The film is based on the novel of the same name by South Korean writer Kong Ji-yong, which is based on the true story of sexual violence that occurred in a school for the deaf and dumb in Gwangju. The film is very realistic and critical, pointing to the dark side of society, the ravages on vulnerable groups are very painful, but the good news is that after the release of the film, it set off heated discussions in South Korea, and finally the South Korean Parliament issued the "Melting Pot" bill to amend the revision of the low sentence for sexual assault crimes. The example of a movie changing a country is bizarre.
At the beginning of the film, an ambush is set up, and The art teacher Renho, who teaches from Seoul to Kiritsu, accidentally kills a hare due to a slippery road, and at this moment, a small boy is also killed by a train. The film makes such a contrast, which fully shows the kindness of Teacher In-ho, and compared with the inferior principals and administrative directors and Park Baoxian, they trample on a child like stepping on an ant. The whole tone of the film is filled with a hazy and ominous atmosphere, and it seems that The road for Teacher Renhao to teach at the school for the deaf and dumb this time is bumpy and bumpy.
At the car repair site, Teacher Ren Hao happened to meet Xu Youzhen, a staff member of the Wujin Human Rights Defense Center with a straightforward and sloppy personality, who is also a single woman with a hot and bold personality, who together with Ren Hao seek justice for the children, full of a sense of justice and a spirit of great love. The film does not show the love line between Xu Youzhen and the widowed Renhao, but only to the point, after all, compared with the children's sexual violence, they have no time to talk about love, in this heavy and depressing atmosphere, they can only protect and sympathize with the injured children, forget the personal safety, future and family protection, only by punishing the perpetrators of violence, their souls can be comforted.
However, in this school with a dignified appearance, there is a deep and dirty behavior, and the twin brothers Li Jiangxi and Li Jiangfu, as the principal and head of the administrative office of the school, rely on the breadth of their connections and the owners of the school's property rights, do not hesitate to carry out inhumane sexual assaults against the children of orphans and intellectually handicapped people, Kim Yeon-doo and Chen Youli, and at the same time they buy off the Jiang criminal police and the school's security guards, indulge their misdeeds and atrocities, and let the young children suffer humiliation and torture. Another teacher, Park Bao-hyun, who plays for the tiger, commits a more perverted sexual assault on the poor and deaf-mute brothers and brothers, who, unable to bear such pain and torture, choose to commit suicide on the tracks.
Fortunately, these mentally handicapped children met Teacher Renhao, and without his presence, perhaps such torture would be endless, and only once they died could they be relieved. Our reality also spread many typical cases of teachers sexually abusing students, but there is no teacher like Ren Hao, and no public official like Xu Youzhen has stepped forward, which cannot but be sad. Teacher Renhao and his mother and daughter with asthma are dependent on each other, originally came to this school to earn money to support the family, although the defendant lawyer with Renhao's professor tried to persuade and take money to tempt Teacher Renhao to give up, but as everyone who still has a little conscience, will not give up so easily, not to mention that Teacher Renhao is also a father with a daughter, as a teacher or parent will not be so good, because once withdrawn, there will be more children to be hurt and destroyed.
Because the film is a performance of sexual violence, there are no less violent pictures of the principal and his brothers infringing on Chen Youli and Kim Yeon-doo respectively, as well as the picture of Park Baoxian's teacher sexually assaulting the national show brothers, and what is even more creepy is that Park Baoxian actually fought in front of many teachers and principals in front of the national show at school, the scene is very bloody and violent, it seems that the film must be a very restrictive level in South Korea. Through these tyrannical images, the film undoubtedly stimulates more audiences to pay attention to and denounce the atrocities of these dressed animals. Fortunately, the film did not avoid such embarrassing scenes, but really exposed and disclosed such behavior, there were surveillance videos in the principal's office, although these strong evidences were enough to convict the defendants, but because the ignorant grandmother and Chen Youli's mentally handicapped parents agreed to their money compensation mediation, coupled with the low sentencing of South Korea's sexual assault law at that time, they were released on probation for many evils. It was this perfunctory act that led to the assassination of Park Baoxian and the death of him on the railway with him, although the incident eventually escalated into popular protests, but the local government still carried out a soft crackdown.
The highlight of the film is that when the orphan Jin Yeon-doo testified against the twin brothers Lee Kang-seok and Lee Jiang-fu in court, he exerted his ingenuity and ingenuity to refute the questions of the defendant's defender's lawyer one by one, and because of the encouragement and concern of Teacher Renhao, Kim Yeon-doo bravely stood up to expose their atrocities, without the help and kindness of Xu Youzhen and Teacher Renhao, the children might have died long ago, and there was no time to make bloody accusations and testimonies. When Quan Guoxiu was told that he did not need to go to court to testify, the child's heart was broken, and he broke out into a roar and cry, after all, he was only a child and had no right to defend himself. The apology rhetoric is very false, in fact, it is the unspoken rule, and the young minds of children are unable to know the dirty trades of the powerful groups.
Look at the ugly faces of these privileged classes, male thieves and female prostitutes, wanton behavior, using power and money to buy judges and lawyers and the victims' families, and the "courtesy of former officials" can actually be done. Of course, in South Korea, this kind of "courtesy of former officials" is very common, and the specific explanation is that senior government officials are recruited by enterprises, law firms and other high salaries after retiring from their posts because of their influence and connections in the official field. The defendant's lawyer Huang saw the dilemma of the judge in the case, gave full play to this unspoken rule, and won the judge in one fell swoop, making him obey the arrangement. It is a pity that Lawyer Huang did not use unspoken rules to conquer Teacher Renhao, of course, Teacher Renhao also has all kinds of uneasiness and anger, but with the support of his mother, he still did a role model for others, bravely accompanied the children to fight to the end, although in the end it was not smooth sailing, as desired, these abusers were sent to prison, but the incident did not end.
In recent years, There have been many critical works in Korean films, such as this year's "Flu", which is also the barbaric isolation of the people by the supremacists of the influenza incident, which also points directly to the death of the people, and the "Horror Live Broadcast" that triggers the explosion terror because the people at the bottom do not get a reasonable demand for solution. Films as works of art, if swayed by too much politics, may lose their cosmopolitan aesthetic significance. But life is like a play, drama is like life, works of art also come from life, and the background of life cannot be ignored. There are really not many works that boldly expose and disclose reality, and the appearance of such works in Korean films actually shows that filmmakers pay more attention to society, of course, they also lose a direction of supervision and discussion, or have a more radical practical significance.
The film star Kong You is a more famous actor in South Korea, in the past his screen image is mostly handsome, but in this film it is almost difficult to see its smile, most of the time is silent and stoic, and for the children's case to proceed smoothly, the role shows more anxious eyes and beards, such an image is more in line with such a kind and righteous person, the appearance is actually flashy, only the inner clean and calm is important. It is said that the film's success was also due to Kong You's strong recommendation to the agency, and was eventually directed by director Huang Dong hyuk, who is good at adapting "My Father" based on a true story. Kong Youmao proposed himself to play the art teacher Ren Hao, and he also carefully learned sign language and tried to be perfect. Released in 2011, the film received more than 4.6 million viewers due to its almost realistic approach, ranking eighth among the top ten Korean films that year, becoming a win-win at the box office. It has also won many awards, such as the Best Soundtrack Award at the 32nd Blue Dragon Film Festival, Kong You won the Highest Popularity Award; the 3rd Korean Film Journalists Association Film Award for Best Work of the Year; the Audience Choice Award and the Black Dragon Audience Award at the 14th Far East International Film Festival in Udine, Italy. In fact, these awards are nothing more than proof of the film's recognition of artistic achievements, the most important thing is that the film achieved the "melting pot law" on sexual assault laws was passed by the South Korean Parliament, and the perpetrators of the real incident were also arrested, and the school was closed for no assistance. That's the social significance of The Melting Pot, a film that changes a country.