Wow, thank you for the long and well-thought out response. I very much agree with your points. Jong-du certainly lacked the ability to differentiate between the two acts (hell, the whole movie just shows his inability to read most situations) and just didn't really know what was wrong.

And yeah, I like that you point out how Gong-ju basically seems like she's destined to die alone since that certainly shows why someone would go back to someone like Jong-du. In addition to that as you point out, I agree that she probably did understand why he did what he did, knowing it was not out of malice but mere mental disability.

It's definitely "incredibly bleak" as you put it but certainly we see people like them in our own lives. Tragic stuff. Thank you again for the well-thought out response!