Post by humblestudent2 on Oct 4, 2007 9:42:25 GMT -5
Zorro's note in the Episode 17 recap thread, about the excellent scene where the reflective elevator door closes causing Yeong-cheol's smiley face to be replaced by Oh-soo's grim face, is an excuse for me to make a general point about the use of reflection and symmetry in this series.
This series is a very finely crafted piece, and "reflection" is a very important motif in it. On one level, reflections are continually being used in the scenes. There are reflections from mirrors (in cars, bathrooms, the top of Hae-in's mother's music box, etc.), window glass, tables, the "Gates of Hell" poster in the subway, and so on. They are used to superimpose one face on another, or to replace one with another, or to show someone from two directions at once, or to make points about people. The "mastermind", who actually has two identities, very frequently looks at his own reflection.
But in fact these physical reflections can be seen as clues to - or reflections of - a deeper level, in which incidents and people are reflected in other incidents and people. Seung-ha is a reflection of Oh-soo; the present is a reflection of the past. Everything has its reflection, which is both its opposite and its identity. If you sit down and start listing them you can go on for ages.
Even if you think about the supporting characters. Cha Kwang-doo, for example, left the police and became a lawyer because of the Tae-Hoon incident. Oh-soo joined the police because of that same incident. Looking in a different mirror, Oh Seung-ha ALSO became a lawyer because of the Tae-hoon incident, and now works in the same office with Kwang-doo, one old, one young, with opposite takes on the situation...
This is becoming more and more clear as the series progresses to its end. In Episode 13, for example, Seung-ha is alone in a tunnel, and is the tormentor; in episode 17, Oh-soo is alone in the same tunnel, and is in torment. Sometimes Seung-ha is the avenger, with his fist clenched; sometimes it's Oh-soo. Hae-in pointed out before that Seung-ha and Oh-soo were a lot alike...
It doesn't stop here either. The 20-episode series as a whole is like a great crystal, full of axes of symmetry and planes of reflection, with its termini 12 years apart.....
This series is a very finely crafted piece, and "reflection" is a very important motif in it. On one level, reflections are continually being used in the scenes. There are reflections from mirrors (in cars, bathrooms, the top of Hae-in's mother's music box, etc.), window glass, tables, the "Gates of Hell" poster in the subway, and so on. They are used to superimpose one face on another, or to replace one with another, or to show someone from two directions at once, or to make points about people. The "mastermind", who actually has two identities, very frequently looks at his own reflection.
But in fact these physical reflections can be seen as clues to - or reflections of - a deeper level, in which incidents and people are reflected in other incidents and people. Seung-ha is a reflection of Oh-soo; the present is a reflection of the past. Everything has its reflection, which is both its opposite and its identity. If you sit down and start listing them you can go on for ages.
Even if you think about the supporting characters. Cha Kwang-doo, for example, left the police and became a lawyer because of the Tae-Hoon incident. Oh-soo joined the police because of that same incident. Looking in a different mirror, Oh Seung-ha ALSO became a lawyer because of the Tae-hoon incident, and now works in the same office with Kwang-doo, one old, one young, with opposite takes on the situation...
This is becoming more and more clear as the series progresses to its end. In Episode 13, for example, Seung-ha is alone in a tunnel, and is the tormentor; in episode 17, Oh-soo is alone in the same tunnel, and is in torment. Sometimes Seung-ha is the avenger, with his fist clenched; sometimes it's Oh-soo. Hae-in pointed out before that Seung-ha and Oh-soo were a lot alike...
It doesn't stop here either. The 20-episode series as a whole is like a great crystal, full of axes of symmetry and planes of reflection, with its termini 12 years apart.....
