How Long Has It Been? And How Long Will It Be?

It happens to all of us, I suppose. We watch movies wanting to be entertained, but we often wish to share our experiences with others and celebrate what cinema can achieve. Yet we frequently want to feel something deeper, to discover a film that challenges us to think about issues beyond the screen. Perhaps you recall the first time a movie moved you. For me, it was seeing Bonnie and Clyde (1967) when I was a kid. Maybe I was too young to watch it, but that could also explain why the ending bothered and disturbed me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even after decades of repeated viewings, that scene still troubles me.

My life has been filled with movies that moved me. I’m sure the same is true for you. But after so many years of experiencing cinema, what does a film have to do to make you stop and think? To meditate? To process it fully, explore its depths? Or maybe explore your own depths?

I’ll be honest: I haven’t found many movies lately that do that for me.

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Although I’ve enjoyed several films lately, such as Deep Red (1975), Sahara (1943), and The Substance (2024), I’d have to flip back to April of this year to find a picture that truly moved me: The Kid with a Bike (2011). I hope to revisit Deep Red and Sahara (sorry, not The Substance, though I do admire it), but I’m compelled to return to The Kid with a Bike. I need to reflect on its themes and construction, its visuals and timing, because the film resonates with me, and I want to understand why.

Why haven’t more films connected with me lately? Maybe I’m watching the wrong movies, or maybe our movie vocabularies and experiences reach a limit after a certain amount of time. How many rom-coms do you need to see before you realize the genre has given you everything it has? The same goes for war movies, horror, Westerns, suspense, and even film noir. (Yet I never seem to tire of film noir.) I’ll never claim to have “seen it all,” but I’ve seen a lot.

When a film rises above simple entertainment (which can be a wonderful thing), it often triggers a reaction you can’t ignore: anger, regret, inspiration, motivation, depression, healing, reflection, etc. Yet when weeks or months go by and nothing stirs us, maybe we are watching the wrong movies. Or maybe we’re watching the right films but aren’t equipped to appreciate them.

Case in point: I recently watched one of the movies on my summer viewing list, Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002). (Park’s most famous film, Oldboy, was released one year later.) Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun), a deaf-mute factory worker who has been laid off, needs to pay for his sister’s kidney transplant. To finance the operation, Ryu and his girlfriend, Yeong-mi (Bae Doona), plan to kidnap the young daughter of an executive at the company that fired Ryu. Without giving too much away, some seriously messed-up things happen that are soaked in noir, yet it’s noir mixed with cultural elements I don’t fully understand.

My Korean coworker M explained some of this to me (I can’t tell you more without running headlong into spoilers), but I know I’m missing a lot due to my unfamiliarity with Korean culture. (This is one reason why international cinema is so important. We don’t know what we don’t know, but there’s a human element that transcends cultural beliefs and standards. Another conversation for another time, perhaps…)

This speaks to what we choose to watch. When you tell people the types of movies you like, they’ll usually recommend other movies like the ones you’ve shared with them. Yet other times, they’ll go in the other direction, recommending a type of film you never asked for.

Wanting to replicate a good experience we had with a movie, we seek out other titles from directors we’ve enjoyed in the past. But sometimes we want to take a chance on an unknown director, actor, writer, etc. Such films might resonate with us, but they might not.

Again, do we want every movie to connect with us in a meaningful way? Probably not. We can enjoy a movie without having it resonate in our lives. You have a fun time with a movie, and you move on. Yet you’re always on the lookout for that unforgettable experience.

So, I’m always on the lookout for that next film that will cause me to stop and think, to explore how and why it works for me, and what it says about me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you seek out those films you think will move you, or take them as they come? What do you do during a dry spell? The comments are open.

Thanks for reading.