Tangerine and 2017

Tangerine (2015), interestingly had a really familiar tone and color. I did not realize that the movie was actually filmed on iPhone 5 until further research. Similar to other screenings, Tangerine was also a well-produced film of the near future that we face. It is about transgender sex worker Sin-Dee, confronting her boyfriend of alleged cheating. The overall theme revolves around fellow transgender sex workers friends, who get involved with Sin-Dee's love affair. Besides the plot itself, I constantly compared the movie to the reality we are living in right now. Thought not legalized everywhere, prostitution has been an occupation since thousand years ago and nevertheless, transgender prostitution existed then too. A personally unfamiliar topic to me was deemed very familiar thanks to the filming technique adopted in Tangerine. I really liked the candidness and informality throughout, it almost felt like a smooth transition and compilation of Snapchat stories.

Going back to the overall theme, the movie well depicted reality faced by sex workers of these days, Similarly in Korea where prostitution is illegal, sex workers are significantly discriminated. Despite the government's and civil group's efforts with integration back into the society, the social perception on prostitution in Korea is somewhat unique. It is considered high-paying job with no tax; occasional screenshots of bank account balance are found online among secret sex workers Facebook group which also occasionally gets leaked to the public. In Tangerine too, Sin-Dee is continuously discriminated.