genuinely--sorry, immediate follow-up post--like holy hell Jinu's story literally COULD be used to teach restorative justice 101. It has all the trademark points and concepts in it that are used to show how punitive justice does not help create better societies.
Jinu's original immoral act was brought about directly as a result of the injustice in his society: he would never have left his family if he wasn't starving on the streets as a result of the caste system. It follows that Jinu being punished for this act will not help create any "public good," because his action was in reaction to his circumstances. As long as those circumstances still exist, others will take the same action as him.
Jinu's later immoral acts were brought about AS A RESULT OF HIM BEING PUNISHED AND REDUCED TO HIS MISTAKES. Firstly, if Jinu had not been punished and dragged down to the underworld by Gwi-Ma, he could have used his guilt around his family in a more productive way, by going back and trying to fix what he'd done. But he never got that choice, because he was imprisoned (he literally calls himself a "prisoner of Gwi-Ma") in the underworld. And because Gwi-Ma tortured him and constantly reminded him of his wrongdoing, Jinu was also mentally trapped in the idea that he could never be a "good person." Because of that, he never tried to be better, instead accepting the idea that he is a bad person who only does bad things. And then he continued to do bad things.
Jinu was highly motivated to be a better person. It's clear in the movie that he wants to be a better person. He says it outright to Rumi before and during Free. The reason why he keeps doing bad things is because he's being punished for a mistake he made 400 years ago. IF HE WAS NOT BEING ETERNALLY PUNISHED HE LIKELY WOULD HAVE CHANGED HIS WAYS CENTURIES AGO.
When Jinu told Rumi what he'd done, the very first thing she says is "but that's not all you are." I'm not kidding when I say that line is restorative justice 101. The very first thing I thought of hearing that was my dad sitting me down and teaching me about this shit when I was like twelve. It is a fundamental concept. People are not defined as "eternal bad people" when they do something wrong, because they still have the capacity for good. This movie is trying so fucking hard to explain that to you people but apparently they needed to hit you over the head with a brick for it to really register?
