Describe the change you felt after watching the movie “Dead Poets Society” twice and what it meant to you. The first time you are not very moved, but after the second viewing you realize the deep message of the film and the importance of romance.

Episode 1

After lunch, I took a walk with a friend and headed towards the Kwanjungkan, which was glowing in the sunlight. Arriving at the multimedia center on the 6th floor, I booked a seat and stood in front of the DVD search bar, thinking to myself, “What movie should I watch today? Soon after, I searched for a movie I’ve been meaning to watch for a while. ‘791.43 W433d, hmmm, it’s in the corner,’ I mutter to myself and start walking. I walk through a circular aisle of popular DVDs, past numerous DVD stacks, and find just what I’m looking for. ‘I’m glad no one else has borrowed it today.’ I walk over to the information desk at the entrance to the multimedia center, check it out, return to my seat, and pop the DVD in. A little girl with a dresser comes out, a student comes out, a candle is lit, and the movie begins.

‘Dead Poets Society’

The movie opens with an entrance ceremony at a typical elite high school, and the new English teacher is introduced. The kids, who are good at studying, who can only study, and who are oppressed to study, are gradually transformed by the new teacher’s new way of teaching. The teacher says, “Carpe Diem, Seize the Day,” and the students call him “O Captain, My Captain. The movie goes through the motions of something you’ve heard before. Some of us are sleepy from hunger, some of us close our eyes for a moment, some of us fiddle with our phones. Some of them shed their timid personalities, some pursue their dreams, and some commit suicide after failing to overcome their families’ opposition. In the end, the teacher who guided them through this new world is kicked out of school. As he walks out of his classroom with his belongings, a student climbs on top of his desk, chanting, ‘O Captain, My Captain. The end credits roll and the movie ends. ‘Oooh, that was touching,’ you think, as you return the DVD and walk out of the government building, ‘So what’s left?’ ‘O Captain, My Captain, Carpe Diem, Seize the Day?’
There are certain things people expect from a classic, a classic movie. There are certain things that people expect from a classic, a masterpiece: a message that resonates with the audience, scenes that captivate the viewer, things that everyone around them sees and talks about for a reason. I thought so. Also, isn’t ‘Dead Poets Society’ a masterpiece that everyone knows? These reasons amplified my expectations for this movie. Sure, there were some memorable scenes. But they weren’t the kind of scenes that immediately come to mind when you think of the movie, they were the kind of scenes that you have to force yourself to remember. I didn’t even have to look up the phrases on the internet, just picked up lines from the movie. In the end, all that remained was the fact that I had seen The Society of the Dead Poets.
Of course, from another point of view, it might be something else. If you’re talking to other people, and you’re talking about a movie, or you’re talking about a classic, and there’s a lot of pretentiousness, the fact that you’ve seen it might be more important than the content. If your goal is to be seen as sophisticated, or to be known for it, you’ve probably already achieved that. If you doubt that there are people who have this kind of purpose, just turn on Facebook, Instagram, or WeChat right now, and you’ll find one or two people who do. I’m not a social media user, but I’m not immune to this perspective. The fact that I watched it wasn’t primarily purposeful, but it wasn’t without purpose, and when it came time to talk about classic movies, I was quick to tell stories about watching them, or sell them.
At this point, I would like to briefly explain that I am an ordinary person because I don’t particularly like watching movies, but if there is a movie that I want to watch, I go to watch it, and when I watch a movie that makes me cry forcibly, such as ‘The Gift of the Seventh Chamber,’ I sometimes cry because I am fooled by it, and when I watch a morning drama that I watch when I wake up early, I feel anger and frustration, and when I watch a movie like ‘Inception’ or ‘Interstellar’ made by Nolan, I feel great and new. However, my first experience of watching ‘Dead Poets Society’ didn’t leave much of an impression on me, and I didn’t remember much of the other classic films I watched during that time to become more ‘cultured’.
Then one day, a year later, I suddenly remembered a movie. ‘Dead Poets Society’. It came out of nowhere. A movie that was well used as a tool to show off to me, but I didn’t really understand what it was about. Why did it come back to me now? Why? Because it’s a masterpiece, because I believed that other people’s rave reviews and long-standing reputation were not for nothing, and I wanted to see it again.

Episode 2

In the evening, I make my way to the library, bathed in the setting sun. I arrive at the multimedia center on the sixth floor, reserve a seat, and stand in front of the DVD search bar. I search for the movie Dead Poets Society. I start walking again. I walk through the circular aisle, past the many DVD racks, and find what I’m looking for. “Thank God no one else has borrowed it today.” I walk over to the information desk at the entrance to the multimedia center, borrow it, return to my seat, and pop the DVD in. The scenes are familiar. A kid is getting dressed, a student walks in, a candle is lit, and the movie starts again.

‘Dead Poets Society’

Welton, an entrance ceremony at an elite school, introducing Mr. Keating as the new literature teacher. “Carpe Diem, Seize the Day.” “O Captain, My Captain.” Oh, there’s that line again. The movie starts up again, with a familiar soundtrack. You want to move past the cringe-worthy moments, the suspenseful moments, but you clench your hands to keep from moving. Each character has a story, each line has a meaning, each scene has a meaning. Finally, “O Captain, My Captain.” A member of the Society of Dead Poets steps up to the desk. The end credits roll. The movie is over, but the story is not.

Epilogue

“So what’s left?” is a valid question. They no longer remain passive, like the quotes. They have built a world of their own and exist within themselves. Children who were mechanically running towards a single goal discover a new world. They go in search of what they really want and try to escape the system. They look for romance and love, suck in the essence of poetry, and search for the meaning of life.
Todd Anderson, timid and, in a way, averse to change. He was a passive, uninspiring person who put everything else aside to pursue his goal of getting into college. But when he meets Mr. Keating and begins to open his eyes to the idea of romance, he becomes a completely different person. When Todd closes his eyes and speaks his thoughts off the cuff, I feel the seeds of life in his harsh words, and the moment he throws away his useless set of school supplies, his life is revitalized. In the face of Neal’s death, he showed that he meant it, and his vitality blossomed the moment he stepped up to his desk to sing “O Captain, My Captain.
Todd Anderson, he was once me, he was someone else, and he will be someone else again. The process of finding his vitality taught me deeply the importance of ‘looking around’ instead of ‘going for the goal’ and showed me the real power of ‘romance’. The second viewing, in which I realized the parts along with the whole, gave me a deeper appreciation that I didn’t have the first time, and made me understand each scene in detail, not just as a passing scene. It also brought out a deeper empathy.
A movie that can’t be a life movie after watching it once won’t be a life movie after watching it twice. I don’t know what more emotions there are in the movie, what more hidden stories there are in the movie, but just as the second experience was huge, I’m sure the third, fourth, and further experiences will be even bigger. That’s the value of the Dead Poets Society, which is more than just “O Captain, My Captain, Carpe Diem, Seize the Day,” it’s the value of the classics that you can look back on.
On the other side of memory, many works are lined up side by side and displayed on the wall. Some of them have lost their shine and are fading away, while others, like The Dead Poet’s Society, have regained their shine, and all of them have maintained their place without you. Let’s listen to them once, then, for they will cry out, to tell their stories, not to fade away, not to be forgotten. To listen to their world once more, it can make them shine again, it can move me once more.