The role of the Knife in Friend

     In the film Friend(or Chingoo), directed by Kwak Kyung-Taek, the knife appears in various shapes and form when there is a sense of masculinity being established in the narrative.  Its first appearance takes place when Dong-su is fascinated by a retractable toy knife and he attempts to steal it when he puts it in his pocket.  At the same time, he catches a glimpse that Sang-taek saw what he was doing and after some thought, Dong-su then turns to Joon-suk who was beside Sang-taek and stabs him jokingly knowing that the toy pose no harm.  Joon-suk is also fascinated by the toy knife and the scene ends with Sang-taek’s monologue introducing Dong-su to the audience.  So does this knife serve as a story-telling device that forebodes the destiny of  Joon-suk and Dong-su, who both point their "knives" at each other at the end of the film?  Or is the knife acting as a metaphor of the masculinity that has yet to be a “threat” for the four friends?  Undoubtedly though, the knife appears in any crucial scenes where the friendship of the four individuals take a different direction in one way or the other.

     The other but less obvious scene where the knife makes an appearance is the race scene when the four friends are racing to the movies in order to celebrate Joon-suk and Dong-su being able to go to school again.  There is a person sharpening a knife in an out-of-focus-low-angled camera shot, when the four friends pass by the store.  Is this another element of foreboding?  The race ends with Joon-suk being first, then Dong-su, thirdly Sang-taek, and lastly Joong-ho.  Is the result of this race an irony to how the first two individuals end up in the future society?  The sharpening of the knife could be describing the masculinity taking shape into a form of a “threat” at this point of the film, as the group gets involved in a interschool gang fight when Sang-taek gets attacked.  This incident also causes the expulsion of both Joon-suk and Dong-su, and causes all four friends to determine the direction of their destiny.

     The third appearance is when Joon-suk is confronted by his boss and a disinfected knife is pointed at and cut down from his temple.  Could this be seen as a “scarring” of the friendship between Joon-suk and  his “side-kick”, Dong-su when they both take a different decision in which boss to follow?  This scene can also be considered to be tied heavily to the next two scenes where the sashimi knife makes its appearance.  The next scene, Joon-suk takes out a sashimi knife to display the power he has over to a certain boss who is getting over himself and takes control of the situation.  He explicitly states that he is allowed to kill him, but won’t out of respect of another boss in jail.  This is one occurrence of a direct metaphor of Joon-suk's established masculinity with a knife that is "mature" enough to be a “threat”.  This view of the knife’s effectiveness is explained further when Joon-suk is training the interns.  The scene first starts when Joon-suk asks who brought a small knife, which is strikingly similar to the one that was used to cut his temple, and explains that this knife is no good for killing a person.  He continues that a knife needs to be thick enough and long enough to be deadly and sashimi knives and Swedish knives satisfy those conditions.  What follows after are scenes of men being stabbed in a manner of ways Joon-suk explains the effective way to stab a man to death.  With these comparisons of knives, is there a sense of competition taking place in the form of a masculinity's arms race?  It is interesting to note how Joon-suk criticizes the knife that “scarred” him and instead promote the knife he is using.  Is this a way to overcome his damaged masculinity?  And is the film trying to portray the “threat” and danger that comes along with this type of masculinity?  When Sang-taek meets Joon-suk after his plead of being guilty for Dong-su’s murder, Sang-taek asks Joon-suk the reasons and motives behind his actions.  Joon-suk simply replies that he and Dong-su are gangsters, and gangsters cannot afford to be humiliated.  This masculinity and the intolerance for humiliation could be one reason for the downfall of these two friends, since the knife can only cut in order to defend itself.


Lenin Amaya