Korean film festival hits Philippines

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Neema Estores

Photos = Neema Estores, Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines, DMZ Docs

“In our generation, we don’t know Korea as one,” said Jero Yun (윤재호), director of the film “Mrs. B., a North Korean Woman” (마담 B) (2016) on the first day of the DMZ Docs Korean Film Festival in the Philippines.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was established in 1953 when the United Nations, the North Korean army and the mainland Chinese army signed an armistice agreement. The DMZ serves as the border that divides North Korea and South Korea. The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, also known as "DMZ Docs," which started in 2009, presents documentaries on various themes and styles that advocate peace, coexistence and reconciliation.

The Event

Seven internationally-acclaimed documentaries from South Korea were presented in the Philippine leg of the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, from May 11 to 13 at the University of the Philippines Film Institute. The DMZ Docs Korean Film Festival is hosted by the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines, in partnership with the University of the Philippines Korea Research Center. It's part of the ninth Annual DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in Korea to be held from September 21 to 28 in Goyang and Paju City in Korea this year.

The Documentaries

🔺 Mrs. B., a North Korean Woman (마담 B)

Director: Jero Yun (윤재호)

Year: 2016

Mrs. B, a wife and mother of two sons, crosses the Chinese border to make a living, but ends up being sold to a Chinese farmer. To support the family she left back in North Korea, she starts to smuggle people.

🔺 My Love Don’t Cross that River (님아, 그 강을 건너지 마오)

Director: Jin Mo-yeong (진모영) 

Year: 2014

The film is about the elderly couple of Jo Byeong-man and Kang Kye-yeol who have lived together for more than 75 years. Despite living together for so long, they are still passionate for each other and live quite happily.

🔺 Planet of Snail (달팽이의 별)

Director: Yi Seung-jun (이승준)

Year: 2012

This film covers the story of Young-chan, a deaf and blind writer who is married to a woman with a spinal deformity named Soon-ho. Although being differently able, the two show that they become one through communication and love.

🔺 The Emotional Society on Stage (감정의 시대: 서비스 노동의 관계미학)

Directors: Kim Sook-hyun (김숙현) and Cho Hye-jeong (조혜정) 

Year: 2014

This film exposes the hardships a worker encounters at work and the terrible working conditions of the service industry as they are forced to tolerate being humiliated.

🔺 Red Maria (레드 마리아)

Director: Kyung-soon (경순)

Year: 2011

This film covers the lives of different women living in Japan, the Philippines and Korea. The film follows the lives of a mother, a prostitute, a part-time worker, an immigrant worker and an old woman who had been forced into sexual slavery by Imperial Japan many years ago.

🔺 Summer Days in Bloom (옥탑방열기)

Directors: Go U-jung (고유정) and Roh Eun-ji (노은지)

Year: 2012

This film tells the story of two men infected by HIV and AIDS. Doo-yeol, after discovering that he is infected, hides himself. Gabriel, his partner, fights for LGBT rights and for the rights of people infected with HIV and AIDS.

🔺 Troublers (불온한 당신)

Director: Lee Young (이영)

Year: 2015

The LGBT community in Korea is often perceived by conservative people as being a "danger" to the nation’s safety, future and general well-being. This film follows Lee Young, a documentary filmmaker who is openly lesbian, as she researches an earlier generation of gays and lesbians in Korea. 

The Film Festival's Discussion Session

Director Jero Yun met with the audience after “Mrs. B., A North Korean Woman” was screened. He answered questions regarding his film and shared his hope of seeing Korea reunited as one. He ended the session by saying, “I can drink with a North Korean. I don’t have a problem with that, but the system doesn't give me the chance. It makes it into a complicated situation.”

wisdom117@korea.kr

The magic of time travelling

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Nada Moustafa

Photos = SBS, tvN, Lotte Entertainment and CJ Entertainment

The production of Korean soap operas generally never fails to attract an audience. There's always creativity in the storylines of the TV shows and movies, and the chosen locations always capture the attention of anyone who who's watching. Directors and producers always aim to use soap operas and movies as a product by which they can introduce Korea to the world, starting with behavior and ethics and ending with food and natural beauty.

They always seek variety in the storylines for their soap operas and movies. They don't only focus on romantic, melodramatic or comedic stories. There's always a lot of place in the screenplay for fantasy and the super natural. In my opinion, as a viewer, I see Korean fantasy dramas and movies as having their own magic that distinguishes them from others.

I would like to talk briefly about Korean fantasy dramas and movies, especially ones that involve time travel, as its one of the most amazing and different storyline aspects out there. Everyone wishes they could have the opportunity to travel through time and get a chance to see the future and how life is going to be, or maybe go back to the past and fix faults and change life paths. In reality, this is impossible. However, in the soap operas and movies, it allows us to live through their stories and imagine what life would be like if that happened. Korean dramas and movies deal with these stories in a very unique way, where it's not just a soap opera or movie that you enjoy watching, but there are also hidden moral messages and lessons. This opens up our minds to think more about things that maybe we didn't think about before. This magical kind of show deserves to have a special place, so I'm going to mention some of the shows whose storylines involved time travel, shows from which I really learned a lot. You'll never regret watching any of them.

- "Rooftop Prince" (옥탑방 왕세자) (SBS, 2011)

This show is one of the very first, famous time travelling dramas. It tells the story of a Joseon prince who has traveled through a time warp that has taken him 300 years into the future. He landed on a woman's rooftop with some of his servants. From here, his journey starts, where the prince and his servants face many obstacles in adapting to the food, people, modern life and to even some of the expressions. All of this is shown with great, funny scenes. At the end of his journey, the prince disappears from the present day when the reason for his existence in this century is solved and a solution is found.

- "Faith" (신의) (SBS, 2012)

This drama is one of a kind, as it tells the story of a Goryeo warrior and a doctor from today. The king's wife has been sick and needs treatment, so the king asks one of his men to pray behind the mountain near a mystical source of light. When they get there, they see the mysterious lights. The swirling lights is actually a portal where they can retrieve a great doctor from Heaven, which is actually just the present day. So the warrior is tasked with this deed and enters through the portal to bring a doctor back to the past. She has huge knowledge of medicine and surgery, compared to her Goryeo peers, so she becomes a great doctor back in the past.

- "Nine: Nine Times Travel" (나인: 아홉 번의 시간여행) (tvN, 2013)

This is the story of an anchorman at a TV station. One day, he obtains nine pieces of incense that allow him to go back 20 years in time. One day, he hears some bad news about finding his brother's body frozen in Nepal. So he uses the nine pieces of incense to travel back in time and to meet the younger him, who helped him discover secrets he didn't know. Then he started the journey to save his brother and changed the future.

- "Signal" (시그널) (tvN, 2015)

This TV series is about a young police officer who lives a miserable life because of one case where his brother was the suspect, was wronged, and then died at the end. So this young man has always been seeking justice for his brother. One day, he started to receive signals from a police man in the past through an old recorder used in old police stations. The police officer from the past and our officer from the present begin to help each other to solve the old case.

- "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo" (달의 연인 보보경심 려) (SBS, 2016)

This series is about a woman from the future who was lost and who suffered from bad luck. One day while she was saving a child from drowning, she slips through a time warp and lands in Goryeo. There, she meets princes who have many arguments between them. She plays an important role in saving them from their arguments. So history is changed to become a wonderful one full of achievements, instead of a history full of blood between the brothers.

- "Will You Be There?" (당신, 거기 있어줄래요) (2016)

A surgeon one day receives 10 pills from a patient. These pills allow him to travel back in time to a past where this doctor meets his younger self and helps his younger self to save his life and to save the life of the woman he loves.

- "Time Renegades" (시간이탈자) (2015)

The story here involves a detective from the present and a school teacher from the past. They contact each other through recorded tapes, since both were in an accident on the same day but in different years. Ever since that accident, the detective started to see the teacher's daily life in his dreams, and the same was true for the teacher. Since that time, the teacher started helping the detective solve a serial murder case in order to save his girlfriend, who was involved and who was going to be one of the next victims.

These are just some of the wonderful Korean soap operas and movies that use time travel as an integral part of the plot. Each of them has a different story, a different concept and different lessons that are really worthy.

Stories and screenplays that make use of time travel might be fantastical, but when you look deeply at them, you believe in it. If someone comes to you and says that they are a past or future version of you, you will find yourself believing in them, even though you know it's fantastical. This is the magic of time travelling stories.

wisdom117@korea.kr