All she could do was save the world.
Gloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City, and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon.
Impossible to describe without spoiling, this is one of my favorite movies this year. Halfway through it suddenly becomes something different than you signed on for in a way that is disturbing, revelatory, and — by the end — ultimately completely satisfying.
Scott Danielson and I discussed this on episode 169 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.
Thank you for the recommendation. It's one of those movies that makes you think. I listened to the podcast afterwards; you all made some great comments.
ReplyDeleteIf I may add, my first thought that she was a bit Pelagian in attempting to do it all herself, but that is usually a reminder to look for moments of grace, much like a Flannery O'Connor story.
I think I see at least three moments of grace:
1) When she realizes that her actions where causing pain and death, it gave her a purpose in life to change. Up until this moment, she was fairly aimless in life.
(Side note. This might be a stretch. In the early flashbacks of walking to school, she looks proud of her work in building the model of Seoul, ready to show it off to the class. Later, after spying on Oscar crushing it, I wonder if this deflated any purpose in her life if someone can so easily crush it?)
2) The second moment of grace is after the final flashback when she realized Oscar hated himself. It opened her eyes to explain much of everything that had happened, pivoted the course of the story, and started her looking for a way out.
3) When her house had been ransacked, she notices the map on the wall connecting her town with Seoul rotated upside down. It did not click at first. She rolls herself up in her air mattress to retreat in sleep but then immediately unrolls herself. She now had her mission to put an end to the whole thing.
Wow — what great insights! I need to watch this again myself!
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