5. Black Republic (Park Kwang-soo, 1990)
Park Kwang-soo directs and pens an intensely bleak film, where hope is nowhere to be found, neither for the workers and the women, who form the lowest ranks of the society depicted, nor the privileged of the new generation. The setting of the filled with dust and dirt mining town, serves his purpose quite adequately, with Yoo Young-gil’s cinematography highlighting this bleakness, both in the “foggy” exteriors and the dark interiors, with a very fitting approach. In essence, the town is a metaphor for the Korean society of the time (to say the least), where the lowest ranks (as mentioned above) are almost constantly subjected to oppression by the authorities and the “capital”, with their disillusionment about the fact playing absolutely no role in their circumstances. In this setting, love seems to provide a thin ray of hope, but even this does not last for long, as the inevitable violence resulting from reality, eventually erases even this minor optimism, as depicted, quite eloquently, during the finale.
6. Our Twisted Hero (Park Jon-won, 1992)
Yi Mun-yol’s book was highly political, even through its metaphorical approach, and although Park Jong-won’s movie follows the same path, it also includes a number of episodes that seem to aim at entertainment and in general to lighten the narrative, with the concept of the students peaking at the female teacher and the train rails challenge being among the most notable samples.
Nevertheless, the metaphor is still well-presented and quite impactful. Om Sok-dae is the embodiment of the dictatorial regimes of S. Korea, and Byeong-tae the powers of resistance that tried to overthrow them and failed. The former rules with a combination of hard and soft power, which uses the fact that he is the biggest and strongest student in the classroom in order to establish fear on the rest of the students and rule through the potential consequences to any who does not bid his will. The fact that he does not rule through just brute power, which would eventually draw the attention of the teachers on his practices, but through the aforementioned setting of fear and through cunningness in the very few times Byeong-tae manages to somewhat put him on the spotlight with his teacher, is a testament to how dictatorships work. The same applies to Seok-dae’s behaviour.
7. White Badge (Chung Ji-young, 1992)
In order to depict the many comments of the film, Chung Ji-young implements an approach that moves in two axes, one taking place during the war, and the other in the present. The evident element of this presentation is that the second axis presents the consequences, while the first the events that instigated them. In that fashion, and regarding the war part, we witness how a group of men started with a happy-go-lucky mentality, actually being disappointed for not participating in the war, only to gradually lose their grip to reality and eventually turn into animals, as they experienced more of the real nature of war. An important factor in the process is the dehumanization of the Vietcong, which is presented in ingenious (and metaphorical) fashion, as we watch the soldiers kill a herd of water buffalos by mistake in the beginning of the film, with the same lack of remorse (the majority of them at least) as they kill soldiers and even non-combatants, later.
8. To The Starry Island (Park Kwang-soo, 1993)
Park Kwang-soo directs a movie that seems to have captured all essence of country life in the island, including the status of women, which are perceived as “property” of their husbands, the lack of knowledge regarding what is going on outside the village, and most of all, the mischievous, meddlesome, and gossipy, but also laid-back and cheerful nature of the inhabitants. His approach is quite realistic, but also induced with much humor (the scene where the neighbors of a woman having sex decide to check on her because they think something is wrong with her is a distinct one), which makes the movie quite entertaining, through a rather light, and, at the same time, nostalgic tone.
9. Rosy Life (Kim Hong-joon, 1994)
Kim Hong-joon directs a film of episodic nature, with the episodes coming together through the concept of the shop and the character of Madam, with the two elements being the only ones the three men have in common. At the same time, each of the men seems to have a clear narrative purpose. Dong-pal frequently gets involved in brawls that highlight the action direction here, Yoo-jin is the main source of romance and Gi-yeong of the political comments regarding the treatment of the working class by the then government. And while the characters individually and the events (with the exclusion of a relationship that starts with a rape, which unfortunately, is anything but uncommon in S. Korean cinema) are quite interesting and intriguing, the narrative as a whole falters occasionally, particularly after a point when it becomes hyperbolic, even to the point that it seems as an “excuse” for the various events that take place in the story.
On the other hand, the presentation of the lower depths of nightlife in Korea is interesting, particularly when the story gets outside the comi
10. A Single Spark (Park Kwang-soo, 1995)
As Young-su’s involvement in the story develops, we start seeing more and more of the inhuman working conditions in Korea during the rapid economic progress of the 1960s and 1970s, which started the chasm between the rich and the poor in the Korean society that exists up to the present days. Though achieved through the backbreaking toil of underage girls injected with amphetamines so they can work longer hours, the workers do not feel any of the benefits of raising living standards in the country, but die of tuberculosis or exhaustion instead. A simple tailor in one of the thousand sweatshops in the market, Tae-il soon starts fighting for the rights of his fellow co-workers. Although non-political at the beginning, his struggle becomes more and more political in nature, as his efforts are repressed from the government and deemed unpatriotic, culminating with his suicide and the subsequent creation of anti-government pro-people movements through the country and their brutal suppression by the military dictatorship. (Martin Lukanov)
11. 301, 302 (1995) by Park Chul-soo
At the core of the plot is cooking aficionado Song (Pang Eun-jin), a housewife and a dedicated explorer of all things food with many lines to deliver, who gets pushed away by her husband for the only thing she really felt truly dedicated to. To re-awaken his attention, Song does an atrocious thing that she gets punished for in the divorce process, and her only way to deal with it is to continue cooking, this time calculating the calories intake through a day-to-day written journal as a single woman who has moved into a flat 301 in the newly built, modern residential building . It is a place of freedom where she can live her food obsession completely, progressively losing weight and focusing on healing her own demons from the past, as someone who was suffering from bulimia due to hurt. When the new neighbor Yun (Hwang Sin-hye) moves in flat 302, looking like the emaciated model that needs to be taken care of, Song becomes obsessed with the idea of feeding her, without realizing that the new neighbor has more trauma that she can possibly deal with. Yun’s baggage is more than anyone without a psychiatrist licence could take, but her refusal to eat the lovingly prepared meals by Song, gets completely misunderstood, and she falls victim of her inability to defend herself in any way . (Marina Richter)
12. A Petal (Jang Sun-woo, 1996)
Jang Sun-woo presents an allegory, with the girl symbolizing democracy and the citizens of the country, who suffered for years from the violence of the regime, which left them traumatized, both physically and psychologically. The builder, on the other hand, symbolizes those who did not participate in the uprising and thus were not able to understand the psychology and the general situation of the rest. This allegory is stressed by the fact that the names of the protagonists are never uttered, as they actually function as symbols.(Panos Kotzathanasis)
Some of the films we will deal with in the future
Oh, My Dream Country
Out to the World
My Love, My Bride
North Korean Partisan in South Korea
Sanggye-dong Olympic (1988)
A hot roof
Kuro’s Arirang
Song of Resurrection
