Undermining Male Bonds in Korean Gangster Cinema

Before I begin my blog post, I just want say that Friend has been my favorite movie that we have screened so far! I really, really enjoyed it, and I have already recommended it to a couple of my “layperson” friends.  Now I can understand why Prof Cho said that she knows four people claiming Friend to be their favorite Korean film of all time. If you can’t already tell, I really loved watching the film, but then again I’m also a sucker for gangster movies (The Departed anyone?). I think part of what intrigues me about gangster films in general is, as mentioned by Choi in her article, “gangsters and their codes of conduct, honor, and loyalty…” (61). 

 

Also, I just found out (after a bit of IMDb-ing) that Friend 2 is coming out this November, and the actor who plays Joon-suk is in it. I can’t wait to check that out. 

 

In Choi’s article regarding Korean gangster cinema, she states, “Korean gangster cinema shares some of the melodramatic structure manifest in Hong Kong cinema. Male protagonists often face tragic endings in both Hong Kong and Korean gangster cinemas. In fact, male bonding – be it friendship or a surrogate father-son relationship – rarely survives” (69). How then does Friend apply to such propensity for Korean gangster cinema to undermine male bonding relationships? Does it fall into this category or does it end up circumventing it? 

 

I think what we were all wondering throughout the film was whether or not the faith in Joon-suk and Dong-su’s friendship was still there between the two of them until the very end. Did being in different gangs disavow their entire childhood friendship and all that they had been through together growing up? In the end, even as Dong-su was murdered, did their friendship survive?

 

Personally, I felt that in the end, both Joon-suk and Dong-su still valued and respected their friendship and recognized the bond between the two of them which had been strengthen throughout their entire childhood. This is evident when Joon-suk asks Dong-su to stay low in Hawaii and when Dong-su later decides to help send Sang-taek off.  But it is the gangster system itself and Joon-suk and Dong-su’s chains to their respective gangs that ultimately lead to the fall of both of them and their potential relationship. As mentioned by Choi, the fall of Joon-suk and Dong-su are attributed to circumstances rather than to character flaws (69).