"Furthermore, had the script put more emphasis on the differences between Yak-jeon and his equally, if not more, famous brother Yak-yong (Ryu, pitifully underutilized), who was a distinguished scholar and also exiled for 18 years in a remote area, the film would've hit the mother lode of philosophical discourse and oriental sophistication, instead, hijacked by Chang-dae's school of hard knocks, Yak-yong's side of story tends to be perceived as too cerebral to possess any import, which, in fact, does a disservice to Yak-jeon's left-field decision of writing a book about fish. Finding more purpose in dedicating himself to a non-human world than to a human society is Yak-jeon's most radical rebellion, in spite of his advocacy of embracing all different schools of thoughts, he cannot slough off the rancor that turns him into a cynic, compared to Yak-yong's humanism blooming against adversity, Yak-jeon is a less heroic figure in this regard, his book is, give or take, his act of petty revenge, plus the film never cares to show there is any affinity between Yak-jeon and his marine objects."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, please google it, thanks.

When a country used philosophy to strengthen its control; when an ordinary person poured his efforts just in order to enter the ruing class and survive; when the ruling class disdain wisdom and philosophy and contempt the disadvantaged. This sort of country was appalling. People couldn't see the sun but just darkness, couldn't get education but be imposed to submit heavy taxes. However, there were some little stars glistening in the darkness, those people were so brave and desperately fearless that they fought with hypocrisy and viciousness.

Moreover, I really appreciated this film because it clearly demonstrates the influence of Confucian culture and its disadvantages when it' s used as a ruling tool. It also explains indirectly that Confucian culture is, in fact, neo-confucianism which was just forwarded to help emperor to unify people's minds and control them.

Anyway, this film gave me a resonance and epiphany.