Cultural Construction, Performance and Audience in Radio Dayz

One prominent theme in Ha Ki-Ho’s 2008 film Radio Dayz is role-playing. Most obviously, the actors in the radio drama “The Flames of Love” perform in several scenes over the course of the film. However, every prominent character in the film plays at least one role. Lloyd performs the role of the obedient radio director to his Japanese superiors; Mr. Noh acts as the competent and successful writer (when in fact he is incapable of writing endings and all of his works have been flops); the revolutionary “K” masquerades as a sound engineer. The characters each construct these roles, and each character’s personal struggles throughout the film revolve around how and when they should perform.

Perhaps this tension with performance and role-playing mirrors the efforts of Korean-language broadcasting to construct a national Korean identity during the the colonial period. Michael Robinson speaks about this struggle at length in his chapter of Colonial Modernity in Korea. He says, “the story of Korean radio was more than one of a single Korean culture resisting Japanese assimilation. It was also a space of intra-Korean elite struggle over how their culture should evolve in modern form, a debate decisively shaped by the cultural and political structures of colonialism” (69). He explains in detail struggles over Korean content on the airwaves, and points out that there was much debate among Koreans over what should and should not be allowed on the radio, and thus, what should be representative of Korean culture.

The film seems to struggle with this notion of national culture as well. We see frequent tension between Marie and Myung-wol, the two leading women of “The Flames of Love” who represent the modern “new woman” and the traditional Korean feminine ideal, respectively. K’s revolutionary team struggles to find a purpose as an old political group in a modernizing world, and tries (perhaps in vain) to be taken seriously in the context of the oppressive Japanese colonial empire. Finally, Mr. Noh and Lloyd struggle to end the radio drama in a way that will satisfy their Korean audience. And yet, each character approaches their external struggles with cultural construction from a manufactured, performed perspective.

The film acknowledges this in its unique credits sequence, when the actors/characters perform a choreographed dance on a stage, complete with anachronistic electric guitars and stage lights. This scene casts doubt on the authenticity of the characters throughout the film, suggesting that perhaps the film itself was dramatized. Moreover, the film questions the nature of performance itself, asking us if a dramatized fiction is still authentic in the impact it has on its audience. Throughout the film, this audience is shown as the colonial Korean people; however, the credits sequence forces us to look at ourselves as audience members. In this way, the film questions cultural construction in general. What does it mean to perform national culture, and what should the audience take away from this performance?

Radio Space in Radio Days

(Yes, I know this is a very poor attempt at a title but I couldn't resist :p)

Radio Days was a fun movie with a great cast and zippy story line with lots of comedic moments and references to K-drama staples that had me laughing out loud. There were several elements in the movie but one in particular that lingered: the use of lighting and the shots of K and Lloyd staring out from a darker room into the brighter outside through windows, which is suggestive of them trapped in dark birdcages hoping for bigger bright things.

Their hopes for a new tomorrow, Lloyd’s focusing on a new cultural and K’s focusing on a new national tomorrow, combined with the readings led me to think about the Radio Day’s portrayal of the radio sphere as a place for growth and new cultural norms to take root – the directors’ (Lloyd and the Japanese director) discussion about manipulating radio content and people to make radios more acceptable to the public highlighted that. Lloyd’s and K’s hopes merge till culture and revolutionary goals create the same path and the readings stress the same thing in that radios provided chances for cultural construction and thus contributed to resistance. And so, radio space provided opportunities and space for culture to take form and evolve.

Myeong-Wol seems to portray this change through characterization. She represents the traditional side, dressing and performing in the traditional style, and falls behind the modern girl, Mari. But only initially – Myong-Wol starts to adapt, changing her acting style and to an extent her appearance too. She modified and adapted to modern requirements, became the heroine over the modern girl, made everyone fall for her and got the man at the end both in drama and real life. Korean culture evolves and then wins at the end.

The movie further shows the opportunities that radio as a sphere provides for growth, or Daqing’s 2^nd paradox that even though radios expanded under J colonial rule and use, some Koreans were given new opportunities. In the movie, new niche roles are created for the voice actors, K for background noises, the scriptwriter and director for being the first to write and produce the first radio drama, followed by the commercial people e.g. the recappers and the chocolate, shoe and soup powder companies – all these roles wouldn’t have been possible without the radio.

Following on from the radio sphere being an area for opportunities, Robinson’s stance that the area also provided a place to elevate and justify Hangul is also seen in the movie. Historically, attempts were made to prove that Hangul could “deal with modern abstract thought” (Robinson, 63) and its “utility as a modern language” (Robinson, 64). The abstract part may be missing since we are dealing with the commercial drama world rather than what is commonly accepted as intellectual thought but the modern argument is evident. Today’s culture and language was extended backwards into the present of the movie, putting that past on par with our present, thus implying that the language of the past was equipped to deal with even our modern day uses, thus elevating the language of that time.

Following even further this train of thought, radio space has the push and pull between Japanese colonial culture hegemony and Korean culture hegemony – it brings people in to the modern world and into Japanese culture but also serves to attach people to their culture and thus works to increase nationalistic feelings. I see this in Radio Days too in a way – we see our modern day cultural hegemony in the form of dramas and its tropes taking root in colonial Korea (collapsing time and space as was the objective originally for telecommunication but on a much larger scale) so a modern hegemony taking over in Korea, but we also have the revolutionary side of it where the radio serves to connect revolutionaries and promote it and the drama provides the ‘spark’ for the revolution to start.

I’ll stop my reflections here for now, and end with a quick comment on the movie: as I said, I enjoyed the movie but I would also like to see a movie that portrays the same era and subject matter but in a more serious way. I want to see the conflicts Robinson and Daqing allude to – the clash between Japanese and Korean populations over the Korean language radio programming, the difference in taste between the old and new generations about what is suitable and isn’t amongst others.

K as Antagonist? And so Many "Firsts!"

Ha Ki-Ho's film Radio Dayz is a fast-paced and highly entertaining film about Seoul's first radio drama to air live. The movie follows the struggles of some of the (eccentric and high-strung) voice actors who begin to take the plot of the program too personally--as well as a paralleling under-cover plot to attack the Japanese occupying South Korea.

Something that struck me first is that K (played by Lee Jong-Hyuk) is portrayed in a style that is usually associated with the antagonist of a film, even though he is ultimately pro-Korea and anti-Japanese colonialism. I found myself nervous that K would get away with his plan, even though it was to defend  South Korea. We aren't led to feel sympathetic with him from the beginning; in fact, he is associated with fear, tension, and scary music (and more formal film elements that typically accompany the antagonist). This is emphasized by the fact that he is so fervently under cover, and the people around whom he is masquerading are the protagonists. This results in a relationship that feels like protagonist vs antagonist. Only once K is revealed to be plotting against the Japanese does this relationship diminish and quickly turn around--finally, it is everyone (including K) at the radio station versus the Japanese.

The second thing that struck me was how many 'firsts' were going on in the film: the first radio station in Seoul, the first radio drama in Seoul, the first use of subliminal messaging/advertising on the radio in Korea, perhaps the first use of sound effects in radio in East Asian?, etc. This almost gives me an impression of naivety. Everyone is so giddy, excited, and amazed. It reminded me of my feelings toward Lee Ho-Chang's discovery of baseball in YMCA Baseball Team. In contrast, the Japanese in Radio Dayz are serious, violent, and unphased by the exciting modern developments. This leads me to feel as if the S Koreans are happily pro-modernization and the Japanese are too caught up in violence and defense in the nation to really share this excitement. Perhaps I am being too critical?

Radio Days in Korea

First experience is always the most memorable, stimulating, yet often full of mistakes. With the use of comedy genre, the film Radio Days, in relevance to Robinson’s reading, offers a portrayal of what it might have been like when radio was first introduced to Korea. As the film suggests, while what has now become commonplace to the point where we as consumers and users (and perhaps victims) of mass media don’t quite realize its massive influence over our minds, the impact of mass media in actual is inevitably immense. For example, the film shows the products that were aired by accident on the radio are sold instantly, such as the red high heels and the chocolate. Thus, in Japan’s meticulously planned hegemony in Korea, Japan’s constant attempt of cultural hegemony through the manipulative use of radio broadcasting in promoting the Japanese propaganda is quite obvious due to the fact that mass media is part of our society that is almost inevitably influential.

K, although he seems quite futile silly at times, also understands that the radio broadcasting is not only a ‘cultural and technological growth in Korea’, but also a tool where Japan will use it as their cultural hegemony. In their attempt to save the country from being manipulated, he shows that he is willing to sacrifice himself and act bravely in front of the Japanese with the guns. Lloyd along with K, although not as directly, is seen not easily complying with the Japanese general’s demands on changing the ending plot. While Marie and MyeongWol’s argument leading to their physical violence against each other clearly portrays the clash between the modern woman(new woman) and the traditional woman, I found the character Soonduk interesting. She is always the one who silently and subtly helping the radio station and she eventually cuts her hair very short at the end.. She seemed like the ideal new woman.

Since the story is fictional, the film obviously does not represent the historical accounts. However, in my opinion, the film appropriately uses the comedic genre to not only portray the Japanese colonial period, but also uses the allegory of mass media to represent modernization occurring in Korea at the time.

Although the film was very funny in my opinion and straightforward with its plotline, several questions came into mind while watching the movie. What was the importance of the satire of contemporary modern drama? What do the citizens’ frenzy over fictional love stories imply? The scriptwriter was harshly criticized and no one wanted to read his work(due to the fact that he wrote about a woman in extramarital affairs?) but later his work became a hit and even presented in the form of a show. So who judges the value and quality of a certain art piece, a script in this case, the minjung? Or is it all fallacy that is manipulated by the mass media? The anachronism in the audition where a guy was beatboxing was hilarious. But is it solely for comedic purposes or..?

Radio Dayz: Modern Vs. Traditional

In the film Radio Dayz the anti-Japanese sentiment was varied between different groups of people. The Japanese colonial pressures on the Korean society are very apparent when viewing the scenes in the radio station. Otherwise, the civilians in the film who aren’t directly involved with the pro-Korean activists aren’t shown acknowledging the Japanese presence. The common people are constantly too distracted with other things to express their sentiments about the occupation, and one of the key distractions is the radio. In the film, the radio had a stylistic turning point from being more informative, reporting stories about the Korean rebels, which was used as a tool for Japanese propaganda.  Then, to a station purely for entertainment, with the Japanese influence of the radio drama are subtly added. When the chief of the radio station decided to add a pro-Japanese ending the audience became abruptly confused, revealing the audience’s shock at the sudden extremely obvious Japanese propaganda. 

The rivalry between Marie and Myung-Wol, as well as the one between their Flames of Love counterparts, display the battle between traditional Korean culture and Japanese modernism. The character of Marie, who is a modern woman, is completely self absorbed as well as impulsive. On the other hand, Myung-Wol’s character on Flames of love is the “perfect” Korean bride, soft spoken and kind. One of the men in the Korean rebel organization even said that “no relationship ever goes right with those modern girls.” Interestingly we see Myung-Wol’s character undergo a slight change through the film, through her hairstyle. Although, very minute Myung-Wol’s appearance grows to represent a merging of the Korean traditional and the modern, with her Korean traditional dress and her now styled hair. In the end it is Myung-Wol’s character who wins the man and through the radio show Korea is victorious. 

Radio for the Sake of Drama and Culture

I was halfway through Kang Kyong-ae’s novel From Wonso Pond when I watched Radio Dayz. The primary radio show the movie appears to revolve around is about the fictional love triangle between Myeong-wol the gisaeng, the male lead, and Marie the jazz singer. This love triangle reminds me a lot of the love triangle in From Wonso Pond which also involves one man and two women. Even the economic statuses can be a similarity for the women in the novel and film: Sonbi identifies herself as a country girl while Okchom sees herself as a city girl, and Marie expressed her disapproval of Myeong-wol because she was from the country. But we can be thankful that at least Sonbi does not cling onto the man like a desperate housewife.

I appreciate how my classmates are still pointing out the clash between the Japanese and Koreans in yet another film set in the colonial period. But I don’t want to get into that subject now because I felt as though that was a minor plot of the story, though it is nevertheless important. Rather, what the film really got me absorbed into was the on-air story the radio host was putting all his time and energy into. The story never went as the host wanted it to because each time an episode was aired, the voice actors and supporting cast changed the direction of the story so the script needed to be constantly modified to provide a solution to each sudden cliff-hanger. That feeling you get when you’re at a cliff-hanger and you expect the actors to sit down around a round table and discuss in the movie was the same feeling I got when I was at the end of another chapter of From Wonso Pond. If we look at the radio industry of colonial Korea in terms of its entertainment quality and how it was distributed, I don’t see how you could say that its motive was to resist imperial assimilation. Not in the slightest. As Michael Robinson said in the introductory section of his chapter on broadcasting in colonial Korea (Chapter 2), Korean-language broadcasting constructed culture, and any hint of resistance to assimilation was unintentional. The creation of Korean art forms through media could have caused stronger nationalistic sentiments which aroused movements against imperialism but, to reiterate, that was not the purpose of such a creation. 

Radio Dayz

Radio Dayz

In Michael Robinson’s chapter of Colonial Modernity in Korea “Broadcasting, Cultural Hegemony, and Colonial Modernity in Korea, 1924-1945,” he states that many history narratives view radio during this period of Japanese occupation as “another aspect of the extensive information control system that served Japan’s propaganda and cultural assimilation programs” (52).  While this is accurate, and while we can see how tightly the Japanese did control broadcasting, this is not the only broadcasting narrative. The demand for an all-Korean-language system in order to create a mass audience was extremely high (Robinson 53). The cultural space radio broadcasting created for a Korean identity was evident in Thursday’s film Radio Dayz. While Robinson refers to the revival or traditional music, modern popular song, and dramatic arts, Radio Dayz shows the audience the connection the Korean public had with their live serial radio drama “The Flames of Love.”  

In Radio Dayz, there is an added element to the plot line.  Robinson tries to avoid labeling Korean radio as a space of resistance, because it implies that “Korean-language broadcasting directly contested Japanese cultural assimilation,” which it did not (54).  However, the character K in the film uses this radio drama to do exactly that; he wants to ignite a rebellion through the medium of broadcasting.  While this adds to the drama of the movie, it might take away from the historical accuracy of it at the same time.  I have really been enjoying the comedy genre, but of course, this again brings up the question of whether the comedic aspect undermines the importance and weight of this period.  We were talking about this last week: is it ok for Koreans to make a comedic movie set during this period of colonialism? I would say it is, because it could be a way of reflecting on and coping with this dark time.  However, if a Japanese film were to make a light-hearted film about this same topic, it could/would immediately be seen as insensitive. However, I think the movie did a good job at showing a bond between not only the voice actors performing the show but also between the radio show and the Korean public.  It was clear that this helped Koreans enjoy life a little more, and experience a Korean culture and identity.