As some of you may know, I’m an avid fan of South Korean cinema. It churns out some of the best films this planet has to offer. You have action-packed films on par with Hollywood blockbusters (Tae Guk Gi), teen comedies (Attack the Gas Station), and the deeper kind of film that Hollywood could only wish to produce and others the budget to dream up.
However, I’m beginning to notice through these films the shallow perceptions that the Koreans place on the Americans. American films aren’t any better, of course. Even the more cultured American films have shallow divisions of culture – I’m thinking Clint’s latest Letters from Iwo Jima, in which the American soldiers do no wrong in the face of the rabid Japs. And let’s not even touch the whole generic “middle-eastern terrorist character.”
The Koreans aren’t much better. Welcome to Dongmakgol is one of the most popular films in recent Korean times. It’s a good movie, which centers on this small utopian village that is stumbled upon by a few North, South, and UN Korean forces. In it, you have a scene whereby a (weak) Korean tries to tell his (powerful) American commanders not to bomb innocent villages. The Americans are played out as ruthless characters that have no care for civilian life, while the Koreans are played out as the voice of the innocents.
It’s very black and white, with little historical context in between. Then comes the other film I’m watching this morning: The Host. This is again a great movie. But how does it start off? A (powerful) American and his (weak) Korean assistant. He orders the Korean assistant to dump raw toxic chemicals into the Han River. The Korean assistant, the voice of reason, objects. But much like Dongmakgol, the American overrides his objections.
You can tell the sentiment of a nation by it’s movies. It’s not hard to see how the South Koreans perceive the American continued presence over there.