director, Kim Ki-young 1961
Do you have difficulty imagining being shocked by a film from 1960, especially one created in Asia? Even in Asia, 1960 is still a time where women wear the costume of the 1950's, bullet bras, large skirts that take five yards of fabric, and some very early Jackie-O. Films with this kind of costume have always given me a kind of sheltered enjoyment, a lot of padding between myself and upsetting themes.
I always enjoy having my mind changed, and now I am know that I can be disturbed, having witnessed the almost-horror genre work of Kim Ki-young. Almost? Actually, true horror, post-war. Yes, we know that those endless battle scenes from "Lord of the Rings" have some small relationship to post-World War II setting of J.R.R. Tolkien's writer desk. However, I am still unprepared for the violent emotions that move through personal relationships in "La Servante". These unsettling displays live in this setting of a society with profound constraints, post-Korean War, pre-severe Communist dictatorship.
1960, 1961 is considered the big brief moment of liberal expression in Korean cinema, a very short moment between these two traumatizing periods in their history.
The beginning anecdote of the film makes me aware that all is not well in this town without truly preparing me for the depths of degradation, humiliation and all those other words that end with "-ion", for which I am being prepped to experience. I am not being "prepared to cope with a situation" , but more likely, I am prepped as a fish on a platter.
A young female factory worker is "outed" for giving a love-letter to the factory married music teacher (?!) He feels that he must report such outrageous behavior and she is suspended from work. Actually, she is writing the letter for her friend, another factory worker, who is the one crazy for said teacher and is too afraid to write the letter herself. Anyway, the letter writer is so disgraced by her actions that she becomes sick and dies. Her friend lives, still lusts after the music teacher (?!), and still lives somewhere between trying to get him, get to him and get at him to revenge her friend.
In films, unrequited love, or lust, can be so, well... muffled. somebody watches somebody, for a time period that resembles centuries. They just suffer noiselessly and appear unhappy while watching the other person get married. Frequently, the object of their appreciation, takes no notice, despite a lot of evidence. Or in more tragic, somewhere beyond self-deprecating instances, the sufferer throws him or herself in front of a train. Kim Ki-young believes not in such an easy way out. This explores frustrated desires in the trench warfare format, and every hard angle will be explored. Ladies, make sure that that padded bra is firmly clasped, front or back.
The unrequited lover bribes a fellow worker into becoming a maid for the music teacher, his wife, and two children, in order to wreak havoc on the family life. The family is struggling financially, but somewhat upper-class in comparison to the factory girls. The seemingly charming and simple "maid" is a strange and bestial creature, as devoid of conscience as a cat tracking a small lizard. She does some things I wouldn't even have imagined, and thank you, I can imagine quite a lot. Say no more, the rest is up to you to find out. As legend would have it, the actress who plays this part is so reviled after this films previews that she quits her film career (Note : All unsubstantiated and interesting rumors shall be quoted in this posting)
THE CHRISTIAN CULTURAL ANGLE
Another unexpected motif in this film is the possibly unconscious religious Christian angle. The factory girls are encouraged, expected to attend music classes in format very closely resembling Sunday school. In her native home habitat, the viewer witnesses the saintly wife of the teacher, swathed in figure-disappearing white gowns, the depraved maid in black.
Christianity in Asia is always fascinating to me. I want to know how the other half lives. In the Western world, my friends complain to me about Christian Sunday school, as if it was a form of cultural slavery, and how Buddhism seems really "cool", in comparison, so forgiving. In the United States, and in Europe, i witness this little rebellion, this kind of escape from the native ruling religion. That is the half I only know a little bit, as I was not raised with religion, except if you can call "making money" a religion. However, here is this whole other opportunity to know how this other half lives. Many of my Japanese and Korean friends who actually grew up in Asia (Asian-Americans don't count!) are Christian, and their ancestors seem to have embraced that shift ahead of them. Fascinating, Jim!
Originally, my preconceptions of Asian religion are hazy with ideas of Buddhism, with Confucianism mixed in. These hazy notions are correct in the case of Korea for the larger part of the last two millennia. Christianity arrived to Korea purportedly very late in the 18th century. In the 1880's thousands of Korean Christians died from pro-Confucian religious persecution.
This film was created during a time of exponential growth in the popularity of the New Religion. In the decades preceding this film, Christian leadership distinguished itself as courageously patriotic against the Japanese colonialism of Korea. And, the Communist dictatorship unintentionally maneuvered the Christians into a position of strength in South Korea, simply by adding to their numbers. After 1948, Communist persecution drove the large Christian population from North Korea to join the South. In the 1990's Christianity became the predominant religion in South Korea. Christianity is symbolic in this country for a specific modernity, an effort to embrace self-government and independence. Possibly a new kind of rebellion.
--Cho
Note: As I purchased my ticket for the film, one of the ticket sellers asked "Vous allez comprenez le film?". They were wondering if I might understand the native tongue of the film, Korean. At first I thought they were referring to my American accent and was surprised at their temerity in such a question, as if no American could read French sub-titles. Then, i realized that they thought any Asian seeing this film might be actually Korean.
I said, "Non, mais il y a des sous-titres en Français?"
Sometimes, I forget my own Asian face.