Ode to My Father
(“Gukjesijang”) is a 2014 South Korean film depicting modern Korean history
about the aftermath of the Korean War (post 1950’s). The characters in the
movie are faced with economic and political hardship as the War left them with
hostile living environments. One of the most notable events is the Hungnam
Evacuation of 1951, which in this blog will explore the history and its meaning
to Koreans today.
Plot summary:
During the Hungnam Evacuation of 1951, thousands
of refugees were transported from what would become North Korea to South Korea.
From the beginning of the movie, the main character’s fate is set: Deok-soo,
the oldest son of a refugee family, loses track of his younger sister, which is
followed by his father going off to look for his daughter. The family members
are separated and it is the seven-year-old Deok-soo’s responsibility to take
care of his entire family as the firstborn of the siblings.
The surviving family members,
including Deok-soo, his mother, and two siblings, reach Busan, where they need
to find their distanced relatives. The relatives reluctantly accept the family
members, as they are not financially well off either. The imported goods store
that the relatives own, Kok-bun-yi,
becomes the home and a special place for Deok-soo.
Deok-soo holds great
responsibilities, holding all manner of odd jobs to support his family. In
example, Deok-soo decides to take a dangerous yet high paying job, Cole mining
in Germany, to pay for his brother’s tuition to Seoul National University.
In Germany, Deok-soo meets
Young-ja, a fellow Korean migrant worker who took a job as a corpse cleaner.
Sharing dangerous and odd jobs to support their family members, the two grow
fond of each other; however, Young-ja would not give in to the relationship
because she knows that their lives are not guaranteed in this foreign country.
Their relationship seems to
see its end as Deok-soo is sent back to Korea after an accident in the Coal
mining site. A few months later, Young-ja appears before Deok-soo’s house with
a surprise—she’s pregnant with him!
The two have a modest wedding
and the time elapses to 1980’s, a time when major broadcast stations in South
Korea runs TV programs in which family members separated during the chaos of
the Korean War are reunited. Deok-soo is contacted that someone claims to be
his father. However, his hopes are dashed away as it was a misinformation.
While distraught that his father is probably dead, he gets contacted again.
This time, they claim that it is his sister, Mak-soon.
Mak-soon describes that she
was adopted by a family in the United States. While this Korean-American woman is
describing the war situation as far as she remembers, Deok-soo gradually becomes
convinced and soon confirmed that she is his sister. An emotional reunion
ensues.
{Hungnam Evacuation of 1951}
When what is to become North
Korea pushed the South down to the region called Hungnam, a Korean-American general
convinced the American army general that they should abandon the war
instruments and instead take the people. Moved by the emotional plea, the army
general finally decided to transport 14,000 refugees in this Meredith Victoria ship.
In the movie, Deok-soo’s
father holds Deok-soo and tells him to get on the ship and take care of the
rest of the family. The time was during winter, which made it even more
difficult for the refugees. Many froze to death while waiting to board or
slipped into the sea while climbing into the ship.
{Gookjae Market}
Gookjae Market was founded
when Koreans claimed their residences after their liberation from Japan as well
as returnees from the war set up their little stores at this location in Busan.
It still is a big marketplace until today.
The market attracts many local
as well as tourist because of its wide variety of food sold and boutique
stores. After the release of the movie, the actual Kkot-bun-yi store attracts many
tourists.
{Kok-bun-yi store}
This is the Kok-bun-yi store in the movie. It is a clothing textile store, which is owned by Deok-soo's relatives.
This is the actual Kkohbunee
store in Busan.
{Korean coal miners and Korean nurses in Germany}
Deok-soo and his friend
Dal-soo goes to Germany as coal miners to bring back Euro to support their
family members. This was a common practice by men in 1970’s because they were
in desperate need for money and euros were valued far more than Korean
currency. As for women who wanted to support their family members, they went to
Germany as nurses who clean corpses. Many took on these dangerous and crude
jobs abroad because not only was Korea’s economy on a severe low, but also it
did not have the resources to provide jobs for the Koreans.
The story ends with Deok-soo
and Youngja grown old together. They have sons and daughters and grandchildren who
cannot possibly grasp what the war generation folks have been through. Deok-soo
goes into his room and cries to his dead father, “I kept my promise, right? I
found Mak-soon (his younger sister) and all. I did it what you told me Pa, but
it was so difficult...”
This movie captured almost all
aspects of misery that post-war generation went through. Even though I have
never dealt with anything Deok-soo went through, it was as if I was being
brought back to those days when our grandparents struggled to survive and
support their family members. From this, I once again felt the unconditional
love of family members and realized that Korea has improved so much as a
country in a very short period of time.
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