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Lim Bum
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By Lim Bum, Lifestyle Editor of the Hankyoreh
At the Cannes Film Festival, I finally saw ‘The Unforgiven," a South Korean film that was originally released in its home nation at the end of last year. Directed by Jong-bin Yoon, the movie was about young Korean draftees trying to survive the difficulties of life in the barracks. The film was invited to compete for the "Un Certain Regard" prize at the festival. The weather in Cannes couldn’t be better, but after watching the film, I felt a bit sad. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that I had just reexperienced the dreary atmosphere of the South Korean military. The Unforgiven was the most impressive film I have seen so far at this year‘s Cannes. But, while it was a very well made film, while I was watching, I developed some concerns. That is, whether the issue discussed in the film, the particular nature of military life in South Korea, could be communicated universally to people outside of Korean culture. When the film’s sergeant was beingEconomists say overall it is desirable to keep a modest current account surplus, especially for a nation like South Korea, which depends heavily upon the overseas markets for growth. backtalked by the inexperienced newcomer, I was fighting off fits of laughter. But by the time the ludicrous and flatly ignorant institutional stupidity reached its peak, however, I felt depressed, reminded of my own time in the military as a foot solider.While I was in the military, I felt like my whole life had stopped. All I awaited was the time to pass until I would be done with the compulsory 26 months of service. That was how I, like other recruits, survived. "The wall clock in the barracks will still turn in a clockwise direction even if one hangs it upside down," goes the old military joke. It was not merely an expression of sarcasm but rather a maxim that one had to keep in mind in order to endure the harsh military life. When one starts mulling over time, instead of merely killing it, is when the danger kicks in. Among the three draftees in the film, the one who learns the rules of the jungle and skillfully endures the time is the one who seems able to quickly forget about the military after his discharge. On the other hand, one soldier who becomes the subject of bullying, and another who is painfully conscious of the absurdity of the entire situation, commit suicide. South Korea is a rare country in the world, and the only member of the OECD, a group of industrialized nations, that makes all its men serve in the military for more than 2 years. There is minimal compensation, and soldiers are under severe restriction of freedom. It is forbidden to display any form of protest in the military, which one has to enter regardless of his desire. "The Unforgiven" was not a movie about suppression and resistance, or about submission, themes often featured in films made in the West. Rather, the camera focuses on its young characters, who have become mere objects of time. Those who cannot endure the time encounter tragedy; those who survive it are able to do so not necessarily because they had the right attitude. As a person who believed that my time in the military was time that was frozen, the film struck me, hard. I continued to wonder whether the foreign audience would be able to appreciate the film as I did. During the screening, while the Korean reporters often giggled, the foreign journalists remained rather quiet. It is no wonder that the commentary on the film from ‘Hollywood Reporter" and ‘Variety" said it was lacking excitement, or the portrayal of the mechanics of suppression. The writers compared it to similarly-themed American films. The French newspaper Liberation said of the film, "It shows how compulsory military service has a negative influence on men, evoking the old French draft system, which is now almost forgotten." The issue at stake has less to do with excitement, but more to do with the absurd situation itself. Aesthetics finds a way to communicate with other cultures by finding a universality in their situation. However, if there exists an absurdity too peculiar to be communicated across cultures, it then needs to be urgently dealt with. South Korea’s mandatory military service has become just such an absurdity.
