Films are excellent cultural texts and social documents that record and reflect the social milieu of the times. Problems arise, however, when people misinterpret films.

For example, if we mistakenly understood “Rain Man” simply as a story of an autistic savant, we would lose many other deep messages and symbols in the film, such as the importance of the American pastoral dream. 

The same thing goes for “Pretty Woman.” Ostensibly a story of a modern-day Pygmalion, this movie is actually a splendid metaphor of the importance of the pastoral dream and humanity we have long lost while blindly pursuing material success and commercial profits.

It would also be a grave mistake if we read “Life of Pi” simply as a story of fantastic adventures and the burgeoning friendship of a young man and a tiger accidentally cast away in the stormy sea. Instead, the movie should be understood as a powerful criticism of and a profound insight into the plight of modern man.

During our lifetimes, we all set out on a voyage with a ferocious tiger, an embodiment of constant terror, threat and hostility rampant in this world. For example, the tiger can be a symbol of “the other” that we fear, and hate due to cultural, religious or ideological differences. As the story progresses, we see the protagonist gradually learn to coexist with the other and to embrace the contradictory: love and hate, life and death, courage and fear, and perhaps even Christianity and Islam.

Many Koreans seem to believe that if “Les Miserables” had been released before the presidential elections, Park Geun-hye would not have won. The reasoning is simple: deeply moved by a movie dealing with the French Revolution, the Korean people would have voted for the opposition party. When I met Dr. Yi O-young, former minister of culture and a renowned cultural critic last week, he enlightened me by pointing out the critical fact that the Korea people misunderstand the movie.

“Les Miserables,” according to Dr. Yi, is not about social revolution or overthrowing the ancient regime. It is about love and forgiveness prevailing over ideological clashes.

Following this point, Dr. Yi lamented that, “the Korean people still seem to dwell in the 18th and 19th centuries when people overthrew the government by violence and killed the privileged classes.

Indeed, nowhere in “Les Miserables” can we find Victor Hugo instigating violence, hatred or social revolution. Instead, he clandestinely preaches the preciousness of love and sacrifice, the power of forgetting and forgiving, and the value of humanity and humanism, even in times of national crises, ideological clashes, and political turmoil.

“Batman: The Dark Knight Rises,” is another movie we can mull on in conjunction with “Les Miserables” and the French Revolution. In the movie, Gotham City is paralyzed; Batman has not recuperated from his last injury and has therefore secluded himself in his mansion; the police commissioner, who is seriously wounded, is lying in the hospital; 3,000 law-enforcement officers are stuck underground; and people are intoxicated by football.

Taking advantage of this lawless, chaotic situation, a powerful villain named Bane terrorizes the city. He is a demagogue who disguises himself as a liberator (donning a mask), and spews sugarcoated words like: “Now we came here not as conquerors but as liberators, to return control of this city to the people.” Bane proclaims: “We take Gotham from the corrupt, the rich and the oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity. And we give it back to you, the people.”

Once Bane is in power, however, ruthless purges and street executions immediately follow. Bane declares, “The powerful will be ripped from their decadent nests and cast out into the cold world that we know and endure.” Contrary to the rumor, however, Bane has never suffered in a cold prison pit, from which he allegedly escaped. He is a liar.

At the end of the movie, Bane turns out to be a puppet controlled by a woman named Miranda who pulls the strings, disguised as a member of the Board of Directors of Wayne Industries. As usual, the enemy is within, and thus, invisible. And the whole showdown stems from Miranda’s personal vendetta, even though she and Bane publicly justify their siege of Gotham City as a sacred, ideological war waged to save the people from their “oppressors.” Far from wanting to save the people, Miranda intends to destroy the city and massacre people with a nuclear weapon.

We should not follow those who attempt to overthrow our society and seduce us with promises of a new world. They are likely to be hypocrites, not heroes. Saving the world, the Dark Knight refuses to be called a hero. He says, “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended.” Films can enlighten us. But we should not misread them. 

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. He can be reached at sukim@snu.ac.kr. ― Ed.