Isoaltion and Fear in Colonization as Pictured in "The Epitaph"

As it has been already said, the movie “The Epitaph” reflects the Japanese colonialism over Korea. A recurring theme in the movie that shares common ground with the process of colonization deals with the concept of freedom, or more precisely deprivation of freedom.  In the first part of the 20^th century Japan took over Korea taking away their freedom to do what they wanted. Korea was now depended on Japan, and they had to listen and do whatever Japan asked of them. Similarly, the main characters of the movie were also deprived of their freedom. For example, in the first story a boy is forced to marry somebody who he doesn’t want, in the second story a girl is asked to accept somebody she doesn’t know as her father, and in the third story a person is claiming to murder people because she is possessed by her lover’s ghost. Overall, all those situations symbolize various changes that Korea was forced to accept during the colonization period. 

In order for the process of colonization to work people must feel that they don’t have any other choice, that they are alone, and that they are hopeless; something that the movie conveys very well with the help of camera framing. Most of the times when people are filmed the frame is crowded (almost a close-up) picturing a small number of characters, and by avoiding a general shot of the sorrowing area it creates a claustrophobic feeling, or fear of what might possibly exist around. Besides this, there were many areas that were so dark that it was impossible to see; and by denying vision it maximized the fear of unknown. As a matter of fact, the only time when the director used more larger and general shots was when there was a power outage and most of the staff was outside under candle light. During this time many characters were pictured in a single shot, and it also showed more interpersonal interactions between them. Moreover one of the doctors mentioned that he would like to stay like this the whole night and never go back inside. This shows how important it was for them to feel like they could share their situation with others, or how important it was to relate to other people that were in a similar situation. Even though they didn’t have power, it felt like a break from that continuous psychological pressure created by isolation.

For a colonizer to control a country they must be able to dominate them psychologically, creating fear and making them feel alone. Overall, the director shared some of those effects on the audience showing how easy it is to dominate somebody when they feel hopeless.