Watching Heaven's Soldiers was an interesting insight into the Korean perception (though I'm not rushing to assume that all Koreans think this way) of Korea: North Korea, South Korea, and Korea as a united country.
The North Koreans in this movie were often portrayed as sometimes blind, but staunch and admirable followers of their leader (as exemplified by one of the North Koreans' ignorance of who Lee Soon-Shin was), whereas the South Koreans are portrayed as more friendly and humane. For instance, when the North Korean leader is attempting to weasel out the information from Lee Soon-Shin, they were clearly going to use violence, whereas the South Korean leader steps in and uses more humane tactics to persuade Lee. However, in the end, they all ended up fighting and dying together, which perhaps shows the underlying desire of "all" Koreans to finally have a united Korea.
Another thing I realized after watching the film was how nationalism is passed on to newer generations. Throughout the film I found myself laughing at many parts, and was often confused by the genre switching - from a war film to sci-fi to comedy and back to a war film again, but I enjoyed the experience. There wasn't any point in the film where I felt that I was watching a documentary or something "educational" - it felt like pure entertainment to me. However, I did feel a very strong sense of nationalism/pride emanating from the movie. If nothing else, I could at least understand that Lee Soon-Shin was a national hero who symbolized a united and strong Korea against a powerful and intimidating enemy. The director utilizes pop culture in order to inspire a new generation to be proud and fond of this legendary figure and to make him their "own" Korean hero - instead of him being an unreachable, detached figure in the distant past.
What do you guys feel about the images portrayed in Heaven's Soldiers? Or how nationalistic pride was shown in the movie?
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2 comments:
I think you bring up a good point in that the movie is really not one particular genre,but rather a shifting from comedy, perhaps drama, sci-fi, and war. The movie and its plot seemed to be shaped so that it would appeal more to the younger audiences with popular, young actors and actresses such as Gong Hyo Jin and the man who played Lee Sun Sin (I forgot his name). Perhaps though, the point of the movie wasn't to thoroughly educate but maybe just spark a little interest in the younger audiences so that they will be at least be somewhat encouraged to learn more about their culture and history? However, I do wholly agree with you in that the movie definitely gives off a sense of nationalism and pride. An example of this is as Hazie mentioned in class, when Lee Sun Sin came in between the north and south soldiers and erased the line/border which they drew on the ground.
I think that the campy-ness of the movie, which can sort of detract from the strong sense of nationalism. I was sort of surprised that Yi Sun Shin was shown as sort of this bumbling fool, since he is such a source of pride to the country. But it is true that there is a sense of nationalistic pride in the movie, specifically of re-unification. The way the soldiers from both countries work together was an interesting dynamic.
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