I attended Kim Kyung Hyun’s talk today on the Korean movie Oasis. Kim has written The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema. His talk, “Between Greenfinches and Sparrows: Interpreting Signs in Oasis” (He actually changed the title but I didn’t catch the new one) focused on Fantasy, Language, and Naturalism in director Lee Chang-dong’s movies, especially Oasis. I was a bit disappointed at what I felt to an excess of fluff in his talk (fluff: a precise technical term which I use to refer to slightly incoherent theoretical babble which constructs impossible and unfinished sentences that can only give the listener a sort of approximate idea of what the speaker is trying to say). He also had a tendency to spend several minutes explaining what questions he wants to grapple with but then giving us a single sentence answer which is then repeated for us in many eloquent but ultimately redundant ways. However, this is not at all uncommon in literary or cinema related talks.
Kim did explore some interesting themes in the movie. First a quick plot summary: Oasis is a movie about a disabled woman, Gong-ju, who suffers from cerebral palsy. The other main character, Jong-du is the rather complex male character. He is something of a social misfit, prone to strange and uneasy movements, childish behavior, and general carelessness. He is unable to hold down a job and has been convicted of assault, attempted rape, and involuntary manslaughter on previous occasions. For the first half of the movie the audience is unable to sympathize with Jong-du, especially when he attempts to rape Gong-ju early in the movie. His family hate him and are constantly troubled by his total inability to fit into society.
In an amazing shift, however, the director is able to gradually turn the tables so that the audience gradually begins to feel much greater antipathy towards a callous and discriminatory society. When Gong-ju actually phones her attacker, who flowered her with compliments before assaulting her, a friendship is established between them. Jong-du is the only person who has given her any real attention. Her family has abandoned her in a tiny apartment while they live in the disabled-only apartment complex offered her and she is fed by neighbors who show her little respect. Jong-du tries to redeem himself and begins to take Gong-ju on outings. We later discover that the involuntary manslaughter charge for which Jong-du served 2.5 years in prison was actually a hit-and-run that his brother was guilty of and for which Jong-du took the fall. The growing love between Gong-ju and Jong-du, however, is a tragic one when society fails to recognize the possibility and legitimacy of a relationship between the two.
I have left lots of details out, but Kim discusses a few of the themes in the movie. One interesting aspect of the movie which have a very powerful effect are “fantasy” scenes in which Gong-ju appears as a completely normal person. In these scenes she dances, sings, and playfully fights with Jong-du. We are given insight into the imagination of Gong-ju and are able to better comprehend the paralyzing disability that leaves her almost unable to speak or control her body. Kim Kyung Hyun explores this realm of fantasy, and suggests that the director has tried to show, in this movie and others, the limits of language. Both in their relationship and throughout the movie, language has limited utility for the lovers, and on several occasions there are contradictions in language which actually give birth to fantasy.
The scene which Kim focuses the most on is the fascinating birthday party of Jong-du’s mother. There we find out that Jong-du took the fall for his brother’s crime. Shortly thereafter Jong-du tells a story about his childhood in which he is told by his father that some greenfinches in the trees had little bells around their neck. I think there is a play on words here with the Korean for greenfinch but at any rate, Jong-du laughs and cries as he describes how he stood under the tree looking for the bells on the necks of the birds. One of his brothers angrily asks why he brought up this story about the greenfinches (which were originally referred to as sparrows).
Kim sees this as an example of the fantasy world that a childish Jong-du lives in, the limits/power of language and attributes it with other significance I didn’t quite understand. I actually had a much simpler interpretation. I saw it as an example of how Jong-du had been deceived by his own father as a child and held on to belief that was in fact a lie. I thought that Jong-du (or more likely the director) was telling us something about the deceptive world he was living in, and the lies that Jong-du had been led to believe by his family. His brothers let him take the fall for the family but when he is released (at the beginning of the movie) they have moved away and disconnected the phone line without ever telling him their new contact information.