The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On is a Korean film about a gangster who has trouble balancing his brutal life at work and his family life at home. Throughout the movie, there is a polka theme that gets played often, and it is always juxtaposed against a tragic scene for the main character. For most of the film, this music serves to exemplify the silliness of a scene, like a scene where he gets into a knife fight in a convenience store but he doesn't have a knife so he is forced to throw boxes of cookies at his offenders. The music helps the audience focus on the fact that he used a snack as a weapon and not that he ended up with a rather severe stab wound.

At the end of the movie, the main character ends up staying with the mob to fiscally support his son and daughter as they study abroad in Canada. The stress of being married to a mobster causes his wife to leave him to stay with their offspring as they study, leaving him alone in Korea. In the final scene, he receives a home movie from his family in Canada. As he watches it, his attitude goes from excited and happy to get news from his family, to sad and angry about the fact that he will never join them in Canada. He throws his bowl of noodles to the floor, he knocks over a speaker, but the tape plays on without any concern for his tragic obligation. He realizes this, calms down, and proceeds to clean up the mess he made. As he does this the polka music starts to play.

This musical theme functions with eternal logic, though not with the main character or any character for that matter. It serves as a representation of the jubilant indifference to his suffering of ultimately life itself. But what can he do but clean up the noodles he spilled and get back to work at the job he hates. After all the show must go on.

The final scene I wrote about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdO1rqkjvBs&t=103m16s