Author | South wind window reporter Zhang Jing
Korean comedy movie "6/45", the coat of comedy is gorgeous enough, and the laughter of the whole film is dense; The core of the tragedy is hard enough to be evocative; The end is a faint but unusually firm hope.
This kind of comedy at the heart of tragedy can often pierce people's hearts.
"6/45" is the work of the famous South Korean comedy director Park Kyu-tae, who rushed into the audience's attention as a dark horse in South Korea at the end of last year, bucking the trend and becoming the local box office champion in 5 days, accumulating more than 1.17 million moviegoers in 12 days.
Korean media called it the best Korean comedy movie in 2022.
"6/45" scored 7.6 points on Douban
Park Kwe-tae once said in an interview that the original idea for the film was to assume that the lottery flew to North Korea. So I remembered the comedy version of "Common Security Area".
Indeed, although "6/45" is wrapped in a comedy shell, the inside, like "Common Security Area", is deeply permeated with the powerlessness and helplessness of the individual when fighting against fate, and permeated with the sadness that personal emotions have been forced to extinguish under the divided reality.
Like "Common Security Area", when there are countless hidden pleasures on the way to the movie, the slightest trace of worry also lingers in their hearts, and that worry is their destined separation, whether it is the tearful smile goodbye in "6/45" or the extreme form of silent cry in "Common Security Area", both convey a common message: the smallness of human nature when it meets power, and the expectation of individuals to smooth out the cracks.
"6/45" stills
01
enmity
At the beginning of the film, there is a saber rattling battle, bullets sound one after another, 50 rounds on your side, 200 rounds on our side; 200 rounds for you, 500 rounds for us.
Of course, there was no real fighting, and in a non-military zone, neither South Korea's live ammunition nor North Korea's broadcast "bullets" really hurt people, but it succeeded in creating a sense of tension that "war is imminent".
In 1953, after nearly three years of war, the two Koreas established a non-military zone with a width of about 4 kilometers as a buffer zone on the inter-Korean border, based on the 38th parallel. Due to the ongoing hostilities between the two Koreas and the DPRK, the demilitarized zone is one of the most heavily garrisoned borders.
Due to the hostility between the two Koreas, the demilitarized zone is one of the borders with the largest number of soldiers
Perhaps it is precisely because of this tense state that may be misfired at any time that deserters often appear on the South Korean border, and the news of deserters appearing again is broadcast on TV, and South Korean citizens are drinking and chatting while being surprised. It can be seen that whether it is "friction" between the two sides or desertion, it has long become the norm for border people.
"Friction" takes the form not only of "real guns and live ammunition" engagement, but also of "radio shouting warfare", in which both sides attack each other's weaknesses through broadcasts, writing poems to ridicule and ridicule each other, and soldiers applauding the scolding of their own broadcasters.
This kind of confrontation, you don't need to know the character and character of the other party, just because you are outside the boundary, it is enough to be a reason for hostility.
This kind of hostility is not created by getting along, but artificially created.
South Korean soldiers and North Korean soldiers in "6/45"
Belonging to two camps naturally fades the human element and breeds hostility for no reason. This has been confirmed by a more controversial social psychology experiment. Psychologist Mozafer. Sharif gathered 22 boys to attend summer camp in the park.
What the boys don't know is that they have become the subject of testing and observation. In the first phase, they were taken to two campsites far apart, each with its own swimming pool and camping area, without knowing each other. In the last few days, they slowly discovered each other's existence, so they quickly became disgusted and thought that the other party was an intruder.
In the second phase, camp staff began to organize a series of matches between the two groups, and as the games progressed, the hostility between them deepened, and relations quickly deteriorated, burning each other's team flags and even raiding the camp at night.
A South Korean soldier in "6/45"
In "6/45", thanks to a lottery ticket, the two sides change from distant and vague hostility that does not specifically point to individuals to real, concrete hostility: the first-prize ticket picked up by Park Chun-woo, a soldier of the South Korean army, is blown across the border and floats to North Korea. Park Chun-woo, who is looking for a lottery ticket, meets Ri Yong-ho, a North Korean soldier who has picked up the lottery ticket. A dispute over the ownership of the lottery and the amount of prize money began.
The first two rounds of the dispute were separate negotiations between Park Chun-woo and Lee Yong-ho on the border of the demilitarized zone. Neither Park Chun-woo's "lottery sovereignty theory" nor the lost and found law could make Lee Yong-ho agree to only take 10%. Finally, the two sides formed a 3v3 team for a third round of negotiations in the public water supply area of the demilitarized zone.
From the beginning of holding guns to each other, to scolding each other and even fighting, they could not fight, and both parties had to cooperate to achieve a win-win situation, but they could not negotiate a solution due to each other's disputes and distrust of the distribution of benefits.
Korean soldiers began negotiations over a lottery ticket
It was not until the supply and demand officer, who had helped the North Korean military dredge the pipeline, became neutral, decided to divide the two sides into five parts, and exchanged soldiers as hostages, that an agreement was finally reached.
Redeeming lottery tickets becomes a common goal of both the North and the South, and it is also an opportunity for them to understand and integrate into each other.
02
cooperate
After the agreement was reached, six people sat in the public water supply area, drinking azalea wine taken by three people in North Korea, eating snacks taken by three people from South Korea, and asked each other what they wanted to do most after getting the money; The younger ones will add another glass of wine to the "older brother"; When the dance music of the girl group sounds, they will put aside their ideology and dance together.
After eating and drinking, they played volleyball on both sides of the border net, and when they were about to change sides at the end of the game, they hesitated for a while, but still frolicked and went to the other side's border. At this time, they have shed the label of "hostile party" and become purely autonomous "people", and friendship is quietly breeding.
As they say, public water districts are "back doors to peace."
The process, like the third phase of the social psychology experiment, is when two groups are taken to the same camp, from reducing food rations to reducing the number of tents, and when faced with problems together, the two groups of boys begin to show kindness, share and cooperate with each other.
Hostility can be artificially created or eliminated by a common goal.
After the exchange of hostages, deeper exchanges continued.
When Lee Yong-ho and his comrades patrolled in the South Korean army, he bravely helped his comrades remove mines and became a hero. German movies, which he watched more than a hundred times because military life was too boring, became the key to his response to inquiries from leaders.
Park Chunyu went to North Korea, and coincidentally used his animal husbandry expertise to put curtains on the chicken coop and duck house, put on music, gave privacy and emotional comfort, and let the chickens and ducks that were originally "out of nowhere" lay eggs madly.
Park coincidentally used his livestock expertise in North Korea
Although it is not without stereotypes: in North Korea, it is loyalty, unfreedom and material deprivation; In Korea, it is a high level of education, material affluence, and a lack of loyalty and faith.
But undoubtedly, it does hit the pain point.
In the process of hostage, emotions continue to grow. Li Yonghao helps the bullied recruit shine his shoes and becomes his "older brother"; Park Chunyu and Li Yonghao's sister have a relationship, and the hands that occasionally touch and the eyes that look at each other are throbbing.
But even when they are happiest, they always remember the shadows that haunt them: they are two opposing parties, encounters that will be separated forever after a short time, and separation is a fate from which they cannot escape.
Park Chun-woo and Lee Young-ho's sister
Therefore, they can secretly rejoice, they can raise "pet pigs" together, they can say loudly about the love of chickens, ducks and geese, but they cannot confess.
Love, let them attract each other, but they can't break through the boundaries of division, they can only make everything ambiguous.
Because they know the evil consequences of emotional breeding, which are more directly described in "Common Garrison": the speed and accuracy of the South Korean army's shooting to train soldiers will target the opponent's army's humanoid standing signs. There is no doubt that this kind of training will make them subconsciously take out a pistol when facing the enemy and take people's lives.
No matter how compatible the two sides are and how deep the emotions, they cannot resist the moment of saber rattling, deliberately trained, subconscious behavior.
A still from "Common Security Area"
03
separate
Like "Common Security Area", no matter how warm and harmonious the film is, there must be an end moment. Because of the two parties who are forbidden to communicate, the secret will definitely be discovered, and the relationship must be forcibly terminated.
In "6/45", the discord factor is the instructor who is lustful for beauty and money, and he discovers their secret.
So, the plan was forced to advance, and Lee Yong-ho's sister took Park Chunyu's hand and ran to the public water supply area. The two sides gathered around the money bag in the water supply area, each holding a stack of dollars, happily recalling the bumps of the road to receiving the prize, but all joy was extinguished by a burst of gunfire.
"6/45" stills
Gun-wielding instructors took away the hard-won fruit, money they called a symbol of peace, and the instructors claimed that true peace was only possible for one of the two sides to die.
At this time, the wild boar mother, who has been looking for piglets from the beginning, rescues them. It was the "mother" who rescued them, the contact number codenamed "daughter"; Those who died were instructors who did not support peace and unity. From this level, the film has expressed its deep meaning.
In the end, they only had $400,000 left to live after the disaster, but they were still happy, because their original wishes could still be fulfilled, whether it was the desire of North Korean soldiers to change dentures for their parents, or the desire of South Korean soldiers to pay for their parents' medical bills, leaving aside their political positions, they were just ordinary people struggling to survive, with small, simple wishes.
Both South Korean and North Korean soldiers are just ordinary people
After a short period of happiness, it is doomed, perhaps forever, parting. You may ask, why not go to the public water district again?
Because under the coat of comedy, there are many crises when they get together. Not to mention the mines that may be stepped on at any time in the non-military zone, the mere fact that they are gathered together would be considered a betrayal of the country.
The depiction of this crisis in the Common Security Area is bloody. During a border friction, the real fire of the war made the two sides realize the truth and cruelty of each other's hostile positions, so they decided not to meet again after celebrating each other's birthdays the next day.
A still from "Common Security Area"
Take off the character cloak so they can really get closer.
However, once a third party drives them back to their identity, rifts quickly appear. Even if the other party is a good brother with a close relationship, he cannot defeat the power machine.
This intimate meeting eventually led to tragedy.
In the movie "Mogadishu", there is also a reluctant but inevitable separation. The South Korean and North Korean diplomats who helped, knew and cherished each other, but had to pretend they did not know each other after getting off the plane, they got on the bus prepared by their own country, and the two diplomatic ambassadors stopped by each other's car doors, although their faces were slightly deflected to the side to look at each other and say goodbye, but finally failed to look at each other.
So, in "6/45", the two Koreas say goodbye tacitly.
In "6/45", Park Chunyu and Lee Yong-ho dream of their next meeting
Park Chun-woo and Lee Yong-ho think about the next meeting: When is it? It's time for unification. When will it be unified? When everyone is eager to come together.
Park Chunyu and Lee Yongho's sister, two people who love each other, but dare not mention a word of love, can only wish each other all the best and find a good partner, "If you come to Pyongyang, I will treat you to cold noodles." ”
They said all this with a smile, the tears in their eyes revealed each other's reluctance, and the agreement to meet was their faint and firm hope, the expectation and belief in unification, even if it was very far away, it would eventually come.
Edit the | Wu Qing
Editor on duty| Monet
Typesetting | Fifi Wenyue
Keep an eye on the South Wind Window to see more highlights