In this blog post, we’ll explore the principles of the thriller genre and analyze the film ‘Beautiful Sunday’.
What is a thriller?
A “thriller” refers to a genre of dramatic works created to stimulate the audience’s sense of fear. Although the term originated in film, it is widely used in theater, television, and novels as well. Broadly speaking, it is a type of suspense drama that spans various genres, including horror, the macabre, crime, and detective stories. A thriller does not merely provide a sense of fear; rather, it focuses on depicting the process by which the character experiencing fear becomes immersed in that fear. Some thriller movies familiar to us include ‘Identity’, ‘The Sixth Sense’, and ‘The Others’.
So, what elements in a thriller make the audience feel fear—and sometimes even enjoy it? Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises when a distressing situation approaches or becomes a reality; it is felt most intensely when one is ill-prepared for that situation.
Let’s take Alfred Hitchcock, widely regarded as the master of suspense, as an example. Hitchcock is called a quintessential thriller filmmaker because he precisely captured the fear that arises from ordinary, everyday situations in his films. In his works, inexplicable events unfold in places believed to be the safest, leading the audience to realize that the everyday world itself is the source of fear. Hitchcock vividly exposed the dark side of human psychology, portraying a world tainted by voyeurism, murder, obsession, and guilt through his signature style of suspense, and he was a master at psychologically manipulating his audience. Because of this influence, modern suspense thrillers find it difficult to escape Hitchcock’s shadow.
The Difference Between Horror and Thriller
Dictionary definitions describe a “thriller” as a novel, drama, or film that arouses interest through intense intrigue, adventure, and tension. The broader concept of “thrill” is defined as something that causes a sudden, intense excitement or emotional surge. However, the tension felt in today’s thrillers bears a significant resemblance to the fear experienced in horror films.
In films, the most obvious element that evokes the audience’s emotions is the question of “who, why, and how.” In contemporary cinema, where genre blending is prominent, this distinction is not absolute; however, thrillers generally focus on “Who is committing the act?” and “Why are they doing it?” In contrast, the core of horror films lies in the anxiety stemming from “How are they doing it, even though we don’t know who they are or why they’re doing it?” In this regard, thrillers and horror films exhibit a fundamental difference.
The Narrative of ‘Beautiful Sunday’
Director Jin Gwang-gyo’s ‘Beautiful Sunday’ is a crime thriller that explores the inner conflicts of the human psyche—specifically repentance, forgiveness, and atonement—through the stories of a man tormented by guilt after accidentally raping the woman he had a crush on, and a detective cornered by corruption as he tries to save his wife, who has fallen into a vegetative state.
Detective Kang (Park Yong-woo), one of the film’s central characters, was once a capable detective, but after his wife fell into a vegetative state following a stabbing by a robber, he colluded with a drug ring to cover her medical expenses. He soon finds himself cornered, pursued simultaneously by another drug ring and the internal affairs unit.
The other central character, Min-woo (Namgoong Min), an introverted law school student, falls in love with Soo-yeon (Min Ji-hye) at first sight, but after witnessing her leaving a motel with her boyfriend, he impulsively rapes her.
Several years later, the two reunite by chance, marry, and even have a child, but their happy newlywed life crumbles when Min-woo discovers that Soo-yeon was one of his past victims. Min-woo, trying to stop Soo-yeon from leaving, eventually stabs her to death with a knife.
Tormented by guilt, Min-woo visits Detective Kang and confesses to all his crimes. Upon hearing the story, Detective Kang realizes a shocking truth: Min-woo is none other than the version of himself from the past that he had wanted to forget. Ultimately, Detective Kang shoots and kills Min-woo—who is, in fact, himself.
The Thriller Elements of “Beautiful Sunday”
Plot
The narrative structure of “Beautiful Sunday” is unique. The stories of Detective Kang and Min-woo—who seem to have nothing in common except for being driven to extremes by love—unfold in parallel and intersect, yet the two meet only once in the film, at the climax. By running events separated by several years in parallel, the film initially makes it appear to the audience as though they are stories of “different characters in the same time period,” only to ultimately reveal that they were “the same character in different time periods.”
This parallel structure centered on the two characters heightens the audience’s curiosity and keeps them on the edge of their seats until the very end. While many Korean thrillers focus on “what” to say, ‘Beautiful Sunday’ emphasizes “how,” thereby amplifying the genre’s thrills.
Theme
As director Jin Gwang-gyo states, this film explores the nature of human beings. Emotions that humans cannot escape—such as desire, temptation, jealousy, lies, and betrayal—create a sense of guilt and prompt reflection on atonement. While everyone dreams of happiness, hidden desires lead people to commit sins, both big and small; the film asks what actions humans take as a result and to what extreme situations they are driven.
Visual (Scene) Analysis
The film opens and closes with a standoff between Detective Kang and Min-woo. The two men, who appear unrelated at first glance, face off—one pointing a gun, the other completely defenseless. Paradoxically, the one who appears to be in danger seems triumphant, declaring, “You’re going to kill me within an hour.” This bizarre dynamic piques the audience’s curiosity from the very beginning and delivers a shock and a thrill when they finally realize that the two characters are one and the same. Therefore, this standoff scene can be considered the film’s most thrilling moment.
The poster condenses the film’s narrative into a single scene. The main poster, themed around “sorrow,” features Namgoong Min choking Park Yong-woo with a cross necklace against a backdrop of red flowers; Namgoong Min’s gaze is filled with murderous intent, while Park Yong-woo’s expression reveals anxiety and heartbreak. The color red symbolizes passion and love, foreshadowing the protagonists’ fates of ruin brought about by love. Park Yong-woo’s white clothing and the black background symbolize good and evil, while the cross necklace symbolizes “atonement.”
The teaser poster, themed around “hatred,” features Namgoong Min’s dark profile superimposed over Park Yong-woo’s face, suggesting that the two characters—who suffer tragedy due to their differing conceptions of love—are ultimately bound by the same fate. Namgoong Min’s vacant gaze and Park Yong-woo’s rage serve as visual devices that reveal the split inner world of the same character.
Comparison between the film “Beautiful Sunday” and the novel “The Enemy’s Makeup”
Despite their differences in genre, “Beautiful Sunday” and Amélie Nothomb’s novel “The Enemy’s Makeup” share commonalities in many respects. Nothomb is known for her outlandish imagination and razor-sharp dialogue, and this novel—composed entirely of dialogue—is a series of plot twists.
The plot of the novel is as follows: In an airport waiting room, a stranger named Texteur Texel approaches Jérôme Anguiste and confesses that he raped a woman twenty years ago and murdered her ten years ago. Jerome is shocked to realize that this man is the killer of his own wife. Even more startling is the scene where Texter says, “I am you,” forcing Jerome to confront his own identity. Ultimately, Jerome self-destructs by banging his head against the wall for no apparent reason while shouting, “Freedom, freedom, freedom.”
Both works deal with the struggle against a fragmented self. In ‘The Enemy’s Makeup’, a secret desire hidden beneath the moral self bursts forth, heavily made up, threatening the protagonist’s identity and driving him to suicide. The work borrows the phrases “I am the Other” and “The Other is Hell” to emphasize that guilt is the internal enemy.
However, the two works take different approaches to their conclusions. While ‘Beautiful Sunday’ explores atonement through the act of shooting and killing the fragmented self, ‘The Enemy’s Makeup’ confesses guilt but blocks the path to repentance, ultimately leaving no room for communication. In other words, they differ in terms of the possibility of communication.
Criticism of ‘Beautiful Sunday’ as a Thriller
Plot twists are a valid device in the thriller genre, serving to pique the audience’s curiosity and keep them riveted throughout the film. Films like ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘The Sixth Sense’, which achieved great success through powerful plot twists, are prime examples.
However, among films that rely on plot twists, it is common to see an overabundance of twists with similar setups, or stories that seem to exist solely for the sake of the twist. “Beautiful Sunday” is no exception. The film conceals the chronological order of events and parts of the narrative to prevent the audience from fully grasping the essential relationship between the two characters; this is both a device for the final twist and the film’s intention. By the time the ending arrives, one can understand why the film maintained this structure.
The problem is that it gives the impression the story was dragged out solely for the sake of the twist, and the twist itself isn’t as impactful as one might expect. A twist is an element meant to enhance the film’s enjoyment; it should not dominate the film on its own.
Furthermore, when a thriller fails to meet genre expectations, the weakness of the ending stands out more than the process of building tension. In “Beautiful Sunday,” the conclusion to a story that had been amplifying suspense feels somewhat feeble, and the clues scattered throughout to connect the two characters—whose storylines ran in parallel—aren’t sufficiently solid. The protagonists’ attempts to atone for their misguided actions come across as self-centered excuses rather than convincing enough to evoke sympathy.
The lack of explanation for the flimsy foreshadowing and the lengthy final defense intended to elicit sympathy for the two protagonists make the ending feel drawn-out. Ultimately, despite starting as a fresh attempt at the genre and featuring an intriguing screenplay, the film reveals several flaws and shortcomings.
