Analysis of the Korean movie "The Sea knows"

Résumé du document

As soon as the film starts the Korean soldier Aroun, new in the Japanese army, is qualified a “troublemaker” by his superior: it gives a first idea of the way the Korean soldiers are treated by the Japanese. We see that the Koreans people were mistreated by their Japanese superiors in the army. For example at the beginning of the film the tall man standing next to Aroun is being beaten and thrown against the wall for having said something to his superior, Mori. In four hours, the superior slaps the Koreans soldiers twice without any reason! He calls them “lousy Koreans”. When Aroun asks why they are being beaten like that, the superior beats him once again, in the chest. Then the superior explains: he says that being slapped is a tradition of the Japanese army, a 50 year-old one that he just decided to use again.

Mori says that Aroun is “messing with the discipline” simply because he doesn't want to eat extra rice when he knows his parents are not eating enough. Then Aroun's friend also refuses the rice and is, again, beaten. Another incident is when Aroun has to clean the boots of his superior. He does it, but there is some excrement that remains under it. So the superior makes Aroun lick the boots… and when Aroun wants to spit, the superior forces him to swallow. This scene is psychologically difficult as we can see that the Japanese really want to humiliate the Koreans. Later, Mori makes Aroun bark like a dog: it is yet another humiliation for the Korean.

Extraits

[...] And admittedly Hideko is not Japan, but she's still Japanese and the love between the two young shows that the people of each country don't hate one another and that when they get to know each other they can actually create something. The first time Hideko meets Aroun, she doesn't know he is Korean and she strongly criticized the Koreans, because there has been a robbery and she says she's sure it was a Korean, because Koreans have no jobs. What could they do besides rob people?” In the end, she falls in love with a Korean! References www.youtube.com/watch?v=esLWhJhrHP0&wide=1. [...]

[...] Also, another superior of Mori punishes him for what he did to the Korean soldiers, notably for having forced Aroun to lick the boots. But the seniors keep mistreating the Koreans: when they try to rebel against that treatment they are beaten. Another illustration of the fact that the Japanese despise the Koreans is the moment when a Japanese soldier finds out about the relationship between Aroun and the Japanese girl: he asks her how she could fall in love with a Korean. [...]

[...] But all tears are the same regardless of the nationality” he says. This shows that he doesn't hate Japan since he can still be consoled by a Japanese woman. Yet, later when Aroun tells the barking-like-a-dog incident to Hideko and she once again cries, he says Japanese Empire has robbed me of my humanity and in return I get pity from a Japanese woman”, he says. Hideko answers that it is not pity but love, and Aroun in a first time says that it is not possible because he hates Japan. [...]

[...] One of Aroun's sentences, Japanese army made sure that I never forget my Korean nationality”, is a good illustration of what a Korean man experienced in the Japanese army during the Second World War. Although they were fighting along the Japanese, they were mistreated because Korea was not Japan's Ally, but Japan's colony. Thus, the Japanese soldiers were treating the Koreans as subhuman. So the way the Korean soldiers are treated show the position of Korea towards Japan: a colony. Yet, the way the Korean soldiers are treated doesn't make the Koreans hate Japan. [...]

[...] In four hours, the superior slaps the Koreans soldiers twice without any reason! He calls them “lousy Koreans”. When Aroun asks why they are being beaten like that, the superior beats him once again, in the chest. Then the superior explains: he says that being slapped is a tradition of the Japanese army, a 50 year-old one that he just decided to use again. Mori says that Aroun is “messing with the discipline” simply because he doesn't want to eat extra rice when he knows his parents are not eating enough. [...]