It's more than just friendship.

Jun Suk, Dong Su, Sang Taek, and Joong Ho’s relationship is something more than just ordinary friendship. The Director of Friend, Kwak Kyung Taek, says the four characters are based on his real friends. Since the narrator of the story is Sang Taek and since Kwak also went overseas to study abroad, I guess Sang Taek is actually Kwak Kyung Taek. So if the movie is based on true characters, does this make the film realistic?

Friend is definitely a gangster film, as suggested in this week’s articles, but includes a melodramatic component to it. The film being a melodrama, I believe this movie has many unrealistic components to it. For example, when Dong Su gets stabbed many times near the end of the movie, he says ‘You stabbed me enough…’ (one of the most famous line from the movie). This scene made me remember that films can only get so realistic (if he got stabbed that many times, he would have been dead already). Also, I was very fascinated by how the director made the movie so that the audience forgets about whom Jun Suk and Dong Su are. No matter what they do, both Dong Su and Jun Suk are both involved in a gang, organization that hurts and kills people. Although the film makes as if Dong Su is the ‘bad guy’ for almost betraying Jun Suk, I think that there is no good guy or a bad guy in this movie. The film solely focuses on the idea of what friendship is and this special relationship with the four men. What makes me wonder though is if this unusual attachment between male friends is specific to just Koreans? If so, is this why Friend was such a big hit?

Which brings me to my next question of why Friend was a blockbuster in Korea. I believe one of the main techniques utilized by Kwak was to target the nostalgic feeling within the audience. Even at the beginning of movie, children run after the ‘mosquito truck’. To majority of Koreans, it is part of the childhood memory. The high school scenes where students wear school uniform, running towards the nearby theatre, these small things make the Korean audience feel nostalgic about their past. Another reason could be the use of regional accent. Personally, regional accents or satoori, stirs up familiar feelings. Or perhaps because the movie takes place in Pusan. Pusan is known to have large number of gangs in the area. And since Pusan has the second largest population in Korea, Pusan people watching Friend could definitely affect the numbers on the film.  

My personal thought after watching this movie was if there actually exists that kind of special love for friends in this world. How can someone do so much for a friend? Even after he is dead, Jun Suk protects the reputation of Dong Su by saying that he ordered to kill him. Would I be able to do that for my friend? Friend definitely makes me wonder about what real friendship is.