heera

"If the world is this shitty, shouldn't the ending be happy?"

OMG, it is a very emotional watch.

This movie might have just wrecked me with a heavy, melancholic loneliness that lingers through each frame. It stabbed me right in the gut with the sad, unapologetic, and harsh beauty of alienation and identity struggles. It is a movie that melodically represents the tragedies of teenagers in a hyper-competitive, homophobic society—one that will stay with me for a very long while.

Shin Yong-ju made me feel the heavy burden of being a closeted gay youth who has to strive for academic success to support his single mother. I felt terribly sad, and my heart ached for his longing—the long, alonesome, tiring pining he had for Han Gi-woong despite the massive disparities between them. Meanwhile, Gi-woong felt more interesting with his hidden layers, which try to unveil themselves from past memories, cascading his forged, distant secrets.

As the narrative insights highlight the toxic effects of rigid social norms, academic pressure, and schoolyard bullying, illustrating these deep-seated problems, seeing Yong-ju have to secretly meet his gay friend in an abandoned gay bar named 'Night Flight' deeply troubled me. It infuriated me when the teacher told him to stop making friends and focus on his studies when Yong-ju actively asked him for help from bullies. If teachers—who are supposed to support students through their troubles—step back and pretend as if nothing is happening, how will students ever grow and heal from their problems? How many students still struggle today due to irresponsible caretakers?

I really loved how Yong-ju never gave up on Gi-woong and still saw him as his friend. Though there are so many scenes that poignantly ink the pain of his unrequited love and the devastating consequences of societal intolerance, I acknowledge Gi-woong's deep-seated loneliness. The way he masks himself with heavy anger stemming from his father’s imprisonment, projecting it by bullying others, lamentably portrays the core of his fear to accept himself and form a connection.

It was tragically beautiful and deeply painful how their interactions slowly reveal how suppressed identities and family trauma drive them toward self-destruction or aggression. There is a blue anguish in the movie that heightens whenever the characters try to move away from their surroundings. It is as if their current place doesn't accept them or approve of their true selves. The characters dreaming about flying away, far from their owned space, poetically weaves how vital the need for belongingness is for a person. To feel belonged, to feel and to be whoever they are, for themselves alone—and for their love to bloom without being confined or looked down upon as just "another daughter-in-law"—oh, to be!

"There's nothing stupid as minding what the world thinks of you."

I so adore Yong-ju's mother. I liked her catchy vibe, the conversations she exchanged with her son, and mainly her naturally genuine sense of maturity! I suppose her kind, easy words to Yong-ju when he asked "what if I'm different" were the only kind words he ever received from the world.

On the other hand, I loathesomely despise Gi-taek, even if he has his own sob story to justify taking 'revenge' on Yong-ju. Turning your back on the one friend who was always there and tried to help you for years is just wild!

"Having crushes on a straight is like taking a rat poison."

This is wholesomely true, because with Yong-ju, half the time I was on an emotional roller coaster. With Gi-woong, everything is uncertain, and that is what makes his character more deep and entirely plausible. Not once was he deliberately shown to be actively interested romantically in Yong-ju, which is incredibly hard on the latter. Even when he helped him and came back to him at the park, it's as if Gi-woong isn't ready, or never can be, for a real connection—even with Yong-ju, the waiting friend.

Those subtle glances of Yong-ju looking at Gi-woong while the latter looks unfazed, deliberately not meeting Yong-ju's eyes, and the perplexed hands of Yong-ju cradling Gi-woong's neck, yearning for a touch that never comes, meeting instead with a shooing hand—oh, I loved those moments of quietude between them. It is just one soul desperately seeking another's love, trying to flee away from the monsters in their path while the latter is drowned in his own tides.

Also, what do you mean—what do you mean Yong-ju was assaulted and documented?! That was so horrifying and VERY disturbing! And what even was the deal with that teacher who was normalizing that gibberish, homophobic talk with the students? That one scene was forwardly packed with heavy tension and disgust—disgust for the teacher and his nonsense, and the disgust felt deeply by Yong-ju. The fact that this tension even looms over Gi-woong, making him terrified and angry, was intense.

The last 20 minutes are just completely wholesome. The fighting scene where Gi-woong beats the heaven out of those bullies is the coolest thing ever. That held-back, suppressed anger finally showering down in intense action is just brilliant. It truly did justice to the revenge I really needed to see for Yong-ju. It brought me right back to Weak Hero Class 1 (I am crying). Gi-woong is too cool and completely in the right for beating those bullies.

Also, the follow-up hospital scene ended this movie with pretty, bittersweet crumbs. Gi-woong bought two tickets! He is alive and sound, and he even asks Yong-ju not to go!!!! Seeing Gi-woong ultimately seek connection and validation seriously had me weak.

Overall, it was a very good movie that made me incredibly emotional. I also absolutely loved the acting and the atmospheric cinematography.