[Limelight] Had to Keep the Faith... Forgot How to Cry That Way

Movie 'Concrete Utopia' Joo Myung-hwa Role Park Bo-young
Promoting harmony with a calm face... also transforms into a determined figure
Doesn't know how to cry in the face of death's shadow

In the movie Concrete Utopia, Seoul is devastated by ground collapse. The only place left intact is the Hwanggung Apartment, where a crisis meeting is underway. The agenda is how to treat outsiders. When the consensus leans toward exclusion, Joo Myunghwa of unit 602 raises an objection. "Well, shouldn’t we first try to find a way for everyone to live together? If we put ourselves in their shoes and think about it..." "Are you saying we should all live together? Or that we should all die together?" "We know exactly what we have now. It’s easy to say, but just because we stay still doesn’t mean they will keep acting that way. Why say something impossible?"

Joo Myunghwa is a warm-hearted nurse. She embodies the values of coexistence, cooperation, and reconciliation that the film highlights. Director Eom Tae-hwa expresses this through actress Park Bo-young’s kind eyes. The portrayal emphasizes both her compassionate touch and her stubbornness in standing up to others, prompting the audience to reflect on themselves.

Underlying this is a community with completely different ideological stances. To them, Joo Myunghwa’s words and actions are contradictory and a betrayal. They only embrace her because she is a fellow resident. Park Bo-young said, "She may seem frustrating and hypocritical, but I’m sure people like her exist in any world. She is a very upright person, which is why she doesn’t blend well into the Hwanggung Apartment community. I interpreted her as faithful to her beliefs. Even in front of the camera, she followed a natural flow backed by sufficient legitimacy."

Contradictory community participation is a very important issue today. This is because problems that cannot be resolved without direct dialogue frequently arise. Every human has the potential to integrate, whether consciously or unconsciously, influencing and being influenced by others. They can affect the values of opposing communities in some form. Of course, the reverse is also possible.

Novelist Keichiro Hirano argued in his essay What Am I? as follows: "It may seem very microscopic, but I expect great potential in overcoming social divisions through communities. It is not about integrating two opposing or unrelated communities into a larger single value system, but about fostering fusion through the small bonds of multiple people who participate simultaneously in both sides."

Joo Myunghwa’s calm face harbors the active capacity to promote harmony. This is fully demonstrated when she confirms Kim Young-tak’s (played by Lee Byung-hun) murder. At that moment, Park Bo-young transforms into the face of a hunter chasing a beast. With a resolute expression as if steeling herself, she glares at Lee Byung-hun. She said, "I wanted to show a belief that does not yield to any hardship and is firmly upheld. I thought even a momentary falter must not show."

This is because murder destroys the essence of fusion. Humans cannot become a new self without others. The death of one person causes countless others to lose opportunities for self-transformation or growth. It deprives them of the possibility of becoming the self they might have wanted. Hirano emphasized, "Murder is never limited to the victim or the perpetrator alone. By killing one person, the murderer causes complex and large-scale destruction in reality."

Unfortunately, in Joo Myunghwa’s life, the everyday space and the space of death are intertwined without boundaries. Even in spaces she passed by without thought, shadows of death are witnessed. As that presence approaches her side, a tear rolls down her cheek. This cannot be simply defined as sadness or guilt. Her beliefs are shaken by pessimistic thoughts that flood in relentlessly, tormenting her. Even the pool of mourning is not a place she can freely dive into. This is the dystopian reality Park Bo-young found while wandering through the fog. "It was as if she had forgotten how to cry."

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