Movie Review | A Stray Goat/Nunbal

by - 2:48 AM



Assalamualaikum!
So, as the title, in this post I'm going to review a Korean movie entitled A Stray Goat. This movie came out April last year kalau tak silap. The main reason why I am watching is because the main actor is Park Jinyoung from GOT7 hehe. Walaupun dah lebih setahun released, aku baru macam tergerak hati and terasa ada mood nak tengok harini, so here I am. Actually, tak berniat pun nak tulis review, but ada a few messages in this movie yang aku rasa berbaloi kalau share. Before we start, this post contains SPOILER yang kaw piaw punya spoiler. I'll start off with the synopsis first, nanti bila dah masuk tang spoiler, aku letak spoiler alert, okay? This is my first time writing a review for a movie so please bear with my amateur review hahaha. So let's start with the movie poster first:


This is the link to the movie: Nunbal | Movie trigger warning: Bullies, lots of cursing, sexual assault

      The movie starts off with the main character, Cho Minsik, a priest's son, moving from Seoul to a rural village because his father is re-opening an abandoned church. There, he started to be friends with a few bad kids, who like to bully a girl named Yang Yejoo, because of her father was accused to kill one of the classmate's sister. Long story short, along the way, Minsik and Yejoo became friends, and even closer when Minsik showed her a stray goat that he found in the mountain.

I don't want to go in detail about what happens in  the movie, but what I'm gonna say first is, after watching this movie, the first thing that came in mind is literally "???????????????". Or at least that was how it was for me. Aku tenung skrin lama sikit, fikir-fikir kejap, barulah, "Oh..........." and it left me speechless, honestly. 

What I'm about to say after this contains light spoiler, but the message behind the scene was something worth the spoil. Ni, memang pada aku pengajaran paling besar dalam cerita ni.

      There's this one scene when Yejoo goes to the church to find Minsik after he was absent at school. Dia datang bawak kambing dia, naik bas, and even though pakcik bas tu marah sebab mana boleh bawak kambenk kan naik bas. Then sampai church tu, dia berhenti dekat satu lopak air ni. Aku legit ingat dia nak tengok reflection dia je, sekali, dia pijak lopak air tu, kaw kaw kotorkan kasut dia, then, she walked in the church. Masa tu orang dalam church tu tengah baca doa lah kan, dia jalan selamba je dengan kambing tu, bawak lumpur masuk church. Sampailah this one pakcik halau dia sebab ye lah, dahlah bawak masuk kambing, kotorkan pulak tu. Then she saw Minsik, hoping that he would say something, but Minsik buat-buat tak kenal je. (fuck u minsik)  Dah kena halau, Yejoo pun keluar lah. But then, she saw the same asshole pakcik dalam church, and instead of being embarassed of himself, he looked at Yejoo with the dirtiest look possible. (fuck u also pakcik)


This scene, is actually, very deep. The metaphor is just... mindblowing.

The goat represents as history of what had happened to Yejoo. She lost a very precious thing, but the bad history and memory remains with her everywhere she goes. What's done remained done. Remember the pakcik bas? Pakcik bas represents the public. Public will hate you because of your history, but what can you do? It's stuck with you forever. It's not like you can just leave it anywhere. 

The lopak air, represents as human's sins. Before Yejoo pijak lopak air tu, kasut dia bersih. Bila dia dah pijak, kasut dia kotor. Dia bawak dosa-dosa dia ke mana pun dia pergi.

Then she walked in the church, along with her bad history, bad memory, trauma, etc, along with the sins, but what did the people at church, who was supposed to be the "kind one" did? They looked at her with such judging looks, and chase her away from the church.

Is the church, or in our Malay culture lah, the mosque, or any religion place(?), religion house(?), is supposed to be for people who are religious only? Or, religious people kena kawan dengan religious people only? Yang ada dosa? Yang ada mistakes????

Disclaimer: aku tak kata semua orang alim berperangai begitu, tapi, walaupun sikit, ada tau golongan macam ni. Mana tahu terkena pulak dia baca post aku ni hehe. This is a note to myself too.

Ok tu je yang deepnya hehe.


---SPOILER ALERT---

Movie ni, sebenarnya, tergantung.  It has no definite ending. Ada ending, nanti aku cerita pasal ending dia, tapi ending tu tak semestinya ending. Faham kan? Ke tak? Seriously kalau korang tengok movie ni korang fahamlah maksud aku tu. After I finished watching the movie, I looked at what Jinyoung(who plays as Minsik) got to say about the movie and his character, and then I understand. I understand what the movie was about. 

       There's a lot of questions with no answer, honestly. In the earlier part of the movie, it was said that Minsik had to move to Goseong because he caused some trouble back then in Seoul. What he did, remains unknown until the end of the movie. Which I think means that we don't always know what happens in other people's live, what they've been through etc. Yejoo's father was accused as a killer, and there was this one part where he denied it when he was asked, but there was no final result, whether he really killed the victim or not. And also, the ending, which I said isn't definite. Yejoo was absent at school so Minsik was kind-of looking for her, but she was nowhere to be found. While walking, Minsik came across the stray goat that both he and Yejoo cherish a lot, but the goat was alone. Minsik chased for it, but he stumbled and fell down a few times, until the last time he fell, he just gave up and lay down, staring at the cloud, crying, until the snow came down. And that's it. The indefinite ending. We won't know if Minsik ever got up and chase again, if he found Yejoo, if he ever apologize to her, if he ever ended up with any relationship with her, no. We don't know what happens to Yejoo either. The ending is Minsik laying down, crying, what I see as regretting, and that's it.

Now, I'm about to elaborate on the climax of the story. Korang mesti curious kan kenapa Minsik ada rasa menyesal? Why did I mentioned if Minsik ever apologize to Yejoo? 

       Long story short, adalah sorang pakcik ni dia claim anak kambing yang Minsik dengan Yejoo jumpa tu dia punya kambing. Yejoo didn't want to let the goat go, so Minsik made a promise to the pakcik that he will buy the goat instead. But he got no money lorh this stupid boy 😑 Janji nak bagi duit the next day pulak tu eyyy bodoh ke? Haa marah ni marah. But he got the money. How? You watch sendiri la hahaha. He got the money, then the money got stolen pulak dah satu hal, and while dia pergi lawan-lawan nak ambik duit tu semula, Yejoo go to meet this pakcik alone. Yejoo still refuse to give the goat, so that pakcik mengamuk lah sebab dah lah duit takde, kambing kau nak. Banyak cantik muka kau? So pakcik tu pukul-pukul Yejoo, and then the pakcik being his asshole self, he raped Yejoo. THIS IS WHERE I GOT SO EMO LAH SEBAB MINSIK THEN DATANG LARI-LARI AND MASA TU PAKCIK TU DAH SIAP HIS DIRTY BUSINESS WITH YEJOO(it wasn't showed in detail don't worry) TAPI KIRANYA MINSIK TU TAHULAH KAN YEJOO TU KENA RAPE, PASTU, PASTU, PASTU, DIA BOLEH BLAH??????? WTF???? BRUH?????

This is why I have trust issue with good looking guys. Mesti, adaaaaa je yang tak kena. Aku cuba lah husnudzon ok mungkin dia gi panggil polis ke, orang lain ke nak mintak tolong kan? But no. He didn't come back...

The saddest thing is, Yejoo saw him running away 😭

Yejoo get the goat, but she lost her dignity. She went to school the next day, bringing the goat along. Of course lah she gets bullied and called names for it, but she didn't care enough. Lagi sedih, Minsik was absent that day.

After that, the scene yang Yejoo pergi church tu happened. 
Remember how Minsik only saw the goat alone, but without Yejoo? Like I said earlier, the goat symbolizes what happened to Yejoo. Minsik saw the goat because he actually knows. He'll be haunted with the regret, probably forever. Even when Yejoo is not there anymore. Anything could've happened to Yejoo, either she ran away, or no longer alive, but the history, what happened, what Minsik witnessed, happened, and nothing could change that fact.

After I finished watching, of course lah I couldn't help but to wonder why didn't Minsik say anything, do anything when he saw what happened to Yejoo and afterwards. The actor, Jinyoung himself pun kata dia tak puas hati kenapa character dia tak macam hero-hero filem yang lain. The answer, kinda blows my mind. Below is an interview with Jinyoung:

---END OF SPOILER---


There's also other messages in the story, that I'd like you to experience watching it by yourself, experience that "Oh........." moment when you finally understand. 

My comment about this movie is, this is a movie with an ordinary story, with ordinary characters, and ordinary ending, but still an amazing movie, nevertheless. 

It's realistic. No fairy tale kind of stuffs. Hero or not, in the end of the day, an ordinary human being has both strength and weaknesses. 

If you ask me to rate, 7.5/10 for storyline, 100/10 for the messages and uniqueness. Tapi perlu sel-sel otak berhubung lebih sikit lah sebab deep 😂

Okay, that's all kot yang I have to say about this movie. Sorry if my review is bad, berterabur ke apa ke. Sorry for the extreme rojak-ness ahahahaha that's just how I write. Some things are more comfortable written in english, while some in malay. Another review that I suggest you to read is here (but this one really contains lots of spoiler as it elaborate most scene in detail, so don't read if you're planning to watch the movie first!) 

Bye, Assalamualaikum 😊

17/10/17 😳💓

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14 comment(s)

  1. aigoo i want to watch this from a long time ago but cant find it *mungkin sbb cari dgn lutut agknya*

    thanks for the review !

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  2. I cannot brain this story. hahaha. Its just full of negativity :3

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  3. @Eyqa Zq agak lah, sebab macam semua org problematic lollll

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  4. I tengok movie ni dua sbb je... Ida ngan Jinyoung hahahah. Tapi serious wehh I kena baca your spoiler alert lepas tgk movie ni sbb sel-sel otak tak berhubung langsung. The metaphor memang very very deep but macam kena tgk balik jer sbb feel dah hilang lps ending yang tak paham tu HAHAHA. But thanks for the review and recommendation! Memang one of a kind ah movie ni lol

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    Replies
    1. @Amelynn Hisham
      AHAHAHHAA I rasa honoured pulak setanding dgn jinyoung 😆 ikrrr i pun memula tak paham cerita ni nyaris nak mengamuk membazir masa je tengok ahaha. Btw no problemo!

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  5. have u watch may-who? it's a very cute and funny thai move! go give it a try :)

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  6. why did i read this in malaysian accent HAHA btw good review i was too lazy to watch it:)

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  7. Good review...good interpretation...easy to understand your review..thanks a lot 😊👍

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  8. Selepas baca review ni baru ak faham apa Yang nak disampaikan dalam citer tu... Ending dia buat aku blurr jee...

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    Replies
    1. Sama lahh blur jugak, but this is just my intepretation, might be inaccurate jugak hehe

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  9. It was a sad story... I felt pity for yejoo... Do you know any other sites that have analyzed the movie like you?

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