The low camera angle, representation of gangsters' sorrow?

The critic Kwak Han-ju attributes the resurgence of gangster cinema in 1990s at least partly to the socio-economic crisis of post-1997 period. With the IMF in 1997, the unemployment rate increased while the guarantee of employment with higher education decreased. Kwak claims that the depressing socio-economic situation contributed to the social identity crises and the attraction to violence in the gangster films in order to vent out the frustration at the time (Choi 63).

There is one interesting camera technique that caught my eyes, which is the low angle camera frame. For instance, there is a shot in the opening scene when the camera is situated near the ground as the kids are running after the smoke coming from a truck. There are numerous low angle scenes throughout the film: when the four friends sell porn pictures, stop before the movie theater, and listen to the lead vocalist of the Girl-Band “Rainbow.” Furthermore, when Dong-Su breaks the school properties with a metal rod, the camera is also on the ground, looking up. Thus, low camera angle is employed to display various emotions, from innocence and excitement to anger.

However, I cannot help but wonder if the purpose of the low angle camera is to depict the shame and regret of the gangsters. Friends is a story of four friends where two become university-graduates and two become gangsters. Joon Seok and Dong-Su’s attitudes for being a gangster are often remorse and dissatisfaction. Dong-Su tells Joon Seok that the main reason he becomes a gangster is because it is either this or an undertaker which he abhors. Joon Seok also repeatedly expresses his regret for not turning away from that path sooner. In fact, Joon Seok envies Sang-Taek so much that he approaches his job in an academic fashion. He uses vocabularies such as “foreign exchange student” and “internship” while emphasizing diligence and self-control as keys to success.

I couldn’t help but notice few instances when certain scenes looked “unprofessional” because of the unconventional usage of camera (it is very different from the classical Hollywood style). For instance, when Jung-Ho sings at the Karaoke, the camera does a sudden extreme close up of Jung-Ho’s face after being placed relatively lower—his upper-body parts get cut off. There are several scenes where I could not understand the meaning of the way the camera is used. When the police rush into the building to arrest Joon-Seok’s boss, it is placed at the top of the escalator’s handle. At another time, it is located inside a closet which Sang-Taek opens, and inside the fridge which the officer opens to take out the lottery balls. Finally, I also don’t know what to make of the scene where the car that has a camera attached to the outside of the door moves forward until it stops to keep Dong-ho on the right side of the camera frame.