Institute History
Description
Amidst the swings and singsong of children's laughter at a park playground, a grandmother steps away for just a moment to visit the bathroom, entrusting her three-year-old grandson to a grandfatherly gentleman. When she returns, she slowly realizes that she cannot find the little boy. Minutes, and then hours, slip by, and she must bitterly acknowledge that the child is missing. In another part of the city, a teenager who has skipped school plays a video game in an arcade for hours. His dark, inert silhouette leaves a blank space on the screen where his flesh-and-blood image should be. He finds out later that his grandfather was last seen in the park and is missing. People are disappearing, this phenomenon is spreading, and there is no end in sight.
Lee Kang-Sheng's impressive first feature is a poetic and beautifully crafted meditation on change. His mesmerizing camera establishes a documentarylike gaze on the characters, becoming a witness to the elusive ways vanishing people and qualities of life affect the world around them. What values emerge? Who is willing to help? Who cares? The Missing packs an emotional power that is rare in formally rigorous work, leaving the viewer with a haunted sense of loss and regret.