nanoomi

Local Items– We are pleased to remark that the ladies of the Seoul Union have put their shoulders to the wheel and handsomely papered the rooms of the Union. We congratulate them and ourselves on the improvement thus effected and are glad to hear that they intend to open the season tomorrow. Let every member be present with his tennis racquet and with a good stock of harmless gossip and show the ladies his appreciation of their efforts. Read the full story

I opted to combine these two issues as the Editorial found in the April 11th issue was taken up with the growing tensions between Spain and the USA regarding Cuba. Reminder: All opinions expressed herein belong to the editors of The Independent and written 120 years ago.

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This past weekend, my friend suggested that we watch one of my DVDs. He mentioned that he hates horror films but anything else was ok except that he was not in the mood for anything depressing. After browsing through the movies I have, he pulled out this film. I was a little surprised and asked why he wanted to see this.. It contains no action, has no famous performers and is basically an unknown, arthouse film which I thought he would have no interest in as, in the past, he has raved about such movies as Avatar and the Transformer series. “Why” I asked, “did you pick this?” “Because everyone looks so happy on the cover,” came the answer.  Ah, Gi-wook…haven’t you learned to read the back of the DVD box?  Tweaking the old adage a little, ‘never judge a DVD by its cover.’  True, the people on the cover look happy and every poster made to advertise the film at the time of its release shows the three main characters smiling brightly. However, that is only the cover. The movie, an omnibus made up of three short stories, contains a suicide, a character considering suicide, a stagnant life, a failed romance, a crushed dream, a dead marriage and the lead up to a probable double murder.

The first story is about twenty-one year old Jeong-hee who lives with her older sister.   They were abandoned by their father fifteen years earlier and the sacrifices that the pair have had to make in order to survive left them with very different characters. The sister is a little on the mousy side and has turned to religion to find her strength. In contrast, Jeong-hee has developed a very tough exterior and could be considered rather selfish. When her sister wants to move to a better apartment, Jeong-hee whines, drags her feet and ultimately forces her sister to take the one and only place they look at with disasterous results. She also lashes out at her father when he reappears at her sister’s request with tragic results. Read the full story

Today, we will look at our final creature of the darkness on the Obscure Monster Countdown to Halloween, Death. However, calling Death obscure is not quite fair. Death is a common theme in quite a few Korean films and spans all of the genres. But did you know that Korea has a personification of death?  Just as Europe and North America have the Grim Reaper and Angels of Death, East Asia has Jeoseung Saja.  Dressed in billowing black robes and wearing his telltale tall black cap, the Jeoseung Saja walks the Earth seen only by those who are about to die. Pale skin and sunken eyes which stare unrelentingly at their target, these death-beings visit those at the point of death and call for their souls. For the most part, there is no escape from his firm grasp as he cannot be reasoned with or swayed from his task.. .(except in the comedy short film collection of Dasepo Naughty Girls Series in which the Jeoseung Saja allows the students and teachers of the school to barter for their lives with sexual favors). Read the full story

Snakes are a popular choice for movies. In recent years we have had at least four Anaconda movies, Snakes on a Plane, King Cobra and the Python series. Earlier decades gave us movies such as Venom and Mamba.  Way back in 1974, Hollywood treated us to a movie simply called Snakes in which an elderly man sent his pet snakes out to take revenge on his enemies rather like the better known film Willard which featured Rats. Both of these could be seen as part of a sub-genre of the ‘Nature-Gone-Wild’ category of disaster films. In Nature-Gone-Wild movies, a species– or sometimes an entire family comprised of various, related species– of animals would rise up against humanity. Hitchcock presented us with The Birds and the feathered fiends were quickly followed by many other animals from rabbits (Night of the Lepus), frogs (Frogs) and even worms (Squirm)!

The nature-gone-wild films and disaster films in general never really caught on in Korea. However, during the late sixties throughout the early 80s, Korean filmmakers frequently teamed up with Hong Kong and Taiwanese production companies. Most of the films made through these collaborations were action ‘kung-fu’ flicks but there was some variety. Here we will briefly look at two movies featuring reptiles of revenge that were co-produced with Hong Kong. The first is a film known as Calamity of Snakes (1983). This one follows the usual pattern of nature-gone-wild films where a greedy corporate executive does something to destroy the natural habitat of the animal of the day and they rise up to indiscriminately take vengeance. In this case, the snakes seem justified as their brethren have just been horribly slaughtered by a construction crew who are building a new resort hotel. In retaliation, the snakes invade a luxury, high-rise and attack all the residents living there. Mind you, this is not just one species of snake– it is quite an unusual mix. And they are led by a gigantic boa with kung-fu ability.  Yes– you read that last part right. The snake, suspended from the sky, becomes involved in a wire-fu battle with a team of exterminators.  Sounds like it might be fun, right? Well, not really. For many of the scenes, the snakes are real (unlike the one in the photo above) and so are their deaths.

The other co-production is The Magic Curse (1975).  A trip to Borneo takes a bizarre turn when the travellers encounter a snake cult who make human sacrifices to their serpent god. Taekwondo instructor Im Moon-yeong escapes the clutches of the bizarre witch doctor Adulla and runs straight into the arms of a mysterious woman who turns out to be a high priestess of the snake god. She falls in love with Moon-yeong and sends him safely on his way, but with a little gift. When kissing him goodbye, she bites him and imparts to him a curse. She warns him that if he meets any other woman, her rival for his love will die a horrible death. Instead of taking her seriously, Moon-yeong makes a stop over to Hong Kong and proceeds to screw — I’m sorry– I meant ‘make love to’ as many woman as he can.  After he leaves, each of these comely lasses are terrorized by snakes until they can bear it no more and suffer from heart failure. I’m sure there is something Freudian going on here…  Anyway, Moon-yeong soon finds that the curse has another aspect.  When he is assaulted by a gang of thieves, he transforms into a scaly man-snake with enormous teeth.  With dead street punks on his hands and a trail of dead women behind him, it is not long before the police track Moon-yeong down. Fortunately for our hero, the police believe his story of the curse and accompany him to Borneo to put an end to it. Meanwhile, in Borneo, the high priestess has fallen victim to a curse herself placed upon her by Adulla.  She is transformed into the green Medusa-like woman in the poster and she too is leaving a trail of havoc in her wake.

We are not quite done with snakes yet. These are not quite supernatural enough. Tomorrow we will look at the Snake Wives.

Take a look at the following trailers from The Ruins (2008), From Hell It Came (1957) and The Maneater of Hydra(1967) – Three Western films that feature man (and woman) eating plants. If you were to watch these films, you would notice that they have something in common, namely that you have to be pretty slow, pretty stupid or a combination of both to get yourself devoured by a plant. Even the lumbering tree monster which is not rooted to the spot once it matured moves at a glacial pace. Let’s face it, plants are not scary and the fact that they can barely move is the primary reason. Alien plants are a little different and make a better impression on the horror enthuiast. The original version of The Thing, Little Shop of Horrors, The Body Snatchers and The Day of the Triffids all feature alien plants that are far more memorable than any of the posies listed earlier in the paragraph.

At first glance the title flora in The Flower of Evil, directed by Lee Yong-min back in 1961, might be suffering from the same problem. It is confined to a flower pot. Even though descriptions state that it can move at night, I don’t think it would get very far with its roots firmly trapped in soil on a pot on an end table. This is especially problamtic as this sinister flower requires a healthy dose of blood to survive. Its stature may be deceptively small, but the amount of blood required to keep this plant alive is surprising. How can it possibly get what it needs?  The answer is simple and follows in the vein of the original Little Shop of Horrors (1960)– the plant simply tells its owner what it wants.  But there is no thin little whisper of “Feed Me” nor the more musical demands as made in the remake of Little Shop of Horrors. No, this plant has an entirely different method. At night, it transforms into a ghost and makes its needs known.

“Now wait just a minute,” you might be thinking, “How can a plant transform into a ghost?” Well, if it were just a plant, I would share your disbelief. After all, a couple of days ago, the One-Eyed Ghost explained that the dying with han in one’s soul was what caused a person to come back as a phantom.  I think most people would agree that a plant does not have a soul and, even if you could convince me that it did, I would never believe that its spirit could carry a grudge that would drive it to revenge. But the ability to transform into a ghost– as well as its lust for human blood — was bestowed on the cursed orchid when the spirit of Baek Ryeong (pictured right) fused with the plant. Baek was a woman deeply in love with Prof. Lee Gwang-soo but he did not return her feelings. She died in an unspecified manner (I suspect suicide) and her spirit joined with a flower creating a new species of plant that Prof. Lee, as a botonist, found irresistable. He now had something unique in the plant world. The fact that it required blood was problematic, but nothing that Lee found too intimidating. He started draining blood from various victims to feed his favorite flower, but he drains too much from one woman and she dies, making him a murderer.

You might think that would be as bad as things could get, but it becomes worse. His frequent nightly expeditions to procur more blood have a startling effect on Dr. Lee.  He is slowly transformed into a vampire himself!  He then proceeds to attack his devoted and loving wife. Will his wife survive or will Baek Ryeong have her revenge and spend eternity as a monster with the vampire she loves? I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that this movie had everything– a blood guzzling vine, a virgin ghost and now a homicidal vampire!  Ah– but ‘had’ is the operative word. This movie is lost. There are no extact copies known. Given the number of stills that exist, I suspect the final copy deteriorated to the point that it was unsalvagable and the remains were photographed as a way to preserve what remained. That is why the image of the actual star of the film, the Flower of Evil, is not clear.  I did not have a lot of options to choose from. But there are not only stills; the scenario and a poster are still around and serve as evidence of this movie’s existence.

Tomorrow— Snakes!

Not all monsters, ghosts and things that go bump in the night are from horror films. Today’s entry onto the list of Obscure Monsters comes from the children’s fairytale, The Brothers Heungbu and Nolbu directed by Kang Tae-woong in 1967.

Before introducing our feature guest today, I should probably talk a little about the movie.  The Brothers Heungbu and Nolbu was the first feature length film made in Korea to be performed entirely by claymation and dolls not unlike classic holiday favorites such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. This Korean movie was also made for a holiday, May 5th.  No, not Cinco de Mayo– Children’s Day!  In the movie, Heunbu’s hoarde of children sing a happy-ish song while animals and birds play together with them–I think this is right before a huge snake appears and attempts to devour the baby birds still in the nest.  The happy-ish song is a nice change for the kids. Most time when they are onscreen, they are sobbing about how hungry they are and how sorry they are for their parents.  While much time is spent on the kids, the story is really about the kind Heungbu who, along with his wife and children, savagely beat the snake to death. During the battle, one of the birds suffers from a broken leg. Heungbu and family take care of it  and are rewarded by the birds with a magic seed. In the film, when the seed grows, it produces three enormous gourds that Heungbu and his wife saw open. In one gourd are jewels, silks and luxurious clothes. In another gourd are piles of gold and coins. The final gourd transforms the family’s hovel into a palace-like home. And then comes the good part… Read the full story

Although today’s entry in the Obscure Monster Countdown to Halloween is from 1984, I have to go back to 1966 to begin.  You see, if you were living in Japan in July 1966, you would have been treated to the very first appearance of Urutora or, as he is known to Western audiences, Ultraman.  Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, the original Ultraman television series ran for 39 episodes. Throughout the following years, Ultraman has returned in various incarnations.  Apparently, these giant warriors fuse their life force with a human who can then turn into the titantic defender when Earth is threatened. Growing up in the USA, we did get the original Ultraman series that was aired on Saturday morning when I was a very young child (when it was known as ‘Cartoon Day’, not Saturday)  However, it came on too early in the morning for me to see. I would always catch the tail end of the show when he would shoot it with a laser from his arm and the monster he was battling that week would blow up.  I always wanted to see more.  When I was a little older, there was an American cartoon featuring Ultraman–several ultramen I believe– but when I moved to Korea, I saw my first complete series of Ultraman featuring Tiga. I think the most comparable show to Ultraman is the British series Dr. Who.  By this I mean that the main character and cast changes over the years, yet the fans instantly recognize and accept these changes as part of the mythos.
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Many people know of the ghosts, monsters and creatures that have skittered through Korean horror films over the past decade. The ghosts of Phone or A Tale of Two Sisters have left indelible images on the minds of viewers around the world.  Others maybe won’t prove as memorable, like the haunted tree in Acacia, the giant pig from Chaw, the demonic taxis from Ghost Taxi or the the werewolves of Ssunday Seoul but they are still fairly recent and won’t be dealt with here.

In these posts counting down to Halloween, I will be dealing with the obscure–my favorite topic. Monsters, ghosts, goblins and the like from before the year 2000; creatures from movies never released on DVD that are in danger of being forgotten in Korea and not known at all outside of the country.
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Park Nam-ok made a mark on Korean cinema history by being the first Korean woman to direct a film. However, it was an under-appreciated effort at the time it was made and there was no real interest in the film until the 1st Seoul Women’s Film Festival ressurected it.  At the time it was made, Park could only get one theater to screen it because she was a woman and even when she finally got it released, it was only for a four-day period. But it was still an amazing accomplishment considering the times.  Park Nam-ok was born in 1923 in Hayang, the third of ten children in her wealthy family. She demonstrated a strong character, enjoying sports such as shot-put as well as movies and literature. After graduating high school, she wanted to go on her own to study in Japan, but her family refused to let her go. Instead she had to enrol in the Home Economics Department at Ehwa Women’s College. She wound up leaving school while fighting her parents’ wishes that she marry. Instead, she became a film critic for the Daegu Daily Newspaper. After Korea was liberated from Japan, she joined the Joseon Film Company as a script editor, but again her parents forced her to return home in the hopes to get her to marry. When the Korean War started, she edited newsreels for the army. She did eventually marry a playwright who had written the scenario for The Widow which she began making into a film. She had a child at the time, but lacked a willing babysitter, so she used to go to work with her daughter on her back.  Park only made the one film. She divorced her husband and started a film magazine called Cinemafan in 1956 but again her parents got her to give it up and convinced her to work for her brother-in-law at Dong-a Publishing. After 21 years there, she moved to the USA to be with her daughter who was living there and she remains there to this day.

The movie The Widow was made at a time when money was in short supply. While director Park may have felt that less than many people living in Korea in the mid-50’s, her characters are frequently concerned about and motivated by the thought of money. The learn that the title character, widow Lee Shin-ja, is in need of money because her daughter’s school is “bleeding her dry” and the teacher has informed her daughter not to come if she cannot pay. Having no source of income of her own, Shin-ja has been relying on her husband’s friend, Lee Seong-jin, to support her but the man’s wife has become suspicious of their relationship.  Shin-ja’s best friend and neighbor, a prostitute, tells her that she could be getting a lot more money if she takes the friendship with Seong-jin to the next level. Later, again while talking to her friend about money, she forgets to watch her daughter who is playing in the beach. The child nearly dies as a result and only the quick action of Taek saves her.

Normally in these early films, the lead character is a pillar of chastity. Widows were expected to remain single as according to traditions, they were still married even though their husbands were dead. However, while Lee Shin-ja outwardly appears this way, she gradually changes throughout the movie. When we first meet her, she always wears traditional-style clothing. Often in early Korean films, what the female character wears determines the type of morals she has. For example, when we meet the prostitute, she is wearing pants which definitely brings her character into question if one is familar with films from this period. Shin-ja’s clothes style changes with the decisions she makes. After taking to living with Taek as his common law wife, Shin-ja adopts Western style clothes which we see often in early Korean film as a sign of declining morals (such as in The Coachman and The Aimless Bullet). Although Shin-ja learns to drink during the film she does not hit rock bottom and smoke as the prostitute does. Women smoking in Korean films was saved for either very elderly grandmothers who had earned the right or women who were considered the villain of the movie or, at the very least, someone whose character needed changing.

At one point in the movie, Lee Shin-ja calls herself a bad mother and her neighbor, Mr. Song is quick to disagree.  However, I have to take issue with that. Shin-ja is a terrible mother. Normally I would not be so quick to judge, but she our heroine gives away her daughter for no more reason than the child has become an incovenience! Giving up children happens sometimes in Korean films like in the I Hate You But Again series or the One Love where the father and mother are separated and one parent is better able to support the child than the other, but this is not the case in The Widow. While she is poor, Shin-ja raises her daughter lovingly. After she meets a man whom she wants to live with, her daughter has suddenly become “a burden” and she asks her lover Taek if she should “make her go live with Mr. Song?” By this time, she has opened her own sewing business and is making sufficient money to support her child.. which she does.. but she has no interest in having her daughter around.

There is one frustrating point while watching this otherwise engrossing film.  The last part of the movie is damaged. The last scene is missing off the end of the film so we do not see what happens at the end. Even more annoying is that in the ten minutes prior to that, the sound was lost so we can see what is happening, but we cannot hear any dialogue.  Fortunately, I was able to read a description of how the film ends, but it was very vague.  Even without knowing the exact ending, I think most people could guess that it would not end happily. Considering her actions, Shin-ja fails to live up to being an ideal wife/mother/woman and therefore, according to cinematic rules, she must be punished for these transgressions.

However, although Shin-ja fails to live up to the ideals 1950 society expected of her, the movie never paints her as the villain. Neither is the prostitute ever blamed for her actions because her methods of making money were very limited at the time. Had this film been directed by a man, I think the prostitute would have come off far worse. Instead, Park made the main  and supporting female characters very human and while we may not agree with their actions, we can understand them.

I am puzzled about the Korean title the film was released under on DVD.  The poster above shows the title to be Gwabu-ui Noomool which means “Tears of a Widow” in big red letters.   Underneath that, in parentheses and in Chinese characters, it says ‘Mimangin‘ which I understand was the name of the screenplay. Clearly the film title was the former no matter what the screenplay was called.  Why then was the DVD released under the Korean title Mimangin?  I have not been able to find any mention as to why one title was chosen over the other. However, that does not change the English title which has always been simply The Widow.

The Widow is available on DVD, but only as part of the Landscape After The War Collection which also contains The Flower in Hell (1958), Money (1958) and Drifting Island (1960).  It is worth tracking down to see what life in Korea was like in the years immediately following the Korean War.