The Cultural Rule During the Japanese Occupation

2008 film “Radio Dayz” by Ha Ki-ho is a movie that shows the establishment of the broadcasting station in Seoul during the colonial period; in addition, it’s a fiction about the first Korean radio series. The telecommunication of Korea in the early 1930s is important because Kyungseong (Seoul) Broadcasting System was first established in 1927 following the establishment of the Japanese broadcasting in 1926 (Robinson 54). The movie quite accurately depicts the radio broadcasting in Korea during the Japanese occupation. KBC has the bilingual broadcasting system in Korean and Japanese as it is shown in the movie. In the movie, the Japanese official mentions that it is time for the Korean language broadcasting. The historical context is important in this film because it was a transitioning period from the Japanese military rule to the cultural rule (Robinson 54). This is actually obvious when the Japanese Bureau Chief of the Broadcasting in the movie mentions that the listeners should naturally be indoctrinated to understand the Japanese imperialism and the grandiose Japanese emperorship by listening to radio shows. Also, the film depicts that the Japanese practices a censorship over the broadcasting. At the very end, Lloyd, the director of the radio series is told to finish the final episode that contains the Japanese nationalist propaganda. If not, the transmitter will be shut down. Though the fight between the Korean broadcasting staff and the Japanese soldiers was comically filmed, yet it is merely a satirical element to criticize the Japanese cultural assimilation.

On the other hand, another interesting aspect of the movie is the transformation of the Korean nationalists from extreme to moderate. As previously mentioned, the Japanese decided to shift from the policy of the military rule to the cultural rule; the Korean nationalists also shifted their strategy from extreme to moderate. The Korean nationalists started to consider taking advantage of mass communication such as newspapers or broadcasting so they could share the notion of Korean independence. It was almost as if it is a parallel confrontation between Japan and Korea. In the film, K’s character change is worth noting because he changes from the extremist nationalist to the moderate nationalist. Though at the end, the character evokes his old identity as the extremist, yet how he perceives the radio changes rapidly from the beginning to the end of the movie.