Overview
“Forgotten” is a 2017 South Korean psychological thriller film that was written and directed by Jang Hang-jun. and stars Kang Ha-neul and Kim Mu-yeol. The film was released in South Korea on November 29, 2017, and later gained international attention when it was released on Netflix.
“Forgotten” is a psychological mystery, thriller, and emotional drama. The film captures a story that revolves around the concepts of memory loss, familial secrets, and the burden of guilt. The film has received positive feedback regarding the structure and the performances, for the use of gripping narratives, dramatic tone shifts, and the capability of keeping the audience in suspense until the very end.
Plot Summary
The central character for “Forgotten” is Jin-seok, a young and bright, yet physically delicate, man who is moving into a new house with his parents and his older brother Yoo-seok, who is played by Kim Mu-yeol. From the very start, there is a feeling of an atmosphere of discomfort as a strange family, the house is new but it also has secrets. One of the secrets is a room that is forbidden to be entered.
Unlike Jin-seok, his brother Yoo-seok, is level-headed, composed, and athletic. Yoo-seok gets kidnapped right in front of Jin-seok’s eyes one fateful rainy night. Jin-seok’s brother Yoo-seok comes back saying he doesn’t remember where he’s been. Though, it is obvious to Jin-seok that his brother’s behavior is different. His brother now walks with a limp, he is more assertive, he is cold, and he stubbornly claims to not remember the nineteen days he spent missing.
As time goes on, Jin-seok begins suffering hallucinations, insomnia, and disorientation on top of worrying about his brother’s behavioral changes. His seemingly endless spiral of paranoia eventually turns into paranoia that the family he lives with are not his real family. After he desperately decides to institutionalize himself, the story takes a hard shift.
Suddenly, the happy family home where he and his family lived in 1997 is revealed to be an elaborate and cruel fabrication. Now the date reveals to be 2017, with Jin-seok at 41, not 21. Instead of the brother he thought was missing, he is now faced with the realization that the man claiming to be his brother was actually a detective involved in a psychological experiment orchestrated to force a confession out of Jin-seok.
Long ago, Jin-seok, a college student, committed two murders during a burglary. Because of trauma and repressed memory, he insisted he had no recall of the incident. Because of amnesia, he could not be charged, but further investigation revealed something else. This prompted the authorities and the victims’ family to stage a bizarre attempt to provoke his memory, which led to the movie’s events.
In the last act, Jin-seok faces the consequence of his inaction, his reality, the memory of the crime, and the irreversible ramifications of living a lie. The full weight of what he has done as well as his reality hits him. The worst part is he has to grapple with the uncomfortable truth that everything he perceived to be true in his life was merely a lie.
Characters and Performances
Kang Ha-neul as Jin-seok
Kang Ha-neul brings to life the portrayal of Jin-seok with layered emotions and depth. Early on, he embodies a gentle and meek young man who is shielded from the cruelties of life, rendering him increasingly disturbed and paranoid. Over time, we observe a gradual change in Ha-neul as he assumes the role of a tragic, clocked, and fractured character. The delicate equilibrium of strength and vulnerability that he is able to perform is what holds the film together.
Kim Mu-yeol as Yoo-seok / The Detective
With each scene, Kim Mu-yeol enhances the film’s mystery and suspense through his commanding presence and portrayal of Yoo-seok. The warm and friendly support he offers evolves to far more complex, and at times, menacing. His subtle and effective transformation leaves the audience guessing. His character is both a protector and deceiver to Jin-seok, making him multi-dimensional.
Supporting Cast
Despite having a smaller role, the actors who played Jin-seok’s fake parents as well as the actual victims of the crime added strong emotional depth to the narrative. The despair that they portrayed and the anger they expressed rage contextualized the elaborate ruse that was put in place and emphasized the price of justice.
Themes and Analysis
1. Memory and Identity
Forgoten’s main themes center on the the lack of mental autonomy and control in the construct of self. The themes of the film take a deeper direction as they explore lies of self-identity. The way Jin-seok must grapple with his inability to remember the crime he committed is far deeper than on the surface denying the acts of violence he engages in. The recontextualizing lies of self-identity serves to deepen the psychological turmoil and fragility of self and identity.
- The Ethics of Manipulation
The film triggers difficult reflections: In the quest for justice, how far is one willing to go? The detective and the victim’s family go to great lengths to obtain a confession from Jin-seok by triggering a mental breakdown through elaborate gaslighting and creating a fictitious world. While the reasoning behind their actions is sympathetic, the blend of morality and immorality remains concerning and provocative long after the film ends.
- Guilt and Redemption
At its core, Forgotten explores the notion of guilt deeply, not just from a legal vantage point, but philosophically. In Jin-seok’s case, the missing pieces create a puzzle of damning evidence and accompanying fallout. His relentless pursuit is not one of seeking escape, but of confronting harsh fatality. The film offers no easily accessible door leading to a place of assuming guilt—only confronting the bitter fact of revealing truth.
Direction and Style
Psychological thrillers are laced with an ominous atmosphere, and for filmmaker Jang Hang-jun, Forgotten is no exception. The film’s opening is a mystery laced with subtle horror, dominated by ominous shadowing, claustrophobic shots, and a chilling soundtrack that puts viewers on edge. The subsequent narrative unravels—where the style shifts to a documentary feel devoid of a beat, juxtaposing stark reality against illusion.
Cinematography helps in preserving suspense. The use of small, dark spaces, and changing viewpoints reflect Jin-seok’s mind. The viewer is kept in the dark the same way the protagonist is kept in the dark. This is done through the use of fog and distortion in the scenes.
Focus is kept on the climax of the movie where all the chunks of the story come together and all pieces of the puzzle are revealed in unison. The editing is just as important as the construction of the story.
Reception and Impact
Critics and viewers appreciated the film Forgotten for the unique concept and for how the film generates emotional reactions. Though the film is a suspense movie, the themes touched on in the movie brought most people to appreciate the film in a deeper way. The plot revolves around wanting the audience to think one way, playing using misdirection.
Post release of the movie, many people in the Western world appreciated the film and having released the movie on Netflix, many people got access to the movie, this lead to a sudden recognition for the movie and the South Korean film industry in general. The use of psychological matters instead of horror is something that very few movies have been made on.
South Korean movies received a lot of appreciation from the world after it released movies like Parasite and Train to Busan but the world had no idea that South Korea made movies like Forgotten.
Conclusion
Forgotten is a complex psychological thriller that is not only thrilling but emotionally heartrending at the same time. It shows how trauma can distort perception, how guilt can control us even if it is buried, and how the truth, no matter how difficult, will always emerge.
A Forgotten masterpiece is not only a capture of the unmasterable performances, but it is also a clever direction of a full emotions and narrative that is not only complex but vivid. Forgotten is a masterpiece of the film’s montage sequence that succeeds a haunting retrospective meditation of the realm of the human mind, the attempt to define the bounds and limits of justice, and the lament of the tragedy that befalls the human being of remembering too late.
In the era of the modern film, perception does not merely end at the final scene or fade away from the minds of the audience. Forgotten is a trigger reminder of the human tragedy and is, therefore, a film that firmly deserves the attention.
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