"Steel Flower"

Ha-dam (played byJeong Ha-dam) is a young homeless woman living on the streets of Busan."Steel Flower"never explains who Ha-dam is or whereShe Came From. Neither does Ha-dam herself, although there are a couple of good reasons for this. First, she might be on the autistic spectrum, or have suffered from severe avuse. Ha-dam rarely ever speaks, and when she does, her answers are often made in brute force. The second more relevant reason is that no one ever asks Ha-dam what her deal is. At best, they give her money for doing odd jobs.

Odd jobs which, by the way, always seem to take place at night, when Ha-dam appears to be at her most active. A nocturnal creature, Ha-dam seems to feel safest at night, and especially away from the prying eyes of other people. It's hard to blame her. In a late, unnaturally long and awkward scene, Ha-dam is endlessly harassed. The lack of faith in humanity comes less from Ha-dam's tormentor as it does the numerous bystanders, who simply sit still and do nothing no matter how bad the situation gets.

Ha-dam's ambitions are so sadly muted that there really is something tragic in how she has such trouble achieving them. Ha-dam wants a job. She wants to make an honest wage. Yet in between her social cluelessness, a lack of a legal address, and a lack of a cell phone, it's almost as if Ha-dam lacks personhood itself. Trapped in the margins of society, Ha-dam is at the mercy of the elements, which is why the film closes with Ha-dam literally embracing that pain and danger as a break from the usual trying to survive in the human world.

"Steel Flower"eschews outlandish elements and complex scripting in its character study. This is all just as well. As he did in"Wild Flowers", writer / directorPark Suk-youngis describing a world that just about anyone has seen when they go to a major South Korean urban center. It's just we're not used to seeing it from the vantage point of homeless people. Provided they dress properly, it's pretty easy for a homeless person to pass as normal.

Does this survival extinct give Ha-dam a sort of quiet strength, making her a"Steel Flower"growing in the urban cityscape? That might be one valid interpretation, but I felt disinclined to see"Steel Flower"as much of a celebration of Ha-dam or people like her. Nor does the film come off as a condemnation of the rest of us, for choosing to ignore what we don't like to like to see.

Rather,"Steel Flower"strikes me as the kind of film that's more about maintaining basic empathy with its lead character."Steel Flower"is a reminder that for Ha-dam, survival comes on completely different alien terms than it does for the rest of us. Ha-dam's inner peace is ultimately obtained, not by human relationships, but with a somewhat bizarre impulse purchase. That's not a proper happy ending by any means, yet for Ha-dam, it's enough.

Review by William Schwartz

"Steel Flower"is directed byPark Suk-youngand featuresJeong Ha-dam