“Wife,” a short story by Kim Yu-jong, author of the famous “Sonagi” (“Rain Shower”), also appears in the same issue of the literary journal. It caught my eye because “Sonagi” references pop up in Kdramas and movies such as THE CLASSIC on a regular basis. I read both short stories before watching the film, and realized that some elements of “Wife” also seem to have found their way into the movie (e.g., the peddlers singing “Arirang” in the bar is reminiscent of the story’s narrator trying to teach his wife to sing old songs so she could succeed at her intended profession as a peddler of alcoholic beverages; the cussing and bickering between peddler Cho and his pregnant wife also sounds like the dialogue of the skits and the horsing around between Gong-gil and Jang-seng in THE KING AND THE CLOWN). Maybe it’s just coincidental. In the film, I enjoyed the footage of street acrobats and musicians, and a ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling) match.
It is an inspired, uninhibited monolog, rife with scenes of domestic violence, narrated by an unlettered, sexist woodcutter who is not afraid to poke fun at himself. In bringing alive the character of his wife as well as himself, and in evoking familiar Korean ballads, this man gives us a taste of the kwangdae, the narrator of the traditional oral narrative p’ansori. Kim was a true original, and there is little else like this story in modern Korean fiction.
In other words: This ain’t Mama Fairy’s Woodcutter!
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PakalanaPikake
April 12, 2019 at 5:20 AM
WHEN THE BUCKWHEAT FLOWERS BLOSSOM (1967)
Korean Classic Film – Eng. sub.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyPKLcWwxk0
Short story here:
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/klt/96wint/yihyosok.htm
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PakalanaPikake
April 12, 2019 at 5:59 AM
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PakalanaPikake
April 12, 2019 at 6:16 AM
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As GOBLIN informed us, buckwheat blossoms signify “lover” in the Korean language of flowers.
Film details at Korean Movie Database:
https://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/db/kor/detail/movie/K/01589
Yi Hyo-sok: “When the Buckwheat Blooms” (1936)
Translators: Kim Chong-un & Bruce Fulton
Korean Literature Today, vol. 1, no. 3, Winter 1996
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/klt/96wint/yihyosok.htm
“Wife,” a short story by Kim Yu-jong, author of the famous “Sonagi” (“Rain Shower”), also appears in the same issue of the literary journal. It caught my eye because “Sonagi” references pop up in Kdramas and movies such as THE CLASSIC on a regular basis. I read both short stories before watching the film, and realized that some elements of “Wife” also seem to have found their way into the movie (e.g., the peddlers singing “Arirang” in the bar is reminiscent of the story’s narrator trying to teach his wife to sing old songs so she could succeed at her intended profession as a peddler of alcoholic beverages; the cussing and bickering between peddler Cho and his pregnant wife also sounds like the dialogue of the skits and the horsing around between Gong-gil and Jang-seng in THE KING AND THE CLOWN). Maybe it’s just coincidental. In the film, I enjoyed the footage of street acrobats and musicians, and a ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling) match.
Kim Yu-jong: “Wife” (1935)
Translators: Kim Chong-un & Bruce Fulton
Korean Literature Today, vol. 1, no. 3, Winter 1996
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/klt/96wint/kimyujong.htm
The preface to the story caught my eye:
In other words: This ain’t Mama Fairy’s Woodcutter!