Pluto (2012)

Country: South-Korea
Format: movie
Genre: school
Cast: Sung Joon, Lee Da Wit (Lee David), Kim Kkobbi, Kim Kwon, Sun Joo Ah, Nam Tae Boo, Ryoo Kyung Soo, Park Tae Sung, Kil Hae Yeon, Oh Jung Woo, Jo Sung Ha,  
Synopsis: During the entrance exam session a young boy Yoo Jin is found dead. Joon gets accused for the murder, but for what reason? One murder leads to an unexpected discovery of the lives of the school elite, school bullying and well kept secrets.
Rating: 4/5
I wanted to see this movie, because the theme reminds me of one my country's movie and school violence is something that is happening everywhere.

Joon is the main character, who comes from poor family. He feels like an outcast and wants to be part

of school's elite - which is only 1% of students. He is really smart and has big determination to give his best in everything. Though everything starts for him as a mission to earn his notebooks, he soon understands that things are going out of hands, especially after getting to know some dark secrets. At first getting into the elite group was a way out of his lower class position, which had to lead him to a great success. He wants to prove to the world that he can have same potential in life as students from rich families, sadly he has to understand that money can move a lot. Even though he almost puts himself into God-position (ignore the fact that he is the "science-guy") to decide on the punishment, I felt sorry for him. Of course his actions were far from right, but at the same time it felt that he was pushed into the corner before he fully understood it. 

Yoo Jin is shown in the movie only in memories as people talk about him, but he is still the second

most important person in the movie. He has two sides and these make him really complicated person. On one side he is popular and the leader of the school, which includes that he likes to bully others when they hope too much, but on the other side he likes to be alone and he has different motives than what you might expect. Though he was the one who put the start to it all, I again could not hate him. In a way it looked like he already knew the road he was walking on and still choose to face it. He was stuck in his suppressed anger and he was unable to see that he is just taking away his own chances to live happily. There is a saying "It does not matter what happens to us, what matters is how we react to it" - sadly he did not have the strength to overcome his past.

The most important girl is Soo Jin, whose friend used to be a part of the elite too. She befriends Joon even before he becomes a member. Soo Jin seems to believe (or may be wants to believe) that Joon is different from others. I am certain that if things would have gone differently they would have ended up together. She is one character who makes me want to know what happened after the end, but I think I might already know it too.
Myung Ho looks like an usual nerd when we are taking the example of nowadays stereotypical thinking. He has always been the second best, but when his university entrance is endangered to fall into the same level as usual students he thinks that it is time to insurance his position. He is one person who is the most ambitious from all the students. I cannot say much about other members of the elite group beside Myung Ho because their reasons and thoughts are not shown. It almost looks like they are studying so much that they have stopped thinking for themselves to understand the things.

After the movie ended we had one youth psychologist talking and she said her thoughts about it. Like, there is a saying in the movie of "useless/powerless grown-ups" and she asked us if we think it is true or not. Are nowadays grown-ups useless or powerless? I think it is right and a bit wrong. Right, because I have been in a situation where I was scared for my life, but no grown-up was willing to help - they just looked away and the help came from a girl who was just a year older than me. In addition, most of grown-ups who have the power to help, do the things they want and say that "children should just stop lying, shut up and study". But at the same time there are some people who are there for youth, but there are only few. After hearing the answers the psychologist said that "then, now it is your turn to become the useful grown-up - we have the power to chance the thought of "powerless grown-ups". I think it is something that we should all think of.
This movie again changes the meaning of "antagonist" and "victim". I am not saying that all criminals might also be victims - I think that crime is crime and it deserves punishment - but I am just saying that we can never know the reasons behind someones actions, because most of us cannot read others minds. It is really dark and gloomy movie, but I think it is a bit of a wake-up call too. It is not worth going crazy over school position/universities; it is important to notice what is right and what is wrong and change things before it is too late, but it is also important to know when it is right time to turn your back to your past. I know that I liked this movie and to be honest, I am still shocked by it.

SPOILER-review: I was shocked in the end - I think that the final drop was that the detectives really left the building. To me it felt like if they had opened the door again or screamed to stop it or at least done something, it would have gone differently. I understand the thought of "better save 3 people and let 4 die, than let all 7 die", but they really left the image of being totally useless. Usually when there is a hostage drama they try to talk it out as professionals and I have heard of saying "In this kind of situation, never stop talking to the "criminal". On one hand I wish that detectives would have talked him out of this and saved everyone, but of course they all would have gone to juvenile jail and I do not know which one of them is better.