A Humorous Approach To A Sensitive Issue

                 A Humorous Approach To A Sensitive Issue                   Frank Chang

Chilsu and Mansu, although shot by the same director, was presented in a very different way than A Single Spark. Right from the beginning, the tone of the film was set to be light and humorous. For instance, the establishing scene, despite the siren and public drill that was happening in the background, found Chilsu fallen asleep in a bus seat. To me this was an important scene. Here it set up the time period in a Korean historical context in which the film was set in. Moreover, the sirens and the uncomfortably empty streets in downtown Seoul introduced the invisible tension in the society which could potentially explain the overreaction of the crowd and police at the end of the film. And yet, the camera was spinning and rotating as if it was mimicking the mind of an audience wondering what was going on. Personally, this prompted for curiosity.  Director Park also chose to introduce his main character, Chilsu, as the only person oblivious enough to be still sleeping in a bus. This introduced humour. This complicated mixture of sensations, to me, was the underlying core throughout the entire film and was readily established from the start. 

 In the first half of the film, the comedy side of the mixture was predominant. For instance, the camera in the arcade room was shot and edited from Chilsu’s perspective seeing his own imagination driving in a nice car with Jina in his arms. And he repeatedly crashed from his mental distractions. If I didn’t know better, I would have taken this film as simply a classic romantic comedy with little to no serious themes or messages underneath. But the underlying tension was still there. An example would be when Chilsu confronted his old boss saying that he had his rights. This kind of confrontation was a mini version of what was happening in the society at that time.

The latter half of the film was marked by Mansu’s remembrance of his dream of working abroad rejected because of his tie to his long term prisoner father. The dramatics in the exogenous sound track really made the transition obvious. The climax with Chilsu and Mansu mistakenly taken as suicidal labour workers fighting for their rights was a fuller portrayal of the establishing scene. The society tension was revealed to its full extend as the police quickly and mistakenly came to the conclusion that they were labour protestors. The struggle and oppression of labour people in the bottom of the society was portrayed using primarily the camera angles- crowds looking up at them confused, the two looking down at the city as if they were finally atop, and the topographic shot from the air showing, yet, everything seemed so small and insignificant. Meanwhile, the interactions between the officials and Chilsu and Mansu still did not leave out the humour.

Overall, to me this film portrayed tension in the society related to labour movements and protests through the characters of Chilsu and Mansu in a humorous approach. However, I’m still not sure if the underlying message of the film was to simply reflect what happened in that time of Korean history or the film had a stand and perhaps criticisms toward the society issues?