‘My Sassy Girl’ and ‘Kilsodeum 1985’
The background information behind the two films (Kilsodeum 1985 and My Sassy Girl) is based on post-war in Korea and how the gender role was displayed. Both films reflect principle ideologies from anti stereotypical angle on how male gender opposes female gender. It is important to say that even though gender role in social context are promoted in terms of gender equality, women are disempowered in a way that they have a limited opportunity in the family. Lack of opportunity has resulted in conflict between the women role and male dominion in the society. The conflict emerges when women tries to eliminate a sorrow which comes as a result of men’s dominion. The films focus on institutional frameworks in terms of system disruption, socio-political order and limits of freedom in historical period. Both films have some instances of romance but the romance is the key thing which introduces the gender dynamics. In general, there is an internal conflict as a result of gender crisis and this shows how women role are disempowered in pre-modern era in the films.
The film ‘My Sassy Girl’ introduces the limited freedom in female characters despite their important role in motherhood. In this film, women tend to present their eccentric behavior toward sexual desire and the important thing to note is that their behaviors are not regarded as a positive liberation but it is viewed a defensive mechanism.[1] The gender roles in this film are not only represented as a comedy but also as an inversion of gender roles. According to the movie, Korea for several years have tried to cope with feminists issues and several studies have shown that the country should eliminate the traditional heritage in order to eliminate feminist issues[2]. The film introduces the gender inversion and sexuality in Cheol-su. This character displays the feminine traits in her relationship with Chun-hui. Despite that fact that this male character lives in a dusty apartment, the female character shows her much love by maintaining cleanliness.
In this scenario, gender role is disempowered in the family though it is disempowered in this scenario when Cheol-su suggest that they should add sexual scenes in the film so that viewers can be interested and Chun-hui opposes her suggestions since his sexual desires are natural at the end their relationship fails since Cheol-su does not give him romantic love[3]. Jeon is a female character in the film ‘My Sassy Girl’ and this character posses negatives traits as she is seen drunkard with her boyfriend and as the movie continues, there is a melodramatic turn where Jeon changes her behavior and recognizes her vulnerable nature[4]. It is important to note that being eccentric develops differences in social norms and other challenges from patriarchal society. This is apparent in that, initially she feels discontented with conventional gender behaviors and tries to free away from the sentimentality[5].
Despite the fact that heroines in the film embrace an eccentric character, there is a contradiction in their gender roles. Note that, Jeon appears to be the protagonist character who fails to sustain her independent behaviors[6]. Her desire clearly presents the contemporary Korean women and how they struggle to isolate themselves from sexual discrimination and other difficult is seen as they try to achieve true romantic love. Women try to run away from men violence and they define themselves as diffident and conservative[7]. They struggle to have a control on their relationships under the male control. Gender relation is the key thing which introduces the new look where the male views the female as a masculine visual pleasure. According to the different scenarios of the female characters, male’s blatant role is apparent in the film for instance when Kyun-Woo wakes Jun up by giving her a medicine[8]. On this scenario, the male character embraces an opposite mind on sexuality compared with male gaze. On the other hand, Jun is positioned as an objective and this shows how females are dependent of men[9]. Jun in the film reveals the Korean young females and how their definition of love is based on cultural identity. Traditionally, female believed that they are object to men but they have to realize that they have their own gender structure and male should be associated with them under their own control and willingness, It is important to note that the fact that Jun is not given the name reveals that female do not have the identity in popular culture[10]. Men always use objectives through commercial strategies and thus strategies deny them personal control in social context[11].
The film, “Kilsodeum 1985” explores the political division and the real tragedy and effect to the gender in the society. The film portrays the tragedy of the war by presenting Hwa-young who lives with her family but now she is an orphan after losing the family in an epidemic. Before the epidemic, she lives with her father’s friend and forms a friendship with Dong-jin and becomes pregnant[12]. However, the two are separated by chaotic events and Hwa-young lose her son and start to live a miserable life. After thirty three years, the two meets at Reunion Square and they are reunited and they retraces their memories on the past and remembers Seok-cheol.
Through various characters, the film portrays a great need for reunion in order to heal the traditional wound between the individuals life. The division which occurred during the war tragedy led to effects which impacted the lives of people in a negative way. Just to provide a little background on information on this film is that about 10million were displaced and this introduced a kind of emotional problems as families were separated[13]. The film introduces the main character, Hwa-young who is searching for her family and specifically her son whom she lost during the war. Hwa-young is in a difficult situation as a motherhood and her maternal responsibility in searching for her son. In the process of searching for family members, individual have a great love over each other[14]. The female protagonist loses her family during Korean independence unlike the male protagonists where we are told that they are obstructed by communal valued in fulfilling their sentiment with their lovers. Other thing which presents the disempowerment in female gender is that men are not displayed with emotions of searching their mothers. According to the reading, it is clear that women feel awkwardness and unconfident and they do not get sentimentality[15].
There is a painful reality in the beauty and innocence where unbearable pain is arising through nostalgic memories. Korean women are not able to bear the present pain and this triggers the past experience since present reality is completely ignored. The film puts much concentration on home to show that females are vulnerable to challenges despite the fact they are innocent souls[16]. The protagonist and the characters that are in need of their beloved face socio-economic challenges, and it is clear that the modern Korean society faces the same challenges. The challenges arise simply because nation is not responding to the issues with original intention. Other irritating thing is that the separated families not only did they separate due to war but also due to poverty. In addition, the Post-war economy has developed social inequality in that the victims’ social solidarity is lost as a result of class division and disintegration. The ongoing tragedy is affecting the lives of people as they lack identity and a sense of unity[17].
Hwa-young is the real mother of her son from medical evidence, but she rejects due to some reasons. The reason for these actions is that she is interested with forgetting the past and maintaining the peace which she has struggled to get. According to the reading, the mother opts to forget the bullet stuck since it does not affect her everyday life[18]. She understand that in order to move forward, she must forget the past and avoid to reflect the mind on war periods since by doing so she will experience the war again in a indirect manner. This is a symbolism that Korea ‘bloodline’ is very important and women have a positive image though the film shows that the Korean society does not recognize the maternal love, women perseverance as well as sacrifice on their children[19]. Women are not empowered but rather they are left in a confused situation. The society overlooks the need to recognize the women nor does it pass moral judgment but it views such people just as ‘human beings’ no matter the pain of separation exists in their heart.
Work cited
Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea.
http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3316023.
JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs.
Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films.
[1] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. Pg.89
[2] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. Pg 85
[3] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea. Pg 91
[4] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea. Pg92
[5] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. Pg 93
[6] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. 94
[7] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea.
http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3316023.pg 7
[8] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. Pg 97
[9] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea.
http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3316023.pg 9
[10] JINHEE CHOI. THE SOUTH KOREAN FILM RENAISSANCE. Local Hitmakers. Global Provocateurs. Pg 97
[11] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea.
http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3316023.pg 10
[12] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. Pg 197
[13] Park, JaeYoon. 2008. Seeing stars: female film stars and female audiences in post-colonial Korea.
http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3316023.pg 7
[14] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. pg 201
[15] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. pg 201
[16] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. pg 203
[17] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. pg 207
[18] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. pg 215
[19] Korean Film Archive (2012). Women On Screen. Understranding Korean Society and Women through
Films. 215
