[Blue Swallow] Was she a pro-Japanese collaborator, a national traitor?

What interested me the most about this film was the fact that it was based on a true story. Ironically though, there was a controversy surrounding the film that Park Kyung-won was a part of pro-Japanese collaborators and that she was not the first female pilot from Korea. However, it seems evident enough to recognize that she was one of those ‘new women’ who redefined Korean female identity, while trying out new identities and habits. (59, Jun Yoo).  From my point of view as a Korean, it was not surprising to view the strong tension between these two countries since Koreans had to suffer greatly during the Japanese colonial period. In this circumstance, a 1920 regulation allowed Korean students freedom to pursue their studies abroad, and Park Kyung-won took this opportunity to follow her dream in Japan. As shown in the film, her ultimate dream was to make a long-distance flight to Korea. In order to achieve this endeavor, she needed to raise money but both Korean and Japanese society neglected her that her plans to go back to home country began falling apart. The director might have manipulated some historical facts and made her look like a female heroine.  As some critics have suggested, it is possible that she was a pro-Japanese collaborator: “a national traitor who engaged in anti-national activities by helping [Japan] and betraying her nation”(90, Seo), since she supported Japan to get help from Japan’s authoritarian. However, “not all pro-Japanese collaborators deserved to be purged or punished, because many Koreans were coerced into cooperating with the Japanese imperialist forces and did not betray the national cause in any true sense. “ (92. Seo).  In Blue Swallow, the director focused more on how Park was forced to make difficult choices and sacrifices in order to turn her dreams of flying to Korea. Here, he made it clear that “Blue Swallow” is simply a human tale about one woman’s pursuit of love and dream. At the end, it did not matter to me anymore whether she was a traitor or not.The film gave me an idea that all she’d wanted was to achieve her long harboured dream of becoming a pilot, and I think that it was right for her to pick the country that lent her a hand. What else could she have done? She was just one of those who decided to make the best of the occupation. Thus, I could understand, to some extent, the controversies surrounding Park Kyung-won after looking at the context of colonial modernity and its impact on Korean women.