The following paper formed the basis of a talk given by Hangul Celluloid at the Coventry University East Asian Film Society ‘Asian Exposure: East Asian Cinema in a Global Context’ symposium that took place at Coventry University on 11-12 February 2011:
Introduction
In every life, there are instances and periods of love, loss and laughter. In fact, those instances are a large part of what actually constitutes living, as opposed to just existing – across all races, all cultures and all religions. In Korean cinema too, ideas of love, loss and laughter not only regularly appear, but are also often essential elements in a plethora of genres and the film storylines contained within them. Not only that, but love, loss and laughter regularly occur side by side within single Korean films, often referencing and commenting on social, political and historical events and ideals along the way.
Emergence of Melodrama Predominance
With the Korean film industry historically having been subject to heavy government constraints and censorship, genres with subject matter deemed as non-provocative (politically or otherwise) gradually became mainstays of South Korean cinema and, of these, melodrama was easily the most prevalent. In fact, melodrama has become so ingrained in the national cinema psyche that as cinematic censorship and constraints have gradually eased over the years, it has remained, and continues to be, an integral part of Korean cinema to this very day.
It virtually goes without saying that romance and tears were, and are, inherent to melodramas – providing two of our love, loss and laughter trilogy, almost ready made – and with the genre having become so familiar to Korean audiences over the years, the addition of elements of melodrama to other separate genres was almost guaranteed to both occur and subsequently become commonplace.
Genre Focus
Obviously, an in depth dissection of every genre in which love, loss and laughter appear would be utterly impossible within the given time frame of this talk, and would require me to stand here talking for days, possibly weeks. So, for the purposes of this overview, I’ve chosen to concentrate on one specific genre in depth, but will also give several notable examples of love, loss and laughter appearing together in single films from various other genres, towards the end of this paper.
The genre I have chosen to focus on specifically is romantic comedy, which, like melodrama, contains two of the three elements of love, loss and laughter, by its very definition and, more than any other genre, regularly combines romantic, comedic and heart-wrenching ideas to meld that love, loss and laughter together in one place.
So, as is the case with the majority of films referenced throughout this discussion, before we reach the loss and its underlying commentaries, let’s deal with the love and the laughter:
Worthiness
It is only fairly recently that romantic comedies have been deemed as worthy, or “proper”, cinema, thanks in part to the influx of new, younger filmmakers, with fresh and innovative ideas, forming part of the emergence of what has been deemed ‘Korean New Cinema’. Having grown up with access to film content from around the world, and with many schooled in film studies in the West, these new auteurs made a point of subverting social stereotypes and familiar storylines within films to bring a revitalising freshness and plot innovation to virtually every genre, not least romantic comedy.
My Sassy Girl
The biggest change in perception of the genre occurred in 2001 with the release of My Sassy Girl (Kwak Jae-yong) – a film which would subsequently have a huge effect on not only the romantic comedy genre, but also on a plethora of associated sub-genres. Based on the real life internet blogs of Kim Ho-sik, detailing his relationship with his girlfriend (which had a huge following among female teens and those in their early twenties), the film was targeted specifically at the blog’s fan base and gave this audience demographic a subject matter which they could both relate to, and in which they were actually interested. A complete reversal of the stereotypical male and female roles within Korean society can be seen in My Sassy Girl – a feisty, aggressive and bullying (unnamed) female (played by Jun Ji-hyun), in a tumultuous relationship with a rather passive “mummy’s boy” male, Kyun-woo (played by Cha Tae-hyun), with the majority of the laugh-out-loud humour being based around this inversion of the usual male/female roles, the resultant sassy actions of “The Girl”, as well as others’ reactions to her behaviour – and this further resonated with the younger generation of cinema goers, who were beginning to develop different attitudes regarding the place of women within society.
Windstruck
Thus began a trend for romantic comedies featuring forthright female characters holding the power and control within their loving relationships with weaker males, such as Windstruck (2003 – Kwak Jae-yong), in which a “sassy” policewoman begins a romance with a quiet, unassuming man, whom she mistakenly arrests. However, within the humour found in this subversion of male and female places within relationships, an underlying, almost virginal, purity to the main female characters is also noticeably prevalent, due, in part, to Korean society’s long held attitude that sex before marriage, and even overt public displays of affection, were unseemly. Thus the love element of our love, loss and laughter trilogy largely takes the form of pure, almost innocent, romance.
Innocence
For example, the characters in neither My Sassy Girl nor Windstruck ever even so much as kiss: In Windstruck, when Myeong-wu (Jang Hyuk) attempts to kiss Gyeong-jin (Jun Ji-hyun) she, instead, makes him close his eyes and burns his lip with a red-hot stick which has been lying in a fire – the underlying implication of the importance of female pre-sexual innocence and chastity repeatedly seeking to reinforce the belief that a woman being chaste and pure at heart was an ideal to be sought after and followed, and that doing so would eventually lead to a happy life within a stable, loving family.
Crazy First Love
This carried through to films such as Crazy First Love (2003 – Oh Jong-rok), in which the main male character, Tae-il (Cha Tae-hyun), makes a pact with the father of the girl he wants to marry, Il-mae (Son Ye-jin), with the comedy present largely resulting from his efforts to keep her chaste and virginal until he has finished his studies, thus becoming an upstanding member of society worthy of asking for her hand in marriage, and at the same time ensuring that she remains worthy of being sought.
My Wife Got Married
More recently, the noticeable change in attitudes to what constitutes family (and what is considered as acceptable, sexually, within relationships) is apparent in films such as My Wife Got Married (2008 – Chong Yun-su), in which monogamy and polygamy are discussed, compared and contrasted. The film also carries on the aforementioned trend of humour resulting from the characterisation of a strong woman, (In-a, played by Son Ye-jin), who has the dominant, powerful role in a loving relationship with a passive (and, in this case, a rather neurotic) male, (Deok-hyun, played by Kim Joo-hyuck), and builds its tale around the love and laughter between the two. My Wife Got Married also boldly adds the addendum that, though love, happiness and stability can indeed be found in marriage, it does not necessarily have to be within the Choseun ideal of family – where a woman was very much seen as a subservient individual, expected to sacrifice her own needs for those of her husband and children, above all else. However, even though both adultery and the differing attitudes to sex and relationships of the youth of today from those of older generations, are discussed in My Wife Got Married, there remains an inference, which is also present at the core of all of the aforementioned films, that marriage and commitment are still the ultimate female character/relationship goals.
Loss
And so, with the love and laughter elements firmly in place, providing commentary on the social norms, morals and etiquette of South Korean society, it’s time to bring some loss into proceedings:
As already stated, the melodramatic ideas of yearning, separation, heartbreak and loss present in any romance or relationship easily allow melodrama to take its place as an integral part of the South Korean romantic comedy genre, but that really is just the tip of the iceberg. In a country which has been subject to as much political, social and economic turbulence and upheaval as Korea has, references to these ideas almost cannot help but appear in virtually every film genre, and within romantic comedy tales, events in the lives of characters often appear as veiled analogies to Korea’s tumultuous history.
With regard to My Sassy Girl, the main, unnamed, female character is gradually shown to have a past full of heartache, loss and separation from an earlier love, and comparisons cannot fail to be made to South Korea’s split from being a single unified country and the impassable separation brought in following the Korean War, in the form of the DMZ. The Girl’s obsession with time travel and dreams of being transported to either the future or the past in order to save the person she cares for also echo the country’s desire to put its painful past to rest and move to a time of security and stability, regaining happiness and eradicating animosity in the process. Windstruck too, makes references of a similar nature by having the main characters eventually separated and kept apart by, seemingly, insurmountable barriers and, once again, a mirroring of the continuing separation of North and South Korea is clearly on show.
Specific Historical references – A Man Who Was Superman
However, there are also instances where the references within film narratives are much more overt and historically specific, actually forming a major part of the plot.
One such example is A Man Who Was Superman (2008 – Chung Yoon-chul), which tells the story of jaded human interest documentary maker, Soo-jung (Jun Ji-hyun), who endeavours to make a television programme about a man who claims to be Superman, (played by Hwang Jung-min), and gradually forms an increasingly close bond with him in the process. A Man Who Was Superman utilises the real-life events of the 1980 Gwangju uprising (during which more than one hundred civilians were killed, and many more injured) as a pivotal element of its plot and as the story of Superman’s past is gradually brought to light, it’s clearly shown that, though the events which happened to him at Gwangju caused his problems in the first place, his resultant medical issues have also allowed him to forget, not only the traumatic event itself, but also the heartbreak and loss suffered by him in the subsequent years, thus allowing him to be happy, and giving him a love of humanity and a desire to help those in need. Once his memories are restored, he utterly falls apart, becoming a shadow of his former self, and the narrative’s underlying intimation that Korea is still coming to terms with its historical struggles, and that only by putting the pain of the past behind it, forgetting historical animosities, and concentrating on the present and future, can it find permanent happiness, contentment and stability, is impossible to deny.
Sexual Content
Over time, as sexual content has become somewhat more accepted in South Korean cinema, a gradual increase in the graphic nature of sexual references and imagery within even mainstream films has been seen, and these too regularly combine the ideas of love, loss and laughter to tell engaging tales within whatever social or historical setting their stories require. As recently as 2010, The Servant (Kim Dae-woo) combines a romance based on the Korean folk tale The Tale of Chun-hyang, with sexually based humour and Category III level visuals and content, to create what can only be described as an “erotic rom-com” but, even here, references to the characters’ past difficulties and ongoing social constraints are in evidence and, with a melodramatic coda being added to the humour and romance present, once again, the trilogy of love, loss and laughter is complete.
Lead-out
Of course, not every romantic comedy will contain references, veiled or otherwise, to Korea’s turbulent history, with films such as the aforementioned My Wife Got Married largely focusing on present day social commentary and presenting the element of loss simply as that caused by the day to day events within on/off relationships, and not all will even include all three of the elements of love, loss and laughter, but their combination in films has become so familiar to audiences and filmmakers alike that a template for a large section of the genre has virtually been created.
Summation
The summation of this discussion on love, loss and laughter will likely come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone here: Like so many Korean romantic comedy characters, Korea too has had a past full of turmoil and loss, has been split and separated, with seemingly impassable barriers put in its path, and is ultimately still trying to smile through the pain, while attempting to ensure that its present becomes a happy, stable future, filled with laughter and love.
Other Genre Examples
As the final piece of this paper, I would like to give just a few short examples of notable films from various other genres which also feature the combination of the three elements of love, loss and laughter.
Joint Security Area (2000 Directed by Park Chan-wook)
Set at the DMZ separating North and South Korea, Joint Security Area details an investigation into a South Korean soldier found stumbling across no man’s land with two North Korean soldiers having been left dead, in his wake.
- Love & Loss
The elements of love and loss present in JSA centre around the relationships and growing friendships between the North and South Korean soldiers, a love of man for his fellow man (if you like), and the subsequent pain and separation caused by the difficult and volatile situation that exists at the DMZ, with the references to Korea’s past and present political situation, as well as the difficulties with which the country must constantly deal, being self-evident in both the film’s setting and storyline.
- Laughter
The laughter, though much more understated than any of the films I’ve already discussed and occupying only a small portion of the running time, is still nonetheless clearly present within those relationships as the soldiers spend increasing amounts of time together, and speaks of true friendship and camaraderie building between individuals who have much in common, and who truly enjoy each other’s company, regardless of nationality or enforced, outside influences, laws and constraints.
Save The Green Planet (2003 Directed by Jang Jun-hwan)
An utterly bonkers, off-the-wall sci-fi outing, Save The Green Planet tells the story of Byeong-gu, who believes he’s discovered (from watching 1950’s sci-fi “B” movies and reading conspiracy theory books) that aliens live among us, masquerading as human beings, and that these extra-terrestrial life forms are the main reason behind society’s many problems as well as the misfortune in his personal life.
- Laughter
The laughter in Save The Green Planet comes from the, seemingly, twisted beliefs and perceptions of Byeong-gu and the his resultant actions within his mad-cap and extremely deranged world. Deeply funny, this serves to allow the loss present to be even more moving, and the brutality to create huge twists in viewer emotions.
- Love & Loss
The aforementioned loss in Save The Green Planet centres around Byeong-gu’s difficult and painful past (as is the case in so many films featuring a combination of love, loss and laughter) and not only produces an analogy to Korea’s history, but also specifically references the Gwang-ju uprising, where Byeong-gu’s former girlfriend was killed, and even alludes to working conditions in South Korea at the time. Not only that, but his love for his mother, and his current girlfriend’s love for him, both eventually turn to loss and heartbreak, and provide commentary on how one individual’s actions can hurt not only those around him, but also ultimately himself.
Untold Scandal (2003 Directed by Lee Jae-yong)
Untold Scandal is a reworking of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, detailing the tale of two aristocrats, Madame Cho and Cho-won, during the Chosun dynasty (18th Century) who, outwardly, live pious lives following the moral teachings of Confucius, while secretly enjoying nothing more than playing dangerous games of power, seduction and revenge – illicitly bedding as many lovers as possible in the process.
- Laughter
The humour in Untold Scandal largely comes from the palpable pleasure the unscrupulous, but nevertheless, rather likeable main characters and in their enjoyment in their wanton, selfish and hypocritical actions, while outwardly appearing to be living by the social rules and constraints of the time.
- Love & Loss
Ideas of love vs lust and morality vs immorality are referenced throughout Untold Scandal and the loss present is clearly shown as the price that must be paid, by guilty and innocent individuals alike, for selfishly playing with people’s lives, whatever the social, or historical, setting.
And finally:
Sad Movie (2005 Directed by Kwon Jong-gwan)
Almost a complete inversion of the films previously discussed, Sad Movie is melodrama at its core with an added romantic comedy section, rather than a romantic comedy tinged with melodrama, and though that may simply sound like an overuse of semantics on my part, the difference that inversion makes is pivotal to the entire film.
- Laughter
The laughter in Sad Movie exists only in the first half of the film, detailing the relationships and loves of a group of incredibly likeable and believable characters. Genuinely funny moments in those characters’ lives elicit viewer empathy from the very beginning and draw us warmly, willingly and inextricably with each and every one of them as their various intertwining stories unfold.
- Love & Loss
As the laughter fades, the love seen in the early stages of Sad Movie morphs into loss, separation and heartache in the latter half of the film and melodrama begins to take hold, and though my personal feeling is that Sad Movie ultimately pushes too many heartbreaks too far, it nonetheless speaks of differing needs in relationships and fears of real, or imagined, social perceptions and prejudices.