You watch, helpless, as a woman transforms
into a mass murderer. You can read her thoughts…it doesn’t take a
mind reader: People are going to grind you into the dirt, she
thinks. They have done it; they will keep _on _doing it…unless you
bite back the way they bit you…over and over and over again.
If this sounds like a vision of pure Hell,
you are pretty close to the mark. Isolated communities sometimes
turn more extreme, less stabilized by outside forces. On this
Korean island, the woman feels it…every waking moment. Those
normalizing forces have disappeared, at least gone into the
distance. Not that her family lives in poverty–they have enough of
the basics. But her husband’s rage–and abuse…is steadily growing
worse. And his family all backs him up, unconditionally.
This woman Bok-nam, continues to dream of
someone rescuing her..But none of the occasional visitors to the
island offers any help. That leaves one old friend, Hae-won, she
is still confident might help her.When Hae-won comes to visit,
after years of being away, Bok-nam’s hopes go sky-high.
A WRONG IMPRESSION; BOK-NAM BELIEVES HAE-WON IS BACK TO RESCUE HER
But Hae-won was never really a friend,
anyone’s friend–Bok-nam has resisted this truth, painted a
rosey-colored picture over it. When Hae-won turns out to be the
selfish, passive woman she always was, Bok-nam begins to give in
to the darkest, savage parts of herself. Not only are her prayers
unanswered,they were mocked. Life not only remained the same; it
turned far worse. God, or the Universe, or karma, has turned her
life to pure misery–and she will no longer be silent and accept
it.
HAE-WON WITH YEON-HEE
People who go to movies for blood-spattered walls and faces will
love this movie…but that doesn’t make it garbage. These characters
are not teenagers, talking about high school bullshit, Internet
gossip and clothes, till some psychopath begins murdering them.
Not even close. Even though you don’t know these actors, you
probably will feel you know these _people, _the dreams they
have given up, the dreams they still hold on to.
You even empathize with Hae-won, when you
first meet her–unwilling to take the chance of testifying against
some gangsters from her neighborhood. The low-level gangsters make
it clear–you do this, we will find ways to hurt you. They are
deadly serious, you can see it in their faces. It is simple to
watch the movie, tell yourself, What a coward. But in real life,
it is easy to rationalize when it is you having to pick
them out of a line-up. Of course, the police tell her, We’ll take
good care of you…but they don’t inspire any faith. The huge
capitol city of Seoul has such a feeling of desperation you can
taste it…like New York City in the late 70’s.
Burn-out, at a high pressure job, and with
Seoul in general, is why Hae-won visits the island (she spent time
there as a girl, with her grandparents.) Seeing Bok-nam never
figured into her decision. Realizing this is a major factor in
Bok-nam turning to violence. Many of us might re-wind a story line
in our memory–going backwards from where a character kills for the
first time. It can be heartbreaking to realize how different their
life could have been…if they had made other decisions.
To give one example, watch Aileen Wuornos
(Charlize Theron–brilliant) in Monster. Aileen is
unmistakably angry and bitter; she would need a lot of time to
describe all the abuse she suffered till now. Yet she still has
not written off everyone as her enemy. You sense the dreams she
held onto–a loving one-to-one relationship, a job that pays the
rent, a home to share with a special someone.
The scene where she believes she has taken
her first step towards that, in her friendship with Selby
(Christina Ricci) is both unexpected and devastating. They make
out, blissful, oblivious to the un-romantic ambience outside a
bowling alley, while the Journey song
Don’t Stop Believing blasts out its beacon of escaping two
ugly lives for a new one… fulfillment…of finding our destiny.
Before and after this–realistic scenes showing clearly how
unlikely Aileen’s dreams are. But that love scene is realistic
too…you won’t forget it, even while you watch her life turn to
shit.
Bok-nam held on to some dreams too, for
years. The island never had many people; now, less than a dozen
remain. Bok-nam’s husband, Man-Jong, believes he was kind and
self-sacrificing to marry her. She had a daughter from a previous
relationship, yet he took both of them in. In addition, he feels
she has always been cold to him…ungrateful…for her, sex is a chore
at best. All he asked of her was work as hard as was realistic in
this situation–four other women on the island, all of them old.
How could he expect any less?
Man-jong is not someone to let people get the
better of him, especially not a worthless wife. That need to stay
top dog is probably the main cause of Bok-nam’s next horror. She
realizes that Man-jong is molesting her daughter. Her husband’s
response–what if I am, bitch? You have nothing to say about what I
do.
MAN AND CHILD
Bok-nam’s response is a testament to her
character. She tells Hae-won; if you can’t get me off this island,
at least let my daughter escape. The movie begins in the brutal
world of the city–plunging you into Hae-won’s life first. One
advantage in this– you meet Bok-nam for the first time when
Hae-won reaches the island, not before. You experience Bok-nam;
her humanity surviving her life’s brutality. She doesn’t have to
tell you, you can see it. Her happiness in being with her old
friend, in showing her around the island, introducing Hae-won to
her daughter, Yeon-hee, in taking her to places they knew as
girls.
At one of those places, they lie soaked,
serene a brief moment in a tiny spring hidden in forest. Bok-nam
gently reaches out and touches Hae-won’s breast. Hae-won,
surprised, but not furious, tells her to stop.
Is Bok-nam a lesbian? No reason to think not,
but I saw this scene differently. I think Bok-nam is overcome by
how much she missed their childhood, and in imagining the freedom
in her future—away from this stifling place. Of discovering her
own sexuality—whatever that might be. She knows so little
about the big city she feels that anything there is
possible.
Hae-won barely gives one word of encouragement
about Bok-nam leaving with her. But Man-jong is threatened
nevertheless by the change in his wife–ready to show he is still
in charge. A hooker arrives by boat; Man-jong has sex with her in
the house. Another time, you watch him have sex with
Bok-nam…hardly different from rape. He plays a cruel joke on his
wife while she is getting honey from a beehive. She is stung
several times. His response: put some bean paste on those stings;
we need more honey for the guy on the boat tomorrow.
BOK-NAM TAKES THE IMPACT OF MAN-JONG TRYING TO SHOW HIS DOMINANCE
And the four old women, always watching,
always ready to back him up in any argument, period. The brutality
in Man-jong trickles directly down to them. The toughest, known as
Auntie, is always around, with something to say to Bok-nam.
Everything is Bok-nam’s fault. She walks up to Bok-nam when the
hooker is inside her house, asks her simply, “How can you sit
here, listening to her sucking your husband’s cock?” In other
words–get out of here; make yourself useful. Another time, Auntie
finds Hae-won talking to Bok-nam’s daughter. She tells her to get
off this island, that Yeon-hee is not Man-jong’s biological
daughter. In other words: so what’s your problem, bitch?
AUNTIE
The real tragedy begins when Bok-nam tries to
escape with her daughter on the next boat out. She has made no
plans with Hae-won; she has already lost faith in her. Man-jong is
there–no way he will let them leave…countless reasons. And the
surest way to convince them–to save face with Hae-won and the old
ladies watching–is violence.
But nothing goes according to plan. Yeon-hee
watches him beat her mother, and bites him on the leg. He pushes
her away, hard, her head hits a rock. She is dead. No surprises
when the authorities show up–Man-jong has his story ready and the
old ladies all back him up. Hae-won says nothing. Auntie tells the
investigator right off–don’t bother listening to anything Bok-nam
tells you, she’s crazy. The other women nod in agreement. Not long
after, Man-jong and his brother take a boat to the mainland; all
this uproar stressed them out; they need recreation.
NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE NOW
One thing that Man-jong never considered, due
to his heartlessness. With Yeon-hee dead, Bok-nam has nothing left
to lose–life has at last become truly unbearable. Bok-nam working
non-stop under a blinding sun while the old women complain what a
poor laborer she is. Bok-nam finally stops, takes a long look into
the bright sky, then walks deliberately over to them. Starting
with the weakest, the quietest, she cuts their throats with a
sharpened scythe. The third one she kills was beautiful once…and
always there to back Auntie up. She begs for mercy–gets
none.
Auntie runs.
Night. Auntie waits deep in the woods with a scythe of her own.
Like me, you may have given Bok-nam only a 50/50 chance–pictured
the old lady waiting in ambush. But next morning, Auntie returns
to the house, shaking uncontrollably. As expected, Hae-won
watches, does nothing. Bok-nam slaps Hae-won’s face, sees Auntie
and calmly starts to follow her. Auntie reaches the edge of a
cliff. In the distance a boat approaching, carrying Man-jong. But
instead of running, Auntie tells Bok-nam, “I”m going with them,”
and jumps off the cliff. “She should have worn her glasses,”
Bok-nam says to herself.
Incredibly, the worst violence is still to
come. No major spoilers. But the vicious humor in Bok-nam’s
sarcasm is a sign of things to come. You realize–she has crossed
the whole spectrum…from the ecstatic woman so full of hope when
Hae-won showed up. Now–do _not _get in her way. You are reminded
again of the Holocaust survivor who was asked, “What was the worst
thing they did to you?” The answer is chilling: “They made us like
them.”
************************************************************
(SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD)
Yet after kicking the shit out of you, the
movie leaves you with grains of hope. Back home in Seoul again,
Hae-won gets one last chance to testify against the same
gangsters. Risking her life, she decides to do the right thing.
She finally has learned the price you pay for
staying silent.
She will be unable to forget the violence she witnessed…but at
last, witnessing it has made a difference, it changed her.
The horror she experienced has broken through
the shell she built around herself.
She realizes now she was never safe–none of us can achieve that,
whatever gated community we take ourselves and our families to. We
may improve our odds of avoiding violence, true, but “staying out
of it, not getting involved” guarantees us nothing.
