This thought-provoking interview conducted at the 2011 edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival caught my eye while perusing the now-archived website of the San Francisco Film Society, the former SF360.org [now parked at sf360.org.mytempweb.com]. The San Francisco Film Society screened and reviewed Korean films during its 6 years of activity.
I’ve read many a thoughtful review by Adam Hartzell at KoreanFilm.org, and this interview is no exception. Several other movies about North Korean refugees in the ROK (DANCE TOWN, DOOMAN RIVER) are mentioned. The TV movie BALLERINO, which I watched on Viki.com in 2016, may have been the first show on North Korean escapees that I’ve seen so far, so I was intrigued to happen across MUSAN. I’m keeping my eye out for it now that I know it exists.
I watched the Kdrama MAWANG / THE LUCIFER (2007) starting in late 2017. The show added a new concept to my Kdrama vocabulary. The theme of wangtta (both bullying / shunning behavior and its target) was the lynchpin that memorably set the plot in motion. Having already seen a number of Kdramas depicting school violence and bullying that I simply couldn’t grok, I read up on the subject and was appalled by what I learned. Tom and I discussed the phenomenon at length in the comments on MAWANG starting here:
PakalanaPikake
May 21, 2019 at 5:29 AM
THE JOURNALS OF MUSAN (2011)
Park Jung-bum Offers Notes on his Unique POV, by Adam Hartzell
http://sf360.org.mytempweb.com/page/13590
AH’s review
http://koreanfilm.org/kfilm11.html#musan
(MORE)
PakalanaPikake
May 21, 2019 at 5:54 PM
(MORE)
This thought-provoking interview conducted at the 2011 edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival caught my eye while perusing the now-archived website of the San Francisco Film Society, the former SF360.org [now parked at sf360.org.mytempweb.com]. The San Francisco Film Society screened and reviewed Korean films during its 6 years of activity.
I’ve read many a thoughtful review by Adam Hartzell at KoreanFilm.org, and this interview is no exception. Several other movies about North Korean refugees in the ROK (DANCE TOWN, DOOMAN RIVER) are mentioned. The TV movie BALLERINO, which I watched on Viki.com in 2016, may have been the first show on North Korean escapees that I’ve seen so far, so I was intrigued to happen across MUSAN. I’m keeping my eye out for it now that I know it exists.
I watched the Kdrama MAWANG / THE LUCIFER (2007) starting in late 2017. The show added a new concept to my Kdrama vocabulary. The theme of wangtta (both bullying / shunning behavior and its target) was the lynchpin that memorably set the plot in motion. Having already seen a number of Kdramas depicting school violence and bullying that I simply couldn’t grok, I read up on the subject and was appalled by what I learned. Tom and I discussed the phenomenon at length in the comments on MAWANG starting here:
#70 PakalanaPikake – January 24, 2018 at 1:10 PM
http://www.dramabeans.com/2007/04/devil-mawang-wave-of-japanese-support/comment-page-2/#comment-3178117
IIRC, this is a link I had posted on my fan wall back then:
Bullying in Korean schools and wangtta (왕따)
http://waegukin.com/bullying-in-korean-schools-and-wangtta.html
ROK doesn’t have a corner on wangtta, according to this illuminating article by a Thai-Chinese-American who taught in Korea on a Fulbright grant:
Brotherly Love: My Journey from Wangtta to Superhero in the Land of the Morning Calm
http://kafs.or.kr/en/col_17_11_10/
PakalanaPikake
May 21, 2019 at 6:10 PM
http://asianwiki.com/The_Journals_of_Musan
It has won a passel of awards at film festivals around the globe.