This blog post explores why the musical film ‘Chicago’ captivates audiences from its opening scene. We examine how its dazzling performances, sharp satire, and the perfect fusion of narrative and music create an intense sense of immersion.
Narrative Analysis of Chicago
Roxie, married to Amos, a simple, honest working-class man, is as kind and innocent as her husband. Yet she dreams of escaping her dull daily life and yearns for the entertainment world. She desperately wants to be a star on stage. She enters into an affair with Fred, who approaches her claiming he can make Roxie a star. However, when Roxie discovers that Fred is merely a simple con artist with neither the ability nor the will to make her a star, having made those promises only to have a fling, she commits murder in a fit of rage.
Amos tries to take the blame for her crime and go to prison in her place, but the truth comes out during interrogation by the detective, and Roxie ends up incarcerated. Meanwhile, Velma, a famous bar singer, was once recognized as the top duo performer with her sister. One day, she witnesses her husband and sister having an affair. In a fit of rage, she kills them both and ends up in prison. This is how Velma and Roxie come to be imprisoned together.
Roxie, who has long admired Velma, tries to approach her idol in prison. However, Velma, still treated like a star even behind bars, dismisses Roxie as insignificant and ignores her. Chicago’s top lawyer, Billy, takes on Velma’s case to help secure her release. He accidentally meets Roxie and becomes more intrigued by her case, demanding an exorbitant fee from Amos. Amos pays him a huge sum to free Roxie, and Billy skillfully frames her case to make her appear a very naive woman who accidentally fell into a bad scheme and committed a crime.
This strategy proves wildly successful, and the entire world begins to accept Roxie as a pitiful victim, catapulting her to overnight celebrity status. With the tables suddenly turned, Velma reaches out to Roxie, suggesting they perform together, but Roxie firmly rejects the offer. Later, another woman’s murder case monopolizes media attention, threatening to make Roxie forgotten again. However, she cleverly lies about being pregnant, once more drawing the world’s attention.
As Roxie’s arrogance grows, a fellow inmate is executed. With Billy’s meticulous strategy, Roxie is ultimately released. However, after her release, she is no longer the center of attention, and no one wants to cast her as an actress. It is then that Roxie finally confronts the real issue of her ‘qualifications as an actress’.
Around that time, Velma, who was also released but couldn’t find work, comes to see Roxie. The two finally team up and decide to perform a “double act.” They take the stage together and achieve great success, and the film concludes with the climax of their dazzling performance.
Alone in the Rain of ‘Chicago’
‘Chicago’ immediately captured my attention as a musical film. I adore musicals. Having loved music since childhood, watching a musical always made me feel exhilarated and joyful. Watching performances, I’d find myself wanting to sing and dance along with the actors on stage—so much so that my friends sometimes looked at me strangely. That’s how much I genuinely loved musicals.
So whenever I heard a musical film was opening, I’d always rush to the theater to see it. Among the musical films released over the years, the ones I remember seeing are ‘Evita’, ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Dancing in the Dark’, and ‘Chicago’. They were all truly outstanding works. Whenever a musical film was released, it always landed near the top of my must-see list. I loved Moulin Rouge so much, and I still vividly remember crying throughout the entire screening of Strictly Ballroom. So, how was this Chicago?
My university midterms coincided with its release, so even though it had been out for quite some time, I couldn’t manage to see it. Hearing it had swept the top Academy Awards piqued my interest even more, but at the time, it was being pushed out of theaters by Korean films, and the number of screens showing it was dwindling. I grew impatient. Worried that the film might disappear from theaters, I rushed online to find a theater showing ‘Chicago’ as soon as my exams ended. Very few theaters were still screening it, and after a frantic search, I finally found one.
I hurried toward that theater. It was raining unusually hard that day. The spring rain poured down like a downpour, making me feel rather gloomy. While sitting quietly at home, enjoying the sound of rain and savoring leisure might be blissful, for me, wandering around outside on such a day was sheer torture. What’s more, all my friends had already seen the movie, and using the excuse that it wasn’t very interesting, none of them were willing to go see it with me. In the end, I found myself sitting alone in the theater, watching the movie. When I entered the auditorium, the large theater was completely empty. Assuming it was because of the rainy weather, I quietly took my seat. Honestly, it felt a bit lonely.
But the moment the movie started, I instantly forgot that loneliness. Scenes that overwhelmed the audience from the very beginning, scenes that made my eyes happy. The moment Catherine Zeta-Jones appeared, the fantastic performance that followed made me incredibly happy. The film unfolds in a slightly different way than traditional musicals. While ‘Moulin Rouge’ is structured around a single musical narrative, ‘Chicago’ seems to delve quite deeply into its content alongside its musical elements.
Above all, the film casts a remarkably sharp gaze upon the city of Chicago. Chicago is known as both a city of crime and a city of spectacle. Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is the actress leading a famous show there. Dancing and singing, she dominates Chicago’s stage, literally the city’s ‘flower’. Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), who idolizes Velma Kelly, is driven solely by her passion to stand on stage, even selling her body. Her passion ultimately leads to the death of a person.
Here, the film ventures into a distinct territory. The prison life depicted, the sharp satire unfolding within it, and the way this is translated back into musical scenes is highly impressive. The musical segments are all superb. Each woman’s reason for being there is revealed through a musical number, and the brilliance of each character is maximized through the musical scenes whenever they appear. But these scenes are not mere spectacle. Each number also serves as a device to starkly expose the corruption within the prison and the city.
From the corrupt prison warden, to the trial strategy of the money-driven lawyer Billy Flynn, to the song by Roxie’s husband Amos, who tragically laments his own existence, the film uses various characters to reflect society’s true face. The scene where he compares himself to ‘cellophane’ remains vivid in my memory even now. Even while watching the dazzling, seemingly happy musical scenes, a bitter taste slowly creeps in from beneath the surface. Perhaps the film aimed for precisely that point from the very beginning. Rather than pushing forward with overt tragedy from the start, like ‘Dancer in the Dark,’ it seems the film aimed to leave a deeper resonance with the audience through the pain felt within the joyful musical, that contradictory emotion. That bittersweetness was already foreshadowed from the film’s opening.
The film is also about how women in prison use the press to manipulate the situation to their advantage. Roxie Hart’s performance to escape prison, and Billy Flynn’s show-like performance in court, perfectly synchronized with Roxie, are expressed even more intensely through scenes reminiscent of a puppet show. The scene where Billy Flynn manipulates the people in the courtroom like puppets on a stage is a satire that is both comical and scathing. He is a character driven solely by his own interests, with winning his case as his sole objective. Roxie Hart also plays a part in Billy Flynn’s rise to fame.
In the end, Roxie Hart succeeds in escaping through near-perfect acting, but what returns to her is only the mundane routine of everyday life. Billy Flynn soon moves on to another case, revealing that Roxie was merely one of many figures briefly spotlighted by the press. Unable to rise again on her own, she fails audition after audition. It is only when she performs alongside Velma Kelly that the two achieve a magnificent comeback on a new stage. The film ends with their dazzling reappearance, and I couldn’t easily forget that fantastic dance.
Throughout the movie, my heart ached strangely. Though my face wore a bright smile, I distinctly felt the bitterness smoldering behind that smile. I hated that bitterness intensely, yet I couldn’t look away. How could society become so corrupt? Of course, the world in the film is clearly exaggerated in some aspects, but the thought that our society could reveal such a face at any moment was horrifying enough to give me goosebumps. Perhaps that’s why people call this film “a work of outstanding artistry.” It masterfully exploits the pain hidden within the glamour, that contradictory point, to captivate the audience’s heart.
I genuinely felt this film was ‘okay’. Some scenes made me laugh uncontrollably with happiness, while others left my eyes red with bitterness. By the end, I even found myself harboring the contradictory wish deep down that those women never escape prison. Thus, I rode the waves of emotion alongside the film, reaching the ending.
Throughout this journey, the character who truly stood out was undoubtedly Renée Zellweger. Seeing her appear on screen with a body so slim it was hard to believe—a far cry from the plump, lovable image she portrayed in ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’—surprised me quite a bit. I genuinely loved this other side of her, this newfound charm. This film was a masterpiece of such high quality that not a single scene felt wasted, from the very first song, through each character’s entrance, to the final number. I found myself wondering many times when Korea might finally produce a musical film like this. ‘Chicago’. It remains one of my all-time favorite films, unchanged to this day.
Analyzing the Scenes Meticulously
The scene I consider the film’s absolute highlight is the opening sequence where Velma enters the bar and passionately sings ‘All That Jazz’. The film begins in Roxie’s eyes, quickly sweeping across the bar interior before following Velma’s high heels as she steps out of the taxi. The camera moves, focusing only on her high heels, naturally prompting the audience to wonder, “Just who is this person?” (I secretly hoped Velma wouldn’t have the short haircut she sported in the trailer.)
As the camera follows her hurried footsteps, seemingly fleeing from something, gradually rising upward, we see the ‘Velma & Veronica’ poster torn from the wall. In that instant, we intuitively grasp what has happened. Velma snaps out “I can do it alone,” disposes of her bloodied hands and the gun, then steps onto the stage. The moment the bar patrons turn their gaze toward Velma, the cinema audience also sees her face for the first time.
One reason I loved this film is precisely this fast, sensational editing. This editing isn’t limited to Velma’s entrance scene. While she sings ‘All That Jazz’, Roxie is already present somewhere in the same space on that stage. The film seamlessly cross-cuts Velma’s performance with Roxie and Fred returning home to engage in an intimate moment, weaving both scenes into a single rhythm. As the song nears its end, Velma belts out the defiant line “I’m no one’s wife but love all my life,” defending herself, and at that very moment, Roxie learns Fred’s truth.
In the opening, the audience sees Velma hiding the murder weapon, a pistol, inside an old dresser in the closet. Not long after, in Roxie’s murder scene, the pistol similarly emerges from her own old dresser. I thought this was a clever connection intended by the director. The dresser may seem like just a prop, a part of the room’s decor, but for the female characters, it functions as a space with deeper meaning. A dresser is typically where women store not only clothes but also cherished possessions. For Velma and Roxie, who love to dress up and for whom performing on stage is their life’s ambition, the dresser can be seen as a symbolic tool that holds their desires.
After Fred’s murder, when Amos tries to take the blame for Roxie’s crime, the detective senses something amiss and shines a light on Roxie’s face, hidden in the corner of the room. This scene immediately transitions into Roxie’s first song, during which she is already envisioning herself dressed and performing on stage. Roxie’s song begins as a love song to her innocent, cute ‘funny honey’—Amos. But when Amos, caught in the detective’s leading questioning, confesses, the song instantly transforms into a song of hatred directed at the ignorant Amos. This shift within a single song—from love to curse, from tender confession to sharp accusation—is a unique charm only a musical can offer.
The most exhilarating part after the opening was the sequence where Billy and Roxie’s interview with reporters suddenly transforms into Billy’s puppet show stage. This sequence, edited to swiftly and distinctly alternate between the actual interview and the puppet show scenes, delivers double the pleasure to the audience compared to watching just one scene. It also powerfully reveals how easily the courtroom and the press can devolve into one big ‘show business,’ as reality and performance, truth and acting, become intertwined.
My Analysis
Roxie’s Ritual, Ritual of Passage
After Roxie kills Fred and Amos ultimately fails to take the blame, Roxie herself ends up in prison, marking the true beginning of her separation from the world. She is removed from the familiar space of her comfortable home and transferred to the prison—a thoroughly isolated world surrounded by iron bars. This could be seen as a symbolic ‘initiation (rite of passage)’.
Her husband Amos plays the role of a literal ‘provider,’ securing a large sum of money to secure Roxie’s release. In contrast, lawyer Billy occupies the position of the story’s archetypal ‘helper.’ Thanks to Billy’s strategy, Roxie becomes the famous person she so desperately wanted to be and begins dreaming of one day returning to the glamorous stage. After Billy’s defense brings Roxie back from prison to the world, she ultimately joins hands with Velma to complete her splendid return to the stage she’d dreamed of her whole life. Viewed this way, Roxie’s entire journey in the film can be read as a single ritualistic structure: Separation–Initiation–Return.
The Delightful Chicago (1)
In most films, protagonists express their feelings and desires through speech, expressions, or gestures. But in ‘Chicago,’ reality and fantasy alternate, and it is through these fantasy sequences that the characters’ desires and inner worlds are revealed more directly. Through these fantasy sequences, the audience can discern the protagonists’ thoughts with greater clarity, making emotional identification both easier and faster. Thus, despite tackling serious subject matter and satire, the film remains strangely delightful throughout.
The Delightful Chicago (2)
‘Chicago’ is, in a word, a story of satire. The characters sing and dance mocking songs directed at the court, the press, and indeed society as a whole. Mama, the prison matron, takes money from inmates to grant their requests. In traditional ‘prison movies,’ this role was typically filled by one of the prisoners, but in this film, it is performed by a female prison official. Billy presents the courtroom as a space of ‘razzle-dazzle’—a flashy show and a place of clever deception. Roxie appears in a sexy outfit reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe and sings, “Who says that murder’s not an art?”
Furthermore, in the final scene, Roxie and Velma, on the stage they so desperately craved, fire guns into the air, mocking the entire audience. This scene starkly highlights the disconnect between the crime they committed and the reality of receiving applause nonetheless, delivering a peculiar mix of pleasure and discomfort to the audience. As a satire cloaked in the guise of a joyful musical, ‘Chicago’ remains as sharp as ever, even when viewed today.
Measuring by Ethical Standards
In the final scene, Velma and Roxie stand before the audience triumphantly, as if nothing had happened. Throughout the film, the audience deeply empathizes with them, unconsciously enjoying their ‘misdeeds’ alongside them. Yet, from an ethical standpoint, this is undeniably shameful. Of course, given the different historical context, culture, and country, it’s not necessarily right to hastily judge them by our standards. Nevertheless, if we were to draw a parallel with the Korean reality, it would be akin to enthusiastically consuming a scene where heinous criminals like Shin Chang-won and Yoo Young-chul perform a knife act together on a nightclub stage – a level of discomfort that feels similar.
In the film, they are undeniable criminals. Roxie committed adultery with another man while married to a good husband, ultimately killing him because he turned out to be a con artist. She fabricated a non-existent child to stir the world’s sympathy and never returns to the husband who saved her. Velma, while perhaps not as cunning as Roxie, is nonetheless a murderer. The fact that such individuals perform on stage in front of countless people, draped in mink coats, leaves one with a peculiar, hard-to-name sense of unease.
While we cannot definitively state that ‘this is how it must be,’ at least one thing is clear. We would be wise not to show ‘Chicago’ to children and adolescents whose ethical standards are not yet fully formed. This is because the moral judgments hidden behind the dazzling musical scenes should be left to audiences capable of fully digesting them.
‘Cell Block Tango’ – The Women’s Justified Cry
The song that struck me as the most chilling when I first heard the OST, the one that left the strongest impression during the film with its intense red hues, and the one that always feels unusually loud whenever I play the DVD – that song is ‘Cell Block Tango’. In this song, the female prisoners recount each man they killed and the stories behind them, declaring each deserved to die. The sound itself is loud and the atmosphere chilling, yet simultaneously, this song is the most cathartic and exhilarating.
Though imprisoned for killing men, they are no longer powerless victims or casualties. They are women with their own voices, capable of speaking for themselves. While some incidents may be difficult to fully empathize with due to cultural differences, hearing stories like Velma, who killed her husband for committing adultery with her sister, or the woman who killed a polygamous Mormon, there are moments when their rage feels ‘justified’. Of course, one might also think it would have been better if they had ‘dealt with him’ in a slightly less physical manner.
A strong feminine energy permeates the entire film. This is evident from the fact that the protagonists are two ambitious women, and also in how the supporting characters surrounding them are positioned to highlight female strength. Three representative supporting characters are Billy, Amos, and Mama, the prison warden. Billy, despite the song describing him upon his first appearance, is ultimately portrayed as a money-grubbing philistine. Amos, as he himself expressed, is nothing more than a weak, transparent, simple husband, like cellophane. Mama, on the other hand, while shifting with the flow of power as it moves from Velma to Roxie and back again, is simultaneously a character with human depth.
When considering even the supporting characters, the world of ‘Chicago’ critiques the law, media, and capital of a male-dominated society while simultaneously showing how women find their voices within its cracks. And in this process, the power of the female characters is expressed with a larger and more vivid presence than that of the male characters. That is precisely why, even after a long time has passed, I still remember ‘Chicago’ as a captivating work.
