The narrative of this film is extraordinarily symbolical and I was only able to understand the implicit meaning and make the connection between the protagonist and the story of the red riding hood until the very end - like a bomb dropped on me, shocking and traumatizing me, making me wonder why I hadn’t noticed it sooner.
***Spoiler Warning***
The direction of this film is magnificent - opening with a documentary style narration and transitioning to a young girl in bright red - inducing a striking contrast to the gloomy background and setting, making this girl mysterious and engaging.
One of my favorite elements of this film is the third-person narration of the red riding hood while the director visually guides the audience through the social-political setting and showcasing the society living happily, but inauthentically due to the authoritarian and militaristic government. The political setting results in seemingly prosperous lives for a few and poverty for the rest, just like when the red riding hood arrived at her mother’s house and was unknowingly nourishing herself mother’s flesh and blood. The use of this metaphor in the visual storytelling is truly powerful, admirable, and tragically dark.
The most compelling allegory of this film for me was the plot of how the wolf took another road and arrived at the red hiding hood’s destination before her. This relates back to the head of police’s metaphor of breeding two different dogs and ultimately one will survive. We, as the audience, develop empathy and pity for the protagonist when we realize that he was the subject of political exploitation. I could not make sense as to why the protagonist was the wolf until the very end when I realized that he knowingly lured the red riding hood into a trap, taking the faster route to the destination of political espionage and exploitation, thus devouring and killing her - being the dog that survived the interbreeding. Consequently, the closing scene with the red hiding hood story book is so powerful and impressive.
The excellent direction, editing, cinematography, and unique narration bring so much suspense and mystery to this film. With a story that was not understood by the audience until the very end, the creators of this film were remarkably successful in their storytelling.
