My Name Is Loh Kiwan: Background Information And Characters
My name is Loh Kiwan starts with Loh Kiwan enjoying a birthday lunch with his mother as she leaves home to go to work. Both Loh Kiwan and his mother are North Korean refugees and since Loh Kiwan was wanted for going to the aid of a friend whom his boss was beating, he had to remain incognito. As a result, he is confined to the house while his mother goes out to seek her daily job.
That night was the kind of cold that made Loh Kiwan uneasy for the welfare of his mother, which was different from other snow-filled nights. Anyway, some police officers have arrived at his mother’s workplace, and during the questioning of her about Loh Kiwan, he appears on the scene.
Due to the pursuing policemen, the mother-son duo is compelled to flee, resulting in the mother dying after being knocked over by a truck. At her death, Kiwan’s mother commanded him to seek falcon safety, which means never looking back. That is why, after his uncle disposes of his mother’s cadaver on the black market, he helps him secure a flight ticket to Belgium.
Will Loh Kiwan get refugee status within Belgium?
It is not easy to apply for refugee status, particularly after Loh Kiwan has landed in Belgium. Upon his arrival in this location, there are no job opportunities for him since he hasn’t begun the process of applying for a job seeking asylum. While waiting for the day of his following interview, Loh Kiwan loses his place to stay and has to sleep on the floors of a public toilet.
Loh Kiwan forages in rubbish bins for food and water before he starts peddling used bottles for money, which he uses for his next meal. One day, the public toilet he sleeps in is closed, and he runs into some young men who beat him.
He is submerged in a river only to wake up in a laundromat, the first time he meets Marie, at a moment when she is attempting to rob him. Marie hints that he should find a job in a factory, which for the first time lets him have a warm room and a bed, food, transport, and friends.
Loh Kiwan seems to have settled in Belgium but is still facing challenges in being accepted for asylum. The authorities that are responsible for his application seem to think that he is no other refugee but a North Korean Defector and believe that he is in the country for migrant profiteering reasons. It is a long procedure that takes a toll on the mind, but thanks to Marie’s father, he was able to meet a lawyer.
Kiwan finds a friend, Sun-joo, at the meat factory when she is bullied at work, and she helps him get acclimatized. When she hears him having trouble expressing himself because he was born in North Korea, she volunteers to represent him in court. On the hearing day, Sun-joo goes against him and claims that he is a Chinese Korean trying to find refuge to gain benefits. She also mentions the name of Loh Kiwan as well.
As a result, he quits the meat factory and transitions to working in a restaurant as a waiter and dishwasher. One day Miss Sun-joo bumps into him before the police invade her house and says a refugee officer warned that she will get her visa status revoked and the factory would be closed if she supported him. Yet she claims the officer didn’t renew her visa, which led to deportation after making an apology to Loh Kiwan.
All the same, she starts compensating for her mistake by going back to China where she found a tipped-off article on her mother’s accident which authenticated what Loh Kiwan was saying.
Such evidence could have probably helped him win the approval of the refugee status, however, he gets worried by Marie’s absence from the courtroom so he stands up and abandons the hearing halfway through. Later, in a letter, Loh Kiwan sends to the father of Marie, he states that he had worked hard after Marie left the country believing that he will eventually be granted recognition as a refugee.
The very shocking thing is why does Marie leave Belgium without completing all her formalities?
Marie uses drugs after she learns that her father permitted her mother to be euthanized. She is in debt to her drug dealer, which leads her to security and forces her to become a shooter in underground bookmaking. She wants to quit and takes out a loan against the money of Loh Kiwan to repay debts incurred with other usurers.
Yet, when Kiwan demands to have the wallet back from her and explains to her that the money was earned from working with his mother’s corpse, Marie seeks her dealer asking for the wallet again. She accepts the offer to fight in the next match and wins since she wants to help Kiwan out. Nevertheless, while she wants to retire, she tries to entice her last dealer who wants her to fight in a fixed match, and when she aims sideways, hoping this will free her.
In court, when Kiwan is meant for a hearing, a resource phones and intimidates him, making threats to kill Kiwan if she doesn’t comply when just about to enter the courtroom. Marie reaches the dealer’s Keller and notes another competitor waiting for her instead.
The arrangement was for Marie to contest one more match to complete the payment for the commission that her dealer owed to the competitor, only for the latter to alter the arrangement by meeting her on the way and inviting her to become his rip operator. The dealer gets mad and executes the competitors and their security guards. He intends to run away and settle in Amsterdam, where he wants to open a more extensive gambling center. Besides, he is planning for Marie to accompany him.
Marie is reluctant to leave, so the dealer begins to assault her and orders his men to escort her away. But Loh Kiwan appears just in time to save her and when the dealer confronts Kiwan in an attempt to stab him, after a struggle, it is Marie who shoots him. There’s blood on her hands, and she feels the need to kill him, but Kiwan disallows her and they two escape from the place, fleeing in order not to be caught by the men of the competitor. A few beats came, and her hand in hand, Kiwan and Marie hid before the competitors’ men came onto the spot.
Nevertheless, Kiwan understands well that the crew hands are looking for Marie because they want her for the competitions. Hence, the only option to secure Marie’s safety and give her a chance to start a new life is for her to quit Belgium. Since Marie has a citizenship status, she can enter and exit the country whenever she pleases, but Loh Kiwan’s situation is different, he is not allowed to go elsewhere. So, Marie departs Belgium all on her own and Loh Kiwan vows to ensure that they reunite and traverse the world together.
What is the reason behind the woman’s ire towards her father, and what causes him to elicit her forgiveness?
After her mother died, Marie discovers her father said yes to euthanasia and blames him for her mother’s death.
On the day that she left Belgium, fleeing from the gang members who were after her, she reveals to her father that witnessing her mother’s pain made her hope that she would just sleep forever.
As a result, Marie had guilt and shame when she died and in her grief, she lashed out at her father, whom she knew it was wrong to lash out at but did so nonetheless. Guilt stricken, Marie’s father divulges the secret he has held all these years since his mother had said Marie should not know this, which is that she opted for euthanasia.
Marie offers her father an apology, and they can make amends before she departs, assuring him that she will call him when she gets to safety.
But what about Loh Kiwan and Marie, do they end up together?
Both Gon’s notion and identity as a refugee become quite real a whole year later, he’s unhappy. He does not appreciate the notion of being a refugee with no free right to move from one country to another. He admits he cares about
his ability to exit a nation whenever he desires. So, despite what his mother wanted, he resolved to take a chance. He quits his position in Belgium to meet Marie L.
What happens at the end of My Name is Loh Kiwan?
Loh Kiwan’s presence leaves Marie aghast but she quickly regains her composure and the movie concludes with them TWO embracing as they look forward to meeting each other. My Name is Loh Kiwan, let’s the audience empathize with the struggles of being a refugee through a lens of loss and grief, desperation and defeat, and love as the outcome.
It regards the general hardships and the ordeals of the individuals who are rendered homeless in their own countries or those who seek asylum in other countries through the shoes of Loh Kiwan. It is heart-rending, as Loh Kiwan’s emotions are captured perfectly in the acting of this character.
The two lead characters are nearly identical in terms of the tragic circumstances and hardships that they have faced which include the loss of their mother. There are, however, marked differences, Loh Kiwan pledges that no struggle will force him to give up his existence and that he will honor his mother’s promise. Meanwhile, Marie seems to be on the other side of the river and is completely devoid of hope and is about to give up in exasperation.
They eventually heal each other and bring in love to infuse them and help them through their struggles and to each other.
To Watch More Movies Like My Name is Loh Kiwan (2024) Visit Soap2day.
