Woman's Monstrosity??

In Kim's artile, he talks about how "woman's monstrosity" remedies the failure musclinity. In the case of Shiri, a so called men’s film, there are only three female figures contribute to the narratives, one is the ignorant official and another one is the real Hyun who is kept in the hospital for chemo therapy. Then the only one that can be qualified to this “monstrous” feature, it’s the Northern sleeper agent Hee who later impersonates as Hyun to continue her secret reunification mission by being with Ryu. Her monstrousness is illustrated in terms of the brutal military training she has been through in North Korea, the bloody assassinations of important political figures she has conducted throughout the years and the skillful rifle shooting technique that enables her to be the only sniper in the assassination project of South Korea’s president. However, her weaknesses and vulnerability are as obvious as her monstrousness. According to the memory the real Hyun recalls in the ending scene, Hee is so vigilant and insecure that she would be found under the bed everyday morning. Fish is another signifier of Hee’s inability to master her emotion since she transmits her personal interest into Hyun’s characteristics. I have to say the voice message she leaves for Ryu is very touching, which strengthens the dramatic aspect of the film as well as the articulation of the tragic ending. Although the film mainly focuses on male’s struggle in terms of morality, patriotism, friendship and romance, the thematic importance is actually manifested through the female character Hee. As an individual strives to live up to the specific historical moment, she left with no choice but turning her gun towards the president and being shot by her beloved. Since Hee has failed to kill Ryu for two times, I wonder if Ryu has a moment of hesitation when he makes the decision of pulling the trigger. If the answer is negative (which is very sad), then we might able to make a clear distinction between males and females by their fundamental rationalism or sentimentalism. No matter how physically monstrous Hee is, she is emotionally frail. Because of that, she can’t master her feeling like Ryu, Park or even the “oddball”, which constrains her only to the subplot and tragic element of this so-called men’s film.

(By the way, I find that the sound track is very disturbing since I can always tell what's gonna happen based on it. And it always appears before the actual scenes, which drains off the fun of watching)