YMCA Baseball Team

Firstly, I would like to start by saying how much I truly enjoyed this movie.  This is a movie at which I laughed out loud, and I love when movies have that power. The comedy of this film was also a refreshing tactic used to depict the colonial experience in Korea, especially in contrast with movies like Epitaph, which was anything but hilarious. In my opinion, the fact that the movie could be funny without detracting from the weight and seriousness of the issue at hand, the Japanese occupation, was impressive. 

Henry Em’s essay “Minjok as a Construct” approaches the matter of a Korean narrative, and raises questions like ‘when did Koreans become Korean?’ It is interesting to look at and interpret YMCA Baseball Team in these terms.  At the time of the movie (1905), did the Koreans feel like a nationalist unity was present? While it was clear by the end of the movie that Ho-chang and the rest of the team were united in baseball, were they united in a Korean national identity? Ho-chang was taught baseball, “America’s national pastime,” by American missionaries.

However, there were aspects of the movie in which Korean nationalism and resistance was evident. The scene(s) in which the Korean and Japanese baseball teams play each other are particular depictions of the coming together of the baseball team not just as teammates but as Koreans.  Also, there is reference to Ryu Kwang-Tae’s father as being one of the Five Eulsa Traitors, a group of officials who signed the Eulsa Treaty of 1905, making Korea a protectorate of Japan. This was a clear betrayal as seen by the other characters, specifically Min Jungrim and Oh Dae-Hyeok who were members of the Anti-Eulsa League, a group formed to object the Five Eulsa Traitors. In these aspects, there was a clear Korean identity. However, the unity of the baseball team overpowered the hatred of the Five Eulsa Traitors, which became evident when Oh Dae-Hyeok couldn’t bring himself to harm Ryu Kwang-Tae’s father and spared his life.