In this blog post, we will look at how the love in the movie “Oasis” transcends separation and communication, reality and fantasy, and becomes beautiful.
Introduction
Director Lee Chang-dong’s film “Oasis” is about the love story of a man with three prior convictions for attempted rape and a person with severe cerebral palsy. In the room of Han Gong-ju, a disabled person who is one of the main settings of this film, there is a cheap carpet. This carpet depicts a couple of palm trees, a well, a baby elephant, a young woman in Indian clothes, and a young child with her bare body. The words “OASIS” are also visible under the picture of this cheap carpet. The first scene of the film begins with the camera staring at the cheap oasis carpet with the shadow of a tree cast on it.
The dictionary definition of “oasis” is “a place where a spring flows and vegetation grows in the middle of a desert.” It is a word that refers to a place of comfort in life. This definition shows that the oasis that the movie talks about is the meaning of “love” or “happiness” used in the expression “You are my oasis.” The movie’s protagonists, Hong Jong-du and Han Gong-ju, are both ex-convicts and have disabilities, and the movie tells the story of love and hope through the meeting of two people who could never be together.
The reason I am focusing on the movie “Oasis” is that it shows how a love story that could be dismissed as a “common melodrama” can become a “masterpiece” depending on how it is told. The movie calmly depicts the story of reality and fantasy, disconnection and communication, pain and growth, freedom and tomorrow through the theme of love.
The narrative of “Oasis”
The story begins when sunlight shines on the carpet in Han Gong-ju’s room. After being released from prison, Hong Jong-du wanders around, not knowing the address of his family who have moved, and ends up eating food without paying. Jong-du is taken to the police station and is reunited with his family with the help of his younger brother Jong-se. Jong-du’s older brother Jong-il has Jong-du work as a delivery man for a Chinese restaurant, and Jong-du goes to Han Gong-ju’s house. On the day Jong-du visits, Han Gong-ju’s older brother Han Sang-sik and his wife leave Gong-ju behind and move to a new apartment, and Gong-ju and Jong-du meet for the first time.
Jung-du delivers a bouquet of flowers to Gong-ju’s house. Jung-du visits Gong-ju’s house again and gives her the phone number of her brother’s car repair shop. When he tries to rape her, she faints and he leaves her in the bathroom and runs away. A few days later, Gong-ju calls Jung-du on the phone and they gradually fall in love as they talk to each other.
Princess, who is 29 years old but has committed a crime and been spanked by her brother, who loves jjajangmyeon the most among all foods, who likes to play with a mirror by shaking her legs, who is afraid of the shadows of trees reflected on the carpet, and who hates prison food, is like a child. They have not yet grown up. They cannot communicate in the adult world like a child. They have not even been able to protect themselves, and the adults do not understand them.
For them, who are like children, love is the most sincere emotion. On the day they meet at the Princess’s house after she calls Jongdu on the phone, the Princess opens the door of her house with an uncomfortable body. Jongdu squats down to take the same position as the Princess, who is squatting down. Their facial expressions gradually resemble each other, and love becomes complete in the Princess’s imagination and Jongdu’s dreams. The shadow of the tree in Oasis on the wall disappears with Jongdu’s “Surisuri Masuri,” and the princess, whose body is free, dances with Jongdu and the paintings in Oasis. For them, fantasy is no longer fantasy, but reality.
The moment they whisper their love, the adults see their love as rape. From the perspective of adults, Gongju is not a woman, but Jongdu is nothing but a pervert. However, when Jongdu escapes from the police station and cuts down all the branches that illuminate Gongju’s oasis, Gongju feels Jongdu and turns up the volume on the radio with her weak body. At this moment, their love is no longer an illusion, but a reality.
The movie ends with the princess sweeping the floor with a broom in the house full of light where Jong-du’s letter read from prison is read. If this scene had been remade in Hollywood, it would have ended with the emotional reunion of Jong-du and Gong-ju after they were released from prison. However, in Oasis by director Lee Chang-dong, we don’t know if they will meet again or get married, but we do know that they are in love and growing through that love.
Oasis Mise en scène Analysis
The characteristics of the video in “oasis” include the use of a hand-held camera and long takes. The hand-held camera and long takes are used to pursue the realism of the film, and through this, the film director effectively realizes mise-en-scène within the video to build the meaning of the video. From this perspective, I attempt to analyze the meaning embodied in the video.
Disconnection: Television and Reality
Jongdu and Gongju, who are socially marginalized, are disconnected from everyone in the world of adults. In the film, the image of disconnection is represented by the medium of communication, television. Television delivers information in a single direction from the communicator to the recipient. The director chooses the non-communicative nature of television to construct the meaning of disconnection within the frame.
In the scene where Jongdu, who has committed food theft, is brought to the police station, the most alien object in the background is the television. No one pays attention to the television turned on in the place where the police work. None of the characters look at the television, and the television speaks alone.
In the scene where the brother-in-law takes out his sister-in-law’s money to go on a date with the princess, the television on behind the drowsy sister-in-law appears again. In this scene, none of the characters in the frame are looking at the television. The “turned on television” that appears repeatedly signifies a break in communication because no one is looking at it.
On the other hand, the television that appears in the scene where Gong-ju is kicked out of the restaurant with her is being watched by the restaurant’s customers. When she is refused service at the restaurant because she is disabled, Jong-du repeatedly turns off and on the television that the customers are watching. In a restaurant, the television is located in the center, where all the guests’ eyes are focused. In a restaurant, which is one of the spaces for communication, the television acts as an obstacle to the communication of the guests. The psychology of Jong-du and the princess, who are rejected in this space, can only be expressed by Jong-du turning the television on and off.
The image of disconnection is repeated through foreigners, danger signs, and telephones. Jongdu is standing at a payphone trying to borrow coins from two middle school girls because he has no coins to make a phone call to find a new place to live after being released from prison. However, Jongdu cannot borrow a coin, and a foreigner comes and calls him. Jongdu cannot borrow a coin from the foreigner. Jongdu does not even try to talk to the foreigner, who does not speak Korean. At this point, the foreigner represents an adult in the real world. To Jong-du, adults are like foreigners who cannot communicate with him even if they speak the same language. The foreigner stands with his back to Jong-du and makes a phone call somewhere else. There is an absolute disconnect between Jong-du and the foreigner.
There is a scene where Jong-du tries to rape Gong-ju but fails and runs away, kicking a danger sign that has been set up at a construction site. The danger sign is already preventing passersby from communicating because of its existence. The first danger sign that Jong-du sees on his way to Princess’s house is just a sign that prevents passersby from communicating. However, the danger sign that Jong-du sees when he runs away signifies the separation between Jong-du and Princess, and Jong-du expresses that he wants to communicate by kicking it.
When Jong-du, who is having sex with Gong-ju, is accused of rape and the tension reaches its peak, Jong-du flees the police station and steals a mobile phone from a passerby to call Gong-ju. However, Jong-du is unable to speak to Gong-ju. When Jong-du is given a mobile phone, which is meant to be a means of free communication for individuals, the mobile phone cannot fulfill its purpose. Mobile phones, the most powerful tool for communication, are powerless in the face of communication between Jongdu and Gongju, which makes us feel the maximization of disconnection.
All of the images of disconnection described so far exist in the reality of the film. The reality depicted in the film prevents all forms of communication. Jong-du’s mental disconnection and Gong-ju’s physical disconnection occur in their respective lives, and when Jong-du and Gong-ju fall in love, their respective disconnection merge into a larger disconnection. To people other than Jongdu and Gongju, their love is seen as perverted rape. Jongdu does not tell people about his love for people who look like foreigners, and even if Gongju tries to, people do not understand. Their love is a love that people will never understand.
Communication: Radio and Fantasy
As the Cheonggyecheon Overpass is congested with cars, Jong-du and Gong-ju get out of their car and dance to the sound of the radio. One of the most elaborate scenes in the film, which is about Gong-ju’s fantasy of an oasis, is the scene in which the standing cars and the sound of the radio are the most important elements. The Cheonggyecheon Overpass, which is full of cars and cannot move, is a visual background that represents the disconnectivity of reality. In a life filled with disconnection, Jongdu and Gongju dance freely. The music that plays at this time is the sound of a car radio, which acts as both the foreground music and the auditory background. When Jongdu and Gongju are together, disconnection does not exist for them, and they can communicate fully even in a world full of disconnection. This contrast of images makes their love, which means communication, seem even greater.
The radio acts as a medium for Jongdu and Gongju’s communication, which is again shown in the scene where Gongju plays the sound of the radio louder for Jongdu, who is cutting a tree branch at the climax of the film. The princess, who is not physically free, cannot look at Jongdu, who is cutting branches for her because of the closed window, and cannot even speak to him. The princess cannot look at Jongdu, but she turns up the volume on the radio to prove that they are communicating. The princess says “I love you” to Jongdu on her behalf. The meaningless CM song is repeated, but to Jong-du, who hears the radio, it is a whisper of love. Just listening to the radio makes him dance and gives him strength. In this way, the radio acts as a medium of communication that can bridge their separation, enabling communication in the reality of the film.
The princess, who is alone, plays with a mirror and makes doves and butterflies out of light. Both pigeons and butterflies are animals with wings and have the ability to fly freely. For the princess, who is physically disabled, the disconnection from the world is a result of her physical condition that prevents her from being free. So the princess dreams of freedom and draws a pigeon with light. Even if the mirror falls out of her unsteady hand and breaks into pieces, the princess still dreams of freedom through the mirror and light. The princess, who has a body that forces her to crawl, dreams of becoming a butterfly, not a pigeon. A butterfly is born from an egg, becomes a caterpillar, and then gains wings. In this scene, the princess is the caterpillar, and the butterfly that exists in her fantasy is the image of herself that she dreams of. She dreams of physical freedom and also of communication with others.
Jong-du, whom Gong-ju meets while playing with a mirror, immediately comes across to her as an image of freedom, and Gong-ju gains freedom through her fantasies and communicates through that freedom. The fantasies of seeing a couple on the subway and imitating them and the fantasies of playing pranks on Jong-du at the car repair shop and crying and laughing are just the usual images of a couple. The fantasy of the princess is not fantastic at all, but rather realistic. Through the understated screen composition and the exclusion of sentimental background music, the fantasy of the princess depicts a reality that is impossible for the princess but too obvious for ordinary people.
The dream of oasis is a scene in which Jong-du dances with the characters on the oasis carpet, which is realized in the fantasy of the princess. This leads to the dance of the Cheonggyecheon Overpass in the movie’s reality. In reality, if Jongdu had held the princess in his arms and danced on a road full of cars, in the fantasy world, Jongdu, the princess, the baby elephant, the little boy, and the Indian woman all dance together holding hands. It is also the only scene in the movie where background music is played, and the fantasy at this moment is a fantasy as a fantasy, showing the fantasy itself rather than the reality that the previous fantasies have shown. The fantasy scene that takes place in the Princess’s house with Indian music playing and flower buds falling is intertwined with the scene of the Cheonggyecheon Overpass in a dialectical relationship, giving reality to the fantasy. In Jongdu and the Princess’s love, this fantasy is taken for granted.
Jongdu and the Princess are not welcome at Jongdu’s mother’s birthday party and go to a karaoke bar. At the karaoke bar, Gongju couldn’t sing, but at the subway station where she missed the last train, she got out of her wheelchair and sang “If I Were” to Jongdu. Then she put Jongdu in her wheelchair and stroked his head. This scene shows Gongju’s desire to give love, just like the scene where Jongdu washed Gongju’s hair and did her laundry. Gong-ju dreams of freedom for others, not herself, by singing “If I Were” for her beloved. After singing the song, Jong-du and Gong-ju sleep together. Their sexual relationship is not just about sex, but about perfect communication. The film’s perspective is also not obscene, but calm.
The image of communication presented so far exists only in the fantasy at the beginning of the film. However, as the plot progresses and the love between Jong-du and the princess deepens, the image of communication moves from fantasy to reality and from reality to fantasy. In the end, there is no longer any fantasy for them, and the image of communication is realized in reality. The last image of communication is shown through Jongdu’s letter, and the broom held in the Princess’s hand signifies that she has the ability to keep their love or communication. The Princess is not a passive being who cannot move, but an active being who is defending her own space.
Love that leads to growth
This film is about a love story, but it also has the flow of a coming-of-age film. It features two imperfect men and women who grow under the influence of each other. This flow can also be understood in the context of hero myths, and it shows how humans are born as heroes through hardship.
The princess gains her freedom through her love with Jongdu. In the first scene where Jong-du appears outside, the frame emphasizes the image of the sky by placing Jong-du on the right. To Gong-ju, Jong-du is an image of freedom, like the sky. Through their love, Gong-ju can escape physical restraint and become free in spirit.
Jong-du gains the ability to act through his love for Gong-ju. Jong-du thought that the only thing he could do for the princess was to remove the shadow cast on the carpet by reciting a spell, but he soon realizes that the only way to solve the problem is to cut down the branches that create the shadow on the carpet. The act of cutting down the branches in front of the princess’s house after escaping from the police station means that he is now able to act proactively in reality.
The truth of everyday life
Every human dreams of love and believes that love will make them a more complete being. Of course, there is love that makes you grow, and many people believe that they have grown through love. Even if the moment of love is painful and unbearable, love is the force that drives growth. This film chose the protagonists of the story as the people who are hidden at the bottom of society and tried to get closer to reality through the intersection of reality and fantasy.
The film “Oasis” is not about disconnection, communication, and growth. Even if it is a small prop in the real life depicted in the film, it comes to us as a meaning. The realistic expression technique and the reality of fantasy in this film are also there to show the weight of everyday life. In other words, even if it is a common love story, you can find the truth of life in it.
