Modernization in the opportunity land and Imperial Sovereignty

The movie “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” by Kim Jee-Woon depicts the incident among the three Korean guys in Manchuria. Similarly, the reading “Escape” by Ch’oe Seohae also depicts the story of Korean diasporas in Manchuria. In 1930s, after Koreans lost their country to Japan, they started to move to Manchuria because Manchuria was the land of opportunity. Also Manchuria was important place for independence fighter because it was their main headquarter during this period. Yoon Tae-Goo probably moved to Manchuria for his new opportunity like the protagonist, Pak in the reading; however he finds it just as economically bleak and economically divided as Korea, so he decided to become robbery to get better life and found a treasure map in the train. Both Japanese soldiers and Korean Independence fighter tried to get the map because they both think that the money can end up with this colonization which means Japan can suppress the independence movement and independence fighter can make their group bigger, get more weapons, and get more power to eliminate Japanese from their country. I thought that the map symbolizes Koreans only hope that they can bring their country back. Finally the bad guy Park Chang-E died and I thought that the bad never beat the good which reminds me that Japan finally got their punishment when they were defeated in war.

Unlike the previous movies that we watched, the director focused on western genre because the title of movie is based on the western movie called “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” in 1966. While I was watching this movie, I could easily notice that the background of the movie is after the modernization. When you look at the characters’ clothes, they were not wearing Korean traditional clothes anymore. The good guy Park Do-Won was wearing like a cowboy and the bad guy Park Chang-E was wearing a suit. Also, the weird Yoon Tae-goo was riding a motorcycle instead of horse.

           On Friday, the guest speaker talks about the Imperial Sovereignty and Colonial Violence. He introduced the Peace Preservation Law which is a series of law enacted during the Empire of Japan in 1925 to 1945. In 1925, “Anyone who has formed an association with altering the Kokutai,or the system of private property, and anyone who has joined such an association with full knowledge of its object, shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding ten years;” however, in 1928 it revised to the law, raising the maximum penalty from 10 years to death because the Japan Communist Party prompted “red scare” and which led to March. 15 Incident. Many Japanese were mentioned that communism as “dangerous thought activities” and emphasized that Kokutai is absolute. This law was also enacted in colony such as Korea; however, it was slightly different in which Korea uses alter Kokutai and denied pivate property system.