"The Unforgiven" by Korean director Yoon Jong-bin was one of the most acclaimed movies at this year's Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF). On everybody's lips during the festival, it came out triumphantly with four awards: a special mention by the New Currents jury, the FIPRESCI Prize, awarded by an organization of international film critics, the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award, and the PSB Audience Award. The director is a mere 26 years old and graduated from film studies department at ChungAng University this spring. "The Unforgiven" was his graduation work.
The film bluntly calls violent and oppressive structures within the military into question. Through the story of two friends from middle school who meet again in the military, one as a sergeant and the other as a second-class private, the film shows how habitual violence and blind obedience system brainwash, subdue and destroy individuals.
The movie tells us that friendship and conviction, too, can change. A changing power structure means readjustments in relationships, and the time spent in the military is the sole standard for determining the quality of all relationships built there. For women in the audience, the space depicted in the movie could not be weirder if it was a fantasy movie, and for men who have been through the military it could be no more painfully realistic.
The intense self-reproach and guilt expressed in the movie are perhaps the original sin of all Korean men. In this sense, it could have been more appropriate to call the movie "The Man Who Never Forgives Himself" rather than "The Unforgiven".
"The Unforgiven" has been invited to next year's Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival. It will be released in 20 theaters nationwide on Friday.
English 
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