MovieChat Forums > Seom (2000) Discussion > Hee-Jin is not always mute

Hee-Jin is not always mute


When Hee-Jin is almost raped by the policeman, she returns to her hut and uses the telephone to call for a prostitute. It is possible that appearing mute may be connected with the absent man whose clothes are kept in her chest of drawers, and whose motorcycle is abandoned next to the hut. Judging by her behaviour throughout the film, she has probably drowned him.

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That's a really interesting observation about the motorbike and the clothes…it helps us understand why she looks so forlornly at the bike. If we suppose that she had been through a traumatic experience with her man and then drowned him, it explains a lot of what happens.

I still insist that she's really mute…not physically (from damage to vocal cords) but as a result of psychological trauma, also known as hysteria. This fits well with what we see of her character; the story doesn't make much sense if she's deliberately refusing to speak. (There's a great portrait of hysterical muteness in Kosinski's novel The Painted Bird).

As for the bit with the telephone, we don't hear her speak…so she could be calling a recorded help-line, suicide-line or suchlike. She certainly isn't summoning a hooker for Hyun-Shik, that's the last thing she would want to do.

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Thankyou for your reply. I still believe that Hee-Jin speaks, based on my interpretation as follows: Hee-Jin invites herself over with her drink, but Hyun-Shik becomes too physical. She fights him off and returns to her hut, cut to phonecall (we do not hear her from outside, but her lips are moving), cut to arrival of the girl on her bike.
Hyun-Shik seems surprised to see the girl, and stops her when she begins to undress. I don't think that he has called for her, only Hee-Jin could have. Then she leaves the girl stranded there, to punish him by making him unwillingly run up a large bill.
A very interesting film. Like the lake itself, there is much concealed below the surface.

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I agree. She calls for the prostitute to punish him. To indicate that if all he is after is sex, then he deserves a prostitute. She wants better treatment than what he started out with while they were drinking.

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I agree too. I think it´s just like jsmtechnologies said.

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I too agree.

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If she wanted to punish him by sending the hooker to him, then that makes her a hypocrite because she willingly had been prostituting herself in the movie. That's one of the things that made me not feel any sympathy for her...and since the writer and director obviously wants us to care for her, I did not like the film, as a whole.

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Are you so harsh on people in real life that you'll write them off for being hypocritical sometimes?

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I'm not sure if the hookers were given to Hyun Shik for his punishment. I think Hee Jin wants more than a physical relationship with Hyun shik. A man she doesn't have to have sex with to communicate? A man whom she is safe with? Or just a companion/friend?
When he acts just like other vacationers on the lake or getting too sexual wihtout her consent, she runs away. Disappointed probably. Then she calls the hookers. The real ones. In her mind, she is not a hooker. But when she sees the hooker and Hyun shik together, she starts to feel something unexpected inside.

My. I saw this film so long ago. But. . . what do you think about my interpretation? I also don't understand the ending part though.

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Prostitutes consider their working side of their life as their job, they switch off or act it out for the client. When they have real emotional relationships they don't expect to be treated like a whore.

Thus when he treated her like a whore, she phoned for a whore and delivered a whore to him. This makes perfect sense.

When the whore fell in love with him, she too was angry that he paid her even though she was there on her day off.


I also did not like the film as a whole, but it did mostly make sense.

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She definitely calls for the prostitute. I thought it was a test, to see if the guy wanted her (Hee-Jin) or was just horny and so any girl would do. Perhaps that's not correct, but that was my thought while watching the film.

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I agree. She calls for the prostitute to punish him. To indicate that if all he is after is sex, then he deserves a prostitute. She wants better treatment than what he started out with while they were drinking.
Do you realize how patently absurd that is? She IS a prostitute! So even IF she wants to somehow make the relationship with Hyun-Shik different, SHE'S MUTE! She doesn't say A WORD. She goes over in her boat WITH A BEER, and shares it with him. He KNOWS she's a prostitute. How in the hell is he supposed to READ HER MIND that she wants something different? It's insane to think that he should be able to discern that.

"Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you DO". (The Last Kiss)

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Yes she did phone for the whore, because the whore arrived saying "is this guy crazy wanting me when its raining so hard".

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Good point about the clothes in the chest of drawers; but the motorcycle belonged to the young prostitute.

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The girl arrives by motorcycle, but there is also an old motorcycle half submerged near to the hut. Hee-Jin looks at it tearfully.

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She certainly doesn't sound mute after pulling on those fish hooks.

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