An appreciation thread for Go-eun's debut project,
Eun-gyo/A Muse.
I hope this enlightens any new/young fans and the ridiculous hush-hush treatment this film gets finally stops.
Eun-gyo is an arthouse film.

Character and inner conflict are the main components of the film, not plot.
The Lolita aspect is intertwined with that conflict.
I hate that most descriptions of this film are reduced to that Lolita aspect. Ugh.

There's a reason Gon received so many accolades for this film. There's an unspoken recognition for her bravery in taking this on, because as you can see from the persisting comments, this is a film that would always be misunderstood by the majority who consume movies.

This is why veteran actors and actresses all wanted to work with Gon afterward. This is why she's a Chungmuro princess.
She can act, and she can think. She recognized the opportunity she had in this film, in this story, and she took it.
Damn the consequences.

---SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT---
This is the story of Eun-gyo.
The other two leads are writers.
The older one is an established, respected writer in his field. National Poet. He writes in poetry and in the literary genre: high- brow pieces only very few read.

By the time Eun-gyo enters their lives, the younger protegee has published a novel.
It's a low-brow, crowd-pleasing bestseller. It's earning money rather than awards. And literary awards are what the young protegee wants. That same recognition his master has gotten.

It turns out that the young protegee DID NOT write the novel.
His master did. His master, the old man, used the young man's name to publish a novel that doesn't match his reputation.

So when this young man saw the old man's written fantasies about Eun-gyo, he had no compunction about taking it and publishing it as his. After all, his master had already used his name before.

Eun-gyo, the story, immediately gets recognition in the literary sphere.
The old man is furious.
Because it was private.
Because it was HIS.

But his hands are tied. As the young man points out, if his master claims the story to be his, people would be disgusted, because people would connect the dots between the character in the story and the author, who IS seventy, fantasizing about a young girl.

Toward the climax of this film, Eun-gyo, the girl, is torn between her admiration for the old man and her curiosity and jealousy for this young man who seems to be the old man's confidant...

...to the point that the young man wrote private things Eun-gyo thought only she and grandpa knew about.
Her curiosity, and the flattering writing in the book, lead to attraction.

An attraction Eun-gyo decides to consummate.
The old man sees them.
Watches his young protegee steal not only his story but now also corrupting his muse.
Because for all his fantasizing, the old man had never sullied Eun-gyo.

In his rage, the old man tampers with his young protegee's car.
Young man drives off, finds out about the tampering, gets the car repaired, and then drives off in his own rage at his master trying to kill him.

He dies in an accident.
The old master is consumed with guilt.

In the meantime, Eun-gyo realizes it was the old man who had written Eun-gyo all along.
She visits him, thanks him, gives him wildflowers, but she doesn't clean up the house's mess.
It wasn't her mess to clean up.

She leaves him.
And that's it. It's a story of two writers. Both of them stuck. The old man was stuck in his literary reputation.
The young man was stuck in his creative rut.
Eun-gyo--the story and the girl-- was the "muse" that enflamed both of them.

The sex is not gratuitous here. It's a part of the story.
That's the young man claiming his master's muse and story.
That's the muse giving herself over to the young man because she thinks HE was the one who made her so pretty in the story.

Eun-gyo is a good story well-told.
It's not Go-Eun or her dad intentionally picking a controversial film to make waves for her debut.
This is Go-Eun recognizing a good story and being unafraid of any single part of it.

I hate it when I see Eun-gyo mentioned or dragged like it's something to be ashamed of.
It's NOT.
She won awards for this for her complete perfection in this film as the unaware muse.
That monologue at the end is just... she's wonderful.