Staying unplanned

Selling more than four million tickets in Korea, “Joker” is the story of an unprecedented evil character in the 2008 film “The Dark Knight,” the best of the Batman Series. The film, full of inconvenient truths, describes Gotham’s clown Arthur Fleck turning into the king of those marginalized amid ignorance and suppression across the city.

The thing is that the main character of the movie, Arthur, is not a real freak. Here are some reasons behind his insanity. In other words, Joker has a logical mindset that teaches him how to behave according to cause and effect. You may know that Joker used to be a typical social loser just as other have-nots. However, he later transforms into a monster after suffering from physical abuse and isolation. Getting beaten up by his mother’s boyfriend, the little boy develops memory loss. His mother says that Arthur is the son of Gotham’s richest man Thomas Wayne. Later, it turns out that she is a patient with paranoia. His life gets ever worse due to a pile of trouble spotted around him, which only makes him into a villain. Then, think the other way around and you will find that Arthur would not become as evil as Joker if his childhood did not drive him crazy.

One of the most dreadful things is what happens for no reason. You may have to nod if your wife wants a divorce because you are an ugly pot-bellied man without any sexual attractiveness and financial stability. However, what if she said that she wants to leave you because of fine dust coming from China? Such non-sense only makes you freak out. Don’t forget: If you can relate to the backstories of those who are called villains, they are not real ones because they only break your heart and instill pity in you.

The same goes for the family of Ki-taek, who is played by famous Korean actor Song Kang-ho, illustrated in the movie “Parasite.” They live a poor but happy life believing that the best plan is not to have any plan. However, his son invites tragic trouble to his family after he convinces them of his plan to trick their way into the lives of a rich family and be a parasite feeding off their wealth. Setting a plan is exclusive to those in the mainstream, which serves as a mechanism to run their own community. “My son, you have a plan!” It turns out that Ki-taek’s famous line is a prophetic statement, rather than an expression‎ of admiration.

Joker and Song Kang-ho are giving us a lesson. The shortcut to happiness is going unplanned under a situation with the ever-increasing insanity. Indeed, staying unplanned could be the best life choice to make.


sjda@donga.com