The movie about April 3 massacre “Ji-seul” / Jeju travel

*Notice-This article is written by non-native English speaker.

 

 

Hi! today I wan to introduce a movie titled ‘Ji-Seul’ directed by O Muel.

‘Ji-Seul’ means ‘potato’ in Jeju dialect. People fill up the stomach with potato when there is only little food around. However, the story of this movie is about the Massacre April 3rd occurred in Jeju island from 1947 to 1950.

Many years have passed since one of the most tragic incident in Korean history swept across Jeju island. Simply known 4.3 Massacre.

 

 

In 1945, The world war 2 was finished won by US and allies.

Thanks to that, Korea became independent from brutal colonization of Japan.

However, as usual, all of the domestic problems started on that point. We became independent but not completely. Korea’s independence had splited into two countries, South and North.

Korea couldn’t afford to set up a proper independent government by ourselves due to lack of experiences and finance, so that South went to under the influence of U.S and North was controled by Soviet Union.

 

 

U.S represented ‘Lee Seung-man’ while Soviet Union made ‘Kim il-sung’ stand before people.

Then Korea was splited by two ideologies ‘capitalism and communism’

Lee Seung-man wanted to own his government without North Korea but he soon faced
huge resistance by people. People wanted an unified independent government not splited one.

It caused lots of commotions in everywhere in South Korea and the people who involved were put down by police and soldiers indiscriminately. And…….Jeju island was the center of the commotion

 

 

The police and Soldiers from main land infiltrated into Jeju island and to start brutal put down the uprising. The killing were committed under a policy of “driving out communists” and It also destroyed the bonds of trust between communities.

Jeju people were too innocent and ignorant to know about ideology, so called capitalism or communism. However, people were just killed by the name of rioters.

More than 30,000 innocent people were killed by the soldiers, who didn’t know the reason people have to be killed. In that time total population in Jeju island was about 120,000.

If you want more information, click here

 

 

By the way……. this movie is not a documentary on the massacre. It doesn’t show any political color. It Just shows the brutal massacre from the perspective of Jeju local people.

Before enter the cinema I thought this movie is just low budget well-made B movie but 10 min after movie started I was just being absorbed into the movie. The story is really compelling as well as beating sound, unforgettable scenes and music. Most of all the dialogue in Jeju dialect which is humorous in contrasted with the such tragic situation is superb.

 

 

I admire the director’s passion and effort to the movie. Not because it teaches us lesson such as ‘not forget the tragic from the past’ but because this movie shows what happened in that time in our neighbors perspectives.

If my comments still doesn’t appeal to you…… How about this?

The movie ‘Ji-Seul’ awarded a grandprix prize in the Sundance Movie festival.