A friend of mine who'd watched Milyang on my strong recommendation didn't look so satisfied. Feeling guilty of wasting her time, I took a little conversation with her and was somewhat surprised to find that she ended up being a little bit against the main female character, Shin-Ae.
In the first scene, Shin-Ae's car has broken down on a highway near Milyang. Her phone call is connected to Jong-Chan, a car mechanic who has his own local shop. Jong-Chan's curiosity toward the good-looking woman tells us she lost her husband recently and decided to move to Milyang for good with her only son, Jun. If a handsome male single who meets a pretty widow shows excessive kindness from the very beginning, it's not difficult to imagine what he is thinking of her. "Because it is my husband's hometown," she answers to Jong-Chan's question why she chose Milyang. However, it is hard to tell whether she really meant the reason not only because she doesn't look for any links to her husband in town but also because nothing of Milyang seems to comfort her physically or mentally throughout the movie. "What kind of place is Milyang?" she asks to Jong-Chan looking out the car window. It was her first question in the car fixed and driven by Jong-Chan. Shin-Ae starts to think about Milyang seriously only after it appears in the eyes long after having decided to leave Seoul for good, and even after hours of long winding drives. Shin-Ae is, however, confident and spontaneous in starting a new life in a new place, but at the same time, she resists to be assimilated to her surroundings, not to mention Jong-Chan's consistent approach of affection. She is the mother of her son, Jun, anyway.
Jong-Chan's kindness summons not just good wills around her. One twisted mind who runs a kindergarten where Jun is enrolled to kidnaps and kills him to make up money for his gambling debt. Shin-Ae collapses internally and externally. Her world has been lost. Now she desperately needs a real reason why, why she has to suffer so much, or the meaning of her pain. Spectators should not give much significance to the specific kind of religion, which is Christianity in the movie, or its ritual process. Anyone who's been in South Korea would know how common Christian churches are especially in urban areas. So, it is more appropriate that Shin-Ae needed a religious consolation, and it happened to be Christianity due to its wider availability in the culture.
After a brief period of peace won from participating in religious process, waiting for her is one event. One day Jong-Chan drives Shin-Ae to the prison for her to meet and forgive the killer of her son despite all the discouraging of her religious fellows just because she was so determined to. She looks confident and spontaneous again before entering the interview room but comes out with unimaginable furious. All she says is a repetition of a simple sentence, "How God can forgive him even before I forgive him?" The killer told her that he also found God in jail and was forgiven by him.
Now Shin-Ae seems to desperately try to follow just the opposite of the religious doctrine she learned. She seduces a married man to have sex and even cuts her in the wrist with a knife in a suicide attempt. In that way, she thinks she can win against God. Her world is so twisted that her life becomes a chess piece on the board overlooked by a tormenting super power. Meanwhile, Jong-Chan who lives a simple life never fails to show up for consistent affection for Shin-Ae and accepts even the most hysterical behavior of hers as it is without leaving her any moment. The movie ends when Shin-Ae is cutting her hair by herself in front of a mirror held by Jong-Chan, and the secret sunshine falls on a mingled trash in her yard.
Milyang is definitely not a movie of vengeance or religious salvation. It is a story of our life where we tumble down and stand up as if on an endless loop. It doesn't matter whether Shin-Ae saw a possibility of new hope cutting her hair in the yard. I don't care whether Shin-Ae would marry Jong-Chan or not. I just respect both of her resilience and his consistency in life. Every shot and angle was carefully and beautifully created and woven together by Director Lee Chang-Dong. This is surely one of his masterpieces.
In the first scene, Shin-Ae's car has broken down on a highway near Milyang. Her phone call is connected to Jong-Chan, a car mechanic who has his own local shop. Jong-Chan's curiosity toward the good-looking woman tells us she lost her husband recently and decided to move to Milyang for good with her only son, Jun. If a handsome male single who meets a pretty widow shows excessive kindness from the very beginning, it's not difficult to imagine what he is thinking of her. "Because it is my husband's hometown," she answers to Jong-Chan's question why she chose Milyang. However, it is hard to tell whether she really meant the reason not only because she doesn't look for any links to her husband in town but also because nothing of Milyang seems to comfort her physically or mentally throughout the movie. "What kind of place is Milyang?" she asks to Jong-Chan looking out the car window. It was her first question in the car fixed and driven by Jong-Chan. Shin-Ae starts to think about Milyang seriously only after it appears in the eyes long after having decided to leave Seoul for good, and even after hours of long winding drives. Shin-Ae is, however, confident and spontaneous in starting a new life in a new place, but at the same time, she resists to be assimilated to her surroundings, not to mention Jong-Chan's consistent approach of affection. She is the mother of her son, Jun, anyway.
Jong-Chan's kindness summons not just good wills around her. One twisted mind who runs a kindergarten where Jun is enrolled to kidnaps and kills him to make up money for his gambling debt. Shin-Ae collapses internally and externally. Her world has been lost. Now she desperately needs a real reason why, why she has to suffer so much, or the meaning of her pain. Spectators should not give much significance to the specific kind of religion, which is Christianity in the movie, or its ritual process. Anyone who's been in South Korea would know how common Christian churches are especially in urban areas. So, it is more appropriate that Shin-Ae needed a religious consolation, and it happened to be Christianity due to its wider availability in the culture.
After a brief period of peace won from participating in religious process, waiting for her is one event. One day Jong-Chan drives Shin-Ae to the prison for her to meet and forgive the killer of her son despite all the discouraging of her religious fellows just because she was so determined to. She looks confident and spontaneous again before entering the interview room but comes out with unimaginable furious. All she says is a repetition of a simple sentence, "How God can forgive him even before I forgive him?" The killer told her that he also found God in jail and was forgiven by him.
Now Shin-Ae seems to desperately try to follow just the opposite of the religious doctrine she learned. She seduces a married man to have sex and even cuts her in the wrist with a knife in a suicide attempt. In that way, she thinks she can win against God. Her world is so twisted that her life becomes a chess piece on the board overlooked by a tormenting super power. Meanwhile, Jong-Chan who lives a simple life never fails to show up for consistent affection for Shin-Ae and accepts even the most hysterical behavior of hers as it is without leaving her any moment. The movie ends when Shin-Ae is cutting her hair by herself in front of a mirror held by Jong-Chan, and the secret sunshine falls on a mingled trash in her yard.
Milyang is definitely not a movie of vengeance or religious salvation. It is a story of our life where we tumble down and stand up as if on an endless loop. It doesn't matter whether Shin-Ae saw a possibility of new hope cutting her hair in the yard. I don't care whether Shin-Ae would marry Jong-Chan or not. I just respect both of her resilience and his consistency in life. Every shot and angle was carefully and beautifully created and woven together by Director Lee Chang-Dong. This is surely one of his masterpieces.