[The Good, The Bad, The Weird] Kimchi-western genre + Conference

It was the time when Korea was still under Japanese colonial rule. Under such circumstances, Korea rapidly modernized and adopted western culture in various ways. Set in 1930s Manchuria, home to those who have fled their Japanese-occupied homeland, “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” portrays how Korean culture started to become influenced by American culture, and it also contains a subtext about its struggle for independence in the face of Japanese occupation.  In the film, three Korean men fatefully meet each other on a train that takes off carrying a map to buried treasure that can save the country. Do-won is the good, a bounty hunter who tracks down any criminal with rewards on their heads; the bad, Chang-yi is the leader of a group of tough-as-nails bandits; and the weird, Tae-goo is just a train robber. Ever since Tae-goo unwittingly swipes the treasure map, the three engage in a chase across Manchuria. Changyi wants to snatch the map from Taegoo; Dowon wants to collect bounty on Changyi, and Tae-goo also wants the treasure. In this escalating battle for the map, there are a lot of action scenes accompanied by busy camera movements. For example, trackingshots are added to follow the gunfighters as they escape from the exploding doorways. As the film was inspired by Leone’s 1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a fable of the American West shot in Spain by an Italian, the director Kim emulates Leone by using a wide-screen format and an ever-mobile camera to create a huge sense of space and motion. He also used a Spanish-style score throughout the movie. However, editing and camera techniques recalled Hong Kong action movies. This way, Kim created so-called Kimchi-western genre by mixing both eastern and western styles. Moreover, although it does not seem that Kim externally showed the struggle for independence in the face of Japanese occupation, there was a hidden meaning in his message. The treasure that “could save the Japanese Empire” in the film was actually Manchurian oil that could have helped Japan’s fuel development during the period.

Friday's conference about  

Imperial Sovereignty and Colonial Violence:

During the conference on Friday, our guest lecturer, Max Ward, talked about the infamous Japanese peace preservation law and how its interpretation across the Japanese colonies reveals the constitutive contradictions at the core of Japan’s prewar empire. The Peace Preservation Law was established in 1925 with the purpose of suppressing the growing left wing, communist and anarchist movements in Japan. It was created to forbid conspiracy against the kokutai (national essence) of Japan. However, legislators struggled to clearly define the categories signifying the objects of preservation and thus what exactly constituted a threat against them. As the law expanded into an extensive system of surveillance and unlimited detention in the mid-1930s, legal legislators continued to change the substantive meaning of these categories and the law’s ultimate objectives. Here, Max talked more about how the central category identifying the Peace Preservation Law’s object of preservation, the Kokutai, was left undetermined, Later in the period, the term Kokutai was shifted from designating an object of ideological protection against dangerous foreign thought, to a mechanism for the production of national subjects in the state’s later tenkô policy. Through this conference, it was interesting to see how kokutai was conceptualized in radically different ways. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Weird

The director Kim JiWoon filmed, “The Good, The Bad, and the Weird” in 2008. It’s an action genre film with the background settings of desert at Manchuria. There were many scenes that remind me of the Western actions films while I was watching. In the beginning of the film, the scene shows the train runs and the eagle flies fast and snatches the fishes. This scene briefly shows that the story in this film will be unfolded. There were many scenes that show the director did not clarify the identifications in this film. While I was watching the film, I recognized that female characters in this film were not wearing Korean traditional clothes (Hanbok) while female characters always wear Korean traditional clothes in other Japanese colonial era backgrounds films and show the “gender role”. This could be one of the examples that the director does not clarify the identification in this film.

The castings of this film would be one of the reasons why this film could be successful. First, the weird guy, Yoon Tae-goo (Song, Kang-Ho) is the most famous movie star in South Korea (most of the films that he acted became the successful films). However, in the beginning of the film, the scene he sells the rice-cake in the train led people in the train to be confused, but it led the audience to laugh (there’s no specific reason why but some people just laugh when he acts something). Second, the bad guy, Park Chang-yi (Lee, Byung-Heon) is the most romantic star in South Korea. However, in the film he shows completely different from what audience would remember. Last, the good guy, Park Do-Won (Jeong, Woo-Seong) also shown as obedient person on most of the screens and gain audiences’ affections a lot. Just like me, actually there were many people who watched this film based on the castings in Korea. After I realized that I put empathy into the castings rather than the whole story lines, I could say that the casting of the film would affect one's decision of whether to watch the film or not. 

The Friday's conference was about the Japanese peace preservation law. There are three terms of the Peace Preservation Bill (1925), which are the kokutai (location of sovereignty), seitati (state form), and shiny zaison seido (system of private sovereignty). According to the Yomiuri Shimbun (1925), "anyone who has formed a society with the objective of altering the kokutai or denying the system of private property, and anyone who has joined". He mentioned that the independence would have an 'effect' on imperial sovereignty' and both kokutai and private property clauses applied with the peace preservation law. 

The paradox of the outlaw in relation to the nation-state

The nation-state, at the same time that it attempts to erase difference in the making of a "universal subject," paradoxically produces an inherently "other" ethnic subject whose difference is defined in relation to the colonizing nation itself. This contradiction is played out in "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird" with the three antagonistic characters Park Chong-yi (the Bad), Yoon Tae-Goo (the Weird), and Park Do-Won (the Good). The cowboy/Western genre of the film emphasizes each of these main characters as "rogues" or "outlaws," operating as if they are autonomous entities in rejection of a set of laws Korea is struggling to fit into during the colonial period of the 1930s. Each seems to work for himself: while maybe hired or in seeming allegiance with another group, these outlaws consistently show that they operate according to their own desires, for example when the Bad fails to retrieve the map for his Japanese employer, he collects the payment anyway, and kills him. While these gun-toting rebels pride themselves on their extra-legal statuses, the irony is that their identity is wholly constructed in relation to the paradigm that they react against. The colonizing power of the state literally creates the spaces that our characters emerge from by defining the differences it wishes to erase in a process of cultural assimilation.
Another thing the film explores is fragmented Korean identity, a common theme in films of the colonial period. The "instability" of Korean identity is represented by the 3 conflicting Korean bandits, who all operate "outside" the law yet do so in quite varied ways: the Bad capitalizes Japanese Imperial power to become rich, the Good operates in theory for Korean independence, a bounty hunter removing all threats in the way, and the Weird is a (so we think) petty thief trying to amass riches to move abroad. These are all subjects honed in reference to the Japanese imperial powers in Korea at the time the film is set, as well as to the rapid effects of modernity that divide peoples according to citizenship within the borders of a state rather than affiliation (or absence of affiliation) to a sovereignty.
In sum, "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird" employs the recognizable tropes of the American Western (namely, the outlaw) to play out the multiple and fragmented ways that Korean identity was formed in relation to new structures of power that came into being during Japan's colonial rule, calling attention to the impossibility of a subject to be fully outside of the hegemony that allows it room to differentiate itself.

Turbulent Times Call For Drastic Action

I finished reading From Wonso Pond on Saturday night!! I consider it an accomplishment because it seemed more like a novel double its actual length (around 270 pages) and it took me two weeks. Whew. I feel as though in this novel, along with Ch’oe Sohae’s short story “Escape”, there is a general sense of migrations of impoverished people to seek a better life. Sonbi and Kannan went to the cities Seoul and Incheon to escape from the misery of poverty in the village and the village mayor’s sexual attempts. The husband Pak in “Escape” took to Manchuria for the hope of a good job without his family and his friend Kim criticizes him for leaving behind his family. In both cases, ironically, the characters find that their move hadn’t done them any good and that their new locations are just as bleak as before, or even more because they then have no idea where they could go next. And like Pak, the Weird in the film from last week has clearly stated near the end of the film that he moved to Manchuria where he hoped he could start a new life and forget about his past in Korea.

Now this Manchuria move which I’ve witnessed from the film and “Escape” story really got my attention as I feel it is somewhat connected to the Peace Preservation Law that half the class learned about from guest lecturer Max Ward this past Friday. The “Escape” story, inspired by the author’s own life, conveys how Manchuria was a destination for Koreans to form guerrilla movements and also The Weird’s interactions with characters like the fake Chinese guy in the brothel suggest that he may be on the Korean independence side. The Peace Preservation Law was a means of which the Japanese protected their kokutai (meaning location of sovereignty, where sovereignty was held by the Emperor) by attacking the left socialist wing and right communist wing. The communists, Japanese or non-Japanese, were often supporting the move for independence for Korea. But the Chosen High Court, specifically, ruled that kokutai would be usurped if Korea was to gain its independence. As Manchuria has a higher density of communist activity than somewhere like southern regions of Korea, it gave me the impetus to relate how the Koreans who got involved in supporting the independence movement may have been communists themselves or strongly linked to communist rebels. I will touch on this a bit during the presentation tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Cameras in Action

Some anachronistic elements in “Road of Desert” at the end made me smile and connect with the familiar side of pop music and the characterization made me enjoy the moments even more so – by the end I could identify the characters based on their walk and everything about each character connected to each other.

However, the movie’s use of camera angles and motion made it really stand out from other movies I’ve seen recently. They covered the full range from close ups to circular wide shots. The former, combined with first person perspectives and camera motion, contribute to making the audience feeling like they in the middle of the action. Some scenes have a narrow focus e.g. scenes are shot through the doorway or focus on part of the scene eg the part of the wall that’s being shot at. The framing is restrictive as well, blocking large parts of the scene so we only see the action on the outer edges eg we see the peripheral action going around the train carriages that take up half the screen.

By restricting our view of the action, the movie generates a sense of being in on the action as well. In reality, our vision is not as expansive as the shots in movies and our focus narrows when the action increases – we can’t take everything in at the same time and that’s why we have to replay certain scenes to take in everything. This feeling is further heightened by using first person perspective shots – scenes that look as if we are doing the actions e.g. when the Weird is looking around the corner in the ghost market town after the Bad cuts up his friend, the scene is as if we ourselves were looking around the corner. The way the camera moves eg shaking during explosions and especially in the gun battle between the Good and Weird versus the Bad and his minions – when they walk through the alley, the scene shakes as it would if we were walking down the alley right behind them. On top of that, we even have a few scenes where the camera gets in on the action, being dirtied and splashed with blood and mud and the camera is very dynamic with either people rapidly approaching the camera or vice versa during action scenes. All together, the effect is to entrench us firmly in the movie, feeling part of the action and the events, making for a more engaged viewing in my opinion.

The complete other side of the range is also used - wide shots, sometimes combined with the 360 degree circular to various ends. By the end, I’d started to associate the wide range shots with the Good, which works in conjunction with his association with the bird of prey that circles high above and sees everything. Most of the scenes that were from far away and allowed for a better idea of the big picture, one that showed the action and characters in relation to each other – which wasn’t happening in most of the other scenes and so worked to ground things for us too.

However, even after assuming that he has the best view and thus the best understanding and knowledge of the players and situations, he is left blindsided by the real identity of the Finger Chopper. This plays up the idea that things are deliberately deceiving and that you may be missing crucial information just by virtue of the fact that you haven’t encountered the proper information source. And your journey or your chase will change forever because of that, taking on new motivations and directions.

Max Ward’s research topic sort of feels like that, personally – he’s trying to fill in the space that not everything is known about (but then again that’s the point of research) and he’s at bit of a crossroads right now, deliberating which direction to go in with his research. However, I could say that his research plays into the wide range shots idea – he’s looking to understand the workings and multiple facets of the law implemented simultaneously and unchanged everywhere in imperial Japan along with its colonies. Furthermore, the trio were on the chase for the treasure but they were all in it for different reasons, which reminded me of the interrogators who ended up reading about communism – the outcome was the same in that Communism was read about even though the paths were different. And while on the topic of the treasure – it seemed parallel to the idea of kokutai: the peace protection law was ambiguous in what it was trying to protect and what exactly kokutai was and similarly, the treasure’s identity and location was uncertain and even at the end, the main trio were left questioning the treasure’s identity. 

A Blurred Identity

The blockbuster The Good, the Bad, the Weird, gives the viewer a strikingly different exotic impression – cowboy hats, train running in the middle of a desert, and a mix of Chinese and Japanese culture. The Koreans represent a minority in Manchuria and we could see a blur in the identity of the Koreans. Koreans often wore Western cowboy clothes, or traditional Chinese clothes.

A recurring theme throughout the movie was the notion of fleeing the current situation for a better future, opportunity, and life. In a scene, Yoon Tae-go reveals the reason why he fled to Manchuria. He was revealed to be the “Finger Ghost” back in Korea, and he fled the country to start a new life. However, in the beginning of the movie, we can also see that he again wants to flee Manchuria for a better life. When he finds out that the map is a treasure map, he tells his grandmother to go to America with him and live a fancy life. It is clear that he does not feel attached to Korea, or any other places.

A blur in the identity of nation is further demonstrated in the scene where Yoon Tae-go goes in a prostitution place run by a Korean person. The owner claims to be helping the Korean independence movement by financing few events. Yoon Tae-go sarcastically states that “everyone claims to be doing independence movement.” It is later confirmed that it actually was a mere excuse to get the map.

Does this blur in the national identity delivering a specific message to the viewers? This is a question that must be further examined. 

The Reinvention of the Western Genre

                The movie “The Good the Bad the Weird” could be considered as part of an Asian reinvention of the Western genre. Western movies have been popular throughout the twentieth century, and they had a pretty classical structure. The characters were usually cowboys or simple riders, who would come across some bad guys and they would have to fight in a Mexican standoff. The setting was almost always the Western desert and the plot would normally fit a clearly defined timeframe (often the 19^th century).

                The movie “The Good the Bad the Weird” took this genre in another direction. The director included details that would not normally be typical in a classical Western like motorbike/car chases, and even the clothing of some characters seemed to be an unusual choice. For example, more characters (including The Weird) wear leather clothes (vest, cap, or pants), as well as those goggles that make me think about the steampunk genre. Also the use of the motorbike chase reminds me of the post-apocalyptic desert movie Mad Max. Because those two sub-genres are very closely related to the Western movie genre, I believe they actually developed from it. Since the director decided to include those hints, and deviate from the classical style I believe he intentionally tried to reframe the past from a more modern perspective. And by doing so he shows that when looking back at an event, people interpret the past differently depending on the current mentality. For example a Manchurian Western done in the 1960’s would see the colonial period differently than another Manchurian Western done in 2008, and this one would be different than another movie done in 2030 (even if they portray the same colonial period). 

                This difference in interpretation of the past comes in part from contemporary trends in thinking which always change with time. It is impossible to expect people to think in the same manner all the time, and it is only natural for ideas and values to change (hopefully for better) from a certain period to another. 

I remember on Friday’s talk it was said that the anti-communist law denied the right to think about another system of sovereignty in order to protect the existing one. To me this sounds so absurd; how can you pass a law that says that the structure of the state can’t be changed, when they literally changed it not even 70 years before (from Tokugawa regime to Meiji). By denying the right to challenge the structure of government they would deny the possibility of improving. And this is what the problem was with the old government (Tokugawa) who refused to change even when they were in decline.