Serve the People

The title and the poster design immediately caught my attention. A love story taking place in a communist country's army base, the movie depicts the fantasy of every male: a seduction by one's superior's trophy wife. Stated like that, it sounds like a cliche. The story goes much further. Mu-Gwang, the male protagonist who is seduced by his commander's kept-woman-like wife, is in no position to either take the initiative within the relationship or to take it further. Mu-Gwang is a low-ranking soldier whose destiny is decided by the whim of his superiors. He is brought into the romantic relationship against his will with no way of knowing the truthfulness of his lover. The story is more than a forbidden relationship between married people. The excellence of the film is based in the first place on the original novel and, in the second place, on the genius of the director and the actors. I highly recommend this movie. I believe it deserves some major awards.

Due to the particularity of the background, an invisible pressure was formed, which turned into dramatic tension and continued. Under such high pressure, every nerve was tense with the character's every move, and at the same time, the feelings between them were also affected. Empathy has arisen, and the system and ideals are rendered speechless and desolate in life through the presentation of images, not to mention a large number of political metaphors contained in it, a masterpiece.

A little surprising is that the Korean adaptation of the Chinese novel, the performance of all the actors is too rigid, especially an erotic film actually shot 146 minutes, the back is almost on the edge of the needle. The theme is similar to Nagisa Oshima's film "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", which accuses war and ideological control of suppressing even primitive sexual desire. The original ending was modified to remove all the subtle absurdity and irony. The same Korean adaptation of the Chinese novel, "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood" is much better, but the film can only say that the background is novel and bold, but there is little bright spot.

The most successful part is the setting of time and place. Under the high-pressure military management system, a love that seems to exist can be born, and the it can last more than ten years. What was going on?

The greatest thing is political satire, especially the oath of the so-called chairman, medals, honors, etc., even if you are beheaded thousands of times, you choose to love passionately.

The most breakthrough is the bold sex scene. Although the feeling of falling in love is a little weak, it can be regarded as unconventional in that era. There is nothing more combative than the union of a man and a woman.

I hope there will be a killing ending, like the movie "Natural Born Killers", a violent response to the distorted society, but the ending is still a little sad. This is the sadness of thought and the sadness of human weakness. I don't like this compromise ending.