Throwing Caution to the Wind

     Blue Swallow is a film that does not easily fit into genre norms. Multifaceted and thematically diverse, it is at once a comedy, romance, and political thriller. One common denominator throughout all different aspects of this film, however, is the wind, a motif which represents the freedom of the skies. Yoo's piece on the New Woman makes it clear that women in the second quarter of the 20th Century were searching for a place of their own and fighting against the limiting discourses of that era. In this film, Kyung-won decides the space for her is going to be the sky, and no man, or country, is going to prevent her from reaching her goal.
     Meeting Ji-hyeok and finding a kindred Korean spirit is illuminating for Kyung-won. Her patriotism, which remains less important than her career, is briefly ignited as Ji-hyeok drunkenly reveals his origins to her: they are immediately tied together, be it romantically or politically. From that moment on, the two of them, when together, form a sort of third nationality, Korean by origin but living and working in Japan. The sky, which had always been free and open terrain for Kyung-won where life on earth was complicated and painful, became a place where they could both be themselves, he as a meteorologist and she as a pilot. The colors that appear during flight scenes- blues, oranges, greens and pinks- contrasted with the greyscale and red ones that characterize the rest of the scenes, making the point that flying means freedom in more than just a physical sense, it allows Kyung-won and others to see things in a way they might never have a chance to on the ground.
     The motif of checking the wind, a gesture shared by Kyung-won and Ji-hyeok, not only represents their relationship to each other but their relationship to the skies. Bringing to mind expressions about the four winds, the winds of change, and finding a second wind, this simple gesture seems almost like a salute to the skies. The country where this couple belongs is not Korea or Japan, the film seems to say, but somewhere in between, and 30,000 feet above. As the Seo reading suggests, things were not quite as simple as Pro-Japan or Pro-Korea, and this couple represents all the complications of trying to live ones life to the fullest under a system of colonialism and political tension. They defy the norm in many ways, by their dual national identities, their gender-bending dynamic, and their refusal to let their love be determined by marriage or other state institutions. They are 'modern' in the most positive sense, open-minded and determined to fight for what they believe in. For Ji-hyeok, this means fighting for Kyung-won's freedom. For Kyung-won, it means never giving up on her dream to fly.