Haunted by Colonization

In one plotline, Jungman is to be wed to the hospital’s director’s daughter, who was most recently in Japan and returning to Korea soon. The director is very much looking forward to the union, however it seems as if Jungnam was not as interested. Soon after Jungnam is put on morgue duty, a suicide victim’s body is brought in. This woman is beautiful to Jungnam. It is revealed to the viewer that the body is that of the woman Jungnam was supposed to marry, and that she had committed suicide with her lover. The director ends up marrying her soul to his body to ensure that she is separated from the man with whom she committed suicide. At one point in this plotline, the marriage is consummated with Jungnam waking up naked one morning after a night in the morgue. The final scene of the movie is that of Jungnam seemingly along on the bed, however, opposite on the bed is the ghost of the woman he was supposed to marry.

This specific plotline brings up a lot of questions regarding the power struggles occurring during the Japanese colonization of South Korea. Is the director portraying the power that Japan had, enforcing rules upon the people of Korea of which the Koreans obliged, even if they did not want to be in the situation? The final scene gives a very clear image of the effects of Japanese colonization in Korea: Korea is still haunted. Jungnam has continued his life, even though he said it had ended years before. He did what people are expected to do; he married, twice even, has a daughter and has been successful in his career. But even though he has been ‘successful’ he still thinks back to the days where he was confused into loving something that was bad for him. The same could be said for Korea. The countries have suffered from the presence, during and afterwards. Like Jungnam’s disinterest in the arranged marriage, Korea tried to resist the power set upon them by Japanese political powers. Similar to Jungnam’s forced ‘marriage’ after her death, a third party forced the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. The similarities are evident.