Ben X and Maundy Thursday

Ben X and  Maundy Thursday

“Yeah! Early is over!” Shouting out happily, I searched for a movie to watch in my free time. The movie that I decided to watch was a very sad one, Maundy Thursday (우리들의 행복한 시간). Watching this movie last night, I figured out that this movie and the movie Ben X are quite closely related with each other. While watching these, I found two common themes in them.

1. We learn from other people’s death.

In the movie Ben X, no actual death occurs. However, I believe the fake funeral was striking enough to teach all the people in the movie and us that bullying is something we should never do. Being honest, I know that the scene looked a bit awkward because it looked like the director wanted to heroize Ben. But, still the scene did have a moving impact.

Interestingly, in Maundy Thursday, same thing happens. Here, the lesson becomes more personal. A woman who had tried several times to destroy her “miserable” life learns the value of being alive through meetings with a death-row convict. In the end, the death-row convict eventually dies and the woman figures out that there is nothing she can do about it other than praying to god. She tries to be good to her mother who she previously hated thinking that being nice to her might change the situation of the death-row convict but inside she herself knows that there is really nothing she can do for him. The death of that death-row convict mattered to her. That was why she started to change.

In the beginning part of the movie Ben X, Ben’s mom comes out and talks about why we need a scapegoat when we want to make changes. Like what she says, death of a person can bring changes because death matters to people. Death can shock people. People will start to move after getting that shock. Before that, they do not try as hard as they can to change because the issue does not touch their hearts directly.

2. We change in front of the ones that we love.

In Ben X, Ben changes his attitude toward life after he meets his girl friend. (although she is imaginary) Ben, who did not know how to express his feelings to others shows his emotions through eyes to the girl he loves. Watching the scene of Ben being happy with his girl friend, I could feel that the strongest power that enables a close minded person to change is love.

In Maundy Thursday, similar scene comes out. While watching the part where the death-row convict and the woman (both were very much close minded at first) opening their mind and talking about their deepest pains, I could once again feel the warm power of love. 

     Watching these movies, I could dedicate bunch of my time on thinking about life and death. To me, death is something scary that I should avoid watching. I still get sick for few days after watching movies that show deaths of people. 

     So, I might suffer for few days from now. But, I do not regret watching these. These two movies showed me how much blessed I am to be alive with people who I love.