Korean film has continues to experience surprising growth. It has been a long time now since making a Korean film almost guaranteed failure. Well made films bring in theater audiences of over ten million. Numerous factors have contributed to the vertical growth. Those would be the explosive rise in the number of young people belonging to the "visual generation" and the increasing ability of film producers to reach right at that generation's sensibilities.
Those factors alone cannot explain the "era of ten million viewers." The phenomenon cannot be explained without the two factors one would call "history" and "freedom of expression." Korean film grew beyond the confines of the "visual generation" when it became possible to discuss modern history as it relates to the Korean society of today, and when it was possible to deal with it with a free spirit at that. Such was the case with the first hit of the "era of ten million viewers," "Silmido," and such was the case with "Taegeukgi." "Petals," which was the first movie to deal directly with the Gwangju Struggle and "A Single Spark," which dealt with the suicide by self-immolation by Jeon Tae Il, also benefited from the same freedoms. All simultaneously give viewers opportunities to be touched artistically and have indirect historical experience by dealing with painful modern history.
Park Ji Man, son of former president Park Chung Hee, has filed a complaint in court asking that "Geuttae Geu Saramdeul" which is about the president Park's assassination on October 26, 1979, be prohibited from public showing. Park Ji Man's claim is that it could lead to "defamation of character by false facts" and infringe on the personal rights of his father. It is pathetic that with his actions he is trying to confine Korean film to the Park Chung Hee era. These are open times in which all social taboos are being dealt with in film. Park Ji Man claims that the movie might make a comic mockery of those who died in the incident because it is black comedy. Certain degrees of exaggeration and distortion are inevitable in expression through film. Furthermore, is not the pain of modern history a major asset and motivating strength for further growth by Korean film? The lawsuit to prohibit this latest film from being shown is something from the bygone years of the days of the senior Park.
The Hankyoreh, 12 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Modern History is Material for Korean Film |
