Uncovering Memories: Violence, Cold War, and East Asia
The Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library is proud to sponsor the film series.
This screening series features three films that explore experiences and memories related to violence, imperialism, and the Cold War in East Asia. By critically examining the Japanese armed group's resistance against neo-imperialism (East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front), the unrecorded memories of women in U.S. camptowns in South Korea (The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin), and the herstory of the April Third Incident that spans Japan, South Korea, and North Korea (Soup and Ideology), these films delve into the enduring impacts of state violence and socio-cultural trauma. These discussions are essential not only for understanding the past but also for addressing its ongoing resonance in contemporary society.
Soup and Ideology
Date & Time: October 12, 3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Location: William Doo Auditorium, 45 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON M5S 2H3
Free event, all are welcome to attend
Registration is required to attend. Please RSVP
Synopsis: Tracing back mother's very last memory, we finally become a family. On one fine day in Osaka, Yong-hi invites her Japanese fiancé to her mother's house. When her father was alive, he never allowed her to meet a Japanese man, but her mother happily prepares the traditional chicken soup that’s only served to sons-in-law in Korea. Though shocked by the photos of KIM IL-SUNG on the wall, her fiancé says, “our ideologies are different but let’s enjoy the soup”. And now as a husband, he stands by them when the mother gets Alzheimer’s disease after confessing her old-time buried hometown secret that the daughter never knew; Jeju uprising.
Event organizer’s introduction: Soup and Ideology explores the history and forgotten memories of the April Third Incident in 1947, a tragic event in which the South Korean government carried out a genocide during a period of intense confrontation with the North. When the resistance movement emerged on Jeju, a remote southern island, the government responded with an indiscriminate massacre of the islanders. The film's central figure, Kang Jeong-hee, is a survivor of that massacre. Born in Japan, Kang returned to her hometown of Jeju after Korea's liberation. However, the brutal April Third Incident forced her to move back to Japan, where she became part of the "Zainichi" community, the Korean diaspora in Japan. Amidst the severe Cold War tensions, this diaspora community faced intense ideological pressures, being forced to choose allegiance between the South and the North. As a Zainichi woman activist, Kang played a role in the Repatriation Movement, which encouraged the relocation of Zainichi Koreans to North Korea from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. The film, directed by Kang’s daughter, follows her journey of understanding her mother's stubborn resistance to South Korea and her support for North Korea, which even led her to send all her sons there. Soup and Ideology illustrates how vast political forces, such as Cold War dynamics, can deeply impact personal lives, as seen through Kang’s story. The memory of state violence and genocide irrevocably shaped the course of her life and that of her family.
East Asian Anti-Japan Armed Front
Date & Time: September 14, 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
Free event, all are welcome to attend
Registration Closed
Synopsis: On August 30th, 1974, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing was carried out by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front. Following Mitsubishi bombing, a series of Japanese corporations were attacked by the Front. They were arrested in May 1975. More than 40 years have passed since then, I went to Japan to see the trace of their thought. (https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20190674)
Event organizer’s introduction: The film East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front delves into the Japanese militant groups of the 1970s that actively opposed Japan’s neo-imperialism and colonialism. By targeting and bombing symbolic imperialist corporations, these groups sought to reveal how Japan's imperialist structures continued to exert influence in former colonies, perpetuating capitalist violence even after these nations had gained independence. The film follows the stories of imprisoned participants and their supporters, urging viewers to rethink conventional ideas of "violence." The state and media's portrayal of the group's actions as mere "terrorism" served to obscure their critique of ongoing imperial violence, effectively whitewashing Japan's imperial past. Through this film, the long-silenced voices of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front are brought back into the conversation, encouraging a deeper reflection on their activism.
The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin.
Date & Time: September 28, 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: William Doo Auditorium, 45 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON M5S 2H3
Free event, all are welcome to attend
Registration Closed
Synopsis: In a shanty village, next to the US Military Base soon to be demolished, lives a former US military comfort woman, Park Insun. Collecting trash for daily living, she has several visits from various seekers. One night after she discovers the death of her colleague, she is spotted by the Death Messengers and becomes the subject of examination. Considering the nameless women in the town who will become ghosts after their silent death, the Death Messengers try to make a fiction so that they could take them to Death. However, Park decides to make her own ‘true story’ to fight back the extinction. (https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20190665)
Event organizer’s introduction: The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin explores the unrecorded memories of U.S. camptowns in South Korea, raising the critical question: Can the subaltern speak? By juxtaposing the relentless forces of capitalism and developmentalism that obscure the history of the Cold War and the collusion between the South Korean state and U.S. imperialism, this horror fantasy film encourages us to consider how the untold stories of women can be captured and shared. Recognizing the challenges of straightforward documentation, the film follows Park In-soon, a camptown woman, on her journey to craft her own narrative. Her story highlights the complexities of representing women's experiences within the confines of established discourse.
