Korean movies are gods, and no one should have any objections.
A "Parasite" the year before created not only the history of Korean cinema, but also the history of the Oscars.
For director Bong Joon-ho, celebratory wine can be drunk for a lifetime.
But for Korean movies.
Oh, "Parasite" is not an intermission.
Two years on, it's another big move, and recently, the Korean Film Promotion Council just announced that it will represent South Korea in the 94th Academy Award for Best International Film.
It is--------
Mogadishu
The film's voice in South Korea is quite high, and the box office directly did "Black Widow", becoming the highest-grossing film in South Korea this year.
At the same time, it also won six awards at the Busan Film Festival, including Best Picture.
Even the domestic Douban also gave a high score of 8.5.
The well-known American magazine "Variety" commented:
"'Mogadishu' blends thrilling action scenes with a fun storyline"
Why on earth did it get such a high rating?
In fact, it is mainly inseparable from its powerful configuration, big director, big production, big lineup.
Yoo Seung-wan, a great director in South Korea, is the winner of two Korea Blue Dragon Film Awards Best Director Award, one Korean Film Grand Bell Award for Best Director, and one Korea Baeksang Arts Awards Best Director Award.
"Old Hand", "Berlin", "Managaha Island", each of which is from his hand.
In addition to the director, the two male protagonists are also the top cast.
Jin Yunshi, the Green Dragon Shadow Emperor, has his figure in "Lao Qian", "Yellow Sea" and "Chaser".
And Zhao Yincheng not only can play in appearance, but also has excellent acting skills.
In this new work after three years, he plays an intelligence officer in the national security department, and for the role, he strives to practice fluent English.
Just by listening to the title, you know that this is a film about war.
Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, is also the largest city in Somalia.
People who know the situation in Somalia know that this place has become an outcast of world civilization, and even the invincible US military is also here to "black hawk down" and lose its armor.
When you get here, you know what hell on earth is, and it is terrible.
War is everywhere.
In fact, in the face of such a background, we are not strangers.
"Escape from Tehran" and "Wolf Warrior 2" tell the same story as this film, in the face of war, only a country with strong diplomacy has the strength to send its own warships to take its citizens back.
However, for some countries with weak diplomacy and relatively small countries, such as South Korea and North Korea, they cannot escape at the first time, and the outbreak of war is a process of survival for them.
Just like this film.
When war strikes, even embassies are attacked.
At this time of crisis, the North Korean ambassador came to the door of the South Korean Foreign Ministry with his subordinates and relatives helplessly, praying to take them in.
But with this sensitive diplomatic relationship, the South Korean side was initially hesitant, after all, the two sides are hostile in Mogadishu.
It obstructs its meetings, it spreads its rumors, and the two sides quarrel with each other.
But when North Korea asked for help from the South Korean side, the South Korean side saw those young children and still softened their hearts.
And the two sides sit at a table to eat, from the beginning of distrust of each other, careful observation, fear of the other party's vigilance in their own bowl poison, to slowly let go of the inner mustard.
When a North Korean woman helps a South Korean woman peel off the pickled suzi leaves that are stuck together with chopsticks, it is only in The Korean family
There will be intimate behavior.
At that moment, South Korea and North Korea were originally "brothers" of the same ethnic group.
Their culture, eating habits, and language are all the same, but at this moment they have let go of the hostility of the country, the difference in political positions, the subtlety of being once an enemy and now a companion, and began to change.
It's just that this real history has not been officially recorded.
As the film goes: an adaptation of a true story that "never appeared in South Korea's diplomatic history."
It turned out that it was a special period at that time, most of the documents of the embassies of the two sides were destroyed during the escape, the process of escape was not recorded, and the film story was also created based on the oral accounts of the relevant personnel at that time.
Among them, the prototype of the South Korean ambassador is the former ambassador Kang Shin-sung.
He once recalled his state of mind when he dined with North Koreans:
"It feels like a family. We try to overcome our difficulties and unite like families. That goes beyond ideology and state."
However, at the end of the film, the two parties who have survived the difficulties together have escaped from this cage together, and they have been closely dependent on each other and have been close comrades-in-arms.
After the plane landed safely, the ROK ambassador said to the people of the dprk and rok missions:
"Both of our countries have sent people to the airport, get off the plane, we have to pretend not to know each other, if you want to say goodbye, just be here."
See, after escaping from the crisis, the two sides quickly formed an antagonistic relationship.
For this relationship, there are two detailed contrast shots in the film that cover your eyes twice, and the director likes it very much.
The first time they covered their eyes, when they entered the South Korean embassy, the eyes of the four children in the North Korean mission were attracted by the mascot of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games in South Korea, which was visited by the embassy, and their parents quickly covered their eyes.
I think covering their eyes this time is a subconscious action of the parents of the child, from the fear of ideology, but the child does not understand this, they just like toys, full of curiosity about things they have not seen.
The second time to cover their eyes happened after the two sides escaped, this time, the children's incomprehension became why the adults who were still close to the family just now became no one knew anyone.
And this is more like a metaphor, the two Koreas are obviously a family, but because of ideology to separate the family, this kind of sadness and pain, children can not understand, adults do not want to say.
After the children have a conflict, as long as a smile, a candy, a game, you can get back together.
The contradictions between adults are always entangled in all aspects, crossing time, and finally becoming a gap that will never be crossed.
As the movie shot zooms out, the distance between the two cars gets farther and farther.
One car to the left, one car to the right, they didn't greet, say goodbye, or even look back at each other, so they said goodbye without a word...
This moment may be the core of the film, and it is also the anti-war complex that the film wants to express.
Our hearts are desperate for peace, but we are swayed by incitement emotions, perhaps like a line in a movie:
"We all understand that sometimes, there are two truths in the world."
Sometimes, the truth is not something that important.
The absurd reality of the pain of division and the strangeness of compatriots that Mogadishu continues to show in a series of works depicting inter-Korean relations should perhaps be something we should really reflect on.