Korean "Sad Stories" and Manchuria

In one scene of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, the Good and the Weird share a conversation under the stars. The Weird decides to share his dream of raising livestock should he truly find treasure thanks to the map. After an exchange of words, the Good asks the Weird why he came to Manchuria and whether he stole back in Korea, to which the Weird responds "Don't ask, man. It's sad." The Good's response to this is perhaps one of the most captivating lines of the entire film. "Every Korean has a sad story."

After learning of the protagonists' histories in The Good, the Bad and the Weird, and reading "From Wonso Pond" and "Escape", such a statement is not difficult to comprehend. It is without a doubt that Koreans were the victim of many atrocities throughout Japanese colonial rule. What I found particularly interesting about this week's unit is how Manchuria seemed to initially shine through as a beacon of hope and a place of opportunity for many during this time. The Weird came to Manchuria in hopes of finding treasure. Park of Escape went to Chientao (a district of Manchuria) in hopes of "farming yields of abundant rice and rich forests that allay worries about firewood". Instead, the Weird encounters conflict and almost death (or full-on death, as implied in the international version) and Park faces nothing but misery and starvation.

Interestingly, the Japanese tried to propagate Manchuria (as of 1932, Manchukuo) as a place of diversity and peace, where the Japanese and its inhabitants could live together in harmony. Instead, the opposite seems to happen. In The Good, the Bad, and The Weird, all three parties (Japanese, Chinese, and the Korean outlaws) seem to turn against each other in hopes of finding the "treasure" hidden deep in the desert. Instead of the desired "harmony" that is pictured above, there is full-fledged pandemonium. For Park in Escape, the suffering he faces evokes feelings of resilience and he decides to flee his family and join a resistance. The "sad stories"experienced by protagonists are what ultimately lead them to their "extreme" actions.  In sum, both GBW and Escape depict Manchuria as a place initially assumed to be hopeful and lucrative, but is in reality a catalyst for resistance and rebellion.