Introduction: "People endure too long and they will get sick." ”
"The Beginning and End of the Kim Fu-nam Murder Incident" is directed by Jang Chul-so and starring Seo Young-hee, Ji Sung-won, Hwang Min-ho, and Park Jung-gak. The film, jang Chul-so's debut, was shortlisted for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film mainly tells the story of Jin Funan, a simple and kind heroine who lives on the island, and gradually transforms into a bloody avenger due to the tragedy of fate.
First, the opposition between the city and the island
The film portrays the duality of two civilizations, the city and the isolated island. In this isolated "islandless", where law and morality are completely invalidated, the feudal idea of male superiority over female inferiority has always prevailed. The heroine Jin Funan has lived on this closed island since she was a child, along with her: husband Wanzong, daughter Xiaoyan, little uncle Tiezong, four old women, and a demented grandfather. At the beginning of the film, Huiyuan, who lived on the island as a child, returns to Mujima to relax because of her unsuccessful work, and accidentally becomes the seventh occupant of the island, and is involved in the whirlpool of the island dispute.
Funan and Huiyuan grew up together, as the only two young women on the island, but because of Huiyuan's outlying islands, they have very different personalities, and behind them is also a reflection of the two different living environments of the city and the isolated island. Funan, who stayed on the islandless island, was simple and kind, worked hard and complained, and one person took up the burden of the life of the whole family, and was called to drink by everyone on the island, and still maintained the love of life. She Funan longs for the urban life of Seoul, has always longed to take her daughter Xiaoyan away from the island, she looks forward to Haiyuan, she looks forward to Seoul, but the letters written to Huiyuan are all stoned in the sea.
Huiyuan, who left her hometown early to live in Seoul, gradually became a cold and selfish egoist in the fast-paced environment of the metropolis. She treats old women who have lost their homes coldly, slaps colleagues in public against their will, and ignores girls who have been hurt by. On the island, she witnessed the events of the incident, but in order to protect herself, she still chose to escape, until finally she woke up and got the salvation of the heart.
The flute in the film appears many times as a symbol of funan and huiyuan's friendship. The flute has experienced four forms of completeness - brokenness - bonding - breaking. As a child, Huiyuan taught Funan to play the flute on the island, and the melodious music was as beautiful as the friendship between the two of them. When the boys on the island surrounded them with ill will, Funan stepped forward to protect Hye-won and held up a flute in front of her, and during the argument, the flute broke in half. After that, Kim Funan glued it again, kept it by his side, and always took it with him when he left Nojima, indicating that Funan was doing his best to protect this friendship. Inside the seoul police station, Hye-won broke the flute for the second time and poked it into Funan's neck, symbolizing the shattering of their friendship. Looking at Funan, who was lying in her arms, Huiyuan played the flute, but the broken tone was as irretrievable as their feelings.
When Kim Fu-nam painted exaggerated makeup and dressed up as the "Hye-won" urban woman in her mind set foot on the land of Seoul from the island, the two civilizations of the city and the island began to intersect, she was surprised by the help of the boatman, and could not help but ask: "What about such a good person?" The city was a bit of a shock experience for her, but Kim Fu-nam was more like an interloper, out of place in a strange heterogeneous cultural society.
Second, the confrontation between male power and women's rights
The film shouts out for female consciousness in the heavy and cruel patriarchal society, Jin Funan, as the only labor force in the village, is called to drink on the island, washes and cooks and farms bees, and her husband has no respect for her, punches and kicks when he does not agree, and even brings the prostitute home. The younger uncle also treats Funan as a sex slave, and the mother-in-law on the island continues to bully Funan. Men have an unparalleled position on the island of nothing, and the idea that the four mothers-in-law on the island have long lived in the patriarchal mind has been enslaved. Seeing Wanzong repairing the roof, they kept complimenting: "No man can't do it." "We wouldn't be able to live without ten thousand sects on the island." "So, women have to live with men."
On the island, Funan could not call a man by his first name, or it would be an insult. "I didn't tell you to be respectful when talking to my family?" Even pigs and dogs can learn to be beaten, why can't you? "Here, the lessons and hurts men inflict on women are taken for granted and embraced and supported. Funan's desire to send his daughter out of the island to study was also prevented by her husband Wanzong's idea that "a woman without talent is virtuous". Men have an absolute say here. Before dying, the mother-in-law on the island also said, "The man is back, and I will come with the man to find you." “
In the feudal field of the alienated male superiority and female inferiority of Wudao, Jin Funan could only be patient for her daughter, and after she found out that her daughter was molested by her husband, she decided to run away with her daughter, but the plan failed and was beaten by her husband, which led to xiaoyan's death in the pull, which became the last straw that crushed the camel. Funan calls the police to arrest Wanzong, but Mushima begins to shield the man, partly because of the deep-rooted patriarchal ideology, and on the other hand, because Funan's departure will mean that the entire island will lose its labor. "Don't die in silence, just explode in silence", on a sunny afternoon, she looked at the glare of the sun, determined to wave away the oppressed and enduring life, and took the scythe in her hand determined to begin her revenge on this terrible world.
The issue of women's status has always been a question worth pondering, and it is also a classic proposition in artistic creation. With the development of modern civilization, women's rights and interests have been continuously improved, but in some remote and closed places, civilization is not civilized enough, and the idea of male superiority and female inferiority has always existed. In such a high-pressure environment, Funan in the film has actually been eager to get out of No Island in his heart. She would lead her daughter to stand on the reef by the sea and look at the other end of the sea, and would constantly write letters to Hye Won longing for her to save her and her daughter. The description of Seoul by the prostitutes brought back by her husband made her yearn even more, and she also suggested to her husband that her daughter go to study outside the island, but they were rejected one by one.
Funan was scolded for throwing stones at her husband, at which point Funan asked, "Women can be stoned, but men can't?" Her femininity has always been suppressed, but the death of her daughter has completely awakened Funan's feminist consciousness, and she chooses to use killing to express her resistance to male power. Since then, a large number of bloody scenes have filled the picture, Funan from the beginning of cowardice to the final outburst of anger, the tone of the second half of the film has also changed from repression to exhilarating, bringing the audience a strong visual pleasure. She slit the throats of her mothers-in-law with a sickle, cut off the head of the little uncle, and coated her husband's body with sauce, "When the cruel ruler forces you to no escape, don't forget that you still have a way to resist!" On another level, it is not so much that Kim Funan chose to commit crime as it did that sin chose Funan.
3. Summary
"The Beginning and End of the Kim FuNan Murder" is a film that combines elements of violence, crime, and bloodshed. The film shows us how the heroine Jin Funan is gradually moving towards the process of rebellion under long-term oppression, conveys the director's profound reflection on current social issues, and arouses the public's attention to the living conditions of women.