", "Underneath all the noise and images, the main character is the country – a country that constantly changes personality to be ‘functional. © 2020 The Regents of the University of California. Translated by Lois Lee, Joon Im and Minnie Chi. We welcome faculty, staff, and students from all backgrounds and want everyone at the Institute to feel respected and valued. Because they build friendships through the arduous training they are put under, similar to Stanly Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

However, unlike recent films humanizing North Koreans such as box office hits Shiri (1999) and Joint Security Area (2000), Silmido further challenges the loosening of government censorship and may even be more revolutionary in that it is based on a real-life event, one that the South Korean government would most like to forget. Kang Woo-seok (Two Cops 1 & 2, Killing the Wife), known as the “Power Man of Chungmuro” is perhaps the only director in Korea able to produce a 10 billion won ($10 million) movie. Silmido, which opened nationwide in Korea on Dec. 24, 2003, broke the Korean record for first-week sales with a total count of 1.55 million viewers according to (Digital) Chosun Ilbo. Also some might ask rather if it's necessary to make a movie that makes the intimacies of the government public. None of these men are the main characters. Although Kang puts an artistic spin on the historical incident by dramatically focusing in on the marred lives and hardships of the Unit 684 commandos, the line between hero and villain, good and evil is intricately blurred, which is not far from the truth behind North-South relations. However, their own mission to redeem themselves backfired. ___________________________________________. ", Nkino.comThey were not thereBy Dong-hui Hong, "Kang Woo-seok does not intend to make the film a documentary. They even built a replica of Kim Il Sung's residence to use for practice at the camp. There aren't only two main characters. Several Korean reviews remind us that Silmido is not a fact-by-fact documentary (see below).

They are just simply entertainment films that really do not have much bearing on social issues.”. These twenty three men were part of Unit 684, a unit created in April 1968 to retaliate against the North Korean following the North's attempt to assassinate President Park Chung-hee in Seoul on January 21, 1968. The poster for director Kang Woo-seok's latest Cold War film, Silmido, reads: The secret that's been hidden for 32 years is finally told!What really happened on August 23, 1971 when an uprising broke out in downtown Seoul was kept in the closet by the South Korean government. One of the motives of the film is to remember the commandos of Special Unit 684 and to remember this tragic incident in Korea's history. Gi-Wook Shin, Associate Professor of Sociology at Stanford, views the film from a general standpoint, stating “In the general sense, yes [the film] is a product of the 'Sunshine Policy' but it is not a product that sprouted overnight. Park's regime had decided not to disrupt the new mood of inter-Korean reconciliation and dismissed the operation, ordering all evidence to be abolished including the thirty one commandos. He states, “Rather I think there's no limit in terms of material investment or subject matter in film these days, and I'm interested in making a film that can completely win over an audience. But Silmido is not Kang's way of mediating a political statement. “The film, as I understand it, appears to be part of a larger movement to reexamine post-1945 history in Korea. The Institute is proud of its over 60-year legacy in preparing individuals who have gone on to make contributions to the business, nonprofit, government and education sectors. The main incentive for the thirty one ex-criminals was to wipe their criminals records clean and start a brand new life as promised by the government. The topic only began to emerge when military rule ended in the 1990s. Kyung-hyun Kim, Associate Professor of Korean, at UC Irvine (Dept. As a gateway to the world for the campus and the greater Los Angeles community, the Institute considers equity, diversity and inclusion essential to its mission of educating global citizens and preparing them for a multicultural world and collaborative problem solving. How revolutionary is Kang Woo-seok's new film on Cold War intrigue on the Korean peninsula? They were virtually nonexistent.

"The latter half (a bit too short) is a road movie where this pack of trained men takes off into a journey in search of their nation, referring back to the story of Don Quixote. South Korea?!). Simply entertainment or not, films like Silmido that have uprooted the missing chapter in Korea's Cold War history have helped bring forth new awareness, instigating ex-commandos to stage protests demanding compensation for their losses. On 21 January 1968, 31 North Korean commandos of Unit 124 are shown to have infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. These professed ideals enable us to provide the kind of broad, global, multicultural educational experience central to the Institute’s academic programs. Preview of "Silmido": Blowback on the Korean Peninsula. ""The story is about the 684th corps of South Korea that consisted of 31 prisoners under the authority of officers who train them, and the CIA agents. ""By the time the scene where the men head towards the Presidential House arrives, the audience is already captured by climactic emotion and filled with empathy toward the characters because they know what is about to happen. This film, however, seems to me to be better understood within the context of the democratization of South Korea. of East Asian Languages and Literature) confirms that “Kang Woo-seok films are never politically motivated.
Kang, though not politically motivated, understands the importance of facing this historical event. Once the 31 prisoners arrive at the island of Silmido, they all become main characters. Democratization, culture and society have improved in recent years, and there is more willingness to improve inter-Korean relations, which is symbolized by the 'Sunshine Policy.' Perhaps we can say that it represents an attempt to let a little "sunshine" into the abuses of human rights that were part and parcel of life in South Korea under Park Chung Hee. As a land grant institution, the International Institute at UCLA acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, Southern Channel Islands). ", Exploring contemporary contributions to Middle Eastern historiography, Navigating Southeast Asian art history at the sites of origin.


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