My Mister (2018): Depicting Suffocation Through Urban Landscapes

I spent the last three days powering through My Mister (2018), a Korean series. I have to say that it was a very soothing and melancholic experience at the same time. But overall, finishing the series made me feel fulfilled and satisfied like eating a nutritious meal. Some parts prove to be very heavy but it is a pretty accurate and aching depiction of a monotonous life: pulling oneself out of bed to go to work while feeling like livestock being sent to the slaughter house.

What stood out to me was the series’s cinematography. Most of the shots were taken at night; scatters of street lamps light up the characters amidst a sea of darkness. The sharp edges of buildings, utility poles and subway trains are often used to separate the characters into isolated segments, reflecting their loneliness that manifests inside of them. Windows and mirrors are used to distort the viewers’ perception of the characters, making us question whether the things we see on the surface really represent the characters’ true feelings. Thus, the overall environment these characters are placed into evoke a feeling of hostility. I will go into some of the compositions I found interesting. I’ve separated the shots into outdoor and indoor scenes.

Outdoor Shots:

Indoor Shots: