[HanCinema's Film Review] "Plant Cafe, Warmth"

Hyeon-jae (played by Kang Gil-woo) is a mild-mannered botanist. So mild is his manner, that we are first introduced to him walking the street, and rescuing an abandoned potted plant. Hyeon-jae goes back to his shop, and narrates the basics of what kind of plant it is and how he's planning to rescue it. "Plant Cafe, Warmth" then goes on to feature Hyeon-jae assisting customers in vignettes where the condition of plants is related to the condition of people.

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This only really happens twice, since the third vignette goes into Hyeon-jae's backstory. I thought this was a bit of a shame. Hyeon-jae is interesting mainly as an enigmatic figure whose life philosophy, while relevant to his past experiences, exists largely in the here and now. "Plant Cafe, Warmth" is most obviously similar to "Little Forest" tonewise, just with ornamental plants rather than personally curated food in the countryside. And there too, the vignettes hold the main power of the work.

The second vignette also goes a little too far in that one of the affected characters eventually grasps and comments on the obvious metaphor between his failing relationship and their dying plants. Although that's really more of a postscript complaint. There's something genuinely heartbreaking in the second vignette and its depiction of irreconcilable differences. If one guy wants to be bold, and the other just wants to endlessly prepare, and there's no way to meet in the middle, what's there to reconcile?

And that's where the symbolism of the dying plants is unavoidable. There's just one mistake, sure, but it's not one that can be fixed. Hyeon-jae is a botanist, not a miracle worker. Thankfully, not all plant-related problems are so dire. The first vignette very simply depicts a hardy plant that's getting too big for its pot. Here too, there's a real-life metaphor for how people have to rethink their lives once they hit a certain stage of their lives, and think about what they want to do.

Probably the main problem with "Plant Cafe, Warmth" is that it's rather difficult to describe the movie's themes in a way that don't sound overly trite. For me, at least, the power of "Plant Cafe, Warmth" was not in any objective quality, but rather the way I could relate the vignettes to my own personal life experiences. I'm at a bit of a crossroads in life myself right now. So metaphors about life decisions that seemed sensible at the time but which now appear now less so hit pretty hard.

Ideally a person can avoid making such mistakes. But practically speaking, we can't. And it's on that axis that the narrative of "Plant Cafe, Warmth" progresses through its seemingly unrelated stories. In the first one, a woman accepts that change is necessary. In the second, a man accepts that change is painful. And in the third, Hyeon-jae accepts that change was inevitable. Although in the most practical possible terms, "Plant Cafe, Warmth" does us the biggest favor by sternly reminding us that overwatering plants is more dangerous than negelecting them.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Plant Cafe, Warmth" is directed by Choi Chang-hwan-I, and features Kang Gil-woo, Kim Woo-kyum, Park Soo-yeon, Seo Suk-kyu, Lee Ga-kyung. Release date in Korea: 2021/05.