Our twisted politics

"You didn't even realize how unjust it was when your rightful share was taken away, and you didn't even feel ashamed when you surrendered to injustice. Just imagining the world that people like you will create as adults is horrifying!"

The newly appointed teacher, Mr. Kim (played by Choi Min-sik), says these words after exposing cheating in exams and instantly toppling the dictatorship of Eom Seok-dae (played by Hong Kyung-in), who had ruled over his classmates and built his own kingdom. Kim then forces the students to expose all of Eom’s wrongdoings.

The film “Our Twisted Hero,” based on Lee Mun-yeol’s novel, is a political allegory about dictatorship, democratization, and betrayal, illustrated through Eom’s tyranny in a rural elementary school. But Mr. Kim’s punishment of Eom did not truly bring about revolution and democracy because it was achieved not by the children’s own strength but through another form of violence: the teacher’s corporal punishment.

Even now, middle-aged children gathered at a funeral have not changed at all. Dong-gyu, Eom’s right-hand man, is now a taxi driver still full of bravado. Man-soon, who was once a minion but quickly turned against him when the situation changed, has become an opportunistic nouveau riche. The student who once served as the class officer is now a detective, even complaining that in times like these, someone like Eom Seok-dae should take control and run the country.

The most shocking transformation, however, is Mr. Kim, who arrives at the funeral wearing a National Assembly badge, exuding an air of ingrained sycophancy. "He’s changed too much. So this is what success does to a person…" Man-soon's muttered words about Mr. Kim remind us of our current impeachment crisis. Those who once called for legal justice in their youth now undermine the Constitution and desperately try to justify their denial. This is the grim reality of our twisted politics.