Real lives in North Korea: Three day film event in Australia

North Korea Film Event in Canberra (20th March, ANU) and Sydney (21st March, Sydney Cheil Church in Strathfield, and 22nd March, University of Sydney).

Panoptic Perspectives is the title of a two-day film event, organized by scholars from institutions in Sydney and Canberra, to be held in venues at the Australian National University, Cheil Church in Strathfield and Sydney University.

The purpose of this event is to offer different perspectives on a phenomenon much discussed in the popular media, but rarely considered beyond the singular, highly politicized and bi-polemic story of good and evil, right and wrong – North Korea.

Through the medium of film, and the discussion by guest speakers that will precede and follow each screening, it is hoped the audience will gain a more nuanced understanding of some of the issues surrounding ‘North Korea’ and the North Korean people.

OPEN WORKSHOP

Alternative Approaches to North Korean Issues. – 22 March 12 PM at Architecture Lecture Theater 3, Wilkinson Building, University of Sydney, co-hosted by Global Social Justice

FILM SCREENING SCHEDULE

The Journals of Musan (2011). Directed by Park Jungbum

- 20 March 05:30 PM, Coombs Lecture Theatre, HC Coombs Building (8a), Fellows Road, Australian National University

- 21 March 5:30 PM, Sydney Cheil Church (Sydney St & Concord Rd.)

- 22 March 5:20 PM, Old Geology Lecture Theater (next to Footbridge Theater), University of Sydney, co-hosted by Global Social Justice Network

Q&A with the director (Park Jung-bum) after the screening

A Schoolgirl’s Diary (2007). Directed by Jang In-hak

- 22 March 1:45 PM Architecture Lecture Theater 3, Wilkinson Building, University of Sydney, co-hosted by Global Social Justice Network. Discussion with Dr. Leonid Petrov after the screening

Yodok Stories (2008). Directed by Andrzej Fidyk

- 21 March 2:00 PM Sydney Cheil Church (Sydney St. & Concord Rd.) Discussion with Dr. Leonid Petrov after the screening

Each screening is preceded by a short talk introducing the key themes of the film. Each film will also be followed by a questions and answers session. Guest speakers include Park Jung-bum, director of The Journals of Musan

Admission (access per day): Student $5 Adult $10 (RSVP on the event webpage is recommended to secure your seat)

For more information, go to: www.northkoreafilmfest.wordpress.com
Inquiries: nkfilmfest@gmail.com

MOVIE TITLES

THE JOURNALS OF MUSAN
Released in South Korea 2011. Synopsis by Markus Bell
Director Park Jungbum said in interviews that he based the main character for The Journals of Musan (무산 일기) on a North Korean friend he met while at university in Seoul. The film highlights several important themes concerning the lives of North Korean refugees. Firstly, that arrival in South Korea is not the end of their struggle to find safety and security; secondly, for better of for worse, organized religion plays an integral role in the lives of these individuals; and thirdly, that ignorance is at the root of much of the prejudice that exists against North Koreans living in South Korea. The Journals of Musan is important in that for the first time, the South Korean public were offered a window into the lives of a few of the 24,000 North Koreans residing in South Korea, many of whom have been through indescribable hardships to arrive in their new home.

YODOK STORIES
Released South Korea 2008. Synopsis by Christopher Richardson
For every artist whose career has advanced under the patronage of power, another risked life and reputation to present alternatives to the narratives of the state, whether through graffiti, subversive songs, paintings, or plays. In North Korea, where life is characterized by surveillance and control, such examples are rare. Yodok Stories, first staged in 2006, is perhaps the most famous example. This was a story crying out to be told: a concentration camp, in the early 21st Century, in the heart of East Asia. Although the idea for the musical came from Polish filmmaker, Andrzej Fidyk, its strength comes from the creative participation of so many North Koreans. Yodok Stories is a powerful corrective to the stereotype of defectors as passive victims. Although the bombast, blood and thunder of Yodok Stories might initially seem bizarre, or kitsch, the musical powerfully evokes the aesthetic of North Korean arts, notably the revolutionary operas The Sea of Blood and The Flower Girl. There are more than 24 million North Koreans alive today, and at least as many stories. Both at home and abroad, it is time they were told.

THE SCHOOLGIRL’S DIARY
Released in North Korea 2007, in South Korea 2011. Synopsis by Dr. Leonid Petrov
One of the most successful films produced in North Korea, The Schoolgirl’s Diary is an attempt to resolve the growing conflict between selfish individualism and patriotic self-sacrifice. It chronicles a girl’s life through her school years: one that’s full of the peer pressure and family problems familiar everywhere. Echoing the Russian film Courier (Kuryer) (1986), which struck a chord in Perestroika- stricken Soviet Union, The Schoolgirl’s Diary views the grim realities of life through the eyes of a teenager. If something in the film turns out to be politically unpalatable, the immaturity of youth is blamed—not the film director. For a cash-starved North Korea, this film was an instant success. Viewed by some 8 million people in 2006, it received high praise at the international film festivals in Pyongyang and Cannes.

–

Local media coverage in Korean:

기획특집 – 노블레스 오블리주운동을 통한 북한이주민돕기 (상)

탈북자 및 북한 문제 관련 영화제 개최

영화 통한 ‘북한 문제’ 조명

재호북한이주민후원회 및 일부 연구자들

–

Kim Jong-un stars in new North Korean TV documentary

(The Telegraph, 08 Jan 2012) On what is believed to be Kim Jong-un’s birthday, North Korea’s state television broadcasts a new documentary on the ‘Great Successor’ in which he rides tanks, horses and a fairground ride.

The documentary is the second in a week seeking to highlight Kim Jong-un’s experience in leading North Korea’s 1.2 million-strong military and was aimed at showing that he was in charge of the armed forces long before his father, former leader Kim Jong-il, died of a heart attack last month.

The film, entitled Succeeding great work of military-first revolution, showed new footage of Kim Jong-un in various locations such as military bases, parades and even an amusement park.

The footage, according to broadcaster KRT, was filmed when Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il, was still alive.

Sunday reportedly also marks Kim Jong-un’s birthday, although the documentary appears to make no mention of the landmark. North Korea tends to recognise the birthday of its leaders as a national holiday as part of efforts to deify them.

The son, who is in his late 20s, has moved swiftly into the role of “supreme leader” of the people, the ruling Workers’ Party and the military despite questions abroad about how easily he could assume power with only a few years of grooming behind him. Kim Jong-il, in contrast, had 20 years of training when his father, North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, died of a heart attack in 1994.

–

LP’s video comment… NK State Media creates personality cult

–

KOFFIA is back in Sydney

The Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) first began in October of 2010 and was the inaugural festival of its kind. KOFFIA is back for a 2nd edition in 2011 and will take place in both Sydney and Melbourne. The festival is organised by the Korean Cultural Office, with support from the Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea in Sydney.
It aims to:
- Generate an interest in Korean Cinema within the local community.
- Raise the understanding of the aesthetics of Korean films throughout the community.
- Share the virtues of Korean Culture and Tradition.
- Provide support and give opportunity to aspiring Korean filmmakers residing in Australia.
- Develop relations with Australian artists.

–

KOFFIA MEDIA FORUM / Discussion on “J.S.A Joint Security Area”, “Secret Reunion”, “The Journals of Musan”

DATE: Sun 28th Aug 2011 (4:00pm – 4:30pm)
Venue: Dendy Opera Quays, Sydney
GUESTS:
- Dr. Leonid Petrov (Korean Studies Lecturer, University of Sydney)
- Dr. Jane Park (Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney)

TOPIC: Korean War in Films
The Korean War in Korean cinema has always been one of the most prolifically recurring themes. This year at KOFFIA there are three films deals with the Korean War directly as well as indirectly. Leonid Petrov and Jane Park, from their own respective academic background, will share their own insights about the theme of the Korean War in Korean cinema with the audience.

–

The Journals of Musan (2010)

127min, HD Cam, 2.35:1
Directed by PARK Jung-bum
Keywords: Drama, North Korea, Award Winning, Based on a true story
Cast: PARK Jung-bum, JIN Yong-ok, KANG Eun-jin

The award winning realistic depiction of a North Korean south of the border. Seung-chul is a North Korean defector now living in Seoul. He is constantly stigmatized as his identification number gives him away to the local people. His personality does not help either, he seems neither smart nor particularly strong-willed and his introverted nature beings to clash with his Seoul surroundings. Changes creep in slowly and secretly, as his new home lacks the freedom it promised.

The Journals of Musan has garnered, so far, 14 awards at various international film festivals including Busan, Tribeca and Rotterdam. This independent film is simply a tour de force. PARK Jung-bum not only produced and directed the picture, but also performed as the protagonist in the film. The film is dedicated his late-friend JEON Seung-chul, a North Korean defector who died of cancer and who he was inspired by to create the film.

This is PARK Jung-bums 1st feature film, having previously worked as an assistant director to Lee Chang-dong on Poetry (2010) and being a keen observer of all of Lee’s films. What results is a unique point of view of an often not talked about situation. A must see of KOFFIA 2011!

Screening Schedule:
26th August / 10:00am @ Dendy Cinemas, Sydney
27th August / 4:30pm @ Dendy Cinemas, Sydney
–

Secret Reunion (2010)

116min, 35mm, 2.35:1
Directed by JANG Hun
Keywords: Thriller, Espionage, Buddy Comedy, Box-office hit
Cast: SONG Kang-ho, KANG Dong-won, JEON Gook-hwan, KO Chang-seok

A Korean buddy action comedy like never before! Agent Lee (SONG Kang-ho) was once one of the top National Intelligence Agents in Korea, however he soon falls from grace as a High Profile case goes bad. A North Korea spy Ji-won (KANG Dong-won) gets marked as a traitor in the same incident as neither side got the result they were after. 6 years later, the two outcasts stumble across each other and form an unlikely partnership in order to steal information from the other. .

Awarded Best Film at the 31st Blue Dragon Film Awards, Secret Reunion was the 2nd highest grossing film at the 2010 Korean Box office behind only The Man From Nowhere. JANG Hun had been known mostly for his assistant directing work to Kim Ki-duk on the likes of Time (2006) and The Bow (2005). That was of course before his feature debut, last years KOFFIA 2010 hit film, Rough Cut (2008). Even bigger and better things are expected from Jang Hun’s 3rd feature currently in theatres, Battle of the Hills.

Screening Schedule:
25th August / 6:00pm @ Dendy Cinemas, Sydney
29th August / 10:00am @ Dendy Cinemas, Sydney
12th September / 8:15pm @ ACMI Cinemas, Sydney

–

J.S.A. Joint Security Area (2000)

110min, 35mm, 2.35:1
Directed by PARK Chan-wook
Keywords: Drama, War, North South Relations, Classic
Cast: SONG Kang-ho, LEE Young-ae, LEE Byung-hun, SHIN Ha-kyun

Simply one of best Korean films of all time, see it on the big screen! At the DMZ, one South Korean soldier kills two North Korean soldiers. The international investigation begins as to find out exactly how this happened, but everyone who is related to the incident tells a different and contradictory story. The truth is shelled in four soldiers from the South as well as North.

The vengeance trilogy may be PARK Chan-wook’s most widely known works, but JSA is the film where his career really took off. Featuring an all star cast of SONG Kang-ho (Thirst), LEE Young-ae (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), LEE Byung-hun (I Saw the Devil) and SHIN Ha-kyun (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance), it is a must see for all Korean film fans!

Screening Schedule:
28th August / 2:00pm @ Dendy Cinemas, Sydney
11th September / 6:15pm @ ACMI Cinemas, Sydney

–

Park Jung-bum Offers Notes on his Unique POV

by Adam Hartzell (SF360, May 16, 2011)

Eleven directors were in the running for the $15,000 New Directors award at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, and the jury (Nick James, Daniela Michel, and Marie Therese Guirgis) selected South Korean director Park Jung-bum’s The Journals of Musan (English trailer. Info.) as the winner. “The unexpected ways that the film fuses the personal with the sociopolitical makes it truly original,” they offered, “especially its sophisticated use of imagery and point of view.” Director Park was in attendance at the Festival and, before the honor was announced at the SFIFF Golden Gate Awards, I was able to interview him thanks to the arrangement of San Francisco Film Society’s Hilary Hart, with Korean translation provided by Jacki J. Noh.

SF360: I understand that this film was based on a friendship you had. Could you tell me a little bit about how the film developed?

Park Jung-bum: Jeong Seung-chul is a friend of mine whom I met in 2002 when he came to South Korea from North Korea. He came into our University and he was my friend at school. We both majored in physical education and that’s how I met him. He used to play ice hockey in North Korea. He was always very positive and very bright. I felt like we matched. He was more like my younger brother. I felt very close to him and there were times that we lived together. As a friend of his, I naturally met people that he hung out with, other North Korean defectors. So I was able to see their world. It was a kind of darkness within South Korean culture.

SF360: So it sounds like the relationship you had with your friend is very different from the portrayal in the movie, but you learned about the more pessimistic experience that North Korean refugees had through your friendship with him?

Park: That is correct. [North Korean refugees] came to South Korea to be happy. Well, the main reason was because they had nothing to eat there. But you cannot just live with food. You need other things. What they were seeking was general happiness, but what they found was that it’s also difficult to find genuine happiness in South Korea as well. South Korea did not allow them to be happy, to seek what they were looking for. So people get really disappointed and some do commit suicide and some were even tying to return to North Korea. And, as you see in the movie, some betray their friends.

But I also saw this [dark side of the experience of North Koreans in South Korea] was a kind of dichotomy that existed in our [South Korean] society. I thought, well, this darkness is not just about them, but also about the very poor people, the people we don’t pay attention to or are very difficult for us to meet. So I wanted to throw a question to the audience that with these kinds of people surrounding us, how should we live? What kind of life should we lead?

SF360: Your film completed a triptych of North Korean refugee films in San Francisco, The San Francisco International Asian American Festival was a couple months ago, and they showed both Jeon Kyu-hwan’s Dance Town and Zhang Lu’s Dooman River. Like yours, they are all very pessimistic of the plight of North Korean refugees. Do you see your film as a counterweight to mainstream portrayals of North Korean refugees in South Korea or are most portrayals of that community consistently pessimistic?

Park: I know the director Jeon Kyu-hwan. But I didn’t get to see his film. I saw Dooman River. So I am aware that all these movies talk about North Korean defectors. So I am very familiar with [Zhang Lu]. We are close. We talk a lot. What he portrays is from the perspective of Koreans living in China, [coming over] from Yanggang [Province in North Korea]. What I portray is the lives of North Korean defectors in South Korea, what they experience.

But if I can find something in common between myself and Zhang Lu, we didn’t make the films to attract some empathy or sympathy or attention [to the plight of North Korean refugees]. It’s more showing the reality of these peoples’ lives. We both feel that the most realistic film [is what we should] pursue and try to create. So in that sense, we both agree.

I asked myself this question How should I live? We have these neighbors that share the same space but there’s indifference [towards them]. There is lack of empathy and sometimes we might not even acknowledge that they exist. Is it OK to do that? Is it the correct way or is it wrong? [What is] the meaning behind that? Again, we are living in the same society, same era, same space, yet is it OK to just ignore, is it OK to pretend that they don’t exist? And I find that very sad and maybe that’s a very selfish [response] that capitalism breeds. So I wanted to report that. These people exist. They are your neighbors. So that’s the kind of question that I wanted to ask the audience, but also, it’s the question that I ask myself. With these neighbors, how should I live? Interestingly, I get a lot of questions about that via email or questions when we have a screening…

See the full text of the interview with Park Jung-bum here…

–

Documentary Film and North Korea

By Andray Abrahamian (38 North, 20 May 2011)

Foreign documentaries on North Korea suffer from a number of unique challenges, including issues of access, verifiability, and potemkinism. They also face the challenge of how to fairly represent “the other” to an audience that has no direct experience of the object of study. To what extent can the filmmaker allow audiences to make up their own minds, when so much mediation necessarily takes place? How can he ensure some balance between competing voices? How can the film be fair to its subject? These are challenges that face any documentary, but are present to a greater degree when the subject is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a radically different society with a singular media image that has been built up over the past six decades. Four of the most widely-viewed documentaries on North Korea illustrate the many failings and occasional successes in addressing (or avoiding) these issues: Welcome to North Korea, The Vice Guide to North Korea, A State of Mind, and North Korea: A Day in the Life…

–

Foreign Films Show in North Korea

by Ian Timberlake (AFP, Pyongyang, 01 Oct. 2010)

One of the world’s most tightly-controlled societies got a rare glimpse of the outside world at the Pyongyang International Film Festival last week, where even Western films were screened. Communist North Korea strictly controls access to information, including via mobile phones and the Internet, leaving most North Koreans in ignorance of the wider world. A tour guide had never heard of the late pop star Michael Jackson. Yet participants in the 12th Pyongyang International Film Festival, which ended on September 24, say it helped open a window for the impoverished country.

Only a minority of the population was able to attend the event, but it gave them access to documentaries, feature films and shorts from several European countries and Canada. Productions from Asia, Russia, the Middle East and elsewhere were also on the programme. Henrik Nydqvist, a freelance film producer who was Sweden’s official delegate to the eight-day event, said anything which breaks North Korea’s isolation is positive. “We think we’re doing something good here,” he said. “We feel we can make some positive impact… and that outweighs the other things.”

The festival has its own venue, the Pyongyang International Cinema House, which includes a 2,000-seat theatre as well as other smaller halls. Red, blue and green neon signs hanging in the atrium beam the country’s foreign policy slogan: “Peace, independence, friendship”. A 300-seat hall was almost completely filled with Koreans for an afternoon screening of the comedy “Pieces d’Identites” from Congo. They sat quietly behind padlocked doors in a hot, airless room for the story of an African king who travels to Belgium in search of his daughter, who has been forced to work as a nude dancer.

The film’s images include bordellos and a heaving African nightclub, depicting a world alien to North Koreans who are bombarded with propaganda from childhood and whose showpiece capital Pyongyang appears to be stuck in a time decades past. Such images can only help to bring about change, said a source connected with the film festival. “They have in mind: Why is North Korea, my country, different?” Connections are required to gain admission and authorities do not want the rural masses outside of the capital to see foreign movies, he said. “I watched some poor people who wanted to see the movie, and the guard stopped them.”

At the event’s closing ceremony attended by more than 1,500 people, including foreign diplomats, Nydqvist read a letter of thanks to Kim Jong-Il, ruler of the country which has twice tested nuclear weapons and is under various United States and United Nations sanctions. “The Pyongyang International Film Festival is unique,” the letter said, thanking Kim for his “care and interest.” Such messages are common practice in the country, Nydqvist said.

Kim, 68, is said to have a collection of 20,000 Hollywood movies, and engineered the kidnap in 1978 of a South Korean director to help him make films. He has also written books about movie-making, including one slim volume which says cinema “has the task of contributing to the development of people to be true communists and to the revolutionisation and working-classisation of the whole of society.” At Pyongyang’s Korean Film Studio, the country’s centre of film production, a director said Kim had visited “on more than 500 occasions”. Kim has also provided “guidance” to the film festival, Nydqvist said, citing organisers of the event. But the ailing Kim’s time on the political stage appears to be nearing an end.

On Thursday, 30 Sep., the regime released the first-ever official photograph of Kim Jong-Il’s youngest son Kim Jong-Un, which analysts said confirms the young man’s status as leader-in-waiting. Jong-Un, believed aged about 27, has assumed powerful posts in North Korea’s ruling party, state media said after the Workers’ Party of Korea held its highest-level meeting in 30 years on Tuesday. Whether he shares his father’s cinematic obsession is unknown but Jong-Un did have an interest in Hollywood tough-guy Jean-Claude Van Damme, say staff and friends at Swiss international schools where he studied, according to newspaper reports.

Several North Korean films were screened at the festival, including “Hong Kil Dong,” a 1986 production about a type of Robin Hood martial arts fighter in ancient times, whose flute-playing induces terror in the villains. The festival programme listed Germany’s “Four Minutes”, the Serbian documentary “Let There Be Light”, and Swedish feature “As It Is In Heaven” among the many international offerings.

An organising committee chooses delegates from among those who apply, Nydqvist said, adding their expenses in Pyongyang are paid for but airfare is not. A Briton and a Vietnamese were among the members of the film jury which chose a Chinese film, “Walking to School,” as the grand prize winner. China won at the previous festival, too, but Nydqvist said: “I’ve never heard anything suggesting that the jury was encouraged to favour a specific country…”

See the full text of the article here…

–

Korean War comes back to life

(SBS Film, 06 September 2010) Cinema depicting the Korean War can help raise awareness of the conflict and offer clues to how ultimately Korea might be unified, according to Leonid Petrov, an organiser of the Korean War in Film screening and discussion program.

The lion’s share of Australia’s Korean community is from the South; with only about 10,000 of a 125,000-strong Korean population having their roots in North Korea. As such, within the local Korean community, perspectives on the 1950-1953 war are largely one-sided.

Petrov, who lectures in Korean Studies at the University of Sydney, says many Koreans living in Australia have a somewhat limited knowledge of their nation’s history. Young South Koreans are particularly curious about their past, particularly as North Korea remains isolated to this day, whilst the North-South struggle for State legitimacy continues. Here, Petrov believes “the art of film plays a role”.

Organised in conjunction with the Korean Media and Culture Club (KMCC), the Korean War in Film event is taking place over three successive Wednesdays this month, following an earlier round of screenings held in May 2010.

The following three films are being shown:

Kang Je-gyu’s The Brotherhood of War (2004), the highest-grossing Korean film of all time upon its theatrical release, revolving around two brothers who are drafted into the army by force during the outbreak of the Korean War.

Lewis Milestone-directed US film Pork Chop Hill (1959), which depicts the fierce battle fought between the US Army and Chinese and Korean Communist forces at the tail end of the War.

Kim Song Gyo’s On the Railway (1960), a North Korean classic set during the autumn of 1950, when a locomotive engineer is attempting to evacuate precious machinery and equipment during the North Korean retreat.

“Until the early ‘90s, the Korean film industry was suppressed, there were only about a dozen films a year and they were underfunded,” Petrov explains. “They managed somehow to produce good quality films, but could not compete with Hollywood blockbusters.

“Then the legislation changed and quotas became favourable to local films. More investment came and venture capital streamed into the industry. Films started to be exported, along with Korean songs, fashion design, computer games, industrial design etc.”

Despite this cultural gain, Petrov stresses that a “Cold War structure” remains in the region; not only in Korea but in China and Taiwan and Japan and Russia.

Locally, the Korean community is very tight-knit, with organised cultural activity revolving around Korean businesses, Korean newspapers and, especially, the Korean church.

Founded by fellow Korean Studies lecturer, Ki-sung Kwak, the KMCC is an informal group that aims to promote Korean culture and foster social interaction through social activities including seminars and film screenings.

“We not only wish to show films but also have some sort of activity,” Ki-Sung explains. “We would like to have performances by Korean musicians and artists living in Sydney and other Australian cities, and we plan to invite people from the local community to talk about issues, such as the relationship between the North and South.”

Less active in recent times, the club held a film festival event in both 2006 and 2007, which received generous support from the Korean consulate. Ki-sung admits it is a challenge to refresh club membership amongst the student base.

“I really want the club to be very active but when our members graduate we have to encourage new members to join the club,” he says. “What I actually plan to do is ask some student representatives to actually run the club.”

Aside from students moving on, the proliferation of Korean product available on DVD presents a further challenge to the club.

“When we first showed a Korean film here, it was back in 1999,” Ki-sung says. “DVD was not so popular, and we attracted about 300 people from the community.

“Also, with the internet, people can now easily download movies. The Korean government is planning to develop technology to download a two-hour film in less than 10 seconds, so that’s quite attractive.”

The Korean Media and Culture Club screenings are held at the University of Sydney. For information visit http://sydney.edu.au/arts/korean/societies/index.shtml

Korean War in Film

Screenings and discussions at the University of Sydney by Korean Media and Culture Club. Every Wednesday at 5.00pm between 1 Sep. and 15 Sep.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War (1950-1953), which resulted in over 4 million civilian and military deaths and a legacy that still poses a threat to global security today. Why do so few people know anything about this “forgotten War”? “Korean War in Film” is a joint initiative undertaken by the SLC Department of Korean Studies together with School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI).

Associate Professor Judith Keene, Dr Jane Park, and Dr Leonid Petrov will show how the Korean War was seen at the time through the eyes of communist and anti-communist film-makers. Among the films to be screened are the most successful Korean (North and South) and American blockbusters. Each film will be individually introduced and followed by a discussion on the nature of Korean conflict.

The first round of Korean War in Film screenings at the University of Sydney took place in May 2010 and attracted much attention from students, researchers and the members of local Korean community. In Semester 2, the screenings will be conducted under the auspices of the Korean Media and Culture Club. KMCC is an informal club with the main goal to promote Korean culture through academic discussion on Korean media and culture within the University and to foster social interaction between people of similar interests through social activities including seminars and film screenings.

Films will be screened on Wednesdays, 1 Sep. ~ 15 Sep. 2010 
Time: 5– 7pm
Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Edgeworth David Building (adjacent Parramatta Rd and Footbridge Theatre)
Speakers: Associate Professor Judith Keene, Dr Jane Park, Dr Leonid Petrov.
Free entry
For more questions, contact Dr. Leonid Petrov at leonid.petrov@sydney.edu.au or Tel: (02) 93514362

The following films will be presented:

1 September (Wed) – “Taegukgi” [The Brotherhood of War]
(Director: Kang Je-gyu, 2004, 148 min., English subtitles)
The full impact of brotherly love is shown in this touching Korean blockbuster that teams up superstars Jang Dong Gun and Won Bin. The film revolves around two brothers who are drafted into the army by force during the outbreak of the Korean War in the 50s. Jang Dong Gun plays Lee Jin Tae, a simple family man who makes every effort to excel in his duties in order to achieve an early release from the military services for his younger brother Jin Seok (Won Bin).

Unaware of his older brother’s good intentions, Jin Seok is increasingly upset by his brother’s cavalier actions. Misunderstandings between the two keep accumulating until Jin Seok accidentally comes across an unposted letter to his family and makes a fateful decision. “Taegukgi” became the highest-grossing Korean film of all time when it was released in 2004

8 September (Wed) – “Pork Chop Hill”
(1959, Director Lewis Milestone, 94 min.)
This US-made film about the Korean War is based on the eponymous book by military historian S. L. A. Marshall and depicts the fierce Battle of Pork Chop Hill between the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division, and Chinese and Korean Communist forces at the tail end of the Korean War.

In April 1953, while the Panmunjeom cease-fire negotiations continued, a company of American infantry was to recapture Pork Chop Hill from a larger Communist Chinese army force. Successful but depleted, they were ready for the large-scale Chinese counter-attack which they knew would overwhelm and kill them in hand-to-hand fighting.

15 September – “Cheolgil Ueseo” [On the Railway]
(1960, Director Kim Song Gyo, 90 min. English subtitles)
One of the classics of North Korean cinematography, this film emulates the best examples of Soviet and Chinese film-making traditions.

In the autumn of 1950 when North Korea was retreating after the unsuccessful attempt to unify the country, the locomotive engineer Ko In Ho tries to evacuate precious machinery and equipment when he is barred from going farther North because the railway bridge is wrecked in a bombing. Thus, In Ho stays on the UN-controlled area, where he is obliged to drive the enemy’s military train, watching for an opportunity to smuggle out his own train. Finally he manages to establish contact with the underground North Korean cell operating in the South and throws the southern transportation network into chaos…

–

Korean War Film Seminar at USYD

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War which resulted in over 4 million civilian and military deaths and a legacy that still poses a threat to global security today. So why do so few people know anything about it? Why is it called the “Forgotten War”?

Let us put you in the frame – we’ll show you how it was seen at the time through the eyes of communist and anti-communist filmmakers.

The Forgotten War – Remembered in Film.

Speakers: Associate Professor Judith Keene, Dr Jane Park, Dr Leonid Petrov.
Date: Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Time: 5.30 – 9.00 pm
Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Edgeworth David Building (adjacent Parramatta Rd and Footbridge Theatre), The University of Sydney.

Discussion will be followed by a classic film of the Korean conflict – “The Taebaek Mountains” (1994, Director: Im Kwŏntaek, 164 min.)

Based on Cho Chongrae’s bestselling novel of the same title, this epic film chronicles events that took place in the small town of Pŏlgyo in the Southern Chŏlla Province before and during the Korean War. A sweeping historical saga is combined with the intimate portraits of ordinary Koreans trapped in the horrors of internecine ideological warfare.

Free entry. For more information contact Elizabeth Connor on +61(2)9351 3551.

–

North Korean Film Screening – 19 May, Wednesday, at 5.30pm, The University of Sydney.

Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre, Edgeworth David Building (adjacent Parramatta Rd and Footbridge Theatre) http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?ref=A15D22
Presenter: Dr Leonid Petrov, Department of Korean Studies, SLC

5:30pm – Film presentation and discussion.

“The Wolmi Island” [Wolmido] (1982, Director Cho Gyong-sun)

This North Korean film gives a vivid representation of the tragic fate of coastal battery unit that fought to the last man protecting the Wolmi Island in September 1950. Countering 50,000 troops and over 500 warships of General MacArthur, the North Korean battery commander Li Tae-un and his company men checked the UN landing operation for three days by displaying unprecedented bravery and a high degree of self-sacrificing spirit. This film also depicts the role of women conscripted to participate in the Korean War alongside with men on the frontline and in the rear.

6:00pm – Film screening in Korean (no subtitles, synopsis in English is available at http://koreanstudies.anu.edu.au/abstracts/destiny%20of%20synop.pdf )

“The Destiny of Keum-hee and Eun-hee” [Keumhee-wa Eunhee-ui unmyong]

(1974, Directors: Pak Hak and Eom Kil-seon, 101 min.)

One of the classics of North Korean cinematography, this film emulates the best examples of Soviet and Chinese film-making traditions. The story is based on the famous novel by Paek In-jun about the twins separated by the Korean War. Never heard about each other again, the twin-sisters live in the very different societies separated by the civil and ideological conflict. Keum-hee lives a happy and comfortable life in North Korea, where she can see her talent for singing and dancing fulfilled. Her sister, Eun-hee, on the contrary, is destined to suffer in the South, surrounded by social evils and class inequality. This film laments the national division and masterfully portrays the grim reality of the post-war time in Korea.

–

“South of the Border”

South of the Border (Kukgyongui Namjjok) (2006, 109 min)

Directed by Ahn Pan-seok, the film is the first to deal with the lives
of North Korean defectors in Seoul. The film revolves around Kim Sun-ho (played by Cha Seung-won), who defected to the South with his family, while leaving his girlfriend Yon-hwa behind after promising to bring her to Seoul as soon as possible. In Seoul, he tries to save money to help her escape from the North, but one day, hears that Yon-hwa has
married another man. He becomes hopelessly depressed but later tries to find a way to adapt himself to life in the South…

–

AvistaZ Asian Movies. Kim Seon-ho, a horn player, is leading a happy middle-class life, along with his elderly but active parents and the married sister’s family. He enjoys an occasional stroll on the neighborhood riverbank and a dish of cold buckwheat noodles. Recently Seon-ho has fallen head over heels for the beautiful museum guide Young-hwa (Jo Yi-jin, The Aggressives), a girl as “fresh and clean as a swig of dongchimi (cold radish kimchi juice made without red pepper).” When his father (Song Jae-ho) takes up a correspondence with his presumed-to-be-dead grandfather, however, things begin to unravel. You see, Seon-ho is a North Korean. And the grandfather, whom the family thought was an honored Communist hero, has been living in South Korea all these years. Threatened with exposure, Seon-ho’s family decides to risk their lives and seek asylum south of the border.

How far South Korean movies about the North-South division have evolved since The Spy (1997) and Shiri (1999) may be seen in the fact that the story of “Over the Border”, with only a few details changed, would make sense in almost any national context where illegal immigration and acculturation are serious social issues. Mexicans in the United States or Moroccans in France would certainly resonate with the Kim family’s experience, their befuddlement, desperation and courage in their efforts to create new identities in a familiar yet strange land, and their sorrow resulting from the inevitable choices they make in order to survive. Considering the reality that more than one thousand “escapees” have settled down in South Korea, some of whom can even make phone calls to North Korea via satellite relay, it is perhaps not surprising that Southerners increasingly look upon the Northerners amidst them as just another group of immigrants.

The greatest strength of TV producer An Pan-seok’s debut film is its almost anthropological approach to the everyday lives of North Koreans and Northerner exiles in South Korea. The painstaking recreation of communal restaurants and concert halls with their opulent but hollow-looking interior design, and an apartment house with its warm-colored but borderline cheesy wallpapers are stunning in their verisimilitude and naturalism: equally impressive are the detailed descriptions of housing facilities and relocation programs for Northerner exiles.

Cha Seung-won, eschewing the comic images familiar from his earlier pictures, is so convincing in portraying Seon-ho’s naive, trusting nature that I basically forgot throughout the movie that, if he were to mingle with North Koreans in real life, Cha would stick out like Gandalf among a bunch of Hobbits. Jo Yi-jin is indeed fresh and clean in her role: for me, like a gush of wind from the mountain top, carrying a fragrance of young pine needles. As a counter-point to Jo’s youth and wide-eyed vivaciousness, the veteran actress Shim Hye-jin (Out to the World, Acacia) delivers an excellent supporting performance as a mature, tough owner of fried chicken restaurant who befriends Seon-ho.

–

North Korea’s Very Cautious Cinematic Thaw

By MALTE HERWIG, The New York Times (November 21, 2008)

The Pyongyang International Cinema House was packed for screenings at North Korea’s film festival in September 2008 (copyright MALTE HERWIG).

HUMOR may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the citizens of North Korea, a country known mostly for militant anti-Western propaganda, chronic food shortages and an internationally isolated government pursuing nuclear weapons. And yet audiences at the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival here clearly enjoyed themselves this fall during screenings of Western dramas and comedies, occasionally even erupting into riotous laughter.

In most other countries movies like Marcus H. Rosenmüller’s “Heavyweights,” a lighthearted comedy about a group of Bavarian villagers contending in the 1952 Winter Olympics, would be harmless fun. But not in North Korea, and to prove it there was a man with a piece of cardboard sitting in the projection room to cover the lens in case anything deemed unseemly to Korean eyes was shown.

That day, mercifully, the cardboard-wielding censor wasn’t particularly good at his job. His hapless attempts to maintain officially sanctioned decency only added to the amusement of the 2,000 moviegoers in the gigantic Pyongyang International Cinema House, who responded energetically to the sight of a half-dozen outsize German bobsledders baring their bottoms and stuffing themselves with food and beer to gain weight for a competition. It was an unusual sight in this corner of the world, to say the least…

See the full text of the article here…

See more articles by MALTE HERWIG here…

–