Today I finished watching the movie "The Road to the Race Track" (경마장 가는 길) and I found it to be difficult to watch. It is a film that centers on two of the most unlikable characters you are likely to find in the cinema. Both self-centered, arrogant, intellectuals who seem to hate everything around them, including themselves. There is no humor in the film, there are no likable characters. Just one person dissecting another in cold, analytic terms while the other screams and cries. I can't imagine anyone recommending this film or wanting to watch it more than once.
Watching this I am reminded of my semester at Junior College when I first began seeking out and watching Scandinavian films. I would make my parents and friends watch Bergman and Dreyer and Strindberg and Ibsen and perhaps they were put off by the bleakness. This movie shares that same intense, humorless, pessimistic point of view, but it lacks the good acting and the likable characters that make those movies enjoyable (to some people anyway).
The Road to the Race Track The movie was released in 1990.
