[Aimless Bullet] The sense of hopelessness and helplessness

While “Aimless Bullet” features a lot of significant elements that depict real post-war Korea, it presents well the emotional and physical turmoil the people were undergoing after the war. Unlike other Hollywood melodramas, this film is focused on two contrasting characters, Chul-ho and Yeong-ho, to reinforce the sense of hopelessness and helplessness that Koreans must have felt under the oppressive regime.

     Chul-ho in the film is described as a hard-working clerk at an accounting office. Not allowing himself to go out to eat or to have fun with friends, he brings all his money to his wife. He suffers from a severe toothache, but does not even attempt to go to the dentist. Despite such efforts, his earning wages can barely support his family. He struggles so hard to be a good clerk, a goon son, and a good father. Yet, his dedication can neither prevent nor avoid the misfortunes that make his efforts look pointless. His two children are still hungry, and his pregnant wife eventually dies of malnutrition. His hopelessness and powerlessness are also shown in the scene where he sees Myung-sook riding in a car with an American soldier. Here, Chul-ho cannot even defend his own sister becoming a prostitute.

 

       Unlike this faithful brother who takes sacrifices to support his large family, Yeong-ho cannot cope with the harsh reality anymore. As a war veteran, he is portrayed as a fearless and confident man; however, he is ultimately defeated by the world, without exception, every single time he tries hard to hope for a better life through being employed. After learning how meaningless it is to look for a job in this period, he decides to rebel against the whole society by breaking law. Considering the fact that the contemporary world was very corrupted after the war, his attempted robbery is explainable to some extent, as it represents “the explosion of all the frustrations shared in Korean society”.

         The film itself is extremely depressing since it digs into the desperation of people who want to find a way to overcome reality. Although Chul-ho, the good brother, and Yeong-ho, the bad, strive to attain a better life in their own ways, they are both turned down by reality. With the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and helplessness, mixed with a strong desire to escape, they lose direction. Thus, this film implies that the choices people make in life will ultimately come to nothing in the face of more powerful social conditions