Culture Today: "Breathless" against domestic violence
“In an obscure alleyway at night, a man ruthlessly beats a woman. A shadowy figure emerges and intercepts the violent lover’s quarrel, but only to slap the victim repeatedly himself, reprimanding her for getting hit by her man,” describes Lee Hyo-won, Journalist with Hancinema as he throws us into the dark alleyways of domestic violence which is the primary theme of the new Korean film, Breathless.
In what is arguably the first of its kind for Korean cinema, renowned filmmaker Yang Ik-Joon, in this new film tackles the issue of domestic violence against women.
Yang himself plays a small time aggressive gangster, who has lived a childhood with years of domestic abuse and tragedy, including events which sent his father to prison for decades.
Hyo-won further writes, Breathless explores the murky gray zone between compassion and cruelty, redemption and revenge, and the blessings and curses of family bonds. The film depicts the human repulsion against violence but also the disturbing yet cathartic emotional release from submitting to it, and thus the human propensity toward it. But it ultimately traces the human need for hope and redemption.
In a country where domestic violence is still hush-hush, this film and Yang’s views come with the hope of changing the mindsets of the people of Korea, which has seen innumerable cases of violence against women through various wars and more.
From the blog, The Grand Narrative: Amongst soaring critical acclaim from all over the world, the film is already making waves on the awards circuit with as many as twenty nominations to its credit. What’s more, it’s already bagged the SIGNIS Prize and the Audience Award at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival.
For a film upon domestic violence, the story is not very unusual. But the intensity of the characters, which Yang says to have imbued from his own personality, is really what really stirs the viewer and fills one in with the gravity of the situation.
Read the IFFR 2009, Breathless Review here.
Tagged domestic violence
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CarolynMay 5, 2005 at 12:36 am
This is really interesting. Korean cinema is truly pushing the bounds, maturing and becoming one of the leaders in global cinema. I was just wondering what the rates of domestic violence are that you mention in the blog post – what are the “innumerable cases of violence” and what link do you see to the “various wars and more” that you mention. What does that mean? The Korean War in the 1950s? Curious about if you are trying to make a connection between war and violence against women and what form that took in Korea. Where did you find that information? Would be very interested to follow up. Thanks
Zeba SiddiquiMay 7, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Hi Carolyn, The Korean war is just one of the many examples that can be cited to explain what I’ve spoken about here. Korean history is inflicted with violence dating back to the war, or maybe even before that. During the war, the South Korean prisoners–both men and women–were subjected to gruesome forms of violence. It has been said that Koreans were quite polite and civilized to each other until the postwar era, when rapid material deprivation forced them (and would force any society) to be selfish and commit acts of violence towards their own family members. Besides, a lot of juvenile cases of domestic violence have been reported in Korea in the past recent months. South Korea’s National Youth Policy Institute surveyed 2368 male and female students and found that 21% of female high school students agreed that the single way to make girls sexually excited is to use violence. In another incident as latest as last month, a 15-year old girl asked a group of teenage boys to rape her 14 year-old classmate as a favor, which they did. [ here-http://populargusts.blogspot.com/2009/04/state-of-youth-in-2009.html ] Recently, deceased Korean model and actress Jang Ja Yun’s reasons for suicide revealed shocking details of domestic violence inflicted upon her in order to force her to sleep with the Production Director of the movie she was filming at the time. [ http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/jang_ja_yuns_manager_speaks_out/ ] Sadly, the statistics only continue to increase. More about domestic violence in Korea, read here- http://thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/domestic-violence-in-korea/
Zeba SiddiquiMay 11, 2009 at 5:40 pm
It’s true that domestic violence in Korea does not happen in the same way as it happened back in 1950, but it originated there. All I’m trying to do by speaking about Korean history being inflicted violence is bringing light to the fact that for a country like Korea, which has evolved with domestic violence, the seeds are so deeply entrenched that it has become more difficult than ever to stop them from growing. What can be really done in a such a situation? Right from the time of the war, women are being beaten up and suppressed in all possible ways. Even though the illiteracy rate has gone from being 25% earlier to almost a 100% now, the statistics of domestic violence have remained more or less the same. Another problem could be the corporal punishment which is used in most Korean schools, in spite of being banned in several of them. When children are spanked at school for their wrongdoings, the idea that they get in their heads is that one must be beaten up if one is wrong, or if he or she makes a mistake. It’s barbaric to say the least! In such a case, I think, popular media is the only last resort which can be relied upon to spread the message and to empower women to fight against domestic violence.
CarolynMay 11, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Interesting analysis. However, I think that the link you are trying to establish between the deprivation and desperation of the Korean War almost half a century ago with the current trends in domestic violence are tenuous at best and seem to be based strictly on anecdotal evidence. You mention that Korean history has a prevalence of violence outside of the war but I was just wondering what that meant as well. I also think that your use of high school girl surveys are rather interesting as they definitely reflect perceptions of gender roles and opinions about violence. I think that Korea is also a unique case because a majority of the schools in the country are single sex, which means that young men and women usually do not have the same level of interaction as in other countries. It would be interesting to see how that affects the psychology of the teenage population as well because they are depending on factors such as parental and tutor opinions, video games, television etc. What does that say about external forces in shaping their view of of the roles that men and women play in relationships? Thanks for this glance at domestic violence in Korea. As someone who has lived and worked in Korea, I hope that movies such as Breathless bring attention to critical issues such as domestic violence, not just for a Korean audience, but for audiences abroad who will recognize similar issues that plague their own communities.