Korean animation looks across the border for a tragic love story
There are three people involved in the love affair within writer/director Kim Bo-sol’s heartrending animated feature,There is an undoubted and abiding love between Isak and Bok-joo , but it's a love that can never be named, never be seen, never even be hinted at.
Isak is First Secretary to the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, a rare European allowed into North Korea. Bok-joo is a traffic guard, a respectable job that allows her to stay in the capitol city. If the government ever finds out that they have any degree of connection, he’ll be deported and she’ll likely be banished back to the sticks. That’s why, whenever they meet, they can never be seen and must remain constantly vigilant. They’ve done an extraordinary job so far, so much so that Isak has been allowed to extend his tenure in North Korea far longer than is the norm. This might cause attention and suspicion, maybe even surveillance, but the reality is that he’s already under surveillance, because this is North Korea. Of course he’s under surveillance. Everyone is, and for Isak the first set of eyes upon him are those of Myeong-jun , his assigned translator, state agent, and the closest thing Isak has to a friend. But he’s still an agent of the state, and he has to report to his ogre of a boss , a bully so brutal that his voice often blows out the film’s sound – a decision so jarring that it has to be deliberate. Myeong-jun’s role as the unseen, unspoken third wheel in this doomed relationship is the true heart of the film. While Bok-joo is implicitly aware of her inevitable separation from Isak, and is risking all for the. Her European beau is painfully naïve, his wild-eyed and quiet-mannered belief that somehow he can rewrite the laws of this dictatorship to give them ais infuriating and romantic. And in between – or rather – observing from a distance, is Myeong-jun, whose little white lies about what he has seen are the true test of morality.is a tiny production, with writer/director Kim heading up a miniscule animation team while also serving as his own producer, cinematographer, and co-editor. Wisely, he centers his efforts on elements that add to the sense of oppression and constant observation. Crowds are rare, making Isak and Bok-joo seem constantly exposed in endless landscapes and edifices of grey that make up the city, environments that make the tall, blond, blue-eyed Isak seems like a constant alien presence. How can they possibly delude themselves that the stranger on the bridge, or the shadowy figure across the road hasn’t seen them touching from a distance. Those scenes of space and emptiness are juxtaposed with the intimacy between the lovers, cheeks perpetually flushed from a combination of innocent adoration and the constant swirling snow that ripples through the streets of Pyongyang. Their unconsummated passion, restricted to the occasional glancing touch of a hand, or dinner at neighboring tables, is as palpable as the strained connection between Isak and Myeong-jun. The characterization may seem light, but it’s simply delicate, in the same fashion as the gorgeous watercolor effect animation that Kim uses. Kim has seeded little references that Korean audiences or those deeply versed in the politics of the peninsular may appreciate . But even those with no understanding of the region will immediately empathize with the emotional tragedy unfurling before them.may inevitably end in sadness, but within the grey world of Pyongyang the fact that a little light may burn in any heart is the happiest of endings.Bold and uncensored,has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
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