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Epitaph 2007

what a fun and strange movie

Epitaph was full of parallel twists, from our initial main character Park Jeong-nam marrying the director's dead daughter Aoi, to Asako's relationship with her parents and the truth of the accident, to Kim In-yeong's belief that she was her dead husband. The movie used a ton of parallel editing to show the progression of these stories one after another, sometimes telling events in non-chronological order to make the "truth" of the story more impactful.

A theme I really enjoyed was a love for the dead, whether it's someone you've already loved or have yet to love, and how love haunts our characters. I feel as though through these stories, the director conveys that it may be best to move on with gratefulness for the dead, rather than clinging on to an obsessive love. For instance, due to his obsession with Aoi, Jeong-nam spends his remaining years wishing that she had killed him as well, and that he could have died early in the hospital rather than waiting years to die and be with her. Asako was jealous that her mother could love her step-father but she couldn't, resulting in extreme guilt when this leads to the death of her mother, and a fear of her mother's love haunting her (shown via acts of love with hair brushing, etc.). Finally, Kim In-yeong is haunted by her love for her late husband, and is unable to cope with the fact that he was killed during the operation of a Japanese soldier.

also this is one of the most beautiful scenes i've ever seen in my life it's so fucking good

Each character cannot accept death, and does their own version of "preserving" or even "freezing" their loved one in their minds, similar to the act of placing a body in a morgue. The key element that lends to this as a horror movie however, is that the version of their loved one they preserve no longer has a soul--similar to what was discussed by the professor, in that the "weight" of the physical soul would be missing. This can be seen clearly by a lack of shadows, and the choice to use many paper screens, dim lights, and smoke throughout the hospital; not only to evoke an eerie atmosphere, but to make the viewer unaware of where a ghost could be at any time (such as in the detective's scene where he chases Kim In-yeong). The use of black and white grainy film at the beginning was very effective too, in setting the tone that the viewer's eyes are not to be trusted, and in matching the initial lack of clarity the viewer will have over the three main stories.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie, although I felt as though the final twist with Kim In-yeong falsely believing that she was her husband was not entirely necessary. I still enjoyed the twist, but thought that the overall plot of the story would be the same whether the husband was pretending to be the wife, or if the wife was pretending to be the husband.

thank you for reading lyjilings