Naked people? Sex? Acceptable (and even encouraged) in the Eighties

Okay, I admit Dolai was ridiculously funny at times, but the whole rape scenes really caught me off guard. Wait…this is Korea in the eighties, right? I always had the (innocent) perception that Korean films from the eighties would have lots of flirtations and sexual innuendos, but not obvious scenes of naked people having sex. Maybe because in Korea, sex is still largely a topic the public avoids discussing openly.  But it’s not just sex, we saw rape. And isn’t that more extreme? Why are there sexually explicit scenes of one character getting drugged and gang raped and another raped by her “boyfriend/sponsor”? On some film sites, I saw that Dolai is classified as action and comedy. But from such rape scenes, which portray the ugliest side of a man’s uncontrollable sexual needs, it’s difficult to see how Dolai should be made out to be a comedy because the rapes overshadow the funny parts in my view. And the rape scenes weren’t brief, short cuts either. It wasn’t as though I was in an unamused state during the entire length of the movie, but when rolling credits appeared and my classmates asked me what I thought of the film after, all I said to sum up the experience was as follows: “What a depressing film. Every man except for the girls’ band manager was evil.” Rape has always been a lot more horrifying to me than murder and torture in picture format. This was even more so the case after I heard of a particular gang rape and murder case of a young high school girl in Japan in the late eighties for which justice has not been properly served, but I ask that you do not look it up (I warned you).

Putting aside the violence of sex and the contamination of the victim’s psychological state (and partially mine!), sexuality was becoming a much less censored theme in Korean films of the eighties. As Professor Cho pointed out, there was a lot of liberal expression going on and many Korean films were influenced by Hollywood in the kind of racy content they put in. Take note that these eighties films were being distributed during Chun Doo-Hwan’s eight-year military regime, and they followed through with the 3S policy he enacted to divert the public’s attention away from politics. The 3S - “Sex, Sports, Screen” – policy contributed to a high number of racy films and almost all released movies had sexually suggestive themes. I guess you could say it was the flowering of an era when directors began to think that sex really sells. It became common for movie posters and banners to announce sex as a main attraction, as seen from pictures of women touching themselves sexually and cleavage and other body parts that were once private. The plot of Between the Knees, released a year before Dolai, is centered on the life of a Korean woman (presumably married) who is conflicted on how to behave with men, for she kept to herself the experience of being inappropriately touched by a man as a young girl. It also deals with the issues she had of navigating the traditional customs Korea with those of the West, which many young Koreans of the eighties could relate to.

Sexual indulgence as bound up with over-consumption: female sexuality in "Crazy Boy"

In Nelson's piece on kwasobi in Korea as a persevering threat to national "wholesomeness" and self-sufficiency, it is clear that excessive consumption as a capitalist practice is inextricably linked to sexual promiscuity (whether literally or ideologically). Nelson claims that girls and women in particular were encouraged to cultivate the habit of thrift, which interestingly reminds me of the fears that sprang up in 1930s USA about gold-digging women who were not only excessive consumers themselves, but "offered themselves up" to men who similarly could not reign in their impulses toward indulgence. In fact, soda bars were not allowed to open on Sundays for fear that children's indulgence in the tasty sundaes would lead them to harbour equally ungodly desires toward sexual deviance.
In terms of the film Crazy Boy, the "pleasure culture" is depicted as a dangerous site of unadulterated gratification, especially for women, who are unable to defend themselves from men pursuing casual sex. As a music group, the five women in the film are entrenched in the pleasure industry, playing in nightclubs and dressing in exciting and revealing outfits to promote an image of sexual liberalism. As becomes evident from very early on in the film, however, the women are constant objects of aggressive voyeurism, perversion, and sexual abuse from threatening men. Nelson provides evidence of Korea's fears that society was "going awry" in the late 80s as huge amounts of reports of sexual indulgence (such as rape) poured in. As quoted by Nelson, the Seoul YMCA claimed "the general recognition of abstinence has been erased" (116). This quote reveals how fears of sexual degradation were bounded up with fears of economic instability.
Crazy Boy's obsessive defence of the girls from the dishonest pursuits of men reflect the difficulty in curtailing the women's pleasurable endeavours as well as "prove" that they are helpless from defending themselves, and naive to the influence their inviting bodies have on men less restrained than Crazy Boy. I found the film not was so focused on the culpability of the sexual predators as it was the obliviousness of the women to the impact they had on them. For example, when three of the girls are stretching by the pool in front of the gaping faces of their pursuers, the dramatic irony of the situation paints them as naive and clueless to the promiscuity of their behaviour. To further negate any positivity of female sexuality, Crazy Boy is so happy to learn that one of the sisters forwent going out (because "she's not good with men") that he kisses her. According to him, her lack of confidence in her relationships with men is a very good sign, because this will prevent her from falling to the same fate as her sinning sisters.
So, the onus is put on women to be more aware of the dangers of excess. Crazy Boy cannot run around saving them all from corruption, and as their mother says, "all men are thieves," so it is natural for them to exploit women, leaving it up to the girls to be wise to such forces. Such pressure being put on women to take responsibility for sexual indulgence is common across many cultures under the trope "victim-blaming." Portraying the women as willing (albeit naive) participants in their own sexual abuse justifies society's pressure to curtail female sexual expression, as a band-aid for other downfalls of capital over-consumption.

DOL-I and sense of justice

“Dol-I” was the first movie we watched that the background was not during the Japanese colonization and according to professor Cho, the movie was produced in 1985 which was right after the censorship law in Korea. I thought that the ending of censorship law leads to lots of crimes in Korea since people have freedom to speak and behave. The protagonist was described as crazy boy and I thought he tries to fight against the corruption in Korea. His real name is Hwang Suk-ah and he is the manager of the band called “Thriller” which is composed by 5 women. In the beginning of the movie he seems like very quiet and passionate for his job. However, when two robbers try to steal drunken person’s wallet and his valuable stuffs such as watch, Suk-ah fights to take everything back for drunken person. Also, when the boss of the night club tries to Suk-ah to make unfair deal in which the boss will raise their pay if he can go to sleep with one of the band members. He cannot control himself after he hears that and he beats him up so badly. In addition, when he finds out that Seung-mi’s boyfriend is drug dealer and tries to rape her, he gets so mad and revenge on him. As I watch this movie, I thought this movie actually depicted some crimes that possibly happened in Korea after the ending of censorship law in 1980s. Of course, Dol-I is not a real character, but I believe that Dol-I is the people’s hope to defeat this corrupted world because they were scared to live in dangerous world.

As I watch this movie, I thought that Crazy boy’s action reminded me Burce Lee who is the famous Hong Kong action actor. My father told me that Hong Kong action movie was very influential in Korea and I thought Dol-I was probably influenced by Hong Kong action movies. The reading also confirmed that “Hong Kong action itself resurfaced in the Korean market toward the end of the 1980s” (97. Kim). Also, “Korean action movies provide a space contested by Japanese swordplay, Hong Kong action, and Hollywood action” (100. Kim). 

Sexual Economy and the Female Body

This week's reading from Nelson stressed the importance of frugality and economical activity in the postcolonial decades, including the concept of limiting excess becoming a pervasive norm across all branches of society. The film Crazy Boy was fairly excessive in many ways, I thought- excessive fighting, violence, theatricality, and more. There was an excess of the 1980s, in the music, style, sound effects, and especially the ski trip. I want to look more carefully at the self-indulgence of that ski holiday and pose some questions about the excess of the male gaze.

First of all, no 80s film would be complete without a ski holiday. Especially in an examination of  decadence, the ski holiday signifies the middle and upper class tendency towards leisure. For a group of lady musicians (and their male hero/sidekick)  who are always trying to make ends meet, the vacation offers a chance to relax and enjoy the slopes without thinking about their work if only for a while. Of course, this goes horribly wrong, and the luxury that the trip starts off with results in despair and ultimately a suicide attempt.

There are hints here and there that indulgence and excess will lead to disaster, and that excessive male libido is inherently dangerous, but the film forms that story like a cautionary tale more than anything else. In my reading (this is probably a more simplistic view than the film deserves), the dangers of sexual excess for women- rape- are engendered solely by them having bodies. The men who try to approach the women, either violently or through flirtation, are indulging in their own sexual excesses and therefore are anathema to a stable, productive society. It is the women, though, who suffer, and a sexually conservative male (Crazy Boy) must step in and save the day. Crazy Boy's desire for justice, virtue, and honour is constantly mocked, but when he is not there for his sisters there is an instance of horrible assault. While the film falls just short of slut shaming/victim blaming (only the girl who willingly sleeps with someone is "successfully" attacked), it certainly presents the male savior dynamic as the necessary one. Crazy Boy is quite progressive in his protection of the ladies, though, telling people the women are not there for the pleasure of others, and mocking the men at the pool with his own reproduction of their "sexual" stretches. It would have been nice for the women themselves to have been more vocal about that. Either way, I felt the film had some very interesting commentary on the gender dynamics of 1980s Korean society, and I am very curious about how other people viewed the film's take on sexuality and sexual assault.

Crazy Boy in a Crazy Showbiz World

In the movie “Crazy Boy“ we can notice two main Korean film trends that were described in the article “Genre as Contact Zone: Hong Kong Action and Korean Hwalkuk.” The article mostly describes the influence that the Hong Kong action movies had on the Korean film industry. Of course, we can notice this influence in the movie we just saw. However, the movie “Crazy Boy” is not centrally focused on the action part, and I believe this is the case, because this trend was more popular in the 60’s and 70’s. In a typical action movie the fighting feels like the most important part, but in this movie I felt like they tried to give a considerable attention to the story of the all-female band. This brings us to the second theme of the movie: hostess melodrama (this term was used in the article, even though it does not completely apply to the movie). The “hostess melodrama” is described as a film about girls who move to the city and end up working in bars, doing some degrading jobs (p. 99). I felt like the movie we saw had actually a variation of this theme: presenting some naïve girls who try to be successful in the music industry, but end up being abused repeatedly (a degradation of innocence which reflects the “dark side of Korea’s economic development”). 

What I found strange in the movie, was how they introduced a second ending. I felt that the story was complete when the protagonist chased the bad guys with the ambulance and did justice. I guess the director was trying to play a trick with us: after the first rape scene we see the protagonist leaving the girls go with another man and we let our gourd down thinking that everything is great and successful for the band (and maybe the movie is about to end…?). But not too long after that we see another girl being abused. I felt like the director tried to send a clear message that a modern showbiz world is not safe for women.

Dolai and the impaired hero

            He puts back the drunken victim’s objects in between punishing his opponents. He takes time to zip up his boots while facing an opponent who has just slashed a police officer. He outruns the rapist/pervert and slaps him silly, breaking down the rapist into crying for help in various ways.

And thus, the veritable picture of an over competent hero is portrayed for us through Hwang Seok-ah, the secret superhero who sheds his outer persona to fight crime and protect the people preyed on. The majority of the time, he is a subservient, basically henpecked, manager who accepts taunting and meekly does all the chores required of him but for small periods of time, he sheds this identity along with his outer clothes to become a force to be reckoned with, who will protect the wronged and commit crimes of justice, clad in the characteristic white tank top I associate with heroes in martial arts movies.

The recurring motif of him outclassing his opponents each time is characteristic of the superhero side of the impaired superhero Kim Soyoung brings up her article “Genre as Contact Zone.” His superhero side can also be extended to his protection of the girls in the band – they may not be all as long drawn and physical as the other fights but he does his best to make sure the girls aren’t sexually taken advantage of. He either punishes the man ogling the girls or keeps them from taking advantage of the girls by interfering in dates. This can also be seen as his impairment or rather his kryptonite – he becomes misdirected in which group of girls to guard at the ski resort because he is overly active in protecting them leading them to send him in the direction of the other group. Ultimately he does not succeed in protecting all the girls in the latter half of the movie and this turns him more hesitant in doing anything as he beats himself up for it.

His other impairment would be socially – his reputation is that of a Dolai – dull and foolish or crazy, neither very complementary. People don’t hold him in such good regard, taunting him and reminding him of his perceived incompetence. Neither is his social capital that good – he is neither well off nor part of the upper classes of society, is treated harshly/badly by most and needs to pander to the upper ups.

However this deficiency also allows him to escape notice for the most part like Clark Kent and the one eyed swordsmen and other impaired heroes mentioned by Kim I would think – who would expect these meek or physically and thus visibly ‘impaired’ people to harbor such great fighting power? (Except we know better). Kim draws parallels between the handicap and the state of the nation in that they were both left fractured by history and needing to start again from this new starting point. This idea be applied to the movie industry – as we were told the industry was picking up after a stagnant period. The implications of the relationship between history would also be interesting in terms of the political situation of that time, while South Korea was under the military government – could Dolai’s constant struggles against the framework of society and corruption and sex exploitation in society not be transposed to a struggle against the military rule and the degradation of society’s morality as the consumption in the sex industry grew, respectively?

Crazy Boy

Crazy Boy was the first movie we watched that wasn’t set during the time of Japanese occupation of Korea.  Crazy Boy, whose real name is Hwang Suk-ah, is the manager of a band comprised of 5 Korean women.  In the beginning few scenes, the audience is introduced to Crazy Boy as a rather quiet, shy gentleman who is always looking out for his friends/band.  However, when Crazy Boy sees two men attempting to take advantage of a drunk, rich man and steal his wallet, the audience gets their first glimpse into the real Crazy Boy.  Crazy Boy doesn’t hesitate to whip out his fighting skills and kick these boys’ butts and return the wallet and watch to their rightful owner. 

Although Crazy Boy wasn’t released during any one of Korea’s three golden ages of Korean cinema according to Kim Soyoung, it was released during the latter half of the 1980s, when Hong Kong action resurfaced in the Korean market (Soyoung 97).  However, as Professor Cho told us, it was released in 1985, right after the censorship laws in South Korea were relaxed.  This Hwalkuk, or action movie, was not only chalk full of Crazy Boy’s fight scenes but also with some pretty overt scenes of women’s bodies, sex, drugs, and even rape.  This might have been due to the fact that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, South Korea saw the scale of consumer intensiveness expand (Nelson 107).  The concept of frugality and thriftiness has been long embedded in Korean culture, in part due to the Neo-Confucian principles prominent during the Choson period. Even throughout the period of Japanese colonial domination, “Christian organizations passed along a message of egalitarianism and thrift together with their support of national development and independence in their many schools and organizations” (Nelson 109). However, according to Nelson, consumer opportunities blossomed in the 1980s (114).  Crazy Boy is an example of the combination of sex, scandal, and action which South Koreans were beginning to welcome.  A quote in Nelson’s chapter from the Seoul YMCA in 1986 claims that “society’s consume trend is developing toward extravagance and an all-out dedication to pleasure because the general recognition of the value of abstinence has been erased” (116).