The background of the movie “Epitaph” is
the time when Korea was being colonized by Japan. During this time, most of
Koreans lived lives full of sorrow and pain due to the loss of their country
and nationality. Also, Japanese treated Koreans in a cruel way such as
torturing and encountering death. Likewise, the events in the movie illustrate tragic aspects of the main characters who became a colony of dreadful love and memory.
Firstly, the head boss in the hospital
forces Jong-nam to marry her daughter, so Jong-nam has to marry her dead
daughter. Jong-nam depicts Korea when Japan (the boss) conquered Korea (Jong-nam)
and made colony; Korea could not say a word and do whatever Japan wants to do.
The soul of her daughter, colonized in Jong-nam, kicks out
whoever is married to Jong-nam. Even though Jong-nam has a high status in the
society as well as the royalty as a doctor, Jong-nam feels the colonization of the
soul is annoying, and therefore wants to end his life.
Meanwhile, Asako is a character that is
colonized by accepting her mom’s marriage with a new Japanese boyfriend.
However, she starts to envy her mom and tries to possess him instead of her mom.
This leads to car accident which causes the mom’s death. When sleeping Asako always
has nightmares where she sees the ghost of her mom, and she
also suffers mentally.
Overall, the sum of these events depict the
time when Korea accepted Japan’s colonialism and modernization in order to
affect to Korea’s politics, economic status, and culture. Of course, Korea improved
and succeeded in becoming more modern during this time. For example, the
hospital from the movie was the first Western hospital in KyungSung and the
character Dong-Won also was sent to Japan to bring modernity. However, as shown
in the movie, I think that the colonization leads to people’s sorrow and
suffering which is well illustrated by the characters.
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