Marcus is 23 years old. He has recently graduated with a degree in film production. He is living in Toronto on a study permit as an international student from Hong Kong. Marcus lives with his girlfriend Evelyn, a violinist with big aspirations. There is an early scene where he flirts with her as she is packing her bags for a trip to London to partake in an annual violinist competition. His tone of voice during this conversation with his girlfriend seems pretty assured and confident about his own life and future. But this leaves Marcus to his own devices while Evelyn is away. He lays around in his apartment as he searches for a job.
During this time, he meets an old friend, Taylor, whom he hasn’t seen in a while. The two chat for a bit and Taylor reveals his plans to move to Montreal. “Fuck Toronto,” is the kind of frustration Taylor musters up with regards to life in the city. It’s a very real frustration for many young people, considering the rising cost of living and lack of opportunities. Taylor invites Marcus to his farewell party where they celebrate one last time before he leaves. Marcus also occasionally has phone conversations with his mother back in Hong Kong. He reassures his mother that he is doing well and does not need any money from her despite evidence to the contrary, given his lack of employment and the fact that he is also homesick. He lives a fairly lonely existence without his girlfriend and also without friends like Taylor to be around. He reminisces on the fact that life used to be better when he was younger, as exemplified by a later insert of home video footage of him as a child playing with fireworks together with the family.
He manages to secure a job where he is paid to sit at a café and does not need to do anything else. His role is to pretend to be a sitting customer to make the establishment look busy so that hopefully it will attract buying customers. (Maybe not the most practical thing for any business, but seems like a pretty nice gig for Marcus if you ask me.) However, he screws this easy opportunity over by returning late to his shift after a smoke break – specifically 4 minutes late according to his supervisor in charge who scolds him for the error. The supervisor demands to see work visa papers, which is necessary in order for Marcus to get paid for his “work”. Marcus hasn’t applied for a work visa yet as his study permit is expiring. He therefore cannot continue at the same job, but his supervisor is nice enough and offers him a gig to help his friend, who is a filmmaker and who is willing to pay him cash up front. There is an absurdity to this chain of events that works well comedically – getting grilled for showing up late to a job where he literally does nothing, as well as what this next job actually entails. I never thought about how they recorded Foley for pornography films, but the watermelon scene was surely educational in that regard.
Much of the cinematography here comprises of uninterrupted long-takes during Marcus’ conversations with many of these people in the film. The idea of Marcus does feel like the sort of character you’d see from a Hong Sang-soo film. Unmotivated personalities with a passion and desire for wanting more out of pursuing the arts as a career profession is a constant theme in many of Hong’s films like Walk Up or What Does That Nature Say to You to list a few. (Tsai Ming-liang is also thanked in the end credits as well, whom director Alex Lo has also cited as a key inspiration during the making of Permanent Tourist.) The black-and-white look does evoke Walk Up and other Hong Sang-soo films, with minimal camera movements and an emphasis on the character study of Marcus as we observe him walking around the city by his lonesome and simply being unproductive all day.
Eventually after six months his situation gets desperately worse. Marcus seems to be dealing with an existential crisis of his own: does he stay in Toronto or return to Hong Kong? Was all that time studying for a film production degree ultimately worth it? His girlfriend Evelyn seems to be doing well – she has landed a position at a symphony over in London and will not be returning home for quite some time. Is their relationship over? Without a steady job, he struggles to pay his phone bill and electricity. But despite Evelyn’s offers to help him out, Marcus rejects any financial assistance – he is too proud for that. Or perhaps he is rather insecure about it. He also continues to reassure his family and his mother that everything is fine.
The film ends on a bittersweet note. During times of economic hardship, it’s hard to feel the optimism when you’re caught in that struggle. It’s probably not financially advisable (nor medically advisable) for Marcus to take up smoking as a way to deal with his problems, but what else can he do? He is also a bit of a nervous wreck as he struggles to hold down a basic conversation with others. Therapy seems quite expensive and out of reach for a guy struggling to pay off the electricity and phone bill. Even the people closest to him have changed in their own ways as well as they evolve through life. Who knows if your friendships and relationships will continue to last, but sometimes there’s no place like home.
