Message from hlee

[Anonymous]

As a person born and partially raised in Korea, it was interesting to see my seminar colleagues' reaction to this movie. Since I consider myself rather “Americanized”, it was quite a realization to discover deeply embedded Confucian values in me. While most of my colleagues at the seminar antagonized the boy and wanted to have him spanked, I found myself putting all the blame on the mother of the child. The boy is young and behaves the way he does due to lack of proper upbringing. His mother failed to educate him and instill proper values and manners in him. Not only does she not educate her son properly, she is a very irresponsible daughter to her mother. She has her mother completely abandoned and obviously does not even maintain contact with her unless a need for it arises. She needs to be struck by a lightening.

Unlike the US and many Western countries, there is no social security program in place in Korea to take care of the elderly. Sons and daughters (especially the oldest son) are expected to take care of the parents. There is a growing concern about traditional values being replaced by self-centeredness and materialism, as more and more young people in Korea start to consider elderly parent care burdensome in their modern day life. I think this movie reflects that concern.