The Day After: A Master Class in Changing Protagonists

Whether a "good guy" or a "bad guy," a narrative film needs a protagonist with very, very, few exceptions. They can be just an out-and-out hero like a Marvel film. They can be a bad guy that you watch descend along a dark path, like Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler, as just one example. They can be nuanced and go through tons of change like Ray Liotta's Henry Hill in Goodfellas. There can be multiple, like Pulp Fiction and Vincent Vega (John Travolta), Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), and Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis). Even if it's a poorly-written/executed, one-dimensional, character, generally speaking, there needs to be a character, or characters, to make the plot-go-round.

But what about the act of changing horses mid-stream, of switching from one main character to another? This is not nearly as common as either one or two main protagonists, or an ensemble cast, but it is not too far-fetched and there are several examples of doing this and ways that it can be done. One way is the "bait-and-switch." Scream opened up to audiences expecting Drew Barrymore to be the lead actress, only to shock them with an iconic cold open scene that became a trademark of the franchise. Another is to simply have the lead character die, as Ingmar Bergman does in The Virgin Spring (which I talked about in detail last week on this site).

These are different, however, then a gradual transition from one character to another, and that's what I want to talk about by highlighting Korean film The Day After, directed by Hong Sang-soo. Sang-soo's film premiered, like so many of his films, at Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Starring two of his favorite actors, Kwon Hae-hyo, and Kim Min-hee, who he was notably involved in an affair with that was confirmed in March 2017, just a few months before Cannes and the release of two more Sang-soo/Min-hee films, we watch as a book publisher (Hae-hyo) has to hire a new assistant (Min-hee) after his old one quits following an affair. He also has to hide this from his wife, and he does so rather poorly.

The film stars just four named characters, so, like the Bergman films I discussed last week, everyone is really a key character. There is a distinction, however, in the main character, and the way it changes from the beginning to the end of the film in correlation with information we receive about the characters, as well as the narrative, is quite excellent. 

The First Act:

We start with Bongwan (Hae-hyo) as our main character. The very first scene of the film is Bongwan's wife Haejoo (Cho Yun-hee) asking him if he's cheating on her. At first, he laughs it off, but as he continues to not answer the question, Haejoo gets more and more upset. He ultimately leaves and we see him in some flashbacks, presumably to the evening before, as well as him starting to go to work.

Right away, we get a sense of Bongwan. He is pretty unsympathetic as a character, and not exactly super easy to latch on to. However, his narrative, especially in this opening 15-20 minutes of the film, is super intriguing and lures you into gaining a sort of interest in who he is. Both of these things are equally important. First and foremost, his lack of sympathy, because that is what allows us to almost immediately connect with Areum, which I'll discuss more in the section specific to her. The other is this interest in his events. We have already established that this is not exactly a guy we are desperate to see succeed. Using these out-of-order events that included a morning/evening workout and a scene on a bus with his muse, Changsook (Kim Sae-byuk), there is an element of intrigue as to what is driving Bongwan to act this way. With Bongwan established as our protagonist, Hong Sang-soo then brings Areum into the picture.

Introducing Areum:

Our first major ripple in the film's landscape comes with the introduction of Areum (Min-hee). Areum is a replacement for Changsook in the job as Bongwan's assistant, more or less. She seems like a nice person for all intents and purposes and as we learn more about her, we like her more and more. Areum as a character exists for several reasons, and some of those make her perfect to end up as the film's protagonist. For starters, she is, I would say, the most likable character in the film. She is tossed into a situation that she knows nothing about and obviously does not want to be involved in, and subsequently tossed around by this situation. She is hired, convinced by Bongwan to stay when she wants to quit, then fired anyway because Haejoo thinks she is the guilty party. She is slapped by Haejoo during their very first meeting because she has no clue what is going on and Haejoo suspects her. She is wholly sympathetic, even at the expense of Haejoo, which is something no one else is in this film.

Areum would not work as a protagonist, though, with just this tossing around happening to her. It is clear, through multiple scenes, that she has a sense of wisdom about her. The key example of this is the lunch scene where she walks Bongwan through a philosophical discussion pondering faith and her belief in God. This scene is not too far removed from an additional scene where Bongwan and Changsook drunkenly argue in a bar, which only further emphasizes Areum's personality. She is not in her position because Bongwan is hopelessly in love with her, she is there because she could very well have a future in the publishing/writing industry, as emphasized by her ability to think critically and deeply. In her discussions about God and her own faith, and seeing flashbacks of her to earlier in her first day of work doing work for Bongwan, we build upon our initial thoughts of sympathy for Areum and subsequently feel an appreciation for her skill and smarts. That then takes us to the final act of the film.

The Ending:

The ending sequence is key as to why I claim that this film changes protagonists. The key moment in the film is Areum's taxi ride after leaving the publishing office. With snow falling, she sticks her head out the window in a moment of bliss. At that moment, we see her pure bliss. It feels like a very innocent moment and one full of a sort of awe and wonder of something that, tying into her faith that she outlines, she feels God has bestowed upon the world. It is a conclusion to the philosophical conversations that she has with Bongwan as well as the immediate aftermath of her dealing with the fallout of Bongwan and Changsook. She is out of that situation and into the rest of her life, so to speak. But not just yet.

The establishing shot of the final scene, of Areum alone in the publishing office, makes it clear that this is her scene. We are no longer watching Bongwan's story, this is now Areum's. Areum returns for one final meet-up with her boss of one day. Bongwan asks Areum almost word-for-word the exact same questions that he does in what we can believe is their first-ever conversation with one another. Bongwan does not remember her, which is jarring after we, the audience, saw their utterly bizarre day together, not to mention that Areum must as well if she is returning there. As Areum lays out what is happening with her life, it feels that much more gripping than Bongwan's quite significant growth. Because we have seen her grow and bare her soul to us in a powerful, sobering, way, her triumphs are incredible. When she walks out of the office, it feels like the next chapter of her life and one that we can only imagine the possibilities of as she moves on past the restraints of this story and thus our time with her.

Why This Works:

Changing your protagonist, especially for the climactic scenes of the film as is done in The Day After, is something that cannot be done unless it makes sense. For a film like The Day After, it almost feels as if the first shot and the final shot are from entirely different films, and yet it feels like such a natural transition. As the story progresses, we see clearly that Areum is the most easy-to-connect-with character. While we start with that interest in Bongwan's affairs, it becomes clear over the course of the film that he is almost a lost cause. This film is still, to some extent, Bongwan's story. With the affair that Sang-soo had with Min-hee, Bongwan certainly feels like a writer-insert type of character. We get closure with his story in the ending sequence, and it feels good, but at the same time, we see who he truly is as he forgets who Areum is despite having an utterly bizarre 24 hours with her and in his own life. That final scene where we see Areum walk out of the publishing office feels truly heartening to watch and makes this change in protagonists feel natural, welcome, and like the fitting ending to this story.