In-ha and Beom-ho end up deciding on confronting their parents with the evidence amassed. Beom-ho quickly tires of his ethical discussion, though it remains unclear what moral lesson he actually took from his mother's rationalizations. In-ha, by contrast, learns a significant bit of backstory along with Cha-ok's usual utilitarian arguments. The most interesting character ends up being the one about which we don't actually know very much- Dal-pyeong, In-ha's father.
As has become standard with "Pinocchio", this is another case of an apparent coincidence having much more complex causes than was originally implied. Dal-pyeong abruptly took his preteen daughter to the absolute middle of nowhere. And yet, note how perceptive and inquisitive the man is regarding the fact that he knows there was a woman in Dal-po's apartment. While Dal-pyeong is competent, as Cha-ok makes clear, he was banished to the domestic sphere for good reason.
Cha-ok presents two binary choices for In-ha- perform a noble sacrifice like her father and give up any hope of achieving her dreams, or make a deal like her mother and hurt people in exchange for satisfying that ambition. The exact same conflict has come up again and again- it absolutely dominates Cha-ok's thought process. So it should come as little surprise that, just as before, the main characters struggle to find a third choice. The secondary characters, well, they mostly just flit around the edges.
So let's focus on the main event for now. I don't know that I find the exact form of Dal-po's proposed solution to be all that convincing. Again we have the very deliberate implication that Dal-po has to protect In-ha in some way. In this case his determination is so outrageously foolhardy that even In-ha herself questions how he's possibly suppose to expose the situation. Dal-po's nobility is admirable, yet it feels somewhat maddening for him to insist on doing this fight alone.
...Well, to be honest that's not a totally fair appraisal of the situation. In-ha is the one putting herself at risk here, and it doesn't seem at all reasonable that this all be on her. In-ha didn't benefit from what Cha-ok did, nor did she particularly suffer as a result. Dal-po's actions, in this context, seem to be far more concerned with a genuine desire for true justice. He's refusing to believe that the world is as heartless as Cha-ok makes it sound- whether this idealism will get him anywhere, well, we won't find that out until the next episode.
Review by William Schwartz
"Pinocchio" is directed by Jo Soo-won and Sin Seung-woo, written by Park Hye-ryeon and features Lee Jong-suk, Park Shin-hye, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Yu-bi, Lee Pil-mo, Kang Shin-il and many more.
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Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea since 2011. Started out in Gyeongju, then to Daegu, then to Ansan, then to Yeongju, then to Seoul, lived on the road for HanCinema's travel diaries series in the summer of 2016, and is currently settled in Anyang. Has good tips for utilizing South Korea's public bus system. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net. He also has a substack at williamschwartz.substack.com where he discusses the South Korean film industry in broader terms and takes suggestions for future movies to review.
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