SYNOPSIS

The film chronicles 26 year-old Filipino Maria’s hopes, dreams, and crucial reality for two years to lay bare the legalized system of sex trafficking between South Korea and the Philippines. Maria has been dreaming about escaping from her slum neighborhood in Davao, Philippines, and getting a job abroad. When Maria was introduced to a talent manager, Madam Yolanda, her dream was about to come true. Manager Yolanda operates a training center and a temporary boarding house in Manila for women like Maria. Yolanda has witnessed the ups and downs of the sex industries of neighboring Asian countries and sees the openings in the industry as job opportunities for poor Filipino women. As Japan also once had its heyday in the past, during this period of time, South Korea is a major destination country for entertainers.

PROGRAM NOTE

 Having become aware of Korea\'s imperialist
 expansion and the fact that Korea has become the
 biggest aggressor nation in Asia while working on a
 variety of documentary projects, filmmaker LEE Kowoon
 chronicles a 26 year-old Filipino Maria working
 in the US Army nightclub in Korea for two years,
 and in doing so exposes the vested interests that is
 entangled like a mangrove within this industry, the
 beneficiaries who tacitly comply to this illegalized
 activity, and the old patrons of this industry who exist
 beyond the counters of the nightclub. The Filipino
 women, who are under the supervision and training
 of the talent manager Madam Yolanda to qualify for
 the Arts/Entertainment E-6 Korean Visa, travel to a
 completely foreign country in order to make a living
 and support their beloved family. The club area that
 surrounds the military base of the U.S. Armed forces
 in Korea is considered to be Korea geographically,
 but in reality the owner of this territory is a foreigner
 (outsider), and the Koreans lives off these outsiders.
 Policies change in tandem with the political relations
 and capital flows between Korea and the United
 States, constant movements and changes create
 new order in the system, and the industry retains
 its ground as the people involved adapt to this new
 order and attain an equilibrium with each other. The
 director of this film takes an economic perspective to
 observe how this long-lasting industry is working while
 being on the border of decline and peril. Furthermore,
 she also reveals the true face of this industry and
 examines and portrays these Filipino women from a
 gender and emigration point of view. [KANG Ba-da]