"The Monster of the Han River" is still a very cruel Korean film that directly touches reality.
After watching Korean movies for a period of time in the second episode of my sophomore year, because I was so desperate, I still have ptsd, and I am afraid of Korean movies.
A few years have passed, and I still remember the picture of the male protagonist cutting his tongue in "Old Boy" and the perverted suicide method in which the male protagonist hangs himself behind the truck in "Saint", and the blood trailed the truck across the city. Street, the visual impact is too strong.
1. Color
Technology is great. Feng Junhao combines business and art very well. The film starts with a cool tone. When the story of Adou's family is told, the tone is bright and sunny. After the girl monster is caught, the tone of the film changes and becomes a cold tone. Until the end, Adou and the boy are in a relationship. For meals in the house, the bright hues are back.
2. Internal logic
In the logic of this commercial film, I thought it would be a happy ending for the hero to defeat the monster and save his daughter. But on the way, I was reminded again and again by the ugly image of the army, the numb police and doctors, and the evil and sinister American fathers, this is a Korean movie, even a Korean movie, even a commercial monster movie, does not forget to satirize the government incompetence and bureaucracy.
What exactly is the Han River monster?
It was born from mutated species from the Han River poured into it by toxic chemicals. This mutated monster came from the hands of two people. The Korean experimenter poured it into the sewers with his own hands. This order came from his American chief. The Han River is so big, it's all right. Although there were doubts, the Korean experimenter complied. From top to bottom, the United States and South Korea joined hands to create this monster.
The monster alludes to the deformed society of Korea under American colonization. Thinking of the Busan incident that caused the US troops stationed in South Korea some time ago, 14 years have passed, and everything is the same as before.
In this deformed society, the first thing to devour is the little people at the bottom. They are all portrayed cutely, vividly, and with their own personalities. The protagonist's family, they thought the girl was dead, they were extremely sad. When they learned that the girl was still alive, they first asked the police for help, and finally tried to escape from the isolation hospital and used their own strength to save the girl. However, helplessly, during the rescue, my grandfather died and my father was arrested. Only the uncle and aunt were left to hide from the chase. The girl who was left helpless in the sewers met the boy who also survived the monster's mouth, the younger brother of the wandering brothers. She has a small support and is no longer waiting so lonely. What impresses me a bit is that the people at the bottom are not sitting still. Although they are desperate, they still have a strong desire to survive. The girl is brave and witty and keeps trying to get out. Dad finally held the doctor hostage in desperation and ran out. When the girl was about to run out, her little boy was swallowed by the monster.
Dad finally came, and finally rescued his daughter, the daughter who just died, from the monster's mouth.
Extremely ironic.
This kind of despair is even more unacceptable than the fact that her daughter was eaten by monsters from the beginning. There is hope, then dashed.
Finally, at the riverside where the students protested, the government ignored the safety of the students and dropped chemical reagents, and monsters appeared and were trapped.
The protagonist's family avenged the girl and worked together to kill the monster. Full of blood. Anger was able to roar, although the girl died, but luckily the boy survived. The protagonist adopts a boy, loses a child and gains another child, and his mind gets a little compensation.
At the end, the snow in winter, the riverside, the protagonist looks at the river, as if there is something in the river, and he seems to see the Han River monster again.
The monster reappears.
Actually the monster never dies. It has always been there, with this deformed society. It devours the people at the bottom because they have no voice, they are aphasia and no one listens to them. They are always the first victims of social unrest, economic collapse, and unexpected events. But they need monsters. Because they do not want to be oppressed all the time, there will always be a day when they need to resist. When they need monsters, monsters will appear, let them find, let them kill.
The ruling class created monsters to let the people at the bottom vent, because without this scapegoat, everyone would point their finger at the top.
All right. The monsters are gone, you are satisfied. Untouchables, get back to your life. Do your own thing well.
Yes, they really just want to live a good life. They thought they had changed, they resisted, they used violence, they killed monsters.
But nothing has changed, except the dead, who can never live again.
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