MovieChat Forums > Shi (2011) Discussion > Wook was such an insolent brat *spoilers...

Wook was such an insolent brat *spoilers*


I really loathed his character wholly. There was not one redeeming scene for him in the entire movie. I understand this was obviously the director's intent but it really sickened me how he thought he and his friends could just continually rape a classmate until she is driven to kill herself and then everything would just be alright. Probably one of the most repulsive characters I've seen in any movie as of late. Perhaps I am overreacting but I felt kind of angry whenever his face would appear on the screen.

I thought that he would get away with it at the end, which I am so glad didn't happen. It's really such a great, great (albeit sad) ending. Ultimately the poor grandmother ended up taking he and his friends actions to her grave. The main actress did such a fabulous job. Kudos to her!

reply

There was not one redeeming scene for him in the entire movie.


The bit where he's showing the two little girls how to hoolu-hoop is the one case of the film showing him as anything other than a sullen brat. Otherwise he was such a waste of space (as a human being) that he was impossible to really hate. I guess we were like that as teenagers (without the rape part, obviously).

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

reply

That's how I viewed the hula hoop scene at first, but after reading another person's post here, I think that scene could have been meant a very different way. Mija sees his interaction with the two young girls, and considering his lack of any remorse for his involvement in the crime, decides that for the good of society, he needs to be put away or at least face the music somehow, because he's a potential predator. It's the scene where her decisions that lead to the end of the film begin to dawn on her.

Or maybe the scene was in fact meant to show that he wasn't entirely rotten. I'm not sure.

| Fools rush in--and get all the best seats. |

reply

I doubt that this was the intent of the scene. For one thing implying that Wook was a pedophile with no prior indication would be a rather large leap. Given how tight the screenplay is I'd be surprised if Mr. Lee slipped up there.
As for the purpose of the scene, aside from reinforcing just how difficult Mija's decision is it fits into the film's larger portrait of evil being something that's completely common. Just as the fathers are polite, nice upstanding citizens who could callously reduce an unspeakable crime to financial transaction, Wook was portrayed as someone capable of kindness (the hoolahoop scene) even when he's callous enough to eat breakfast next to the picture of a girl he raped. The fact that he is more or less an "average" teen and not a sociopathic monster paints a far, far more chilling portrait of the society that he lives in than if he were serial killer. While the film is a very intimate portrait of guilt and redemption it is also a story of an innocent woman coming to grips (or rather not coming to grips given the ending) with the fact that the world she lives in is a very ugly place. Whereas most films reduce evil to a cartoonist boogieman I believe that Poetry proposes that true evil is deeply ingrained into seemingly normal people who avoid caring when it inconveniences them.

reply

The way he was hoola-hooping was aggressive and sexual. He was hooping as if he was sexually thrusting, and doing so in an aggressive manner. Which is what alarmed Mija.

reply

There was nothing aggressive or sexual about Wook's hula-hooping. That's just what hula-hooping looks like. I think it was just one more scene that reflected that he was a kid, and a particularly self-involved kid who feels no sense of responsibility.

reply

Yeah, I think you're right. I had to chuckle a bit at the notion that his hula hooping was meant to be sexual or aggressive ... that's exactly what hula hooping looks like, as you say.

I think the grandmother is just merely observing the child-like enthusiasm of the teenage boy. Is she worried that the two girls are playing with a rapist? I don't know but I don't think the "meaning" of the scene can be summed up so easily.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

reply

Good post, and I agree. My feeling of the hoolahoop scene was simply that it was the last straw for Mija in seeing the kid not showing remorse in any way. There's similiar scenes earlier on - the breakfast one with the girl's portrait as you mentioned and another where he is sitting, laughing at some tv show.

reply

So many teenagers appear like this - essentially unknowable by the adult world, locked behind an expressionless face. Of course most are decent people even through their sullen years, but it's a confusing time for almost all of them.

While Wook is responsible for his own actions, I do have to say that for an adolescent to suffer the divorce of his parents and then be left to live with his grandmother while his parents are off living elsewhere is not the best recipe for great mental health, usually! In any case, the fact that six friends committed such an unspeakable act together, and then the school and their parents colluded to cover it up indicates a societal more than just an individual problem.

reply

She didn't take their actions to the grave. We say she turned in her grandson and we were lead to assume she turned them all in.

Rent "Mother", a great film with another older female actress. From south Korea

reply

Wool reminded me of my brother, who shared exactly the same kind of behaviour after committing a (similar?) though not nearly as terrible crime.


On a side note, how do we know that she was the one who "handed him in"?

reply

The very gentle way Mija gave up her grandson to the police is more than he deserved.

reply


terribly annoying character.


When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

reply

I got a quite different impression than most of you guys...

From the first scene of him, when the grandmother goes to see him in his room and he's just curled up on his bed and she thinks he's sick, even by knowing nothing about the plot I gathered instantly that he was somehow responsible for the death of the girl, because he seemed to feel incredibly guilty.

That infused my impression of him for the rest of the movie: I mostly saw him as feeling really guilty and not knowing how to deal with it (also the scene where Mija comes into his room and tries to pull off his blankets but he resists as much as he can). His systematic refusal of facing the situation or dealing with it for me didn't come across as insolence at all: in fact, his reaction seems almost normal, especially for a young teenager who maybe did not act in full knowledge of the possible consequence of his acts. Not mentioning how he might even have been peer pressured into it. Although that doesn't excuse him, and I do think it is better for him to be forced to deal with the consequences of what he has done, which is what happens in the film.

reply

Yeah, but regardless of how badly he wanted to run away from what he did, he also just generally came across as a jerk to his caring old grandma. Sure, it could have been worse (he could have refused to clean up after himself, for example) but once you consider the fact that he gets over whatever guilt he might have had initially rather quickly, it's difficult not to see him as an "insolent brat".

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

reply

"From the first scene of him, when the grandmother goes to see him in his room and he's just curled up on his bed and she thinks he's sick, even by knowing nothing about the plot I gathered instantly that he was somehow responsible for the death of the girl, because he seemed to feel incredibly guilty."



This is actually how I read his character as well. Was Wook a brat? Yes, but I think that he did feel bad about what he did. Remember that teenagers are still emotionally immature and try not to show any emotion if they can help it. Underneath Wook's stoicness I detected guilt and stress though. I hated his character but I could tell that he wasn't just nonchalant about what he did. As most teens, he just wanted to avoid what made him unhappy. Thus, glancing at the picture then quickly turning on the television, pulling the blanket over himself when Mija was trying to talk to him, etc. He knew what he did was wrong, and he didn't want anybody else bringing it up.

Note: I was kind of a moody teenager as well. Not as bratty as Mook was (well, I hope not) but I was quiet around my parents and usually aloof from them, and my dad even chided me once about my "attitude." But the reason for it was that I was dealing with a bunch of my own stresses (school, girls, facing adulthood, etc) and those stresses just made me turn inward and I wasn't the type to open up to people, especially my parents. And, well, I had a feeling Mook was being portrayed in a similar vein.

reply