What’s up with the screenwriter and director’s fascination with footprints? 

1. The bloody footprints of the bald man

We all know that the opening shot sets the tone of the show so it’s important to pay close attention to the details.

This episode begins with a pre-dawn aerial shot of a deserted rotunda with a couple of cars still in flames. The choice of camera angle is appropriate as it mimics the view from a helicopter. We can’t see the helicopter, but we can hear the sound of its rotor blades chopping the air. From somewhere, a soldier announces on a megaphone that the martial law troops have completed an operation to end the resistance, and all rioters have been suppressed.

Then pair of military boots is seen walking on gravel, lined with scorched bodies covered in tarp. We get the idea right away that by “suppressed,” the soldier meant “exterminated.”

As morning comes, a car stops in front of a walled residence. The boots get off the car and walk through the gate. His wife and two kids greet him in the yard. We see the back of man in olive-green military outfit; the balding crown of his head is most conspicuous. He takes off his boots in the foyer and enters the house.

Blood pools from his boots and a track of bloody footprints suddenly appear where he trod: the paved path, bricked stoop, black tiles, wooden floors and Oriental rug.

His front face is never shown. After the camera filmed his back, there’s just a brief sideview of his face. And when the camera shows a close-up, he’s seen only from the neck down. The nametag on his uniform “Ji DuSeok” is highlight.

There is no conversation, just lugubrious music.

How do I interpret this scene? Like this: 

a. The man left a killing field which he created himself. The blood flowing from his boots means that he’s to blame for the countless deaths. Wherever he goes, the blood of his victim will forever follow him and taint his legacy.

b. Showing only the back and side of his face means that the actor’s appearance is irrelevant because the viewers know very well who this character is supposed to be.

c. Also, obscuring his face can be a deliberate attempt to erase him. That is, he was such a blight to humanity that his face isn’t worth seeing, much less remembering. (Note: I don’t think we heard his voice either in these two episodes, did we? He’s being deleted from history – or “canceled” as we say nowadays.)

Plus, showing him from the neck down can be interpreted as some sort of wishful thinking on the director’s part to behead him as punishment for his atrocities.

d. As for the sad musical score and absence of conversation, they’re meant to evoke a funereal atmosphere. Visually and aurally, death permeates the opening scene.

2. SJ’s bloody feet

In contrast, the ending scene begins with SuJeong (SJ) walking on the white marble tiles of the hospital. We don’t see her whole body. The camera tracks her from behind and it’s a low-angle shot (meaning, the camera is positioned low to the ground so only her body from the waist down is shown).

Given the camera shot, we can’t help but see that the back of her feet is blood-splattered and so are the hems of her blue scrubs.

SJ stops for an instant in front of an LED video wall. There’s breaking news that hundreds of bullet holes have been found inside a room of the Gwangil Building. The bullet holes are irrefutable evidence that the martial law troops fired on the citizens of Gwangju, the reporter says.

SJ proceeds to walk again. She stops to pick up a little girl who tripped in front of her. The little girl runs off to her mother.

Her feet make little sound as she shuffles out of the way of a patient on a wheelchair. She then enters the dining hall where Intern Park calls out her name. As he taps his feet under the table, it seems like he’s  grabbed food for both of them, and is waiting impatiently for her arrival.

She pulls up a chair in front of him and sits down.

Somewhere, a phone receives a text message. The news switches to another breaking report about the government’s plan to increase medical school enrollment. Shoes everywhere start to move around them.

The camera pans up to show the medical staff in white robes marching toward the dining hall exit. SJ ignores the commotion and continues chewing her food without a care in the world. Intern Park, however, looks around them.

When she steals food from his tray, he offers her his whole tray. Though he’s sleepy, he still puts up a good front for her. Soon, they’re the only ones left in the dining hall.

How do I interpret this scene? (Note: I’ve seen Episode 8 and SJ’s bloodied feet in that scene have a slightly different meaning from Episode 7.)

a. Like Ji Duseok, SJ left the killing field. However, unlike Ji Duseok, she’s a non-fatal casualty of the war, not a perpetrator. She’s been to the fictional place of Lagota where she witnessed carnage up-close. What more, she lost one of the children (or perhaps two?) whom she was caring for in the “White Wings Medical Corps” hospital.

Hence, she leaves no trail of blood on the hospital marble floor. She didn’t kill anyone like Ji Duseok did.

b. Like Ji Duseok’s bloody footprints, the blood on SJ’s heels and hemlines are just symbolic. She cannot really walk around the hospital with blood on her self as blood is a biohazard and she risks spreading infection to immunocompromised patients in the hospital.

c. Unlike Ji Duseok’s background music, there are normal hospital sounds in the background as SJ walks through the hall.

This tells me that she’s back in her normal surroundings and even socializing as she normally does with Intern Park. Though she still ignores the things she doesn’t like (she only likes food!), she isn’t detached from normal reality like Ji Duseok was in the opening scene.

d. Intern Park keeps her company. In Ji Duseok’s last shot in the opening scene, he’s shown sitting alone in the room, like his family and friends deserted him. In contrast, SJ’s #1 adoring fan remains by her side even as the dining hall emptied.

e. Her bloodied feet, however, mean that she’s endured emotional hardship. She’s metaphorically cut up and bleeding from her painful memories. Unless people look closely at her, her pain isn’t visible to them. She hides her mental and psychological wounds under her blue scrub, i.e., she buries her heartaches in her work.

Remember what she said to Mr. Oh SangBeom (SB) and her “teammates”:

To SB, in his hospital room:

SJ: “What could I say to this man in order to get him to agree to this [surgery]?” “What in the world can I do to get this man who’s only living to die to agree to live?” You gambled your life, a life you couldn’t end yourself because you’re living in someone else’s shoes. A gamble on surgery that could end in failure. I know what you were thinking. I also know when you learned the surgery may succeed, you just couldn’t bear the thought of having to live the rest of your life without ever seeing your Hyung.
Dr. Woo: That can’t be right. That’s your intention? Did you just agree to the operation for the chance you might die?
SJ: Except I won’t let you. There’s zero possibility. I will make sure the surgery succeeds. I can’t stand here and let you throw away a chance you’ve got at living a better life. You will get this surgery.

In other words, SB seeks some sort of assisted suicide (although no lethal drug is involved). He only agreed to the surgery because he was banking on SJ’s failure and his subsequent death on the operating table.

But as someone who understands the pain he’s going through, SJ refuses to let him die. Ms. Jang saved her from herself, and she wants to do the same for SB.

To her teammates, while they’re sitting on the park bench and sipping Yakult:

Dr Jo: So, how did you know that he was only living to die?
SJ: I know that look.
Jang: (glancing at her)
SJ: The look that says, “Instead of me, they should’ve gotten to live that day.” That look that says, “The only option I have is to live. There’s nothing left, I’m just living to live.”
Jang: (looking down)
SJ: Someone in endless torture while still being here.
Dr Jo: (glancing at her strangely)
SJ: Only that kinda person has that look. (drinking her Yakult)
Jang: (breaking up the conversation by talking about her bowel movement)

She knows that “look” because she’s seen it on her own reflection in the mirror.

Noteworthy: The interesting part of this park bench scene is that she has company now, whereas in Episode 1, she sat on the bench and sipped Yakult all by herself. Intern Park only found the circle of empty bottles on top of the trash can after she disappeared.

To me, this park bench scene teaches us a lesson. Just like it took a village to protect the child Oh SangBeom from the helicopter’s gunfire, it takes a village with Dr. Jo, Intern Park, and Ms. Jang to “protect” and heal SJ from her trauma.

f. In Episode 8, her bloody feet means that she’s been running all around to fill in for the surgeons who are on strike. The blood on her is just symbolic. She isn’t really all bloodied.

That’s it for now. I still have to write about the staging of the helicopter scene.