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Oseam
Studio: Unknown Format: Movie Released: 1/05/2003 Written by: Face 
Based on a religious fairytale by Jung Chae-bong, Oseam tells us the story of two tragically orphaned siblings, Gami and Gilson, as they search for their mother. The film is a story about perseverance, companionship, and the repercussions of faith. We see first hand how each day of their life is as much a struggle to find stability, as it is to find a reason to continue on living.
Ever since they lost their mother, Gami has been forced to act as a mother figure for Gilson. Despite the fact that she is blind, Gami tries her best to raise her brother, but with little success. Gilson, a 5 year old, energetic boy, serves as the eyes for Gami, but getting him to cooperate is another story. One day, while walking through the forest on the eve of winter, they inadvertently meet two kind monks. With winter on the horizons, the monks invite the two young children to stay with them. Little do the monks know what they have gotten themselves into, and they soon find out that taking care of a young boy is much more difficult than they originally thought. All this time Gami has been keeping the truth about their mother a secret from Gilson. She is afraid the news will break his heart, and destroy his spirits. Unpretentiously, Gilson continues believing that his mother is alive somewhere, and waiting for him to find her. One of the monks tells Gilson that by opening the eyes to his soul, he will be able to see his mother, and even the wind. Intrigued, he agrees to go off and study with the monk in the hopes of reaching this goal, otherwise known as "nirvana." My Beautiful Girl, Mari was the gem that started the Korean animation hype, and Oseam prolongs it, but is far from living up to it. The problem is that the film perpetually borders on becoming a riveting drama, and yet, continuously falls short without exception. There were times in which I felt a profound vicarious regard for the children, but it was never a consistent feeling. There were other times in which I smiled in delight, but was never given the opportunity to relish in their sanctity. Emotions repeatedly run rampant, and instead of capitalizing upon those moments, they dwindle away, denied of focus. The characters of Gilson and Gami were fun to watch and humanely moving; however, there were a few ill-chosen secondary roles. For no apparent reason, besides moving the story along, a dog was introduced in the beginning. Initially, I believed that it would at least be used for comic relief; however, it was not used in any significant fashion whatsoever. While these issues are not necessarily detrimental towards the effect of the film, they are, nevertheless, amateurish and mawkish in nature. Towards the ending, these problems are hardly noticeable. Gilson's goal to reach nirvana is embellished, and although it is somewhat farcical, it is, notwithstanding, reasonably inspiring. To some extent, everything comes together--in a boiled down fashion, nonetheless--with the ending, although tolerably out-of-sync. Many people often tell my father that he is "easy to please" when it comes to movies, and I would like to think that I am, as well. Typically, I can enjoy any genre of film whether or not they are of high or low quality, and I did enjoy Oseam. But there's a difference between enjoying a film, and becoming wrapped up within it; sadly, Oseam lacks the prowess and appreciation needed in order to reach that level beyond simply creating an "enjoyable" film. * * * (Average) Posted: January 22, 2004
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