Han Jeong-won (Gong Yoo) is a tortured man haunted by his dad and mom’ violent relationship prior to now, and his untrue spouse Lee Search engine optimization-yeon (Jung Yun-ha) within the current. In an excessive manner of taking a break from their relationship, she forces him right into a year-long contract marriage with Noh In-ji (Search engine optimization Hyun-jin). Although initially immune to the sudden change, Jeong-won warms as much as his new “spouse” when he finds the consolation that has at all times been missing in his marriage to Search engine optimization-yeon, a lot to the latter’s ire. This newfound, fragile peace, nonetheless, is put into peril when a mysterious trunk makes an unwelcome look.
For having a complete present named after the trunk, it hardly exhibits up. But, the specter of the trunk – or what it represents – looms giant all through the present. For the viewers, it represents intrigue and confusion. For the extra philosophical of us, it’d signify an ornate cage, very similar to the one the protagonist Han Jeong-won is trapped in. It’s each a tether to the previous and a ghost haunting the current. It’s additionally symptomatic of the present’s brilliance, representing the characters’ denial, repressed emotions and their begrudging maintain on the previous.
Gong Yoo’s Han Jeong-won is delightfully forthcoming for a person continually being gaslighted by his individuals and deeply disturbed by his previous. Gong performs Jeong-won with charming nuance, letting his desperation for love and luxury distinction with the chilly, aloof nature of Search engine optimization Hyun-jin’s Noh In-ji. The event of their story is locked in a scrumptious dance with sequence director Kim Kyu-tae’s stellar visuals and storytelling. HIs path veers between an erotic thriller and a horror characteristic, deploying knowledgeable lighting and jarring cuts to convey out lingering wishes.
However the strongest piece on this board is Jung Yun-ha as Lee Search engine optimization-yeon, whose serpentine expressions and chilly demeanor could make your pores and skin crawl. She alternates between inspiring worry and frustration as a girl who treats her lover like a toy, pushing him to his psychological limits but unable to let him go. Jung additionally wrenches out a steely power in Search engine optimization Hyun-ji’s In-ji, rounding out the emotional improvement trajectory began by Jeong-won’s affection for her. Search engine optimization proves herself an knowledgeable as she goes from visceral screams, to remedy communicate, to slicing clapbacks all inside a day’s work taking part in the right spouse.
However The Trunk’s excellence can largely be credited to Choi Seong-Gwon and Kim Ji-soo’s music. Choi and Kim’s instructions are purposeful and alive. The start is nearly oppressive – between Jeong-won’s overpowering guitar compositions and the grating clinking of the chandelier in his residence, the music feels claustrophobic. Jeong-won’s anxiousness and doubt are mirrored in tracks the place the singing resembles respiration patterns. As Jeong-won and In-ji attain an understanding that blooms into one thing extra, delicate guitar seeps in, lending an airier vibe. The surrounding music corrals viewers to their liberation, which comes with a softness changing into of this in any other case macabre story.
The Trunk is out now on Netflix