This not-so-subtle maximalist movie is a swan song for human labor, and perhaps for humanity as well. Like many shows and movies made by my country’s artists (a bit over-done at this point, to be honest), this one also excels at portraying how capitalism preys on people with good intentions, and how they become desperate and make devastating and horrifying choices. This movie is filled with layers of metaphor, analogy, and symbolism, such as comparing the main characters to trees in a dense forest, who are stuck but have to fiercely compete for the sun. My favorite scene that stems from this analogy was perhaps when the main character Man-su couldn’t stand the idea of dismembering Si-jo, one of his targets, and instead decided to wrap his body tight with metal wires as if the body were a bonsai tree; he couldn’t “cut the tree.” Cruelty and a bit of ironic mercy at the same time. The violent deforestation by machines in the ending credits also stood out especially because they were immediately followed by the factory filled with automated machines without any human beings except for Man-su. When I watch this movie again ten years from now, what will I think of it?