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ARCHIVE

10th(2008)



Habitual Sadness

BYUN Youngjoo

  • Korea
  • 1997
  • 72min
  • 35mm
  • color
  • Documentary

SYNOPSIS


While she was making A Woman Being in Asia, a documentary about sex workers for Japanese tourists on Jeju Island in korea, Byun Young-joo met a sex worker who supported her grandmother who had been forced to be a sex slave for Japanese troops in WWII. This was the starting point of The Murmuring trilogy. Made from 1993 to 1999, the documentary trilogy has received tremendous responses nationally and internationally. Its achievement marks its monumental value in Korean feminist cinema as well as in Korean documentary film culture. Prompted by the demand of Kang Tok-kyong, who wanted to record the last moments of her life, Habitual Sadness, the second film of the trilogy, begins at ¡®Sharing House¡¯ in a Gyeonggi province, where the elderly Korean women who were forced to serve as ¡°comfort women¡± for Japanese soldiers live together. Following the changing of the seasons, the film captures the beauty of the women¡¯s day-to-day activities, like cultivating a field, preparing meals, sulking, and comforting one other. In these quotidian scenes, we encounter women who have found the means to heal their historical and social wounds in their own way. This notable documentary speaks the truth that hummor, provocation, and sharing are more effective for healing, than, mere expressions of sincerity and sympathy.
 

PROGRAM NOTE


While she was making A Woman Being in Asia, a documentary about sex workers for Japanese tourists on Jeju Island in korea, Byun Young-joo met a sex worker who supported her grandmother who had been forced to be a sex slave for Japanese troops in WWII. This was the starting point of The Murmuring trilogy. Made from 1993 to 1999, the documentary trilogy has received tremendous responses nationally and internationally. Its achievement marks its monumental value in Korean feminist cinema as well as in Korean documentary film culture. Prompted by the demand of Kang Tok-kyong, who wanted to record the last moments of her life, Habitual Sadness, the second film of the trilogy, begins at ¡®Sharing House¡¯ in a Gyeonggi province, where the elderly Korean women who were forced to serve as ¡°comfort women¡± for Japanese soldiers live together. Following the changing of the seasons, the film captures the beauty of the women¡¯s day-to-day activities, like cultivating a field, preparing meals, sulking, and comforting one other. In these quotidian scenes, we encounter women who have found the means to heal their historical and social wounds in their own way. This notable documentary speaks the truth that hummor, provocation, and sharing are more effective for healing, than, mere expressions of sincerity and sympathy.
 

Director

  • BYUN YoungjooBYUN Youngjoo

    Since she made Korean first theatrical documentary The Murmuring (1995), BYUN went on to complete a documentary trilogy on the victims of Japanese military 'Comfort Women'. Deep Loves (2002) was her first feature film and Helpless (2012) was awarded the Best Director Award at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2012. Currently, she is working on a film based on KANG Full¡¯s Webtoon Lamp Shop.

Credit

  • ProducerSHIN Myoung-hwa
  • Cast KANG Tok-kyong, KANG Soon-duck, LEE Young-suk
  • Cinematography KIM Yong-taek
  • Editor PARK Gok-ji