Vanilla in Universe 단편영화 우주의 은유

And South Korea strikes once again, Ladies and Gentlemen, with yet another wonderfully put together short movie!

 
 
 
 

Seriously, how do they do it?! Is it just easier to make a short movie that good? I figured that it should be harder since they don’ have time for anything, let alone any character development but for some reason they manage to pull it off so well!

Sure Vanilla is not End of Summer length, running in at only 10 minutes, but I still managed to care about these girls here from those few minutes we got of them!

And frankly when I saw that opening with the ice-cream games and thinking of the title, I thought that this would just be a spoof short of the two just swapping ice-cream back and forth and making light of the situation but girl, in only a few minutes thinks turns to 11 so fast it was hard to catch up in a single watching!

For example, during my first watching I did not catch the contrast between these first ice-cream scenes compared to the last one. I can’t talk about this now without having talked about the coming scenes but just remember the innocence of these scenes above. Just friends sharing ice-cream! No big deal, not even to U-joo (straight hair) who seemed to be the giver as her friend was the one that always took her ice-cream. Was she just so in love with ice-cream that much or was it something else? We have to keep this question in the back of our heads.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Talk about things escalating quickly, later while the two are watching some romantic movie, that I should know but I don’t, all cuddly like, just like friends would do on movie marathon…erm..day, the inevitable conversation of kissing comes up! Things quickly turn from all fun and games to SRS business.

U-joo tries her best to resist her friend’s suggestions but she is adamant. She uses cards like, ‘don’t you love me?’ and saying that the kissing is only to see what all the fuss is about. She doesn’t want to be romantically involved. Poor U-joo is like, well, you might not want to be but over here it is way too late. If I kiss you there is no turning back for me and that is what did end up happening.

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

I ask you now, have you ever seen a kiss so hot? Again, have you ever seen a kiss so hot?! I am sorry dear girl but there is no way this is your first time kissing!! That skill is no where near a beginner’s level, let alone for first-timers! No, frikkin, way! I will not even buy the ‘she’s a natural’ explanation, even if she was, the first moments should be a bit awkward but there was no awkwardness to be seen here!

Some will think that the way she was going about it shows her lack of experience, and by way I mean sucking on upper and lower lips but believe you me, that is no mistake! That is skill, high-level skill!! Try it on your partner next time and you will see the effects it has on them! But even if it was a mistake, there is no mistaking the skill shown after words with the tongue action! Who is that good during their first time?! I am onto you girl!

You are the one that is always taking U-joo’s half-eaten ice-cream covered in her saliva. All three times it was you receiving the ice-cream! Then here it is you once again suggesting the kiss test! Are we sure here that it is U-joo the one that is in love? Obviously she is but most definitely she is not the only one! I’m onto you! That way you stare at U-joo’s lips after kissing them is very suspicious as well! I’m onto to you!

 
 
 
 

 

Poor U-joo as expected was hit with a wave of side-effects from that kiss! Just thinking of the kiss and adding in some extra delusions of her own in the mix, because I most certainly don’t remember that angle from her delusion in the real kiss, makes her produce some natural ice-cream…Oh wait…That is not ice-cream on her hands!!!

 
 
 

 

That, is ice-cream on her hands! But poor U-joo though, her mind is lost in the void that is emotions! Licking ice-cream reminds her of kissing her friend. When the ice-cream is taken from her hands, once again, and she sees the melted cream on her fingers, guess what she thinks of?

And seriously, can we mention the reality of this short movie?! Have you ever seen any project take the effects of such a situation and show it to you? Only in fan fiction maybe! Seeing U-joo being affected by the kiss like that, not being able to sleep because she couldn’t stop thinking of the kiss and then touching herself because it was just too much, to be able to show that, What a wonderful short movie!

You know I just realised, the more a story shies away from showing things like this, natural reactions and real actions, is when it seems sexualized! But when a story goes out of its way to show things as they are, it just comes off as natural!

And yet another thing The Handmaiden did right! It showed the sex as it is, it did not shy away from the rawness of it! It was natural which is why it was so well received in theatres! Like, I can’t imagine watching any other movie with someone in that category and keep my wits about me!

Back to U-joo, remember how I mentioned the contrast between the first moments they shared ice-cream to this? Well, it was more like U-joo giving away her ice-cream since we don’t actually see her taste her friend’s at all, well, it also comes to the way the scenes are filmed but here when U-joo’s ice-cream is taken from her hand, we see the differences in the way U-joo is affected. Here she feels clearly her friend’s fingers as she takes the ice-cream away from her hand. The camera focuses on their hands so clearly hearing letting us know that U-joo is feeling them and is affected in some way.

When her friend holds her hand, it is different this time to U-joo. She pulls away and it might be because of a few reasons. One is that it was a reflex after what she had done with her hand that night after then kissing. Another is that as the following scene proceeds…

 
 
 

 

She is confused by these feelings of hers which leads to her acting like a bitch, like most people do when they don’t know what to do with their feelings. They lash out to the person responsible. Here she is frustrated because as she said her friend always does what she wants! She takes her food whenever she wants. She kisses her whenever she wants! And though not spoken out loud, we can safely add stealing U-joo’s heart on that list!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Whew! e totally dodged that bullet! U-joo was this close to turning into a crazy lesbian but thankfully we ran out of time and had to end things on a great note! I mean, she turned into a silent stalker and we all know where that road leads! She then started raiding the underwear drawer, wearing her friend’s underwear, DIRTY underwear!!! Um, yeah, that was pretty disturbing, disturbing but kind of hot!

And let me ask thee this, di you really think that her friend did not notice her missing dirty underwear? I mean someone who organises her drawer like that, surely they are very attentive when it comes to the undies and coming out of the shower, collecting your clothes to wash only to notice that your underwear is gone…

Nah, there is no way she did not notice! And since she knows that U-joo has complete access to their home, surely the first suspect is her! And adding in that topic of their last quarrel about her doing whatever she wanted, surely she will put two and two and think that U-joo wanted to do something she wanted just like that, even though stealing underwear is kind of…weird, but maybe hot? I mean, this is the girl who enjoys tasting U-joo’s saliva, be it through kissing or ice-cream sharing so…

Sure gonna be awkward though when they go to have sex and U-joo is wearing that stolen underwear  LOL!

This short movie though, all of this in the span of mere 10 minutes! These are turning into my favourites now! And South Korea is now my favourite country! They gave me my favourite movie (Ahgassi), my favourite drama (The Painter of the Wind) and now they have given me all these lovely short-movies…How can the others even compete?! Well, Malaysia still owns my favourite MV (Abandoned) so there is that…

Anyway, if you are interested, the movie is up on YouTube with English Subtitles. Here it is…