I've always wanted to watch interesting horror movies. Kunchiyan's large number of praises successfully whetted Ben's appetite. I was expecting a full horror story, but in the end I only saw the director's political ideas vent...
1. History and significance of the mental hospital: Park Chung-hee's dictatorship
In the early days of the film, Internet celebrities explained the exploration of the history of the mental hospital. Although it seems to be introducing the history of the mental hospital, it is actually showing Park Chung-hee's reign, 1961-1979, and the opening and closing of the mental hospital. in the same period. This connection is highlighted in the photos and inscriptions that Park Chung-hee personally awarded to the hospital, which was personally commended by the head of the dictatorship, representing a high degree of consistency between the mental hospital and Park Chung-hee's dictatorship.
2. The meaning of the image of the president: the legacy of Park Chung-hee's dictatorship
(1) The director in charge of the hospital before his death was Park Chung-hee's tool to fight against dissidents, and used the guise of a mental hospital to deal with (actually persecute) political prisoners. In the group photo, only the dean is looking at the camera representing the official mouthpiece, while the other patients (political prisoners) are looking in other directions, which means that other people with different political views are managed as patients, persecuted and turned into fools. In the end, the director covered up the brutal execution and suicide of the riot prisoner in Room 402, symbolizing the dictatorship supporters who were devoted to covering up the truth for the Park Chung-hee regime.
(2) The dean after his death symbolizes the legacy of Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship. He persecuted the inmates in the mental hospital and covered up the truth before his death, and persecuted the ghosts in the mental hospital after his death, or used the ghosts, or killed them himself who wanted to explore People of the truth continue to cover up the truth of evil. The image of the dean in the film is obviously an insinuation of Park Geun-hye, who turned into a ghost after the dean's death, and Park Geun-hye was the president and ruled after the dean's death. The legacy of...
3. The meaning of room 402: it probably symbolizes the truth of sin
Room 402 in the mental hospital period was the place where riot patients were killed (execution of dissidents), probably with symbolic meanings such as the truth of sin. When the 3 members of the Internet celebrity team hit the ghost and were trapped in it, they looked around but couldn't find the door to come in. When they looked up, they saw the bathroom sink. This also explained the reason why the dean committed suicide in the bathroom. Ghosts also cover up the truth of evil.
Although on the surface, the Internet celebrity team is just pretending to be a ghost and cheating money and not to find out the truth, but their live broadcast plan has a link to enter room 402. If room 402 symbolizes the truth of sin, then entering room 402 live broadcast will undoubtedly symbolize Expose the truth of the crime, this is the fundamental cause of death of the Internet celebrity team.
4. The experience of the captain of the Internet celebrity team: the cover-up of the crime continues
At the end of the movie, the director arranged a "Terrorist Cruise"-style time and space disorder for the captain of the Internet celebrity team, and he was killed again and again. Combining the previous three correspondences, it is not so much that this is adding horror elements, it is more that a single event is used to symbolize repeated events: there are constantly people who touch the truth, and they are constantly killed to cover up the truth.
At the end of the live broadcast, the ghost dean in the background of the live broadcast stood up and left, because everyone who entered room 402 (trying to reveal the truth of the crime) died... The dean ghost was not punished, and it also represented that the dictatorship was covering up the truth. The legacy continues.
5. Changes in the number of live viewings: a means to cover up the truth
Regarding the understanding of the changes in the number of live viewings, several commentators have put forward interesting views, each with its own reasons. I also propose a new idea based on the previous four correspondences: the number of live viewings represents the number of people who have seen Room 402, that is, the number of people who have seen the truth of the crime and have been silenced.
At the end, after the death of the leader, the number of live broadcast viewers jumped from 502 to 503. The additional person should be the leader. Based on this understanding, the 503 people should include the patients who were killed in room 402 and those who went to room 402 to explore the death or mental disorder. My understanding of this is similar to that of other reviewers.
As for the reasons for the changes in the number of live broadcasts, combined with the previous understanding, it should represent a means of covering up the truth - speech control. In the middle of the movie, it has been showing that the pictures taken by the Internet celebrity team are live broadcast, and the number of live broadcast viewers has reached more than 100W, but at the end of the film, there is a sudden turning point and all the pictures are not live broadcast at all. Just imagine, if the footage involving Room 402 is broadcast live, 1 million people will see it. According to the murder logic of the ghost guarding Room 402, 1 million people will be silenced and become a major incident. Therefore, the ghost representing the legacy of dictatorial politics has cut off the live broadcast and reduced the number of people who know the truth (who needs to be silenced). This is the usual way to cover up the truth of evil. What's even more terrifying is that in the live broadcast room where no one is broadcasting live, there are still sailors saying that the live broadcast is fake. Cover up the truth means...
summary
The director of the film is probably a complete anti-Park Chung-hee person, who gave a ruthless irony to Park Chung-hee's administration and even Park Geun-hye's administration. But what is the history, whether Park Chung-hee's rule is a brutal dictatorship of South Korea or a turning point in South Korea's rejuvenation, I am afraid that no one can define this, let alone audiences who do not understand these histories. Compared with films with such strong political intentions, I personally find it a little hard to swallow. After all, the audience is not here to make political judgments. What most people want should be just a simple ghost story that makes people bloody. ...
View more about Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum reviews
