In preparation for tomorrow's visit from and discussion with Park Kwang-su, please post a thoughtful answer of at least two paragraphs
to ONE of the following questions about TO THE STARRY ISLAND:
1.
At the time of its release TO THE STARRY ISLAND
was considered path-breaking for depicting events surrounding the Korean War,
long considered a taboo subject for South Korean cinema. What seems special or
even unusual in the film’s representation of Korea during this extraordinarily tumultuous
and traumatic period of its history? And what sort of argument does the film
seem to make about the war and its aftermath? Please engage specific examples
from the film.
2.
Please discuss the evocative presence in TO THE
STARRY ISLAND of traditional Korean culture and beliefs such as folk music,
shamanism and patriarchal village hierarchy. What role do these cultural forms-
and their pointed depiction within the film- play in TO THE STARRY ISLAND’s
complex intertwining of past (both personal and historical) and present?
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ReplyDeleteQuestion 2 Response:
ReplyDeleteIn To The Starry Island change is a big theme. The movie highlights the many forms of this phenomenon, acknowledging that it can come from both within a culture, and from infiltration of physical and imaginary borders. Change upheaves cultural traditions, taking humans from isolation to interaction, from suppression to acted on ambition, from custom to uncertainty. In Twisong change is a harbinger of more than progress- it is an avenue for violence and ambiguous social evolution.
In the imaginary island of Twisong, time is bridged by the concurrent performance of past and present cultural practices. Symptoms of a heavily patrilineal society play out on screen, and are challenged by a meeting with the past. Shamanism, a relic of old Buddhist Korea, contrasts sharply with a male dominated system, at times rendering it powerless. The female Shaman reminds us that even within Korea’s borders large cultural changes have deeply shaped the current social landscape. The advent of confucianism meant rejection of Buddhism and acknowledgement of a much more agnatically inclined society. Confucianism placed men at the head of their communities and legitimized their role far above that of females. Women, who could not inherit land or hold high paying positions, were forced into subservient existences. Unmarried women could not contribute much to their family, and thus were usually seen as temporary, unhelpful members of this community. Meanwhile, married women were not acknowledged as official members of their spouse's household until death cemented their tenures as dutiful wives. Females thus constantly occupied a liminal space, like ghosts floating between two homes, never fully accepted in either. Shamanism remains as a challenge to the Confucian ways. In the film, several instances of husbands beating their wives- of males dominating the marriage relationship- contrast with the possessed, impacting kkut performances of a shaman. Perhaps the most poignant moment is when a previously beaten wife kicks and punches her husband while she “channels” his father’s spirit. Here we see a transformation of kinship roles to benefit the opressed member of society. By acting as the husband’s father the Shaman stays safely within power conventions, yet still exacts revenge.
The Starry Island’s soundtrack is comprised of both very theatrical scores that ring of modern composition, and elements of traditional Korean music. Korean instruments enhance and guide the viewer’s emotions, and remind us that this story has a very unique cultural setting. However, instances of the actors performing folk music are most striking- especially when the jilted wife belts out a pansori-type melody amidst a storm, riding an angry sea.
To The Starry Island engages historical and anthropological topics that truly speak to the Korean experience.
I found the film’s portrayal of the Korean people during and leading up to wartime and its portrayal of the South Korean government noteworthy. In To The Starry Island, much of the movie develops without any direct military presence and instead progresses by developing the characters of the wartime islanders. Excepting Mr. Kim, the film portrays the male islanders as having serious character flaws—from the man who beats his wife to the unfaithful, selfish Moon—and leaves the audience with little regard for them, if not with a hope that some sort of justice will be wrought upon them (as with the satisfying beating of Moon). The negative portrait the film paints of the islanders prepares the audience for the betrayals and deceit that follow when the military invades the island. Rather than portraying the Korean people as innocent, oppressed, or in general detached from a ruthless military, the film shows them just as capable and willing to do despicable things. Furthermore, the islanders are ignorant of the conflict that is engulfing them; that is, they are not unaware of the conflict’s existence but ignorant of its implications and therefore apathetic to its victor. Thus, neither are the Korean people portrayed as martyrs or heartless revolutionaries; there is no passion behind their actions, it is simply their selfish nature. In this way, the film levels the playing field between the people and the military, as if to say “we all made mistakes, we all did things we regret.”
ReplyDeleteThe film’s portrayal of the South Korean military was also surprising. While this may simply be a product of my American education, I was taken aback by the negative portrayal of the Republic. Not only was the military willing to kill civilians, but to use deceitful means for determining how to do so. Here the filmmakers did well to establish the ruthlessness of the military via the murder of Oknim; prior to her shooting, the audience could still believe that the military may only hold the “reds” captive, but her death sealed the fate of the others, establishing the gravity of the war crimes without unnecessary on-camera bloodshed. While the harsh tactics of the North Korean forces were to be expected, the film’s portrayal of the South Korean forces again points to the idea that the Korean War was not a conflict between “good guys” and “bad guys” rather it was a time of great atrocities where the whole of Korea suffered. Just as the negative portrayal of the islanders breaks down the line between the military and the citizenry, the deceit of the South Korean government breaks down the line between North and South. Thus, the film establishes a point of view that emphasizes and unites the Korean people.
1. What makes this film special and unusual to me is that it’s not overly gory, bloody, violent, or depressing. The implication of massacre is definitely there in the slow-motion, dancing in the stars scene, which strikes you with how many people died because of the war, but considering the topic it boldly chose, the movie is quite light-hearted at times with just the right amount of seriousness to not scare you away. Contrasted to most American war films, “To the Starry Island” seems more about the network of relationships in an island village during a difficult time instead of war.
ReplyDeleteI’m afraid that this optimistic outlook is simply because I am a foreigner and not Korean myself. One thing I am pretty sure of is that the film did not seem to take any side on the war. If the soldiers came as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and stayed that way, it might seem like the North was in the wrong. Yet, switching to actually be from the Republic of Korea created the delicate middle ground where war itself is the enemy. You could say that both sides of the armies would have done the same thing in order to track down traitors or “sympathizers”, so really both armies were in the wrong. An innocent island should never have been so torn by their neighboring people. The overall statement is that war is wrong, and that it takes a very long time for those wounds to heal (the most obvious example being that the islanders would not let the “traitor” be buried/come ashore even 40 years later).
First of all, the movie is a great way to discover the different traditions is Korea, a lot of them are showed during the movie, and, for regular students like us, it is a perfect way to understand how they work and how they are made.
ReplyDeleteDuring the movie, the director uses parallel traditions between the present and the past. For exemple, during the present at the beginning of the movie, we understand how can happend a typical korean wedding, as, during the past, we can understand what a funeral. We can also see the funeral during the "present" part of the movie, but it is kind of the main story, not just a detail, as they want to bury the father on the island during the entier movie, it's the main thread of the story. On the other hand, the direct tries to show on both present and past sides, that the island hasn't changed that much, the hierarchy is still the same, the important people are still the same ones.
The fact that the movie takes only place in this place, on the island makes it even more special, the only contact they have with the rest of Korea, and the rest of world, is the radio. And the scenes with the radio on are a important reflection of it : one radio is playing and everybody gathers around to get the news. The rest of Korea feels like another country, for exemple when the old lady says that her girls left for the mainland, or when the kids ask "have you ever been to Seoul ?". Feels like an all other country. The fact that the island is an all other world from there is a great way to show the traditions. The 2 main characters of the present part help us to discover that as they try to understand how the island since they left (why the graves are there, how the house of the old lady is organized ...).
This movie feels like a big crash between to worlds, reprensented in 2 worlds in the 2 main parts : the city people against the people from the island in the present part. but also the army against the island in the the last part. The plat is really interesting also to show that the people from the island in the past, become people from the city in the present. What goes around comes back around.
Thinking about the number 2:
ReplyDeleteThe movie 'Starry Island' well reveals the Korean traditional society and culture. The movie shows both the past and present by crossing the time. Korean traditional elements are shown in the both period.
One of the reflections of Korean society is that people have a lot of community spirit. The womenfolks work together at the beach, all the folk members gather together when exorcism is conducted and people grieve together when a folk member died. Also we can see plainly the 'togetherness' when all the folk members assemble and smite him in a traditional way whereof Duk-bae's disgraceful behavior. And even in the present scene, all the folk members refuse Duk-bae corp's coming to their area. They desperately oppose together.
Another aspect we can also know that people in that period assign certain value to the songs and moving especially dancing. At the first scene of the movie, women in the boat sing mournful traditional song to express their sorrow and soothe Duk-bae's spirit. And scenes of the past also correspond to this. When exorcising, a shaman sings a song while dancing, then a woman is possessed by a husband's father spirit. I can infer that people in this period believed the existence of spirits. The most impressive scene is Duk-bae's original wife's behavior after the daughter's death. She climbs to the roof and does a certain action that she raises her arm many times while grabbing daughter's clothes. This action is like soaring up her daughter's spirit to the sky. At the last scene of the movie, the old shaman dances passionately and all spirits dance together in the sky. People express their feeling in a roundabout way by dancing and share spiritual communion.
Traditional elements are revealed in both the past and present scenes. That is, the traditions were conveyed from the past to the present. I think the common elements between two periods can be a linkage. Because of the linkage, the disparted times can be linked. Descendents can feel and think what the ancestors' lives were by inheriting a tradition. So I think it can be a method of communication between ancestors and descendents.
P.S.:What the word 'corp' I used in the comment is precisely 'corpse'.
DeleteWhat I found very unusual about the film was that the Korean war was depicted in the view of island villagers. By placing the setting on an island, where villagers are not familiar with the antagonistic ideologies of North and South Korea, it seemed that the director wanted to take a closer look into how the war has impact not just the country but the lives of the innocent people. Therefore it did not show any scenes of battlefields but only the island in its past and present.
ReplyDeleteBefore the intrusion of armies, the villagers had their own concerns. For example, a widow from Jeju was treated like an outsider and held a sort of grudge against other villagers, a woman was constantly physically abused by her husband, and other woman was raising her children alone because her husband left her with his mistress. They were vulnerable people and had difficulties in life. On the other hand, Oknim was vulnerable in a psychological term but this also made her to have pure and naive view of the world. When they die from the gunshot of armies, especially when Oknim dies, I felt that message that war obligates the death of innocent people is dramatized.
Question #2.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the movie, I could easily find out the movie well depicted traditional Korean culture. The very first scene starts with folk music, especially the sound of traditional Korean instrument “kkwaenggwari” deepens the sad mood of the scene. Also, shamanism plays an important role in the movie. The female shaman talked, according to other spirit in her body said and she was the only person who could communicate with the dead person. Moreover, since all the characters were people from a small island, they were uneducated except the teacher “Kim Chul”. This shows the Korean society where only the rich could get proper education and become elites.
In addition, patriarchal village hierarchy was deeply rooted in the island. There was a scene where a mother prepared the table for two; one for sons and the other for daughters, as it was not allowed to eat together for men and women, even for little children. There is also another female widow character. She was looked down on by other women in the village after everyone found out about her scandalous doings. In the past, widows had to live alone and keep their chastity for their entire life, while men could marry again anytime.
These descriptions of Korean beliefs within the film combined with complex intertwining of past and present represent that the resentment still remains even after many years have passed by. This also leads to the grief and sorrow of our situation as a divided country.
1. What I thought was unusual in “To the Starry Island” was that even though this film penetrates the issue of traumatic history in Korea, it starts off and ends very personally. Usually most of the film that deals with the Korean War tries to depict how the war made problematic situations within the Korean society. Thus, the viewpoint gets narrower; national, social, then individual. However, when we look at this film closely, we can find out that this film takes the form vice versa.
ReplyDeleteIn an isolated island where the fear of war is not prevalent, the tragedy of the war reaches its peak because of personal revenge. Duk-Bae becomes the accuser to take his revenge on his neighbors that beat him. His feeling of hatred and humiliation comes from the neighbors’ judgment (especially by the elders) who judges him by their own standards. Then this judgment is stemmed from his affair with a young outsider and his indifference of his own family. The problem of his family starts off with his daughter’s (a hunchback) death. Eventually the segmentation from the family, neighbors, and the island involves the tragic social circumstances. Therefore I felt that the director criticizes the individuals and collective Korean societies—whether big or small—that are being irresponsible and unwise to the rapidly changing Korea at that time. I believe this message could be definitely applied to the current Korean society as well. That’s why this film is so highly valued; it connects the past, present and the future in Korean society with discerning insights.
In an era where choosing a political side meant either life or death, the film To The Starry Island that sheds light on such a meaningless yet catastrophic division of the Korean people must have certainly been taken as a taboo by the South, or even by the North Korean government for that matter. The film’s representation of Korea is unusual in that the small island is a rather peaceful home for its villagers despite the chaotic and destructive war that was occurring outside in the country at the time. Nonetheless, we still see conflicts in some of the families, of whose members suffer greatly from human characteristics such as corruption and jealousy. For example, Pan-nim’s father impregnates a mistress in spite of his hardworking wife who alone takes care of their crippled daughter, and the old village wives taunt the young widow for sleeping with another man. In its entirety, however, the village is more so or less a family that looks out for each other, as shown in the town search for Pan-nim’s missing mother.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, when the islanders suddenly turn against each other in the presence of a mere arm band or a dividing rope, Park opens our eyes to the tragedy that befell upon the people during the Korean War: families turned against each other by fear and the spoiling of innocence, mainly symbolized by the shooting of Oknim, the only character in the movie who was genuinely pure due to her childlike, yet kindhearted nature. Ultimately, the film portrays the people in both sides of the war as innocent victims caught in a political strife—not even knowing the political affairs themselves—with the aftermath being only the death of the many innocent lives forced into war. In the last scene, nonetheless, I thought it was very beautiful how the people who initially declared themselves as “Communists” are set free from their betrayal and proven innocent with their starry night-dancing.
Throughout the film, TO THE STARRY ISLAND, there are some Korean traditions I could easily find out. First off, in the process of depicting past and present, patriarchal village hierarchy is well-revealed. The village is the very typical kind of agricultural society. That is, men are to play most of the role in earning their living and because of it, men control over women in every aspect. For example, there was a scene that a man keeps hitting his wife any time she does something wrong. From objective point of view, the mistake the woman makes is so trivial that the man hitting his wife looks abnormal. However, since patriarchal hierarchy prevails among the village, other people couldn’t intervene to this weird situation but just sympathize with the woman.
ReplyDeleteAlso, shamanism is greatly involved in the process of solving conflicts among islanders. There are some scenes of performance of an exorcism, which is the representative form of shamanism. Exorcism is generally performed when weird things happen such as supernatural phenomenon. However, in this film, the performance of exorcism took place when the shaman needs to relieve the grief or express true feeling on behalf of the islanders.
These two traditional Korean cultures are effectively used in depicting the complicated link between painful past and present of the society of Korea. Although many years have passed since then, still the pain and grief of the islanders remains today as the conflict between Chai-Gu and the others went on.
What I found extraordinary about the Korean War in the film was that those who brought division among island people was one of island's members, Deok-bae. I felt this story gave an idea that the Korean War was actually brought about internally rather than externally; there had always existed that fundamental causes for division among ordinary people. That is, real cause for the Korean War was internal hatred or distrust among people rather than simply ideological division among nation. Ideological differences could trigger the explicit beginning of struggles, but it was, in fact, trivial things that actually brought the severe civil war. Turbulence of island seemed to started with Deok-bae's narrow-minded(or narrow-sighted) revenge, there had always possibility for island people to segment in terms of trivial discord in their routine life. What I felt from the film was, we all have responsibilities for outbreak of the Korean war, so we all have to reflect our behaviors rather than attribute outbreak of the war to specific figure. As we saw at scenes that island people accused each other when the North Korean army arrived, if there were mutual trust among people, there segmentation or situation that blamed each other would not be happened.
ReplyDeleteAt the final scene that shaman asked Deok-bae(Deok-bae's spirit) to "say something about this situation", but eventually nothing was solved, except for Deok-bae's body was burned out, it seemed to show us that Korean peninsula still under the Cold War, nothing has been solved. Expression about the Korean War in the film was unique because it never showed us crazy or loud gunshot or bloody scenes that represent ordinary 'war movie'. Instead, it showed us ordinary people's routine life maybe quite in monotone, but implied so much thing. Island people was not ready to accept betrayer Deok-bae even he was already dead. I thought it represented the situation even my generation, which actually is living a life in the so-called cold-war period, is not ready to fully accept ideological differences and North Korea. "Unless all of our Koreans are ready to cure ourselves from previous cold war vestiges, we will never be able to go further to the future."; it was a lesson that I got from the film.
In terms of the flashback scenes, the most intriguing aspect of the film, by far, as a result of how isolated the people on the island could be, was that life continued essentially unchanged for the majority of the film. That is, despite the period’s tumultuous events, people still carried on with their own daily struggles—marriage, death, etc—and experienced the war in a very indirect way until the end of the film. Though soldiers do pass by on a boat and eventually arrive at the end of the film as a result of one villager’s betrayal, the most visible form of the war’s influence is the change in conversation it evokes, and even then it is not the sole topic of conversation, as day to day squabbles are still very real for the villagers. The film depicts non-war related problems, such as an unfaithful husband, the death of a daughter, and the exploits of a prurient young woman, among other things.
ReplyDeleteHowever, just as life continues so typically for some time, it is drastically changed in a matter of minutes when soldiers arrive and weed out Communist sympathizers. Daily struggles were suddenly presented within a new context, Communist and anti-Communist, and the villagers were forced to face the harsh realities of the stark division that had ransacked places with more direct contact with the war. Just as this division among the islanders was sudden, unexpected, unwanted, and even unfair, parallels could be made to the greater war effort and its effect on the Korean population. This film shows that war is cruel and, as evidenced by the larger framing device of the more recent funeral, that it leaves a long lasting legacy a part of which are death and anger. More importantly, war has the power to define identities as well as erase them, as the relationships between the villagers in the later years was defined by one villager’s betrayal, rather than the old social interactions that once took place in the village.
In the movie's past universe, the village's patriarchal hierarchy was portrayed in such as way as to satirize the emptiness of the war of ideologies, by accentuating the villagers' wretched, hapless ignorance, and thus highlighting the misfortunate way in which the ideological conflict was thrust onto them. The movie shows village relationship dynamics to be strongly male-dominated, where husbands have the absolute upper hand in marriage to the extent that they may openly blame the wife as the reason for an affair, and scenes of domestic violence where the husband beats his wife is shown with an air of banality, and presumed to be the reason par for the course when neighbors hear the muffled moans of a village widow in the night. These scenes illustrate a few things. Such an absence of gender equality emphasizes the lack of any social awareness, be it of women's rights, democracy, or communism. The only way in which the villagers' interest in the war is brought to the fore is when they discuss what may be happenening on the mainland and which side may be winning; their knowledge of or interest in the conflict is minimal, and relevant to them only to the extent that it may affect their chances of survival, as is made clear when they respond to the naval ship by alternatively cheering whichever side they are told has been winning the conflict. This renders them pathetic, and when the eventual farce of a trial determines their fates, labeling them with the arbitrary designations that means life and death, the film makes clear the gross injustice and absurd bruality that is infliced on them.
ReplyDeleteThis patriarchal element is carried over to the present universe of the film, to further expand on the sufferings resulting from the Korean War. In this part of the film, patriarchal culture is manifest in Chai-ku's devotion to his father's will, and the villager's adamant refusal to let the funeral happen. Filial piety being important to children, and the father's wishes critical for children to obey, Chai-ku takes the long journey from Seoul for the funeral. The modern day villagers, the children of the people who died those random deaths decades earlier, are now at odds with him, and refuse to let the coffin land ashore. They too, are living up to the norms of Korean patriarchy, by remembering and respecting their parents, who had blamed Chai-ku's father for bringing the army, and its violence, to their doorsteps. This conflict climaxes in the end with the burning of the coffin, when the children of the killed villagers resort to torching the boat, rather than allowing the burial, which would place Chai-ku's father to lie next to the killed villagers. Thus, the legacy of the Korean War is demonstrated to live on in the children of the war, for whom their devotion to their fathers keep their pain just as real as it was for their parents.
Every student in Korea might heard about this kind of story at least once before. In the majority of cases we learned that this kind of story should be recognized as metaphor like ‘Animal Farm’, and audience may be as well to interpret each island and soldiers as Korea and powerful nations in those days.
ReplyDeleteHowever, to see in a certain view, this story is not a symbolic one. Rather than, it seems like documentary which is based on a true story. If the director intended to represent the island as symbolical place, the place of the movie should have been depicted like utopia without sins and pains. If the place was described like that, impact of appearance of troops in the place would be maximized like as ‘Welcome to Dongmak gol’: the movie has a similar story line to ‘To the starry island’ and ‘Dongmak gol’, the place of the movie is described as utopia in the film. However director exposed sins and pains of people in the island rather than beautified it to let the place function as a part of metaphor.
Exposing the place the way it is keeps audiences away from increasing feelings in climax of film but this makes the film function as historian - recording real world like historian. So, in this view, the film is not a symbolic one but a realistic one.
It seems that director wanted to the film helps change the way people thought about the war. Because the censorship of government was so strict, people could get only limited and biased information about the war. As a result people who lived in postwar Korea tended to blame the war on North Korea at all. So I think this film try to broaden the sights of South Korean people in regard to how western powers contribute the war. It seems that the point this film insist is most of Korean people didn’t even know about ideologies and foreign powers were main cause of the war.
I think this part is the beginning of argument. Is this right thing that Korean films depict Korean people as if they are naïve, pure and don’t know what’s going on in their country? As one person of the last generation who could hear the real situations of the war directly from older generation, I think that the truth is, most of Korean had felt ‘little anxiety’ form the moment 38th parallel was made. Even though they didn’t know the exact meaning of it, they witnessed one nation ripped to the two parts at least. So people who lived in Korea-no matter which part he lived-possibly felt instinctively something was going to be bad.
Needless to say, Korean people still live their daily lives with ‘little anxiety’ in these days. Even though Korean people could get more information than the past, no one thinks that government clearly opens the information to the public. In a certain view, it seems that people who live in this country do not live in better condition compared to 62 years ago. If such thing happens here again now, would there be some films showing how ignorant we are about the situations, just like ‘To the starry island’ after 40 years?
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ReplyDelete[QUESTION 1]
ReplyDeleteKorea has gone through a really stressful hisory from the Japanese Imperialism to the Korean War to the military regime. Among these, the Korean War was the one that changed the Korean society in the deepest way, and the war’s drastic effects to the society is demonstrated well in the movie. To pick one of them, the most important part is that it destroyed the hearts of the Korean people so brutally. The movie shows the people’s naïve lives in the countryside of the island, but when the Korean War breaks out and the North Korean communist party wins over the Korean National Troops, it makes the rural people’s hearts turn so worldly and secular. For example, even though the islanders had lived altogether harmoniously, when a boat that seems like a naval vessel appeared in the near ocean, some people, thinking that it belongs to the communist part, yelled hurray honoring communism. Also, when a group of soldiers come into the island and push the people to aggregate in the school playground and require some of them volunteer to become their supporter in searching the people whose the thinking is ‘polluted’, the islanders surrender very easily to their requirements, trying to adjust to the soldiers’ tastes, betraying their used-to-be neighbors and friends.
The argument of this film on the Korean War and how it influenced the Korean society is closely linked to the war’s impact that the movie tried to show in the scenes. As I focused on the point that the war made the innocent island people’s hearts broken to the reality, this part will also be explained in that light. The film’s view on the Korean war and its effects is in a very negative position; the examples of the Korean war shown in the movie were so pessimistic and depressive. However, in the very center of that negative side, the opinion meets at the point that the psychological sharings of the people got collapsed due to the violent nature of a war, since almost all of the deepest scars of a war derive from the mental ones. Other than the two examples mentioned above, the mental destroyness of the war is embodied in the woman that goes insane after so many distressful incidents happen in a very short period. In the background of her severe mental break, her husband runs away to another island and make a relation with another lady, her hunchbacked daughter passes away, her husband teases her when he returns to home. What needs our attention here is her husband. He makes an excuse for his clearly wrong behavior saying that “I’m staying in this another island simply because of the war. It’s just that I have no other choices.” Here, the war is being used as a catalyst for breaking apart the relationship of the husband and wife, and this symbolically means the collapse of the group sharing feelings of a community, which is the integral part of the movie’s view on the Korean war and the influence of it on the Korean society.
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ReplyDeleteSince 2000, there have been more war movies such as "Taegukgi(2003)", "Kogijeon(2011)", "Into the Fire(2010)" and "Welcome to Dongmakgol(2005)" than before. The Korean war has represented the dark history of fratricidal war. The war movies steadily have appeared after fifty years, because conflicting ideologies are sensitive subjects in modern times. However, it is not comparable to how much the cost of film production between the mentioned movies and "to the starry island". Production cost of "to the starry island" is considerably cheap. Production cost of the other movies is very expensive because there are a lot of realistic war scenes ,which are interesting and cruel, for the box-office. The background of this movie is imaginary 'an island' from beginning to end. Most of the Korean will think that this movie well expresses the Korean war among a lot of war movies, although this movie is a relatively low budget film and a old film.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the movie, the most impressive scene was that the sexy "Bull-ttuk-nyeo" woman and the wandering tinker played on the swings and they said that "Here is heaven". At sunset, a couple happily played on the swings and children looked over them. This scene is small and beautiful daily life of the countryside. However, this small town was changed to the small battlefield after the heaven was recognized. In the next scene, a horrendous sight was expressed well. Village people didn't cling to one opinion either a people's republic or Republic of Korea owing to the same people. If they just can live like this, they have nothing to do with the place and they are just naive country person. People ,who wore military uniform, begun to call together the naive people and to draw a line and to divide into the people. While foolish "Oknim" saw this scene, she romped ridiculously cross the road mocking at the soldier. Because she thought that the people play together. The scene that "Oknim" horribly passed away was not sad and but amusing. Every spectator well knew that citizens of the town didn't have one ideology. Nevertheless, someone will be the Reds or won't be the Reds and someone dies or lives..
As I saw this movie, several questions came to mind. In those days, the "Chul" father was representative as the most intelligent and righteous character in the village. The audience said uncontrollable words through the "Chul" father that "The people in this town are unenlightened and country people. They don't know what the left and right are!". However, answer of a soldier was cold and clear. The soldier said that "Which side do you want? you?". The next scene was reduce immediately. His survival was unknown. Because he didn't appear among the people who are stars and dance with other stars, I think that he didn't die. However, why a writer let the "Chul" father live? I think that if the "Chul" father said his thought and he died like "Oknim", what character the poet "Kim Chul" would have and how this movie would be developed.
I realized how ridiculous conflicting ideologies are because a deserted village was a battlefield due to 'an extramarital affair' and 'immorality' of patriarchal man. However, because of this, can I say that the 'Moon' household is absolutely evil? To tell the truth, words of 'Duk Bae' are also right that 'In fact, my father is a victim'. Everyone is hurt from something and has a snout on someone. This movie didn't answer a question that who the object of resentment was. It is likely to comfort us who are hurt through 'salpuri' dance of shaman 'Up Soon'.
A time of tumult and trauma, the Korean War was chaotic and affected all Koreans, regardless of where they lived. What is special about “To the Starry Island” is how it depicts the affects and aftermath of the war upon the villagers of an island as opposed to engaging the viewer in battlefield scenes or a story of politics and military tactics. The film establishes a representation of Korea that is often forgotten about when discussing this period of its history. It is the ordinary people that are being affected by the war without them even knowing much difference between the two sides. Whether in the present or the past, the island villagers lived simple lives. Lives which, for the most part, were not interrupted by the conflicts of war but rather by the challenges that arose in everyday life. A wife getting beat by her husband, a cheating husband who leaves his wife to care for their hunchback daughter, a widow called slut for sleeping with a new man – aspects of life one could find in a village today, tomorrow, in time of peace or time of war. Though, as depicted by the flashback in which the army arrives (communist or not, it did not matter), the character flaws of families and friends allowed ideological values, which they did not fully understand, tear them apart.
ReplyDeleteDok-bae's behavior demonstrated the immoral nature of the time. Along with Dok-bae's betrayal came Oknim's death. As neighbors turned on each other in the final scenes, their innocence was lost. In my opinion, the film seems to represent the war and its aftermath as an everlasting pain that even time cannot heal. Forty years after the incident, the islanders would not allow Dok-bae's body to be buried on the island. Whether out of spite or respect for those that died in the flashback, the feud over the coffin boat emphasized how feelings can reemerge and prevent forward progress toward a solution. Yet, it was interesting to see the ghostly figures of those dead dancing in the sky, cheerful and laughing, while Poet Kim and the villagers struggled to bury Dok-bae. The earthly struggles of war seem to be of no concern to the stars.
I found the depiction of characters of how all of them are rich in color intriguing. Further, they symbolize what all the wars meant to people in the real world. The main character Kim Chul plays an important role of transferring all the incidents that took place without intervening in. Even after he grows up, he does neither actively help his friend bury the coffin on the island nor support the island people. Just like Kim Chul, some people stay somewhat indifferent unless the issue directly affects them. Since he was the protagonist, I expected him to make at least a small change in conflicts occurred within the island. However, he just sits back from beginning to the end. While I was watching the movie, I was reminded of another movie “Welcome to Dong Mak Gol” (2005). They are similar in a way that both movies have an innocent character who does not understand the chaotic war situation. For instance, Ok-nim perceives everything the way she wants to without any distraction from the outside. She has this innocent point of view, which makes the intensity of war meaningless, depicting the innocence found in the island. Duk-Bae shows how crude and egomaniac people can be in desperate situations. In order to revenge to the island people and to satisfy himself, he goes against the traditions of the island and also betrays the people. All these characters seem to illustrate individuals in the reality.
ReplyDeleteAs seen through these characters, they face their own conflicts at the time when the war breaks out. Conflicts seem to be a miniature of disputes in the bigger world. Resentment, hatred, and jealousy all adds up and make people blind to old tradition, generosity, and innocence. Most citizens, however, are not aware of these issues and politics. It is because they are busy minding their own business to take care of their families and living, unlike elites who satisfy their own desire through victimizing the innocent citizens. War movies illustrate right and wrong and so does the movie “To the Starry Island.” The movie shows that no matter who wins and loses, the resentment constantly lingers inside the people, which cannot be fully comforted even by shaman.
TO THE STARRY ISLAND’s representation of Korean culture and history of the Korean War is special and unusual in many aspects. The film is not ashamed of showing parts of Korean culture, which might not be fully understood by foreign viewers or the younger generation of Korea. For example, the scenes of shamanism or the subjugation of women illustrate some of the aspects of Korean culture that not every Korean is extremely proud of. Yet from an aesthetic perspective, the film’s cinematography captures such cultural aspects and moments so beautifully that when such scenes combine those cultural pieces and events caused by the Korean War, we do not simply just focus on the plot but also get to explore the lives of the normal, innocent, and helpless inhabitants of the island.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, I believe the film is arguing that there is a possibility of reuniting South and North Korea and that human beings, when stripped of political ideologies, are internally convoluted yet simple creatures who struggle with their own natural instincts, sorrow, desire, dreams, and the plight of their everyday lives. The film seems to say that just like the island would have been left pristine if Moon did not engage in a revengeful act, if people were left unspoiled by political ideologies and greed of the learned and powerful, there won’t be any kind of grand-scale wars or conflicts.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I found unusual about the film was that the movie suggested a different perception towards the military and government of the Republic of Korea. The movies that depicted Korean war before this film usually glorifiefd the liberal values of South Korea, and criticized North Korea in order to emphasize patriotism towards the democratic country. However, in this film we see the South Korean army going to an island and deceiving the innocent citizens even ending up killing them. This actually made the audience think about whether absolute justification of the democratic government is just.
In this film, the sons and daughters of those who were killed by Korean army deny the son of 'Moon-Duk Bae', who initially attracted the soldiers into the island. This shows that the hostility that happened during the war is being continued to the next generation of history, just as there is a hostile situation between the two Koreas currently. However, at the end of the film, we see everybody tugging the burnt coffin boat together. I think this symbolizes the director's hope that someday in the future, unification of the divided Koreas will take place.