An Analysis Of The Christianity And Tragedy Essence In Chan-Wook Park's "Revenge Trilogy"

From the year 2002 to 2005, South Korean director Chan-Wook Park has accomplished three movies Boksuneun naui geot, Old boy, and Chinjeolhan geumjassi. In this so called "Revenge" trilogy, he narrated three revenge stories. Although clinging to the expression of the theme of revenge, director Park insists that rather than agro like "an eye for an eye", he approves of those behaviors which would turn revenge into redemption. Critics highly praised Chan-Wook Park's direct, powerful animadversion on humanity and exploration of the cruel reality using scenes full of violence. However, we rarely can find academic research on director's mental and philosophical support. Based on detailed exploration of the "Revenge" trilogy, we can find Christian character archetypes and similar narrative structure with Bible. Therefore, we can find a brand-new way to understand Chan-Wook Park's "Revenge" trilogy: Christianity. The cores of Christianity are sin and redemption, which are like two opposing sides of the coin. According to Christianity, human are born to commit a sin, and sin is the general living state of human being, which is why these banal and exaggerated tragedies in "Revenge" trilogy can give us the feelings as if we were suffering by ourselves. Meanwhile, Christianity also promises God's redemption. That's why Chan-Wook Park has continuously directed three revenge stories, telling those people who are taking revenge how to seek redemption for their souls. Since Christianity has a distinguish influence on modern Korean society, it is easy and clear to understand Chan-Wook Park's "Revenge" trilogy through Christianity.As the key point of Christianity, sin is considered as a main sub-genre in most of the tragedies, so the conception of sin has tied the spirit of Christianity and tragedy vis-a-vis. The tragic element of Christianity is not only the revelation of the living predicament of modern people, but also a way to exceed the predicament. We can consider the Passion and the Resurrection of the Christ as a depiction of the predicament and how to surpass it. The tragic elements of "Revenge" trilogy have made the characters and the themes of those movies true and meaningful. While analyzing the Christianity in these three movies, I would prefer further research and exploration on Thespian content in these movies.