THE UNFORGIVEN
Korea, 2006, 122 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Yoon Jong- Bin.
The topic is interesting, a forceful one: the military style, bullying by petty officials and the perpetuation of the system as senior cadet officers hand on the enforced obedience and externals of respect at all costs. It has dire consequences, especially for those of sensitive dispositions and can lead to self-destruction.
The screenplay is not always easy to follow as the director plays with time, leaping forward and backwards without warning, so that the audience has to spend more time than necessary locating themselves in the timeline. The English version is not helped by sub-titles that are straight out of the unwritten (we hope) handbook of how to incorporate American idioms not shared by the rest of the world and a lowest common denominator of ‘what’s with you..’, ‘wanna’ and ‘gonna’ and a flood of expletives. Since some of the remarks that the young men make to each other can also be abstract and inarticulate, it is hard to know just what the Korean version is really like.
1.The impact of the film for Koreans? A Korean story? For worldwide audiences? The universal theme about military and bullying?
2.The camp settings, the various spaces where the students gather, dormitory, bathrooms? The exteriors? (And audiences not seeing any training but hearing sounds in the background, seeing no senior officers?)
3.The contrast with the city, the night, the restaurant, the apartments? The streets? The musical score?
4.The colour photography, sixteen-millimetre blown up to thirty-five? The dialogue, expletives? (The English translation and the abundance of Americanisms?)
5.The structure of the film: the young man going to the camp, the first encounter with Sergeant Ma, his seeking out his old friend, Yu Tae-Jeong? Their discussions? The warnings? His living out the training? The transition to the future, his visiting his friend, their discussions? Audiences adjusting to these shifts of time?
6.The focus on Lee Seung-Yeong? The hero? Young, having studied, fresh-faced, the encounter with Ma? The discussions with Yu? The friendship with the slow-witted cadet? Allowing him to use the phone? Time progressing, his being obedient, doing all the menial tasks, putting up with Ma’s insults? His gradual change, with the slow cadet? Absorbing the authoritarianism? Exercising it? His not liking what was happening to himself?
7.His visit to the city, the sense of urgency? The discussion in the restaurant? Following his friend to his house? The discussions, going to the motel for the evening, his being disturbed – and his friend finding him in the bath with his wrists slit?
8.The friend, in the training, their friendship, the discussions, his urging him to toe the line? The flash-forwards, his being unemployed, his girlfriend, unwilling to see the young man, finally agreeing, the girlfriend walking out – twice? The discussions, sleeping, his going out, finding his friend dead? Coping with the body?
9.The range of cadets, the group, the hard work, the insults? Ma as a bully, fat, his mockery, sexual innuendos?
10.The slow cadet, his doing all the tasks, his not being obedient, his not realising how he was not shaping up? The overall pressures? His killing himself?
11.Audience response to this kind of bullying, the military context? The effect of driving people to kill themselves? The universal message in this kind of expose?
