Radio Dayz

Radio dayz (2008) by Ha Gi-Ho is the film based on the Korea’s first radio station JDOK in 1933. The radio station was under the Japanese’ control, where occupy the country. Llyod was ordered to create the radio show that called, ‘The flames of love’. In the beginning of the show, staffs made many mistakes however; it became popular to the people in 1930s. “Korean radio did have a role in cultural maintenance, and it also represented a locus of cultural construction that neither nationalist ideologues nor GGK officials could control”  (P. 69). Even though the background of this film was 1930s, under the Japanese control, people who listened to the radio do not seemed placid and benign in this film while they were listening to the radio. It was interesting to listen to the plot of the show ‘The Flame of Love’ which indirectly satires the Korean popular drama. The drama ‘love in heaven’ (ha neul e si yeo) is known as one of the ‘mak-jang drama’ in South Korea, which includes the story of ‘unachievable love’. At the end of the film, on the way to deliver the mails, Lloyd and the author talks talk about the ending of the show; what Lloyd suggested for the ending was the actual ending of the ‘love in heaven’, and also the author actually commented ‘ha neul e si yeo’ which was interesting.

Also, the editing with the symbol in the film was interesting. I found that the bridge was used as a tool that abled people to communicate each other. In the scene when the screen shows on boy’s way to bring the script to the radio station, the screen used full shot and showed the surroundings. I found that before the boy cross the bridge (left side) shows the Japanese culture (where people were wearing kimono, signboards in Japanese), and the screen shows the surroundings of Korean cultures (where people were wearing han-bok) after he cross the bridge. As the radio was one of the tools to communicate in this film, the director Ha also used the bridge, bicycle, and the letters that symbolize the way of the communications. Moreover, at the end of the show ‘The Flame of Love’, one could see that the Mari (who played the girl studied in Japan in the radio show) stay on the left side of the bridge and MyeonWol (who played the traditional Korean girl in the radio show) stay on the right side of the bridge.