my memorable movies

my memorable MOVIES

JunHee Kim

My Memorable Movies

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My Memorable Movies VOLUME III

Junhee kiM v

To my family and friends

All movie posters were used from Google images.

My Memorable Movies Copyright Š Text and design 2020 by JunHee Kim All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, contact JunHee Kim 8220 Crestwood Heights Dr McLean, Virginia 22102

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Table of Contents

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The Mission (1986)

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

10 Doubt (2008) 13 Interstellar (2014) 17 Parasite (2019)

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THE Mission (1986)

In the middle of the eighteenth century, a village inhabited by native Guarani people was located on the cliff of the Iguazu Falls in South America. Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) and other Jesuit priests, at the risk of death, came to this unknown world for their missionary work. At the end of many twists and turns, they delivered God to the Guaranis and succeeded in communicating with them. It’s just a short time that they have peace in the beautiful paradise because their village was incorporated into Portuguese territory from Spain.

So, the Pope’s special envoy, who ruled in favor of the colonial ruler, ordered them to leave.

Aborigines in urgent crisis of survival and the priests at the crossroads of salvation. Especially the end of the film, the film depicts the dedicated love of missionaries for the natives at the turning point of survival and salvation.

I’d like to describe the great scenes of the film with the message of “survival.” One of the early scenes shows Father Gabriel in front 1

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of him and both parties make intensive eye contacts. It’s a scene where Father Gabriel played his oboe with the natives in front.

Although Father Julian, who had previously attempted to approach the aborigines was already sadly martyred, Father Gabriel never gives up his hope, and approaches them again playing beautiful music of an oboe. When the natives found him, they were initially hostile towards him. The beautiful music broke down the invisible thick wall between them without even realizing it. Thus the natives, feeling his pure intentions toward them, finally accepted him in favor of him.

So the relationship between the Guarani and the priests began. The scene, that the natives must be fascinated by a beautiful sound that they heard for the first time in their lives. Finally they felt Gabriel’s true heart symbolized Gabriel’s tearful devotion to them without

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giving up until the end, risking his own life to save them. It is one of my favorite scenes.

Another great storyline is a scene of repentance and confession offered by Rodrigo. Another main character in the film is Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro). He was a former mercenary and slave merchant. When he was in a sword fight with his brother who had an affair with his lover, he ended up killing his own brother.

Since he had been suffering from guilt for nearly half a year longing for death, he had been touched

by Father Gabriel who visited him. He eventually joined the mission. Rodrigo who previously sold the Guarani as a slave, hunting them in the sense of repentance for his sins. He makes a mess by netting all the armor, weapons, and swords he had used. He carries it on his shoulder and follows Father Gabriel to Guarani where the Guarani resides. The Guarani saw him and recognized him. They put a knife to his neck, but forgive him by cutting 5

the rope. He was released from his sins and became a free man. He was released from his sins and became a free man.

Rodrigo feels that he was forgiven by the love of Christ from those who he had harmed. He sheds tears of joy and repentance. Father Gabriel hugs Rodrigo, and the natives rejoice with them, too. They also save another soul by forgiving Rodrigo. At this time, “Gabriel’s oboe” flows again.

Rodrigo, who was saved, becomes also a friar of the Jesuits. He lives in the jungle with other priests and is devoted to the Guarani.

When the Guarani faced a crisis of survival, he was asked by the Pope’s special envoy to leave their home. He didn’t evade the situation and decided to fight for them with other priests. He decided not to abandon their faith in saving himself to the end and tries to save their souls once again. Rodrigo, argues to confront forces to defend the Guarani, and Gabriel. Gabriel wants to keep and obey the principle of nonviolence to the end. The film carries a message “The spirit of the dead remains in the hearts of the living.”

I recommend this film to those who want to make a quiet change in their lives as well, seeing the tearful dedication of the three main characters who receive the mission of heaven, and showing what the true practice of humanity and love is.

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The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

My favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption. This is one of the most creative and inventive films I have ever seen. The reason I chose this movie is that it makes me happy whenever I watch it. This movie also gave me the meaning of freedom, hope, and friendship.

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The Shawshank Redemption is set in Shawshank Prison. The film begins with Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), and a banker, found guilty of committing the murder of his wife and her lover. He claims he is innocent, but his lack of a solid alibi and the existence of circumstantial evidence lead to his conviction. Andy Dufresne, the main character, is unlike any of his fellow prisoners. He has a positive sense of life and he never lets go of the feeling of being a free man. He never gives up hope. Initially, it appears that he accepted his fate of spending the rest of his life in prison. To survive in the barbaric prison environment, Andy remembers “life on the outside.” Mozart’s joyous music plays in his mind. He walks tall through the prison grounds, and he finds a good friend named Red (Morgan Freeman). He makes as much of a civilized life for himself as much as possible considering his circumstances.

The film proves what freedom, hope, and friendship means. Freedom is the power, which transfers the darkest situations that we face in our lifetime to the hopeful situations. Despite being a convicted murderer, Andy never gives up hope. Andy’s dream of escaping from the prison shows us that.

Even though Andy is not proven innocent, he plans his life after Shawshank.

The theme is that hope is the best thing. Friendship is restoring and sharing that hope. Andy figures out Red’s perception 8

that the prison is his home. He does not know how to live outside because he has been in prison too long. The self-fulfilling prophecy of escaping from the prison is to stop Red from committing suicide.

During his many years inside Shawshank, Red’s self-concept is that he loses his hope of a life outside. Andy’s value is to have a hope of escaping the prison through his dreams of going to Mexico. Also, he values sharing the hope over having it alone. Andy offers Red one thing to remember to do when he is outside because he evaluates his friend’s fears about his life outside. They finally reunite in the last scene of the movie. This is what friendship is.

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Doubt (2008)

Doubts in “stronger bonds” can cloud judgment on specific tasks at hand. On the other hand, a person’s certainty can keep someone away from the truth. The debate about doubt and certainty is relevant in the sense that it is a major debate about religion.

This movie is set in 1964 at St. Nicholas’s Parish School in the Bronx. It is pitted against Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Aloysius (Maryl Streep), a principal nun who tries to change the strict practices of the school.

The sister Aloysius has no evidence, but she’s sure Father Flynn is guilty. She explains that there is no need for convincing evidence of a given claim. In this way, she shows that a person can be right about a given doubt without any doubt.

The extent of doubt and the importance of doubt behind it are related to the characterization of the sisters James (Amy Adams). The entrance to certainty and doubt divides the characters of the character.

While the Aloysius sisters are confident and willing throughout the 10

story, the James sisters are very insecure and generally seem unclear about the situation.

The film showed me detailed emotions, thoughts, and values of each person from an in-depth perspective. It is not a fast-paced movie, but it had the power to immerse myself in the character’s 11

thinking process. Everyone tried to evaluate the truth from their own perspectives. However, the truth must be judged right by facts, not by one’s own opinions. The film said that when one doubts others from his point of view, the truth itself can be distorted.

If it is true, it will be revealed someday. But beware that rumors are reproduced as much as truth. At the end of the film, even the nun’s conviction to reveal the truth fell into doubt. Sister Aloysius doubted and tried to uncover something, but in the end her encounter was not the fact that she tried to find out, but the fact that she turned away.

Although the film has a character-driven plot with few special events, the actors’ excellent acting kept it from losing tension. Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman shined with their skillful acting skills to properly control the tension and relaxation of the play. Amy Adams was right in her choice of casting.

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Interstellar (2014)

There’s a global food problem in this time period of this movie. People believed the earth would always provide us with abundant crops.

The planet has been devastated because of rapid climate change and severe insect infestation. Mankind has to face a global food problem. In this situation, people focus on the matter of reality. In the face of food shortages, advanced technology has become a virtual reality. People are engrossed in agriculture and most people become farmers. NASA has been dismantled. Project Apollo, which was the United States human spaceflight program, becomes just an old story for propaganda. No one looks up to the sky and thinks about the universe anymore. Fearing the coming darkness, they just look at the ground and worry about reality.

Lazarus, the name of the mission in the film is a figure in the Gospel of John. His sister, Mary, poured perfume on Jesus’ feet.

Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. One day, he died after suffering from an illness. Four days after he was buried Jesus brought him back to 13

life. This event was not only one that Jesus saved the dead. He became a symbol of the “Revived man.” The “Lazarus Mission” is a project to save humanity in the face of death. It’s a project to find an alternative planet that will be the new haven for humanity. The wormholes near Saturn made by “them” allow them to reach other galaxies. There are twelve candidate planets that are expected to be habitable. NASA already had sent twelve crews on each of twelve planets, a decade ago. Especially, Dr. Mann is in charge of this mission. Dr. Mann is a great trusted man in the mission. It was Dr. Mann who persuaded other crews to participate in this mission, which could be sacrificed alone on the unknown planet for all mankind.

In the middle of the film, the scenes alternately show Cooper (Murphy’s dad) in space and Murphy on the ground. When Cooper 14

faced a crisis in space due to Dr. Mann, there was a conflict between Murphy and her brother, Tom on the ground. The cross cutting adds dramatic tension to the story. There are millions of light years between Cooper and Murphy. Love makes them miss each other with the power of love for saving humanity in despair. They fight against the crisis.

Love exerts its power by overcoming the distance of millions of years.

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As the scenes pass, Cooper in space overlaps with God the Father in Heaven. Murphy’s struggle on earth seems to remind us of Jesus who came as a human. The ones that Cooper and Murphy called “Ghosts” have continued to lead their steps in this journey. It was they who made a wormhole near Saturn and also gave NASA’s coordinates to Cooper. Finally, Cooper gets into a black hole and realizes the ghost behind the bookshelf is himself.

Murphy also realizes that the ghost in her childhood was her father, Cooper in an unknown space in the distant universe and Murphy on Earth. The ghost leaps over the enormous physical distance between the two and delivers Cooper’s message to Murphy on Earth. Ghosts remind us of the Holy Spirit, who guides our lives every day. The constant message of the film is love. At the end of the film, it turns out that love was the answer and not just a reasonable idea.

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Parasite (2019)

The film seems to be realistic. However, it is more like a fable that is presented with a thoughtful stage setting and characters that represents each social class. Many aspects of the film are symbolic. Symbols are easily noticeable. Let me analyze the fundamental message of the film in two perspectives based on existentialism and Christianity.

I would like to expand the class conflict seen in Parasite to unfold atheistic existentialism and explain the uncomfortable feeling that comes after watching this film through Christian lens.

First of all, I must get into the details of class conflict. In order to express class conflict, we need the word ‘absurdity.’ ‘Absurdity’ is expressed by Albert Camus (1913–1960), a twentieth century French existentialist writer. The concept is very difficult to express logically because it’s like a state of feeling. No matter how hard humans try, they cannot know why they were born, their purpose of living, their circumstances, their future, or anything. Especially after World War II, the hope that something like rationality, enlightenment, reason, 17

and development of science would make people happy was completely shattered. With dead bodies on every street, people had no choice but to think about death. Why were people born and eventually died by mere chance? It was natural to keep asking fundamental questions about life. There is no answer. It is very absurd to have no answer.

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Why wouldn’t they believe in God who could save them? It is also necessary to understand that concepts such as salvation by God were considered rather foolish than they are now.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) ‘God is dead’ condenses the spirit of that era. So, there is no go, no salvation, and no breakthrough.

There is no ultimate answer. This kind of frustration is what I want to explain. You would feel such emptiness at the very end of the Parasite, if you’ve watched the film. This is called absurdity philosophically speaking. In addition to Camus, people like Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) are representative literary writers. He mentioned ‘absurdity’ that means this kind of emptiness. The stage of the film is a completely vertical structure that demonstrates a clear hierarchy.

Architecturally speaking, the higher places are better, and the lower places are worse. The characters are trying their best to overcome this structure. The two ways of coping are shown in the film. The first is to make the best effort within hierarchical structure. The second is to overturn the structure itself. The characters seem to be pathetic, but they try their best to make their living. From the very first scene, the film shows the mother (Jan Hye-jin)’s silver medals in the Kim family won from the National Athletic Championship. We can also spot some appreciation plaques that are displayed inside the house.

These people weren’t inherently bums.

Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) has been taking the Korean SAT for four years, but he’s been failing all the time. Regardless of the result, taking the SAT for four years takes a tremendous effort. Also, Ki-jeong (Park So-dam) tried to prepare for art schools, but also failed every time.

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The Kim family members watch YouTube videos together to learn how to fold pizza boxes and try to persuade the pizza place manager he should give them part time jobs. They are not just sitting around, but it seems to be too difficult to overcome anything. The same goes for the Guen-sae (Park Myung-hon) couple who lives in the secret basement of Park’s residence. The film shows that the basement bum is actually an educated person. In reality, he is expressed as a parasite who lives by hiding secretly. Existentialist writer Sartre makes a claim in ‘Apologia for intellectuals.’ An expert is a watchdog raised by the ruling class with capital. The experts are people who have the knowledge to justify the position of the ruling class. People who recognize the contradiction and stand in a position to accuse the absurdity of class structure are represented as intellectuals rather than experts. Guen-sae is expressed not as an intellectual but as an expert. He just pledges allegiance to the ruling class. After all, no matter how hard you study, you can still get stuck in the basement and live like a parasite for four years. So, there’s really no breakthrough in this film except for committing a crime. So, Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho)’s family couldn’t make a plan that is both realistic and legal. Their plans are either very bleak or criminal.

Ki-woo carries out shameful sophistication with his counterfeited diplomas.

“Father, I don’t think it’s a forgery or 20

a crime. I will go to this university next year.” Ki-taek replies, “Oh, you’ve got a plan.” Even in the last scene, Ki-woo makes an absurdly unrealistic plan. In fact, when planning a crime, the entire family members are extremely thorough. I even wondered why they are still unemployed, because their skills when it comes to frauds are simply outstanding. They even practice acting. Ki-jeong also memorizes her false profile to plan the fraud. Then they plan to get rid of the existing employees. The first part of the film evokes playfulness because it is expressed as comedy but there are full of immorality and anxiety in their counterfeit behaviors including Ki-woo’s romantic relationship with the daughter of Mr. Park. The audience feels thrilled. “Oh, what are you going to do when you are caught?” one of the characters says. I was so nervous even when they were eating together at a restaurant. This nervousness is most amplified when they occupied the house as if it was their own while Mr. Park’s family left for camping. Even if all of this is delivered as a comedy, the audience feels anxious. This anxiety proves that the characters’ actions couldn’t be any breakthrough. Everyone who watches the movie would feel like they would be caught eventually.

The second breakthrough is to overturn the structure itself. The meaningful method that Sartre adopted to overcome the absurdity 21

of life was Marxism. The film also proclaims that any attempts would eventually fail. Just as the motto of the communist Manifesto, “Workers of All Nation, Unite!” The film intentionally instills anger, targeting the hegemonic hierarchy. This is a technique to reveal how such anger would end up. When Mr. Park talks about the smell of Ki-taek, he randomly says Ki-taek smells like subway stations. I think this was a very intentional line. An average audience watching the film would not think of themselves as parasites.

The film doesn’t deliver any idea of fair justice. It doesn’t give you catharsis that defeats the wicked or overturns the social hierarchy.

That’s why our anger heads to the hierarchy itself. The ending of the film only confirms that the hierarchy is too strong.

How are we going to overcome this absurdity? The possible solution that the film didn’t explore was the characters’ transformations. Changing the structure and transforming the individual are not necessarily opposite concepts. Simply changing the positions of the rich and the poor does not solve inequality at all. This is because the poor will do the same thing once they become the ruling class.

The best part about this film is that it showed this idea really well.

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my memorable MOVIES