Delusions of a Tragic Hero - A Bittersweet Life Analysis

[@Ozunoda]

This isn't a huge point, especially since I based it off a few shots that only exist in the director's cut, but I'll scratch out this short bit: 36:43 - 37:02 It's the same guy as before. He just looped his car around as a precautionary measure in case Sun-woo was tailing them. When Hee-soo saw that he was, and that the coast was clear, she called the guy to come back, and in turning his car around he nearly collided with Sun-woo. It was a while ago, but I'd guess the thing that confused me is how the guy's orange car is parked facing the opposite way from the orientation he returned in, back down the street Sun-woo was leaving through; the way the shots are set up during their near collision making it seem like a different street from a different direction entirely (perhaps this is why it was cut out of the theatrical version).

[@yasminemekhlouf7333]

Your video is tragically underrated (so is this movie) I enjoyed every minute of it and it helped me understand why I was hooked by this masterpiece from start to finish. Thank you.

[@Ozunoda]

Thanks for watching!

[@charlesheck6812]

Not only was your analysis on the level of a degree in psychology, but your film knowledge is great as well. Further, your speech style is understated which is what held my attention. Some of these film geeks on KZbin for some reason think it’s a better way to go to almost shout at you, almost like some hack DJs would overdo their delivery to cartoonish levels. Finally, I expected nothing when I did a search on a film analysis of this movie, which has been one of my top five favorite Korean films for years. I re-watched it last evening and loved it even more. Excellent work.

[@peternottingham6067]

love this film, i listen to the sound track in the car. Excellent video Mr Ozunoda. well done.

[@bobbyfirmansyah8580]

Great Analysis Man Enjoy Every Second Of It Highly Underrated

[@akwilson1676]

What a movie. Brilliant in every way.

[@kindofbliu]

I loved this video, really gave me a new appreciation for this wonderful and underrated movie.

[@hhrf6332]

LEGIT next level analysis. Thanks.

[@misere390]

Truly underrated

[@rudrarana526]

Damn bro your channel is crazy underrated. Hope you grow ❤️

[@alphonse7767]

Subscribed. Great video!

[@realdaybreaker8013]

I applaud the amount of work that went into making this essay, i do realise how daunting it is to create a character study of tragic protagonist especially when the scenes are subjective. This is truly a masterclass in tragic anti hero archetype, I would appreciate if you find some time to make another essay on Gutts from Berserk. The Yellow Sea Bullhead

[@donghyunseo4575]

The film also illustrates the idea of dualistic ideas. Sung Wo drinks coffee at night which shows that he’s day starts at night. He is the darkness of the world. He meets the girl who collects lamps, which produces the light. She is the reason that sung wo becomes conscious. He is aware of the right and wrong. During the film, all the physically damage is on the left side. Sung Wo and Kang has their left hand broken/cut open. It is the left side that Sung so gets stabbed. It is the left side where the blood pours out when the Son of the chair man dies. The left in Christian symbolism/ art illustrates the feminine side. Where Eve was made from Adams left rib.

[@danche3726]

When I read this, I immediately thought of the idea of Left brain vs right brain (which is now considered to be a myth but still fun). The theory is that your left brain is mainly where logic, calculation and linear thinking happens, whereas imagination, creativity, and intuition comes from the functions of the right side of your brain.

[@thesnatcher3616]

This film is just full of details like that. For me personally, a possible detail I noticed was when Sung meets up with his co-worker Moon before going into the bar to kill his boss. He shoots the fingers off of Moon's hand before killing him proper, similar to how Moon broke Sung's fingers after Kang realized what Sung did.

[@charlesheck6812]

I would argue that the wounds come to the left side because in the Bible, the left hand is always regarded as the wrong way. That is why occultists refer to their black arts as “the left-hand path.“

[@hieu09903015]

37:50 - 38:12 It is the same lamp that she stop and asked for the price at the Mall when she was walking with sun-woo so she would probably knew where it came from.

[@Ozunoda]

Ah that makes sense. I think she'd still be confused like "why did he send me this" or "why did he remember I liked this lamp"

[@hobsh]

A very, very beautiful and in-depth video. I wish you would lower the music volume because it interferes with your voice and activate automatic translation so that the video reaches a larger audience.

[@imnobd8757]

Damn the video was fire, didn't expect it, hope u grow 🥰

[@adm7r]

never take this video down, it helps me fall asleep

[@1kvkk]

Great 👍🏻

[@forthefvde]

It was a mere contemplation of what would happen if he tried it. Then he snaps out of it and laughs it off.

[@kardiacc]

WHAT A FUCKING VIDEO!

[@tomatosauce7666]

Such a big video, with good film info at least, il give you that, but you lack insight, there was no girl, just combine the first glass reflexion scene with the last shadow boxing scene in the same space, then maybe you will understand, as the director said the MC lost indeed the batle with himself, but not his life. It was actually all in his mind, a daydream that could never be, so he just goes on living his bittersweet life.

[@Ozunoda]

I'm aware of this 'it was all a fantasy he was having in his head in his boring life' interpretation, but think it's too on the the nose, uninteresting, and unsuited to the ironic depth of the tragedy that befalls him. Why would he dream his death in such violent, unromantic detail? To appease the audience? The point is that he's deluded in thinking becoming this action-hero is romantic, and the dream doesn't come true because it is absurd, and he just dies, and the girl he was fighting for isn't seen on screen again because's she's indifferent to him. He's aware of the archetypes of the action-hero, not that he literally is one in a made up story. The shadowboxing at the end, matching that which takes place at the beginning, is a flashback to a simpler more comfortable time where he perhaps set in motion the delusions that we in hindsight see got him killed; seeing him comfortable and clean and fading out as if he never existed, because he is an inconsequential person, is what brings the tragedy to a close.

[@tomatosauce7666]

@@Ozunoda valid points, well I guess the plot is up to the eye of the beholder, while simplistic yes, I'm sure you been there, seeing that you are a thinking mind, daydreaming an escape, something to give your life the dramatic flare, maybe once you liked a girl but never made your move, you did play in your head a whole scenario tho with her, being the romantic that you are you quickly played that scenario with a bad ending, so you never made your move, however I know there's a plothole as we see the reflexion then our guy gets called by the the boss in the office. I'm understand that my OP was kinda rude, I apologize, you made a vid for a movie that I adore, for that I thank you.

[@Ozunoda]

@@tomatosauce7666 I should clarify that I don't think your interpretation is wrong. The ending's return to the protagonist's narration of the master and the disciple, and the subsequent cross fade back to him standing opposite his reflection, certainly suggests it was all in his head. However, besides personally not liking 'it was all a dream' endings, I like the idea he went on this violent journey because of his romantic attachment to such ideas as the master and disciple discuss, and he thinks back to the moments he once dreamed of this 'sweet life', and how it didn't end up as he envisioned it. I just think the whole film is stronger if everything really did happen and that, like his awkward fumbling against the gun-dealers and getting stabbed on the ice rink, nothing was ever as 'cool' or 'cinematic' as he had hoped. Thanks for the comments

[@thesnatcher3616]

​@@Ozunoda Not to mention the fact that even in his "glorified dream" he doesn't get a proper answer from Kang at all and he doesn't even come out of it alive. And at the end of it all, he just gets shot by some person he never knew existed up to that point. It is a tad bit too realistic for it just to be all a "glorified dream".

[@heillusium9217]

⁠@@thesnatcher3616 because it’s not. I mean director himself said that it’s not a dream in a Korean DVD release, which is funny because even the director Beck actor thought the whole story it’s a dream after reading the script. It’s all matching with theme of the movie and beginning quote. I love this movie, I am now making review on it, this is my final work for admission to film school and I killed some insane amount of time for analysing this movie, reading about it, watching deleted stuff, and of course this daydream theory just feels so logical and right but things being mentioned in a video and the director view on it it’s just how South Korean culture is build. The problem of people not being themself in a South Korea it’s insanely huge, for people who not living in SK it couldn’t be fully understood, I was lucky that my mentor had a lot of connections In a SK movie scene so he give me some ideas about it too but yeah overall idea of movie works better if we also look where this movie was made. The guy who made the video got it right, I respect people who going deeper with meanings and not just taking the most obvious theory’s (Sorry for my English I am not native speaker)

[@timelessorgasms9764]

Mesmerizing Analysis