Not a sweet life

Kara 2022-01-10 08:01:27

Watching the Korean movie "Sweet Life" is really cheated. Because life here is not sweet at all, it is exceptionally sad. One of the things that attracted me to buy this movie is the underworld theme, and the other is that I have always liked Li Bingxian's performance, and of course I can't miss it.

The beginning of the story is actually quite ordinary. Li Bingxian plays Sun Woo, who is trusted and loved by the boss. He is cold, rational, and works beautifully and neatly. As long as he takes action, in the boss’s words, "There is nothing wrong with it." This time the boss gave him an easy task, which was to help him watch his little lover and prevent her from dating other men during the few days when the boss was out for a meeting. If he found out, he should report to the boss immediately. If the situation is serious, Just let Shanyu solve them on the spot. Seeing this, I quickly woven a cliché storyline in my mind: Shan Woo fell in love with the eldest woman, and after a painful struggle, the two became better off. But the plot that followed quickly overturned my idea. The girl’s smile seemed to touch Shanyu’s cold and rational heart, but it didn’t make him fall in love with her, but it made him hesitate when he found out that she was dating other men. For a minute, they let them go without calling the boss. From then on, his bad luck began. He was hunted down, beaten half to death, abandoned a hand, buried alive, and crawled out. The boss just wanted to tell the truth, why did he do this, is it because of her. Shanyu never said a word, fleeing, revenge, and at the last moment when he pointed the gun at the boss's chest, he just wanted to know why the boss treated him this way, just as the boss just wanted to know why he betrayed. However, the boss never said anything, just as Shanyu never said anything. The boss was shot to death by Sunwoo, and Sunwoo was also shot to death in a random gun. Before he died, he had only the girl's eyes and a smile. The background sound was a person crying and saying to his master, I had a dream, and the master asked, is it a nightmare? He said no, it was a sweet dream. The master asked, why are you crying? He said that I am very sad, and the master asked, why is sadness still so sweet? He said that because it will never be realized.

This story is very Kafka, because the tragic fate does not have a good and evil causal chain that matches it, which makes tragedy and punishment seem so absurd and so unfounded. Bad luck is chasing Sunwoo frantically, but there is not enough reason to persuade people: because he is in love with someone he shouldn't love? But even he himself doesn't know if he really loves that girl, just a little softhearted; because he betrayed the boss? He just obeyed the boss's instructions, and if the situation was serious, he would solve them on the spot, but his immediate obstruction did not make the situation so serious that they needed to be resolved, so he just warned them. According to the underworld practice, this mistake of Shanyu is enough to abolish one hand, not to mention that he is still the boss's confidant. Maybe the boss just wants to give him a slap in the face, he just has to admit a mistake and forget it? But just his stubbornness provokes bad luck in the back? But for a person who is perfect and arrogant like him, how can he admit a mistake he didn't think was wrong in order to steal a living? All the questions seemed to be entangled to a key point: did he really fall in love with her. If he clearly knows that he loves her, with his uprightness and magnanimity, he will bravely admit to the boss; but if he doesn't love her at all, he will do business and report to the boss instead of giving her a chance. The problem is between love and not love, or between love and not being able to love. Fate did not give him time to figure out whether he loves her or not. For this moment of enthusiasm, for this sweet and sad dream, he caught up with life.

The movie is bloody and absurd, but behind this absurdity is a rare nobility and seriousness in modern society: Is there anyone willing to take their own lives to figure out the essence of a feeling? Is there anyone who is willing to take responsibility for feelings with life as collateral? Someone lives so pure, I am gratified, I admire, and I see hope. This world is omnipresent in absurdity and blood, but what should be clarified is still to be clarified, and the things that should be adhered to are still to be adhered to.

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A Bittersweet Life quotes

  • Sun-woo: One late autumn night, the disciple awoke crying. So the master asked the disciple, "Did you have a nightmare?" "No." "Did you have a sad dream?" "No," said the disciple. "I had a sweet dream." "Then why are you crying so sadly?" The disciple wiped his tears away and quietly answered, "Because the dream I had can't come true."

  • Sun-woo: A disciple asked his master, "Do the leaves flow or is it the wind?" His master replied, "No, it is the heart and the mind."