The scene I choose to analyze is from The Man Standing Next which is directed by Woo Min-ho released on January 22, 2020.
Political thriller and social conspiracy are the subject matter for South Korean filmmakers.The Man Standing Next is a movie according from assassination of President park chung-hee.
What I think of the theme of the movie is “cage”, if u watch the whole movie you will find out that a lot of scenes is a rectangle of mirrors, doorframes, corridors and stone columns which represents the cage of fate. The actors’ position in the scene shows the relationship between cage and the characters. For example, the scene I want to talk about is Kim Gyu-pyeong and Park Yong-gakhaving a conversation in a park. They start their conversation from the bench of the park, and they walk from ground to the monument. At the shot of the monument, they stand in front of the Lincoln’s statue at the middle. And also, the magnificent Lincoln’s statue is at the middle of the shot which shows democracy bubble in a cage.
At the beginning of the scene, it is a wide shot of Kim Gyu-pyeong sitting on the bench and Park Yong-gak walks into the scene and sits on the bench. It also shows greatest depth of filed with the background of people playing around. At the moment Park Yong-gak sits down he comes out with his first dialogue “freedom” representing what they look and also the situation different from Korean and America. Then it cuts to the front of the characters and zoom in to the characters when they start their conversation about Korean revolution. Cuts in some simple jump cut between two characters. After that, without showing their movement, it cuts to show their foot on the stairs. And then goes to the shot that I mentioned, the Lincoln’s statue. The camera tilts up follows their movement that they walks the on the stairs.
This scene is the quietest scene of this movie. Only the conversation which need audience to focus on the characters’ dialogue. We only get the information of the scene is from the dialogue and also from their words the environment and set up brings us the idea of what is going on and what the situation was at that time in South Korea.
It is the outdoor scene, so the light source is the nature light. The color grade is nature shows the sense of the times. The lighting at the shot in front of the Lincoln’s statue, comes dark which shows the situation that Korea maybe under something.
To sum up, this simple scene use the camera language shows the conflict between two characters and also delivery some information about the political situation of South Korean at that time.
