Moral, Physical, and Emotional Entrapments lead to Insanity

In the film “Aimless Bullet”, I recognized that the theme of entrapment was most prevalent in a physical (poverty), emotional (hopelessness), and moral (conscience) sense. According to the essayist EunSun Cho, the sense of crisis that comes from enclosure extends towards masculinity as well. I found that the theme of entrapment was expressed through the usage of doors and the camera position. The war veteran, Young Ho, finds himself “trapped” in a building time and time again. For instance, he breaks the door at the pub in the beginning of the film and the door at the film’s studio in order to get out. In fact, when Yong Ho was being chased by the police at the end of the film, he has to climb over a door/wall to get away with the stolen money. Throughout the film, camera is situated outside of the space the characters are in by a barrier in between. For instance, the camera is located at the side of Yong Ho’s bed with a wall-like frame in between Yong Ho and Chor Ho, or it is behind the back of a bench where Kyong-Sik sits crying. This division of a space creates a sense of entrapment. The essayist Cho further enumerates how this theme of entrapment brings crisis to male’s identity (99). He asserts how the disempowered male position is represented through the images of men’s damaged bodies or their position not as the subjects of gaze (100, 102). For instance, when Chor Ho sees his sister Myonk-suk with an American soldier in the bus, he pretends as if he cannot see her, forsaking himself as the subject of the look (104). To conclude, main characters attempt to escape from their cages in different ways but end in madness. Young Ho tries to break free from his cage of conscience by robbing the bank and Chor Ho tries to break free from his physical pain by finally going to the dental clinic. However, the fact the Young Ho believes robbing the bank is a heroic act or Chor Ho seeks to escape from facing the reality by asking the taxi driver to take him anywhere, they have gone mad.