[Chilsu and Mansu] individual vs. society

Park dealt about social issues in his films such as “A Single Park” and “Chilsu and Mansu”, and his films gave us a message of hope and the need to fight for change. In “Chilsu and Mansu”, both main protagonists go through difficult times affected by their family issues. They don’t have stable jobs and they have no vision for their future. Chilsu is a very optimistic character who does not seem as desperate as Mansu, but he keeps on dreaming of going to Miami as an escape from his cruel reality. Chilsu’s worst problems were depicted to be caused by his family issues: since his sister sold herself to American soldiers, she has never contacted her family, and his father is just alcoholic.  In Mansu’s case, he does not even attempt to have dream, he is hopeless due to his father’s history of being a communist. Thus, both men’s troubling family issues adequately relate them to a larger social problem and the film directs us to see their failures as a result of the society’s problems. This ironic link between individual problems and social weakness is well emphasized in the last part of the film. After they complete their work on the billboard for a Western liquor drink, they climb up the billboard and express their frustration by shouting out to the world. But people misunderstand their intentions and think that they are political activists who publically want to commit suicide by jumping off the billboard. Chilsu and Mansu try to explain their situations but their individual voices get drowned because society has already dissolved them into a set definition. When Chilsu raises his soju bottle, the people below automatically label it as a firebomb. Also, when the policemen find out about what happened with Mansu’s father, they just simplify him into a shadow of his father. Throughout the film, we are frequently introduced to Chilsu’s imagination of himself living a good rich life with a beautiful woman, but this is ironic in the sense that he does not actually imagine himself rebelling against his society. Furthermore, Mansu is portrayed as an intelligent working-man but he has no hope for revolutionary change.  Thus, society is not an entity that everyone must fight against. Rather, the individual arouses the extension of social/political issues within society.