What do you think of Jinu’s interactions with Gwi-Ma in the movie? He seems to behave differently than the other demons with Gwi-Ma but I feel like the movie slowly reveals that he is not in a much different position than them. But how do you interpret it? I’d love to know.
Oooh that's an interesting question.
I've written before about Jinu's second interaction with Gwi-Ma, and I have something in my drafts about the third. But I haven't really looked at Jinu's introduction scene yet. They do act differently towards each other, you're right. Jinu seems to hold more... social power, I guess, than other demons.
A variety of people have suggested different ideas for this. I like the interpretation that there's maybe "ranks" of demons and Jinu is "high-ranking" (like kanula on AO3 spins it in No Chains, No Masters) and I'm also super super into the idea that Jinu basically plays the same role for Gwi-Ma that he did for the king, back when he was human--basically as a court musician for Gwi-Ma's kingdom (spoondrifts, for instance, explores this really incredibly in your awful heart to song).
But I mean, yeah, let's analyze what the movie specifically gives us! :)
Let me try and trace a pattern I've noticed with Jinu's character.
When Jinu is starving on the streets with his family, he turns to busking to try and make money. Not manual labor or other (maybe more reliable/consistent) types of menial work: he relies on his ability to perform. Either he trusts his ability to perform more than he trusts more straightforward work, or performance was quite literally the only option available for him to leverage.
In Jinu's second and third conversations with Gwi-Ma, he does a lot of fawn response--that is, he tries to get what he wants by framing it through the lens of what Gwi-Ma wants. His strategy for avoiding Gwi-Ma's wrath is to utilize highly calculated appeasement. I've talked about that a bit here and tangentially here.
Jinu, for a period of time, was a court musician. Obviously Gwi-Ma got him into that position, but the fact remains that Jinu had experience navigating a space with very complex social dynamics even before he went down into the demon realm. He would not have been able to fight or challenge the king directly, so it's likely that he navigated the palace with a similar attitude of appeasement and fawn response that he later uses with Gwi-Ma. Especially because his situation, I have to emphasize, was very unusual. People from his background (and gender) were not usually ~considered~ for positions as court performers. He was a court performer who wasn't a kisaeng. That would make his position (based on my understanding) very... strange.
Jinu is really good at being an idol. Lots of people have pointed this out in a joking way, but I want to point out in a serious way: Jinu figured out exactly what he and the Saja Boys needed to do in order to become famous and beloved as quickly as possible. It's not just that the songs are catchy (although they are), it's that Jinu knew exactly how to build a fandom. He crafted lovable, intriguing personas, dance challenges, variety show appearances, lion mascots for each member, advertisements ("Join the Pride. We need you")... and beyond that, is just a master of knowing how to act in public. How to talk, what to do. So hot. And respectful.
Jinu is great at manipulating Rumi. Now, I say that as neutrally as possible, but it is just blatantly true. On a personal level, I think he meets up with Rumi because she's intriguing to him and he wants a connection with someone who gets it. And then over the course of the movie he grows to care about her. But on a professional level, he's doing what he told Gwi-Ma he would do. Gain her trust, figure out her shame. I mean, he has to, to keep up plausible deniability so Gwi-Ma doesn't think he's rebelling (though that goes down the pan after Free). But like, that first rooftop meeting? He tells her exactly what she wants to hear, and it's clearly not a mistake. He's able to cold-read her enough as a stranger that he figures out immediately what to say to make her lower her guard. In the course of one meeting, Rumi goes from trying to kill him to letting him approach her and reach out towards her neck in a very intimate way (and then she tries to kill him again, but still. a lot of progress was made).
In Jinu's introductory scene, Gwi-Ma's first words to him are "I let you keep that voice, Jinu." I've talked about my interpretation of that before, but here I'd like to highlight the idea that Jinu's voice is one of his most prized possessions, and the first thing the writers highlight about him. They want us to think, okay, this guy Jinu's voice is super important to him.
Jinu has a very consistent habit of trying to use talking as a distraction when his life is on the line. We see this a lot with Rumi when she's trying to kill him. We have "Whoa, mind the face! I need it to steal your fans." We have (panicked wild grin) "You're strong". We have "I thought the mannequin was gonna be a fun icebreaker. But I see I was wrong." We have "But first I wanna talk about those pants. Teddy bears and choo choo trains? Really?" We have "I could've told your friends what you are. But I didn't, did I? Because--they don't know." All of these read to me as attempts to disarm Rumi, to catch her off guard and make her stop attacking.
What I'm trying to highlight here is how much Jinu relies on his ability to navigate social situations in order to survive. Very consistently, we see his survival strategy is based in getting people to like him--through manipulation, through strategy, through performance, through sweet-talking.
I get the sense that Jinu grew up with this. He learned the lesson of "you need to rely on other people for survival, so you better make them like you" very young--I mean, he acts like he did. And he's gotten to be very, very good at it, to the point where it's difficult to tell his real thoughts and feelings about a variety of things, because he's too busy being whatever puts him in a good strategic position with the people around him.
So, to sum it up, why does Jinu act like he has more social power than the other demons? Probably because he does, at this point. I suspect he's done a good amount of social climbing in the underworld over the past 400 years--not because he's ambitious, not because he likes Gwi-Ma, but because that's the way he knows to survive. He's aware he's in a dangerous and precarious situation in the underworld, and so he does what he does best to stay as safe as he can: he curries favor.
But, of course, ingratiating yourself to someone with power is not the same as having power yourself. It only means having protection as long as you stay on your patron's good side. I think Jinu is highly aware of this, which is why he's afraid of Gwi-Ma and works so hard to stay in Gwi-Ma's good graces. Jinu knows he's dependent on Gwi-Ma, and Gwi-Ma knows Jinu is dependent on him, and that's not a good or stable position to be in. As we see in the movie. Jinu is only safe as long as he can keep delivering what Gwi-Ma wants. And even then, it's a flimsy kind of "safety--" Gwi-Ma will never let Jinu get too comfortable, too confident. Gwi-Ma needs to keep Jinu in a perpetual state of dependence on him, hence the consistent emotional and psychological abuse.
