[Inside Chodong] DiCaprio Leaves His Name Behind

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] It was in 1996 when I was attending a cram school in my hometown. One day, a female classmate put up a photo of a Hollywood male actor on the classroom wall. I thought, "What kind of man looks so pretty?" His name was difficult. "Leonardo Di..., what was it again?"

That winter, a movie he starred in was released domestically. "Romeo and Juliet." After deciding which university to enter, I went to the cinema for the first time in a while with a relaxed mind. Thinking, "If Romeo is that pretty, Juliet must look like an angel." After watching a movie called "Catch Me If You Can" in 2002, whose title I barely remembered, I had no chance to watch any movies he appeared in, unintentionally.

Last year, due to COVID-19 delaying new movie releases, theaters re-screened previously released films. I watched two movies he starred in consecutively: "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

In his 40s, it was hard to find any trace of the handsome young man from over 20 years ago on his face. It was astonishing. What was even more surprising was his acting skills. I thought, "He has truly become an actor." In fact, he was already recognized as a distinguished actor who had left his name in Hollywood history.

DiCaprio’s performance in "The Wolf" was especially outstanding. As the title suggests, "The Wolf" is set on Wall Street. It tells the story of Jordan Belfort, a real person who spent 22 months in prison for stock fraud.

At the beginning of the new year, I was assigned to a new department. In the new department, the stock price of a company called "GameStop" was a hot topic. Within less than a month, the stock price rose more than 17 times. Working in another department for a while, I had forgotten about the "market," but now I felt I had returned. A place that instills illusions of big wins, a place that draws out human desires. Although GameStop’s stock price rose 17 times, how many investors actually made 17 times the profit? It would be an extremely small number, if any.

Many hedge funds that shorted GameStop suffered huge losses. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, had recorded an average annual return of 30% since its establishment in 2014, but due to the GameStop incident, it faced a liquidity crisis and reportedly borrowed tens of billions of dollars urgently from other funds. Sometimes I wondered how a fund that made tens of percent returns every year could falter in a single crisis. I belatedly realized that if you invest 100 million and earn 100 million, you might think you can invest 200 million and earn 200 million. The problem is always "going all in." Because of endless desire, even if you succeed 9 times out of 10, one failure can bring you down.

Director Martin Scorsese shows explicit sexual scenes in "The Wolf" that are rarely seen even in adult films. It seems intended to show how Wall Street stimulates people’s peripheral nerves. DiCaprio’s character indulges in everything to the extreme?money, alcohol, women, drugs?and deteriorates.

When you become absorbed in the market, you might lose your true self at some point. Just like how DiCaprio’s face changed. Of course, DiCaprio probably didn’t care about his changing appearance. Watching his character in the movie, you can feel his desire to leave his name as an actor.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.