I first became interested in Korean culture because of bboying, a sub-culture born in New York which has nothing to do with this movie but I needed something to open up my post with. After the first few months of investigating Korea on Wikipedia and Google, I knew all about Samsung, K-pop and kimchi. The reason being, these things are at the fore front of Korea's cultural representation on the global scale, these are the "cultural traits" that we foreigners (speaking for the foreigners in the class, representin') become accustomed with at first when it comes to Korea. More recently, add Psy to the list.
Needless to say, I went a little further than the average westerner and actually studied the culture and language of Korea, culminating in two seperate trips to South Korea. After that, I knew a little more about Korean lifestyle, the history and current social issues. Granted I am no specialist of Korean culture, it permitted me to delve deeper in the country's background and I got to meet a whole bunch of people.
All this to say that I did not know what pansori was until I saw this movie. I discovered an entire new style of singing/music altogether, I mean, for me, now, I think pansori is very unique to Korean culture. After reading a previous post by a Korean student, I realize how much pansori relates to the Korean identity in a way that I will never truly understand. So it got me thinking about what CAN I, as a westerner, understand and take away from this realization. Well, for one, I can relate or translate it to my own cultural and historical background, this got me thinking about Quebec and my quebecois roots for a long while, even discussed with pops and mom about it, anyways (just so say what a movie like this can lead to) there are things that are specific to my peopolZ! only, things (like raconteur) that constitute my identity, my way of doing things and how I express myself just as pansori may reflect Korean culture and identity.
This could be why 서편제 was such a domestic hit, I think when we watch or listen to things that remind us of who we are, a certain feeling of pride comes up. I wouldn't be surprised if Koreans watching this movie felt more "moved" than for example myself. I just know that I recently watched two movies made by quebecois directors in Quebec setting with quebecois actors and I loved the films, it just made me happy to watch them, and proud.
It may be that we cannot fully understand a culture unless we are a part of it ourselves but we can sure as hell be aware of it, and I think this is why I liked this movie, because now I know more- I know about pansori.
On a totally different note, the film's representation of gender relation within a family got me wondering. Two kids, one guy and one girl with the father. The guy eventually leaves out of resentment for his father (as a male viewer I felt the same way) and the girl staying with the father (which enraged me). What was the director trying to say about power shifts in terms of gender? Why did the boy leave, why did the girl stay?
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