with his sex dolls is also neither furtive nor shameful.\u00a0 Yes, he\u2019s had intercourse with these human-shaped sex toys, but the post-coital cleanup is not something he enjoys.\u00a0 In his younger days, he treated these specialized dolls as wives; age has caused him to recast the sex dolls as daughters.\u00a0 Alpha male dominance plays no part in Hyodo\u2019s interactions with the sex toys.\u00a0 His responsibility to make sure the sex dolls stay in good condition makes him more of a servant to them than anything else.<\/p>\n
The old stereotype that someone like Yoshitaka has sex dolls because he can\u2019t hack a relationship with a real woman has only a nubbin of truth when applied to him.\u00a0 Hyodo\u2019s open about his negative opinion of flesh and blood women (e.g. women are liars).\u00a0 Yet he also admits to badly treating the woman to whom he lost his virginity.<\/p>\n
Ironically, a lot of women visit Hyodo\u2019s Adult Museum.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t go into the reasons why they visit.\u00a0 His main concern is keeping the museum open as long as possible.\u00a0 The pituitary cancer that he has could metastasize at any time.\u00a0 But Hyodo has no regrets as he\u2019s done most of everything he ever wanted out of life.\u00a0 Also, living as long as he has despite suffering multiple illnesses makes him grateful for every moment he can still draw breath.<\/p>\n
What ultimately satisfies the viewer is seeing the implicit degree of trust between filmmaker and subject.\u00a0 A sequence where a stone drunk Hyodo is walking down the nighttime streets of Yashio with an inflated sex doll could have been cut to mock the film\u2019s protagonist a la an embarrassing YouTube video.\u00a0 In Rabie\u2019s hands, the moment demonstrates the filmmaker\u2019s\u00a0 acceptance of this unique individual and his candor for the camera.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
One of S.F. IndieFest\u2019s Closing Night films is a comedy which mixes the Azores, Iran\u2019s \u201cWoman Life Freedom\u201d movement, and a grief anniversary.\u00a0 The film in question is Lillian T. Mehrel\u2019s \u201cHoneyjoon,\u201d an audience award winner at both the Tribeca and Mill Valley Film Festivals.\u00a0 Mehrel\u2019s film was partly financed by SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.<\/p>\n
The story and its conflict arises out of the clashing needs between a mother and daughter vacationing in the Azores.\u00a0 As 20-ish June\u2019s covert masturbation scene in the opening minutes suggests, she\u2019s there to have fun in paradise and hopefully make out with a hot guy.\u00a0 Middle-aged Lela, on the other hand, is primarily there to mark the 1-year anniversary of her husband\u2019s death by revisiting one of his favorite spots in the world.\u00a0 Add into the mix the fact that both mother and child are Persian and have differing ideas regarding the practical bounds of sexual freedom for women.\u00a0 The result is for them a frequently awkward vacation experience.<\/p>\n
The obvious question of why June doesn\u2019t simply get a separate room or at least a separate bed is answered by the fact that Lela had paid for the trip.\u00a0 Getting separate facilities involves paying way more than June could implicitly afford.\u00a0 The daughter may have to share a bed with her mother.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean June\u2019s comfortable giving Lela a chest hug from behind when they\u2019re stuck sharing a bed together.<\/p>\n
But to be fair to June, Lela definitely has trouble accepting her daughter as a sexually mature woman.\u00a0 There are little politely passive-aggressive tells such as the mother\u2019s reaction to June\u2019s displaying a little too much bare shoulder for a photograph.\u00a0 Lela\u2019s reaction to the sight of her daughter publicly wearing a bikini would probably be to say that it was designed by someone who wanted to see how little female flesh could be concealed without breaking local obscenity laws.\u00a0 Ironically, the big \u201cWoman Life Freedom\u201d fan girl in the family happens to be Lela.<\/p>\n
Hunky tour guide\/surfer Joao winds up drawing out both women\u2019s strengths and vulnerabilities.\u00a0 Lela\u2019s questions to Joao impress him with their intelligence, especially when compared to the other women he\u2019s had conversations with on tours.\u00a0 June\u2019s messy eating of a melting ice cream on a stick and her passive-aggressive refusal to use a napkin is less rebellion than childish petulance.<\/p>\n
Neither mother nor daughter wind up being completely right.\u00a0 June\u2019s obsession with fun and sex seems like an avoidance of acknowledging the more uncomfortable realities of her late father\u2019s life.\u00a0 Lela\u2019s discomfort with her daughter\u2019s open sexuality projects her own anxieties regarding the emotional needs of her middle-aged body.<\/p>\n
It turns out that one of the dead man\u2019s last wishes involved the end of friction between mother and daughter.\u00a0 Mehrel shows how that last wish gets granted with a wonderfully wordless sequence that won\u2019t be spoiled here.\u00a0 The film\u2019s use of home movie footage as bookends provides \u201cHoneyjoon\u201d\u2019s perfect coda.<\/p>\n
(\u201cOut For Delivery\u201d is now available for streaming online.<\/p>\n
(\u201cBefore The Call\u201d screens at 6:30 PM on February 9, 2026 and is also available for streaming online.<\/p>\n
(\u201cHyodo\u2019s Paradise\u201d is now available for streaming online.<\/p>\n
(\u201cHoneyjoon\u201d screens at 6:30 PM on February 12, 2026 and is available to stream online.<\/p>\n
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