A few years ago, I attended the Traverse City Film Festival as I do every year from its first year. I happened upon a film called, "Castaways on the Moon." It opened my eyes to how good a movie from another country could be. I have since seen several more and loved more of them than I hated!
"Castaways on the Moon" is about a girl who is one of those modern-day shut-ins. One of those children of the lost generation who live their lives in their bedrooms and whose only contact with the outside world is through their computer. She only goes out twice a year when there is no one else on the street in her busy Seoul neighborhood, those days when there are emergency drills and all cars and buses must leave the roads and all pedestrians must seek shelter for the length of the drill. She then walks out onto the street and feels as though she is a Castaway on the Moon.
Add to this, a suicidal young man, in great debt who wants to jump off the bridge. He knows this is a good way for him to commit suicide because he never learned how to swim. However, he survives this attempt on his life and washes up on an island in the middle of the river. He can't swim to shore, because he never learned how. He panics, goes a little crazy thinking he's trapped but eventually after spending several days searching for a way to get off the Island, he calms down a lot. He tries to flag down a riverboat tour passing by, but the patrons just wave at him in greeting. He writes HELP in branches on the beach and eventually that one word catches the eye of the girl who watches out of her window with her telescope. She observes him from her high rise apartment bedroom window and eventually notices that he changed the word HELP into the word HELLO. Those are the only two words in English by the way.
A friendship develops between these two. She throws a bottle with a message over the side of the bridge at 2 am, and it lands on the island. He then answers it by changing the lettering on the beach. They have short terse communications between them in this fashion. It takes a great deal of pain and motivation for her to leave the house at 2 am to drop these bottles off the bridge, and sometimes he searches for hours throughout the island to find them.
Then, of course, the worst thing that can happen happens. He is rescued from the island by a clean-up crew and must face re-entering the real world. This is disastrous for her as well because she may never see him again unless she leaves the comfort zone of her cocoon, and runs outdoors to find him. In her desperation, she too braves the outside world of people. And just as she thinks there is no hope because the bus he is on has gone over the hill, and she knows in her heart that she will never see him again, the sirens sound. It is one of the two days in the year when everyone has to leave the street for the emergency drill. She is able to run and catch up with the bus. Finally, they meet face to face.
Happily ever after!
It's such a simple story. Its a story that could happen nowhere else at no other time in history because the internet has made recluses out of half of the population and consumerism has made criminals out of the other half. With no semblance of normality in either of their lives, how would these two soul mates ever meet? They must work through death and grave fear in order to meet.
I found this a fantastically refreshing film for many reasons. I loved both characters. I felt pity for the girl's parents who did everything they could to try to get her out into the world. I felt pity for the man who felt that the only refuge from his mounting debt was suicide. Haven't we all felt like that? And I loved the character arcs. In the end, the man is cringing because he has to use his bus pass card to get on the bus and he is totally unsure as to whether it will work. He's been off the grid for many months by this time. Meanwhile, the girl is rushing out of her comfort zone to find him and we in the audience are hoping he gets turned away from the bus. Hahaha!
For me, it's all about the characters. If I relate to and start to love the characters, then that right there is what makes me love the whole movie.
The reason I called this Blog "Gab-Dong" (Pronounced Gab-Do-Ang in Korea) is because of the Netflix Series of the same name. I LOVED every character in that series. It's a crime drama where the main characters have all been searching for a serial rapist and murder who terrorized their neighborhood 20 years earlier. He was never caught and presumably is still alive somewhere. He had a unique signature, that of a fishing knot that he used to tie the hands of his female victims. At first, the characters seem like archetypes, the main detective is called the "Tiger Detective" The main character is called "The Mad Monk" and the comic book artist that follows him around is called his "Stalker." That's even how he refers to her when she calls him on the phone, "What's up Stalker," he says.
But as I got into the storyline, I noticed that there is true emotion behind all of these people and their stories are all separate and unique. I loved them all. Even the two serial killers I loved! NOT loved to HATE! Just LOVED!
I don't believe in that trope about Loving to Hate someone. Those are two separate issues! If I love someone, I love them, for varying reasons. And if I hate someone it's usually because they are boring or stupid or a waste of skin or just downright unbelievably evil. To give you an example, I hated that guy in the mask in the Halloween movies. Why? stupid and unbelievably evil. But I LOVE Hanibal Lector! Why? He has a deep backstory of why he turned out to be the way he is. He so enjoys his grisly work, and he's fairly charming. You know. He gets a little crude, which tickles me, but he also knows what kind of perfume Clarice Starling is wearing, and he shows some chivalry by talking the guy in the next cell into committing suicide after flinging filth onto Clarice. So there is redeeming value in him. Don't get me wrong, I don't want him out on the streets with my children, he belongs in that cell down there!
These two serial killers and rapists in "Gab-dong" both take on the name Gab-Dong, one is a copycat and the other killed nine people and then went underground. But the older version of Gab-Dong, is the Mad Monk's friend, mentor, and a person to be looked up to. The younger version of Gab-Dong, the copycat, is handsome, a little mentally unbalanced because when we first meet him he's in an institution doing some time, having been put there by his mother for reasons we aren't quite sure of. But he then gets out and has a job, he seems to be a functioning member of society, even though we know he's a psychopath. But we also know that there are many psychopaths living out in society that don't ever commit a horrendous murder or rape. They just don't have normal feelings like you and I. So we give him the benefit of the doubt. Then he shows the Stalker that he really wants to be rehabilitated, so we love him even more!
I will be referring to this series on and off over the next few Blogs I'm sure. So be sure and go to Netflix and watch it between now and next week.
I'd love to start a conversation with anyone interested in this topic. Tell me about other titles that you have seen that originate in Japan, China, Viet Nam, Thailand, Taiwan, or especially Korea. I will watch any of them that people think are worthy. I've only run across a couple that were too outlandishly soap-opera-esque. I found myself fast forwarding through any scene that had characters in it that I didn't like.
Subscribe via e-mail to more Blogs on more good shows, coming in the next few weeks.
Thanks,
Cindy K-K
"Castaways on the Moon" is about a girl who is one of those modern-day shut-ins. One of those children of the lost generation who live their lives in their bedrooms and whose only contact with the outside world is through their computer. She only goes out twice a year when there is no one else on the street in her busy Seoul neighborhood, those days when there are emergency drills and all cars and buses must leave the roads and all pedestrians must seek shelter for the length of the drill. She then walks out onto the street and feels as though she is a Castaway on the Moon.
Add to this, a suicidal young man, in great debt who wants to jump off the bridge. He knows this is a good way for him to commit suicide because he never learned how to swim. However, he survives this attempt on his life and washes up on an island in the middle of the river. He can't swim to shore, because he never learned how. He panics, goes a little crazy thinking he's trapped but eventually after spending several days searching for a way to get off the Island, he calms down a lot. He tries to flag down a riverboat tour passing by, but the patrons just wave at him in greeting. He writes HELP in branches on the beach and eventually that one word catches the eye of the girl who watches out of her window with her telescope. She observes him from her high rise apartment bedroom window and eventually notices that he changed the word HELP into the word HELLO. Those are the only two words in English by the way.
A friendship develops between these two. She throws a bottle with a message over the side of the bridge at 2 am, and it lands on the island. He then answers it by changing the lettering on the beach. They have short terse communications between them in this fashion. It takes a great deal of pain and motivation for her to leave the house at 2 am to drop these bottles off the bridge, and sometimes he searches for hours throughout the island to find them.
Then, of course, the worst thing that can happen happens. He is rescued from the island by a clean-up crew and must face re-entering the real world. This is disastrous for her as well because she may never see him again unless she leaves the comfort zone of her cocoon, and runs outdoors to find him. In her desperation, she too braves the outside world of people. And just as she thinks there is no hope because the bus he is on has gone over the hill, and she knows in her heart that she will never see him again, the sirens sound. It is one of the two days in the year when everyone has to leave the street for the emergency drill. She is able to run and catch up with the bus. Finally, they meet face to face.
Happily ever after!
It's such a simple story. Its a story that could happen nowhere else at no other time in history because the internet has made recluses out of half of the population and consumerism has made criminals out of the other half. With no semblance of normality in either of their lives, how would these two soul mates ever meet? They must work through death and grave fear in order to meet.
I found this a fantastically refreshing film for many reasons. I loved both characters. I felt pity for the girl's parents who did everything they could to try to get her out into the world. I felt pity for the man who felt that the only refuge from his mounting debt was suicide. Haven't we all felt like that? And I loved the character arcs. In the end, the man is cringing because he has to use his bus pass card to get on the bus and he is totally unsure as to whether it will work. He's been off the grid for many months by this time. Meanwhile, the girl is rushing out of her comfort zone to find him and we in the audience are hoping he gets turned away from the bus. Hahaha!
For me, it's all about the characters. If I relate to and start to love the characters, then that right there is what makes me love the whole movie.
The reason I called this Blog "Gab-Dong" (Pronounced Gab-Do-Ang in Korea) is because of the Netflix Series of the same name. I LOVED every character in that series. It's a crime drama where the main characters have all been searching for a serial rapist and murder who terrorized their neighborhood 20 years earlier. He was never caught and presumably is still alive somewhere. He had a unique signature, that of a fishing knot that he used to tie the hands of his female victims. At first, the characters seem like archetypes, the main detective is called the "Tiger Detective" The main character is called "The Mad Monk" and the comic book artist that follows him around is called his "Stalker." That's even how he refers to her when she calls him on the phone, "What's up Stalker," he says.
But as I got into the storyline, I noticed that there is true emotion behind all of these people and their stories are all separate and unique. I loved them all. Even the two serial killers I loved! NOT loved to HATE! Just LOVED!
I don't believe in that trope about Loving to Hate someone. Those are two separate issues! If I love someone, I love them, for varying reasons. And if I hate someone it's usually because they are boring or stupid or a waste of skin or just downright unbelievably evil. To give you an example, I hated that guy in the mask in the Halloween movies. Why? stupid and unbelievably evil. But I LOVE Hanibal Lector! Why? He has a deep backstory of why he turned out to be the way he is. He so enjoys his grisly work, and he's fairly charming. You know. He gets a little crude, which tickles me, but he also knows what kind of perfume Clarice Starling is wearing, and he shows some chivalry by talking the guy in the next cell into committing suicide after flinging filth onto Clarice. So there is redeeming value in him. Don't get me wrong, I don't want him out on the streets with my children, he belongs in that cell down there!
These two serial killers and rapists in "Gab-dong" both take on the name Gab-Dong, one is a copycat and the other killed nine people and then went underground. But the older version of Gab-Dong, is the Mad Monk's friend, mentor, and a person to be looked up to. The younger version of Gab-Dong, the copycat, is handsome, a little mentally unbalanced because when we first meet him he's in an institution doing some time, having been put there by his mother for reasons we aren't quite sure of. But he then gets out and has a job, he seems to be a functioning member of society, even though we know he's a psychopath. But we also know that there are many psychopaths living out in society that don't ever commit a horrendous murder or rape. They just don't have normal feelings like you and I. So we give him the benefit of the doubt. Then he shows the Stalker that he really wants to be rehabilitated, so we love him even more!
I will be referring to this series on and off over the next few Blogs I'm sure. So be sure and go to Netflix and watch it between now and next week.
I'd love to start a conversation with anyone interested in this topic. Tell me about other titles that you have seen that originate in Japan, China, Viet Nam, Thailand, Taiwan, or especially Korea. I will watch any of them that people think are worthy. I've only run across a couple that were too outlandishly soap-opera-esque. I found myself fast forwarding through any scene that had characters in it that I didn't like.
Subscribe via e-mail to more Blogs on more good shows, coming in the next few weeks.
Thanks,
Cindy K-K
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