Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
INTERVIEW Film explores families torn apart by Korean War
Filmmaker Kim Lyang poses for a photo before an interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's office in Seoul, June 17. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
It was not until she turned 30 that director Kim Lyang began to pay much attention to her father's life. Before then, she was fairly indifferent toward her father Ju-young, who spent much of his time at home drinking and lamenting that he would never be able to see his relatives in North Korea again.
Kim Ju-young was born in the seaside village of Dancheon-gun, South Hamgyeong Province in North Korea in 1932 during the Japanese occupation and then settled down in Busan after the Korean War.
He believed he would be able to return to his hometown eventually, but this belief was crushed when the truce line was drawn. He was among the tens of thousands of Koreans whose families were separated during the war.
He settled down and started a family in South Korea, but was consistently framed as “white,” a term that was used to refer to anti-communist prisoners of war or a person “whose ideology was discolored.”
The director confessed that she had not been aware of her father's grief, longing and guilt until she decided to shoot a documentary about him.
“After giving birth to my first child, I read Park Wan-suh's books including 'Who Ate Up All the Shinga' and 'Warm Was the Winter That Year' to recover from postpartum depression,” Kim said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.
Park is an acclaimed novelist who has written many works that focus on the tragedy of the Korean War and missing home.
“That's when I started to make efforts to understand my father as a displaced person,” she added.
Her documentary film “Forbidden Fatherland” follows Ju-young as he recounts his past. After coming to South Korea, Ju-young buried deep his emotional scars and gradually lost his smile.
“What distinguishes my work from others that explore the lives of displaced people is that I intentionally excluded war stories. Instead, I focused more on how the trauma of the first generation of displaced people is handed down to their descendants, leading to a generational conflict within the families,” Kim said.
In the documentary film, the 48-year-old director interviews many other displaced people who couldn't return to their hometown in the North after fleeing into the South during the Korean War.
“I tried to avoid telling heroic tales or success stories of displaced people,” she said. “With the support of many organizations such as the Red Cross and the South-North Separated Families Council, I searched for those who have experienced difficulties in settling down and aren't socially active.”
To her surprise, many came forward to share their stories of “division (of the peninsula)” and “family.” However, it was more difficult to interview the second and third generations of displaced people, according to Kim.
“Through a series of interviews, I realized that the wounds of history continue to afflict family relationships,” she said. “There was a case where an ideological conflict stemming from the tragic history led to family discord.”
Kim Lyang in a scene from “Forbidden Fatherland” / Courtesy of Ours Film
As Kim points out, the legacies of the unresolved Korean War are reflected in everyday life.
The first generation of displaced people relied on what is called “gut,” a process in which a shaman appeases and exorcises the ghosts through a performance such as singing and dancing. Such a shamanistic-inspired ritual was carried out in order to find out whether their relatives in North Korea are alive or dead and to pray for their health and happiness.
Many, who have had the chance to briefly meet their relatives through reunion meetings, continued to stay in touch with their families in the North through Chinese brokers.
When Kim asks the second and third generations of families displaced from North Korea in the film whether they are willing to meet their relatives in North Korea or keep in touch with them, their answer is “no.”
“Why would I want to meet relatives in North Korea? I have never met them. You can't restore what you've lost,” Kim's brother says in the film.
“Forbidden Fatherland” is the third feature documentary from Kim Lyang, who is known for exploring themes surrounding divided nations and conflict-ridden locations.
The film took 2-3 years to shoot, after it was delayed due to aggravation of father's health. Her father Ju-young passed away in 2017 due to Parkinson's disease.
The project touches on the raw wounds of history that continue to afflict family relations on the deeply divided peninsula.
“The trauma of displaced people who had to experience the war and life-long separation with their relatives has never been taken seriously,” Kim said. “So they had to either self-heal or their families had to bear emotional scars.”
Influenced by her father's story, the filmmaker has been working on a divided nation and conflict project since 2010.
Self-proclaimed “antevasin,” a Sanskrit word that refers to one who lives at the border, Kim has shed light on the relationships that arise from conflict-ridden regions.
“Forbidden Fatherland” is currently playing in theaters nationwide.