I was just wondering, since I am aware that a few
members of the Salon online actually are writing their theses or research on
Korean cinema as well, how far they can recommend films related to the theme of
"coming-of-age"(growing up) and its relation to that of nationhood and
nationbuilding in Korea?
I was watching "The Classic", more correctly titled
"Kkeu Ra Sik" in Korean phonology, which narrates the theme of growing up
through two interwoven layers. The first layer was the story of Ji-Hae's crush
on a young aspiring playwright, Sang-min, in college, in which although in love,
she chooses to keep her love and admiration secret because of fear of coming in
between Sang-min and her best friend who loves Sang-min. The latter constitutes
of the story of a thwarted love story between Ji-Hae's mother and Joon-ha, whom
she cannot marry because she is betrothed to Tae-Soo, his best friend, and whom
her political party member father has arranged for her to marry. What I
found interesting, despite the commonplace element of the latter narrative of
the past reflecting and mirroring the present, is that the latter story is
narrated through the letters written during the Korean War period by
Joon-Ha to Ji-Hae's mother, which Ji-Hae discovers and pieces together to find
out the "classic" story of her mother's love. In the latter story's narration,
there is the implication that in the sacrifices of the older generation, we find
the subsequent fruition of the hopes of the younger generation, and there
is that element of time past and time present which when interwoven together
seems to imply that growing up or "coming-of-age"(in that usual Anne Montgomery
or "Little Women" sense of growing up and becoming an adult) as a person who
discovers love, hope and fear, is also intertwined with the theme of nationhood
in South Korean cinema, especially the contra-distinction of South Korea as a
democratic state which possesses its own right to exist outside of international
interference in its politics.
What I found interesting was the probability that
the film may be making references either subconsciously or obviously
to the post-Korean War films of the 60s and
70s, after the economic depression that sets in in the South right after the
War. Are there any such Korean films of this period which I can access easily
via archives which have a similar thrust in theme and narrative
construction?
Kevin