기억의 밤
"Locked. Erased. Controlled. Isolated. Blurred."
Forgotten - Characters & Cast
Character Analysis
Jin-seok
Kang Ha-neul
Motivation
Initially, his motivation is to uncover the truth about his brother's strange transformation. After his memories return, his motivation shifts to grappling with the overwhelming guilt of his past actions and protecting the man who sought revenge on him from the full, terrible truth of his father's complicity.
Character Arc
Jin-seok begins as a seemingly fragile but ordinary young man in 1997. His journey is a harrowing descent into confusion and paranoia as his reality is deconstructed. The arc culminates in the shocking revelation that he is a 41-year-old man who has suppressed the memory of committing a horrific crime. His final act of remembering leads not to freedom, but to an acceptance of his immense guilt, which he resolves through suicide, thus completing his tragic arc from perceived victim to acknowledged perpetrator seeking atonement.
Yoo-seok (Imposter)
Kim Moo-yul
Motivation
His sole motivation for two decades has been to find the man who murdered his mother and sister and to understand why. He stages the elaborate deception to break Jin-seok's amnesia and force a confession, seeking closure for his lifelong trauma.
Character Arc
Initially presented as the perfect, loving older brother, 'Yoo-seok' is revealed to be an imposter, Choi Seung-uk, the surviving son from the 1997 murder. He has dedicated his life to finding his family's killer. His arc is a single-minded quest for vengeance and truth. After finally extracting a confession from Jin-seok, his life's purpose is fulfilled. Exhausted and with nothing left to live for, he finds his own tragic end by taking his life, mirroring Jin-seok's despair.
The 'Father' / 'Mother'
Moon Sung-keun / Na Young-hee
Motivation
Their motivation is professional and financial. They have been hired by Choi Seung-uk (the fake Yoo-seok) to play their roles in the psychological experiment designed to make Jin-seok remember the murders.
Character Arc
These characters initially appear as loving, albeit slightly distant, parents. Their arc is a sharp turn from caregivers to conspirators. They are revealed to be hired actors (a psychiatrist and an actress) participating in the elaborate ruse to manipulate Jin-seok. Their development is minimal; they exist primarily as tools of the deception and symbols of the film's theme of false reality.