Exhausted

‘Der Mensch liegt in größter Not! Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!’ The misery serenaded in the Second Symphony by Mahler, which can be heard on the digital soundtrack at the beginning of Exhausted, acquires an inevitable and uncompromising visualisation on grainy Super8 by the Korean film maker Kim Gok. A degenerate and completely marginalised man and woman, pimp and whore, culprit and victim, have to censor themselves in an almost post-apocalyptic no-man’s-land on the muddy, industrialised coast. Pile drivers and huge factory pipes destroy the earth, and people destroy themselves.
Kim Gok (1978), who previously always collaborated with his twin brother Kim Sun, made radical political work that tended towards the absurd, such as the feature Geolobotomy (2006). In his first solo project, he goes far beyond political fury. The first hour focuses on the everyday activities of the man and woman. They consume cheap food, watch TV and nasty porno, they receive customers and combat each other with psychological power games.
Despite emotional numbness, the woman tries to escape. She makes friends with another woman, but then decides that returning to the man is the easiest option. The return of the other woman heralds the very shocking finale. Not for the squeamish. See also Suicidal Variations (2007). (GT)