[K-Movie Night] Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 » Dramabeans

[K-Movie Night] Kim Ji-young: Born 1982

by Dramaddictally

Welcome to Ok-Film Night time — a once-a-month function the place we microwave some popcorn, placed on a face masks, and get cozy with a Korean film from yesteryear. With so many movies lastly streaming (with subs!), now could be the time to get caught up on all these motion pictures we missed that includes our favourite drama actors.

Every month, we’ll choose a flick, write a overview, and meet you again right here to debate whether or not or not it’s price a watch. Tremendous easy. All it’s important to do is kick up your toes and be a part of us within the feedback!

 
MOVIE REVIEW

Jung Yumi and Gong Yoo — are you able to ever go improper? Whereas I consider these two as primarily film actors (you will have already seen them collectively in Prepare to Busan or Silenced) who solely typically bless our small screens, BOTH actors have dramas out this month! For those who’re watching Love Your Enemy or are binging The Trunk (and even gearing up for Squid Recreation 2), I’d say that now could be the right time to delve deeper into their careers and take a look at how they fare in movies.

I’ve been wanting to look at Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 as a result of it’s the uncommon case the place I learn the novel and was curious to see how the story would transition to a visible medium. The construction of the ebook is a listing of episodes that happen chronologically all through the protagonist’s life, with no narrative arc. Nevertheless, the story works via repetition and accumulation. That’s, as soon as we see — again and again — how a lot this character has needed to cope with, it weighs on the reader as a lot as the girl on the ebook’s middle. However how precisely would that make for an fascinating film?

For those who’re unfamiliar with the supply materials, it’s price it to notice that since its publication in 2016 the novel has offered over 1,000,000 copies in Korea (to not point out the success of the translations) and sparked heavy debate each domestically and globally for being “feminist fiction.” And for those who’re asking your self, “what the heck does that imply?” I’ll simply say that it seems to have captured the (brutal) actuality of sufficient ladies to anger some people who find themselves not ladies.

The movie opens with the day by day life and chores of stay-at-home mother, KIM JI-YOUNG (Jung Yumi), highlighting the variations in roles between her and her husband, JUNG DAE-HYUN (Gong Yoo). On New Yr’s Eve, they journey from Seoul to Busan to go to Dae-hyun’s household for the vacation. Ji-young’s job is to put up up within the kitchen and assist her mother-in-law put together meals, even in the midst of the evening, whereas the lads lounge round. At one level, Dae-hyun begins to scrub dishes, seeing how the ladies are backed up, and his mom covertly criticizes Ji-young for not washing them herself.

When Dae-hyun’s sister arrives along with her husband, she’s off obligation as a result of — as a daughter-in-law herself — she’s already helped out at her husband’s household gathering. So, it’s as much as Ji-young to serve the sister, together with the remainder of Dae-hyun’s household.

Nevertheless, it’s at this level that we see the essential battle within the story: Ji-young, out of character, begins to speak again. She provides an impassioned speech about eager to spend time along with her personal daughter, not serve another person’s. Dae-hyun’s household is appalled and he runs Ji-young out of the condominium and into the automobile.

What’s odd is that not solely has Ji-young acted out, however she’s talked about herself within the third particular person whereas doing it — as if she’s another person. Additional, she has no recollection of what she’s mentioned. And we be taught that that is changing into a sample, which Dae-hyun is fearful about, however has not introduced as much as Ji-young. As an alternative, he visits a psychiatrist to ask what might be improper together with his spouse. The physician tells him that she must see Ji-young with a purpose to diagnose her and this begins Dae-hyun urgent his spouse to go to remedy.

From household and residential life, we transfer on to workplace and work struggles. We see that previously Ji-young labored at a advertising and marketing agency and was handed up for a promotion that was given solely to males. It’s assumed that marriage and parenting will preserve ladies from their work in some unspecified time in the future, so it doesn’t matter how properly they carry out, they gained’t be chosen.

What’s the final final result of this? Girls don’t earn as a lot cash, so when a pair decides to have youngsters it solely “is smart” for the ladies to remain house (regardless that paternity depart is an choice) as a result of the lads earn extra and might thus assist the household on a single revenue. And that is how Ji-young finally ends up changing into a stay-at-home mother — regardless that she was bold in her profession and nonetheless desires to work.

As Dae-hyun continues to imagine that his spouse is possessed, we be taught that when she speaks out and doesn’t bear in mind, she’s truly talking as if she have been different ladies. For instance, at one level she takes on the attitude of a good friend who died in childbirth, and at one other level, her personal grandmother.

In flashback, we see how Ji-young and her sister had goals of touring the world and going into alternate careers, however all of the household sources got to their brother (the maknae and solely boy). And it was the identical in her mom’s era, the place her mother (Kim Mi-Kyung) went to work in a manufacturing unit to assist her brother’s success. It turns into evident that Ji-young is talking on behalf of girls, basically, over generations, however she’s dissociating whereas she’s doing it (I’m guessing as a result of it’s so socially unacceptable for her to talk up that her mind gained’t permit her to actively insurgent).

Because the film goes on, we see worse types of misogyny, like the lads on the workplace putting in hidden cameras within the ladies’s restroom after which sharing the movies with one another in discussion groups. This results in one of many movie’s most impactful scenes, the place Ji-young enters a toilet stall carrying her crying daughter, combating the infant, the diaper bag, and her winter coat, after which she seems round for a digital camera and decides to not use the bathroom. She’s a mother, attempting to care for herself and her youngster, and she or he has to fret about being sexualized and violated whereas doing probably the most staple items.

That is in distinction to considered one of my favourite moments within the ebook, which doesn’t come throughout as properly within the film, the place we see Ji-young’s mother inform her to “run wild” and do no matter she desires. Her mother is a robust character, who doesn’t need her daughters to have the identical life that she did, and this small occasion of “performing out” is definitely a extremely massive deal. Nevertheless, the movie downplays it and opts to concentrate on one other scene the place Ji-young’s mother breaks down crying (which has nowhere close to the identical emotional energy).

Whereas the film maintains the thought of Ji-young as an “everywoman” — somebody we are able to place ourselves over prime of to witness our personal lives — it additionally consists of Dae-hyun’s perspective and develops him as a personality in his personal proper. We see him fearful about his spouse, wanting to assist her, seemingly understanding his position in all that she faces. Ji-young’s battle then turns into their battle.

This adjustments the message of the novel, however so far as filmmaking goes, it permits for characterization, interplay, and a hopeful (Hollywood?) ending. A few of that’s needed for the film to work, and whereas I’m all for uplifting endings, I feel the movie falters in attempting to have it each methods. On one hand, it units up and particulars a construction the place ladies can’t win irrespective of which selections they make. And on the opposite, it desires this specific character to come back out on prime. These two issues can’t actually co-exist.

Nonetheless, I appreciated the film. The upper-middle-class life-style that it depicts is shot with pristine readability and crispness — no grit or grain within the cinematography — which someway highlights the dirtiness of the social system beneath. And whereas, sure, the film and the ebook don’t carry off the very same message, the take-home level continues to be there.

There’s a second when Ji-young blames herself for not with the ability to succeed, or do all of it, whereas she feels different ladies are discovering a method. “Why am I the one one like this?” she asks. However that’s precisely why her character exists: to exhibit that she is by far the one one like that. Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 is right here to inform us that when the percentages aren’t evenly stacked, “failure” is inevitable, not private.

Be a part of us in December for the subsequent Ok-Film Night time and let’s make a celebration of it! We’ll be watching A Yr-Finish Medley (2021) and posting the overview over the last week of the month.

Need to take part within the feedback when it posts? You’ve bought 3 weeks to look at! Somewhat await the overview earlier than you resolve to stream it? We’ve bought you lined.

 
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