MovieChat Forums > Boksuneun naui geot (2002) Discussion > Cha Yeong-mi's voiceover near end

Cha Yeong-mi's voiceover near end

posted 14 years ago by MichelleYeohFan
42 replies | jump to latest

Great film, but that nearly ruined the whole thing for me. Anyone who's stuck with this movie to the end clearly remembers what she said to him earlier about her organization. OF COURSE that's who they are and why they're there!
She may as well have said directly to the audience, "You see, what had happened was, in case you forgot the dialogue bit which occured in the last hour..."
Spoonfed endings like this assume the audience is entirely comprised of idiots with short attention spans. I would love to see a version of this movie with that particular audio bit cut.

"I'll tell you something if you won't think I'm crazy...I've got grasshoppers taped to my back."

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] MichelleYeohFan 14 years ago

I didn't blame the audience. I blamed the movie.

I do agree with you that sometimes reminders are helpful, or even downright necessary, but here it was entirely useless because it hadn't happened very long before. Even if one suspected her of lying, their arrival itself tells us the truth. It just seems anyone who'd question their identity must have gone for snacks during the scene of their first mention.

"I'll tell you something if you won't think I'm crazy...I've got grasshoppers taped to my back."

[–] nanaunreal 14 years ago

Agreed, it was doing a good job not spoon feeding the audience and making them figure it out from context until the end. The fact that they were the terrorists was dead obvious.

[–] wreckage-1 8 years ago

I had an emergency come up and so had about an hour pause between the scene where he kills her and the one where he gets killed and even still, when those guys showed up at the end, I knew immediately who they were. It didn't come close to ruining the movie for me, but yeah, I didn't like that at all either.

[–] behereyes 14 years ago

I didn't forget what she said, but I assumed she was full of sh!t. Therefore, if they hadn't played the voice over, I would have had no idea who those guys were. I don't think it was spoonfed.

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[–] GuyOnTheLeft 12 years ago

I had assumed she was full of crap as well (the movie encouraged that assumption by having the detective say she was the only member of her "terrorist organisation"); but it was quite clear without the voiceover that the detective turned out to be wrong. And I say this as someone who found *other* aspects of the movie confusing (the side plot with the poisoned boy; that the main character wasn't having sex with his sister). That part though did not need to be so blatantly spelled out IMO.

[–] wreckage-1 8 years ago

that the main character wasn't having sex with his sister

Why was that confusing?

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 8 years ago

I can't remember any more, sorry.

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[–] Inky-2 14 years ago

You are absolutely right. I remember thinking what a mature film this was for NOT spoonfeeding or telegraphing information up until that very last scene. It didn't show you so many little things (Ryu's firing- we see him getting his severance but don't see how/why he ends up there- or the actual kidnapping, for example), because it expected audiences to be alert enough to understand what had happened between scenes.

And really, even though you KNOW who these guys are at the end because you remember what Ryu's girlfriend said about her terrorist friends, on top of that they pin the death sentence to his chest, which we also saw very early on in the film. The voice-over was not only too much, it was totally out of character for this film, considering how much it leaves up to the audience early on (consider how many people don't even realize that Ryu has both a girlfriend AND a sister until halfway through the film).

[–] princess_k65 14 years ago

the voice-over was necessary for some.

After her body is found and they are discussing her involvement with this left-wing organization, one of the cops tells the other cop to bring in the members of the organization for questioning. The cop informs him that she was the ONLY member of the organization. This confirms to viewers that she was indeed *beep* So of course we would need to be reminded at the end whose these individuals are because we have already been set-up to believe that they do not exist.

[–] dbeane 11 years ago

I was pretty confused as to who those guys were until the part you mention about them pinning the paper to his chest.

That reminded me of the manifesto or whatever that she was editing on the PC earlier in the film.

Until then however, I was wondering if they were laid-off workers from the factory.

So perhaps there were so many threads that the filmmakers decided we might need some help with that last one.

One the one hand, it was a bit out of place considering that the filmmakers hadn't been "spoonfeeding" us before.
On the other had, in addition to the detective saying she was the "only member", I don't think we ever saw any other members; plus the film's take on her politics seemed somewhat whimsical (her giving out the pink fliers, etc.), so it seems we're inclined to agree with the detective.

[–] Cypherven 11 years ago

My only theory is that they made a private screening for test audiences and probably some were confused so they decided to add the voiceover. It happens a lot after test screenings.

[–] amjams 14 years ago

If it wasn't for the voice over, I might have thought they were avenging the red-haired delivery guy, cause he seemed like the last person who got killed for no reason.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] reactionforce 14 years ago

I totally agree. And to the people saying that they needed a reminder. The reminder was a guy holding a photo, then another guy looks to this guy for conformation that this is the photo guy (just to put it in as dumb of words as I can). That, is the subtle reference which should tell anyone who's been paying attention who these people are.

[–] osman_a1 14 years ago

definitely agree, it was unnecessary and I found it a bit patronizing to have the voiceover.

[–] von_braun 12 years ago

Yeah totally agree here too. I immediately knew who they were and I even missed the part when she tells him about her group. When watching a movie like this, that doesn't spoon feed you the story (until this point) you start to get the story a certain way, the way the director is trying to tell it with subtle images and dialog. So image my surprise when all of a sudden this voice over comes in and just *beep* in my face. Just weird.

[–] baygerbieger 14 years ago

Dude's, last dying thoughts.......

There's a thing, left before we gooooo.
We will sing, that we're all in love with youuuuu.

[–] HisRoyalFreshness 14 years ago

I didn't really notice it the first time, I agree with baygerbieger the voice over was him remembering who these people are and why they are doing this. not necessarily the film makers spoon feeding the audience, I think though if she would have used to groups name and then that groups name was on the Death sentence notice there wouldn't have been a need for the voice over. But remember she just said group, and considering what he had just finished doing I am sure he wasn't worried about some girl's dying threat.

[–] Samba-Briza 10 years ago

This is how I interpreted it as well. I thought they were laid off factory workers at first, but I figured out who they were (The note that she was typing earlier in the movie), and I didn't feel it was unnecessary.

[–] KenMishima 14 years ago

I kinda agree but not completely. The film has tons of stuff you can easily miss on a first watch-through and a lot of stuff you wouldn't figure out or know unless you discussed the film with someone or watched it again.

Like previously stated, some people thought that the girlfriend was full of **** when she said that, in an attempt to get out of the situation she was in. The father obviously thought she was lying or just didn't care what would happen to him, so long as he gets his revenge.

If the viewer remembers the innocent delivery boy who gets annihilated by the father just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the guys at the end could have been there to avenge him. Who's to say that he didn't have contacts?

On my first viewing I still thought she was telling the truth, simply because she kept handing out the flyers throughout the movie and she was very serious about the political stuff the whole time. The moment I saw the jeep I knew it was the terrorists to come and avenge her. "TERRORISTS WIN" came to mind. It's here that the revenge cycle finally gets ended since there's no one to get revenge for Ryu or the father, and the terrorists won't be found either way it goes.

[–] Conquerer13 13 years ago

I don't think the voice over ruined it or anything close, but certainly I don't think it was necessary. It was already clear enough as to what was going on, especially seeing the guy in the back look at the photograph.