Tchakk’o Reflection on Korean History between 50s and the 80s

Tchakk’o Reflection on Korean History between 50s and the 80s Kyuwon Jung History 2165 Professor Adam Bohnet December 1, 2022 1 Popular culture reflects a particular era of history. As such, films are one of the ways to analyze and give significance to specific eras. "Popular culture helps democratize the past by complicating the dominant narrative" (Lipsitz 2016, 14). The culture(here a film) means whichever films that had been widespread across the public represent, that films reflect the daily life of the public or make connections to their idealism. For example, this movie was released in 1983, when the anti-communist atmosphere continued. With that aside, we could see a solid anti-communist theme in the movie, where it draws communists as inhumane, violent individuals, meanwhile South Kroean combat police as well organized organization for the majority of the running time. However, anti-communism is not the only theme here, hardship of jiri the protagonist refers to the suffering of citizens after the Korean War. The movie Tchakk’o is a mixture of historical and action movies, where fictional characters, Song Gi-yeol and Tchakk'o(real name is Back Gong-san), reflect on historical events between the 50s and the 80s, such as the mass murder of civilians during and after the Korean War, and Mt.Jiri Assult by South Korean Police. The movie starts with police taking a homeless man into a jail-like but well-organized agency, where they will 'care' for them. He had been moved to camp with a simple medical check and inspection of their belongings. Camp drawn in this film referenced one of many camps present in Korea for the homeless, a rehabilitation center in the 70s to 80s. This was to remove homeless people from the streets to make it seem like the government was improving the economy(as a showoff to the citizens). Another reason for the presence of this camp is for security reasons. After the assassination attempt of Park Jung hee by the North Korean assassination group in 1968 (Kim shin-jo incidence of 1.21), every mature Korean was issued a national identity card, which was to be carried, or would be considered a North Korean spy. We 2 can see this at the movie's beginning when the police ask Song for an identity card, but he cannot provide one. This scene is at 00;01:11 of the movie. The rehabilitation camp's guarantee to care for the homeless there was not valid, as fundamental human rights were well ignored, such as the basic rights of freedom, where it was unable to leave the camp until their death. Song here meets Tchakk'o by coincidence. An escaped partisan from Mt. Jiri assault, whom he had been chasing for 30 years. This refers to the actual police-military combined operation that happened in Mt.Jiri between 1950 and 1956, an assault on an armed communist group containing isolated North Korean soldiers and civilians with communist ideals. The scene of 00:34:39 shows an assault on Mt.Jiri partisan. Park Jung-hee had said even after the war, the North Korean communist regime would continue to seek over South Korea. “그것이 뭐냐, 북한 공산주의자들의 대남 적화 야욕입니다. 이것만은 하나도 변화한 것이 없습니다. 6.25 당시나, 또는 6.25 전이나, 또는 지금이나, 하나도 변하지 않았다는 이 엄연한 사실을 우리는 분명히 알고 있어야 합니다.” (Park 1974) The elimination of the remaining communist in South Korea was common after and during the war. However, this brought multiple deaths of innocent civilians suspected of supporting communist groups. For example, the Cheju island massacre, where the Korean military killed civilians by suspecting them as resistance. "When left-wing activists ̄ed to Halla Mountain in Cheju, the ROK army, under the consultation of the KMAG (Korean Military Advisory Group), burned villages and killed civilians suspected of collaborating with the communist guerillas." (Kim,528,2004). Back to the movie, at 00:08:20 of the movie, Song exactly remembers the characteristics of Tchakk'o, his height, place of origin, and his real name, 'Back gong-san .'The other residents of the camp had not believed Song's argument on Tchakk'o being an escaped partisan leader. As an anti-communist film, it shows people that there could be possible communist leaders within the public. Especially someone that individual knows closely. 3 With an extension of the scene of the Mt.Jiri assault, we can see Song identify himself as a police. This could also be seen in one of the lines in the movie, calling him 'Song gyongsa' rank in the police. Unlike present day police, responsible for public security, it may seem weird that police wear a military-like uniform. These are combat police of South Korea present during the 50s to 60s in Korea, responsible for an assault on communists. Police in South Korea is not the police in the present day. They have been assisting the Korean military in securing the presidential palace and arresting communist political parties that strongly opposed the South Korean government, which had often destroyed civilian residents as a communist group. "Battle Police command which had conducted an anti-guerrillas operation with both police and military's joint forces in the area of Jirisan and Taebacksan" (Choi, 1, 2019). Here, Song is drawn as one of the battle police assigned in Jirisan. The movie also shows the massacre done to civilians by the partisans. North Korean guerillas and military had indeed been involved in the mass murder of civilians. However, it is inaccurate in the part where this movie does not cover that the Korean military had also committed civilian massacres. Back to the movie, the massacer by North Korean guerillas are shown in 00:19:25, where communist members murder the whole population of a town on suspicion of supporting South Koreans. We here can see that both sides of the Korean War had been involved in civilian massacres for similar reasons. The civilian deaths here are nothing like ‘collateral casualties’ during the war but rather intensional. "According to 'Final historical and Operational Report, The entire victim of North/South Korean, civilian massacre is 101,545, which contains the death of 26,557 and abuse of 74,988" (Yang 2011, 74) I found the camera moving, showing a different perspective of the same event in the scene at 1:17:40 and at 1:22:34. Here, the motel hallway is shown twice, each from the 4 perspective of Song, and Tchakk'o. It is the scene where Song realizes Tchako's situation is not different from Song's. The director of the movie, Im Kwon-taek, wanted to give a message, “The only thing difference between the two characters is the regime, and country they served for. At the end of the day they are simply ordinary men.” It is a suitable selection of camera movement to give psychological bonding to two characters and give an influential role in sending out messages that both are not that different. Tchakko'o gives historical significance to the Korean political situation between the 70s and the 80s as the film is released(and takes place) during the Chun doo-hwan presidency, starting point of the ‘5th republic’(제5공화국), motivated by the Yushin constitution of Park. “e Park Chung Hee launched his Yushin constitution in 1972 in order to prolong his rule indefinitely(Kim 2011 ,6) His eagerness for authority could be seen in Kim Chae gyu's (a director of KCIA, ended up assassinating Park Jung Hee) empathy towards Chun "Kim Chae-gyu never hid his antipathy toward the eleventh KMA graduating class of Chun Doo-hwan, which he found to be too politicized and too arrogant" (Kim 2011,196). As he had achieved power through military force, he had worried about being overthrown by the public. To draw the attention of citizens from politics, Chun encouraged an anti-communist atmosphere. "North Korea's close proximity to South Korea, the fratricidal Korean War, and the continuing confrontation between the two Koreas made anticommunism in South Korea a particularly virulent form of social control" (Lee 2011, 71). With the help of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency(this was later changed to the National intelligence service after the dictatorship). The Chun government suppressed multiple communist activists(although most were students in a democratic movement framed as communists). 5 Additionally, to effectively spread the anti-communist idea to the public, the Chun government involved the media as a message source. This includes teen magazines, radio, television programs, literature, and movies. The 1988 Olympics in Seoul is an excellent example of drawing attention away from politics, with a mask of world peace, suppressing democratic movements within Korea(for example, suppression in Gwangju 1987). For these reasons, we can find a burst of artistic quality after the 80s in Korea. In conclusion, the movie contains an anti-communist message, where South Korean police seem to be dominating communist partisans, as well as showing the civilian massacre done by the communist group. This movie scene frames people with the communist ideal as inhumane, violent personnel. However, this movie does not touch on the massacre by the South Korean military and the U.S. For example, the massacre of No Gun-ri, where U.S. soldiers had machine-gunned the villagers under the bridge, who were refusing to leave the town. Additionally, just like any other era movie, it draws South Korea as a land of opportunity. However, when analyzed historically, it shows the conflict between North and South Korea, each drawn by Tchakko'o and Song. For example, if looking closely, the suffering that Song had gone through, losing family, and assets, referred to what war and conflict between the two regimes had affected ordinary civilians of South Korea. This also applies to Tchakk'o, where he also is drawn as a victim of the Korean War. This is shown in the motel scene of 1:27:17, where Song overhears the conversation about Tchakk'o's suicidal attempt from the next room. Without knowing that Tchakk'o made the suicidal attempt, he calls the motel's owner for help since he feels sympathy for the couple next door, mainly reflecting the woman next door as his wife, who passed away. However, Song enters the next room with the owner and realizes the couple next door is Tchakk'o and his well-known partner from the Mt.Jiri activity, Jumsoon. Song here 6 realizes Tchakk'o is also a fatality of the war. It is interesting that an anti-communist film shows both capitalistic ideas and showing sufferings of civilians of both nations in the same movie. 7 Bibliography Choi Jung Joon. “Analysis of the performance of the Rear Area Operations of the Police during the Korean War ” Journal of Northeast Asian Studies 24, no.3 (2019): 57-85 Dong Chun Kim, “Forgotten War, Forgotten Massacres-the Korean War(1950-1953) as Licensed Mass Killings,” Jornal of Genocide Research 6 no.4 (2004): 523-44 Jung-hee Park. “건군 27주년 국군의 날 행사” Speech, Yeouido, Seoul, October 5, 1974. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8aUJrrr-jk on 00:03:14 Vogel, Ezra F., and Byung-Kook Kim. “Rise to Power.” Essay. In The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Vogel, Ezra F., and Byung-Kook Kim. “The Case for political history.” Essay. In The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Vogel, Ezra F., and Byung-Kook Kim. “The armed Force.” Essay. In The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Lipsitz, George. “Historical Study of Popular Culture.” Essay. In Time Passages Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. 8 양영조. "북한의 남한 점령기 민간인 학살― 한국정부와 미군(KWC) 조사기록의 비교를 중심으로 ―" 이화사학연구 no.46(2013) : 59-96.doi: 10.37091/ewhist.2013..46.002