Miracle in Cell No. 7

There are days I find it so hard to feel grateful for anything in my life. No, don’t get me wrong. I know I’m grateful but some days, I just can’t feel it. So when that happens I watch movies that will help me be in tune with that feeling. And when this happened some days ago, I just knew the perfect movie to watch was Miracle in cell no 7.

Overview

The 2013 Korean movie stars Ryu Seung-ryon as Lee Yong-gu who plays a mentally challenged man but has a great relationship with her daughter. He occasionally finds a dead young girl in an empty market one day and because he is mentally unstable but also very good at heart, he first of all doesn’t realize the girl is dead. And then try to resuscitate her.

In the act, someone comes to witness him and just assumes he was the one who harmed the girl. He gets arrested by the police, leaving his little daughter who waits for him all day and night at home. And then later gets forced to plead guilty to something he didn’t do, landing him in prison for a death sentence

While in prison, his roommates find out he is an intellectually challenged man so he possibly couldn’t have done what he’s been accused of. And then help him to reunite with his daughter by smuggling her into their prison to spend time with her dad since he was going to be killed.

What I think

This is the third time I’m watching this movie and each time, it just breaks my heart knowing that someone actually went through this in real life. I can’t begin by not applauding Ryu Seung-Ryon. He did a great job at this role and I believe he was probably born for that particular movie because everything he did in the movie found a way to speak to my soul.

I know of a number of mentally challenged people and they are not so friendly at all but for him to be able to play that first miracle of exhibiting so much love towards his daughter, that was a Grammy deserving act. And that alone is indeed the first miracle.

Also, another miracle in this movie was when the roommates were smuggling his daughter into their cell. That part was just so cool to watch. All the actors involved were just phenomenal and it was probably the smoothest smuggle I’ve ever seen. And this time, the fact that it happened in real life made me realize I wasn’t just watching fiction, I was watching history.

I think the greatest asset in this movie is the flow of emotions. I always say an actor is good when he gets you to feel however they want and this movie does it effortlessly. The flow of emotions in this movie from the beginning to the end is like nothing I’ve ever seen before and whether you are emotional or not, at a point you just begin to cry.

This will definitely continue to be on my “grateful movie list” forever because it always does the job of making me feel grateful for my life, mental state and the people around me. And most importantly, the fact that I have the ability to be able to express myself because that’s something we always undermine as humans. 10/10 all day everyday for miracle in cell no.7

Images are from IMDb