Waikiki beuradeoseu

In the shadow of Korea’s late 90’s financial crisis, Waikiki Brothers begins with depletion. Where another film might focus on chasing a dream, Yim begins with “What now?” after the dream is clearly not going to happen. The story of a struggling cover band returning to a faded hotel in a faded hometown, the band Waikiki Brothers has gone from seven to three players, and music has become a job cobbled together with gigs at Ms. Chili Pepper beauty contests and funerals. An invitation to play at a dwindling nightclub offers one last gasp, perhaps not for glory, but to continue one more day. But once in his hometown, bandleader Sung-woo (Lee Eol), the quiet eye of an aimless storm, watches his emotional bandmates (a fantastic Hwang Jung-min and Park Won-Sang) unravel with addiction and womanizing. Yim mixes palpable storylines with feeling – lively high school flashbacks, an old flame (Oh Ji-hye) grown into a bold truck driver, Sung-woo’s original bandmates now turned professionals, and a blonde-dyed young clerk (Ryu Seung-bum) who desperately wants to join the band, undaunted by their unheroic results. (San Diego Asian Film Festival)