Movies you like more than your rating.

This seems really stupid in retrospect, but I didn't think that it was real when I saw it, simply because I didn't realize that there was no equivalent to the Humane Society in Korean cinema.

This is a fair interpretation. I'll have to watch the film again to see if I warm up some more to it.

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That's a very understandable reaction. We're all so use to movie magic creating things and places right before our eyes, that a person could watch a movie like Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and not even notice that the animal cruelty was real. I was aware of the cruelity before I watched it, otherwise I would've thought it was just CG and not been to effected by it.

Thanks. In the end all of our own interpretations are right, for ourselves.

Had I known, I would have skipped it.

And that's a good example of how a film's intention (and powerful message) doesn't outweigh its problematic elements. If someone, for moral reasons, rated the film low because of the animal cruelty I would consider that perfectly respectable.

You're not conflating it, as I actually just rewatched the film in my research in the genre deconstruction thread (which you can check out here), and Nielsen's character does try to slut shame her for her clothing, after she's been harassed multiple times by his crew, and right after one of his men took advantage of her naivety with romantic matters by getting her to kiss him multiple times by claiming that it's a practice that's "good for your health". I mean, it's good that we got a scene later from her perspective about how much he got on her nerves, but I feel that most people would've taken his side since he's the protagonist, and his view was reflective of societal attitudes towards women at the time (plus, they fall in love anyway for no reason after he treated her like that). It also feels hypocritical on the film's part, because it still presents that view in that manner, but then tries to titalate us further with the unnecessary "skinny-dipping" scene, which made it feel skeevier. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty good movie on the whole, but her depiction definitely felt really, really dated.

But the film ends up contradicting itself on that point, because, while

Is that a specific Sam Rockwell film about an underdog you had in mind, or just an example?

I was thinking of The Winning Season.

I need to watch that. I have a weakness for Rockwell.

I like him as well and it's a solid film. I often get it mixed up with The Heart of the Game, which is a documentary about a girls' basketball team.