Chapter 4-Presentation of The Results and Data Analysis

Introduction

As the current Korean democratic government of Moon Jae -in fights to achieve transitional justice for its people, the film industry has also taken an ardent interest in this cause. In his articles, Karanza Ko poised that transitional justice is building on the foundational principles of truth-seeking, restoration, and institutional reforms that address past traumas and injustices. Through rural nostalgia, the films Moss and The Piper take their audiences through the process of acquiring transitional justice for the citizens in the respective landscapes. Having discussed how the post-colonial governments of Syngman Rhee and Park Chun maintained power by upholding the dogmatic principles and institutions of their predecessor, the Japanese colonialists, in the literature review, the discussion section discourses allegorical moments in the films that infer to the traumas experienced during those traumatic periods.

Moss (2010)

Kang Woo-Suk’s Moss is a film that tells the story of individuals trapped in a village run by the corrupt and authoritarian Chief, Chun Yang Duk. The Chief, a former detective, maintains power through violence and terror. Given that this dissertation follows the approach of confronting traumatic representations instead of just discoursing them, the dissertation investigates the film’s title: moss. Scientifically, the term moss refers to various tiny green plants of the division Phylum that grow on surfaces of different objects such as stones and the bark of trees. In the film, the title moss represents the process in which people submit to a repressive regime, just like the moss plant that lies on objects, characters in the movie lie down and continuously take in the brutality of Chief Chun.  Based on a small village in Seoul, the film shows how the village residents out of fear obey and take Chung Yang Duk’s evil leadership style. To give away the title’s metaphor during the film’s opening, Prosecutor Park, in a telephone conversation with Haek Guk, states, “You know what moss is? Live quietly like the moss stuck under a rock.” Young Ji displays a perfect example of the metaphor, Moss. Despite being raped on numerous occasions by the Chief and his three henchmen, she continues to prepare meals for the culprits and go about her life as if nothing wrong had occurred. The allegorical moment presented by the title represents how the Japanese colonialists, Syngman Rhee, and Park Chun expected Korean citizens to lie down and accept their governments with no opposition. These authoritarian governments used tactics such as arbitrary arrests, violence, and excessive force to control any opposition to their regimes. Using these tactics, these governments ensured that their citizens, just like the moss plant, were lying down and doing nothing to resist their authority.

In his truth-seeking efforts, director Kang Woo-Suk primarily depends on the rural milieu to represent historical traumas. He sets his film in a tiny village in Seoul, where there are no trains or public transport. The film paradoxically serves rural areas. During the film’s opening scenes, the rural area is seen as an ideal location for lost souls to start like on a blank slate. Ryu Mok-hyeoug, a religious man, retired back from the Vietnam War with the mentality that he is a sinner and needs a new place to atone for his crimes during the war. Although Mr. Ryu’s partnership with Chief Chun, who at the time was a detective commenced on a turbulent note, the two decided to build a new build village where they can reform criminals..

As the film progresses, the idealistic nature of the village is juxtaposed by the representation of the village as a place of oppression, violence, fear, and police brutality. Soon after solidifying their partnership, detective Chun reveals his true intentions of allying with Mr. Ryu. Unlike Ryu, who wants to rehabilitate, criminals, Chun intends to use them as weapons to gain power and influence in the village. Recognizing the extent of influence Ryu has on the village people, Chun devises a plan to silence him so that he effectively implements his agenda. Chun intentionally stirs up Ryu’s anger to the point where Ryu attempts to kill Chun. However, the cunning detective had placed a stack of pillows in his bed and requested Ryu’s followers to watch Ryu’s actions through the window secretly. Through this act, Chun was able to delegitimize Rhu’s influence by depicting him as a criminal ready to kill just like the rest of them. With Rhu out of the way, Chun transformed the followers into his henchmen and used them to rain terror on the village dwellers. With Mr. Ryu silenced, Chun turned the village into a place of oppression, where people were forcefully stripped off their right to own land. The idolized rural areas become a place to cover up murders and gain power at the expense of the village dwellers.

In addition to the paradoxical representation of rural areas, Kang Woo also used rural milieu, as a tool for the film’s horror to unsnarl. By using the small village in Seoul, Kang procures a medium for his horror to originate from. Kang uses the rural landscape as the source of violence, trauma, and oppression that are depicted in the film. Following a pattern similar to other Korean hillbilly films, the perpetrator in Moss is a well educated, cunning, and organized chief. Detective Chun is the origin of most traumas in the village. As a detective, he already possesses some level of authority over the village; however, his avarice motivates him to acquire more power using dogmatic methods such as intimidation and brutal violence. By using rural milieu, Kang follows Mitchell’s (2000) notion that cinematic landscapes can represent allegories that discover and investigate social paradigms. The film, Moss, employs rural milieu to allegorize Korean rural areas that were affected by the war and uprising. By depicting the villagers’ suffering at the hands of Chief Chun, audiences are forced to go back in history and recall how the villages in different villages suffered under the regimes of Rhee and Park Chun.

Drawing from Carol Clover’s also comparison of Urbania to sexism and a form of women empowerment, Kang Woo includes a scene that describes how a traumatized woman procures revenge from her offenders. Clover describes Urbania from a feminist perspective where the traumatized woman inflicts horror as she seeks rape-revenge or retribution, in general, based on an encounter she had. In the movie, Moss, Young Ji, uses both Ryu and detective Chun to get revenge on the men who raped and threw her baby in a river. After Ryu and Chun consolidated their partnership, acquiring revenge for Young Ji was their first redemption task. Instead of arresting the rape culprits detective Chun and his henchmen battered the men and threw them in the same river they had thrown Young Ji’s child

Through the characters, Ryu Mok-hyeoung and his son Haek Guk, director Kang Woo-Suk, introduced the concept of generational trauma repeating itself. Ryu, the post-war father in search of peace and new beginnings, finds himself in the very environment that he had previously run away from. In the opening scenes of the film Moss, Ryu Mok –hyeoung suffered from the arbitrary arrest by detective Chun on the grounds of stealing his followers’ money. As a religious leader, Ryu had convinced his followers to contribute money to build a haven where lost souls would be ultimately transformed. Although Kang posits Ryu as an influential religious man among the village people, out of fear, Ryu lived like moss without opposing the Chief’s leadership. Ryu’s fear of Chief Chun is justified since, in the end, the Chief and his henchmen kill him for knowing much of their secrets.

Upon his arrival back to the village, Haek Guk inherits his father’s sufferings and the burden to reveal the secrets of the village. Haek’s suffering commenced after he informed the Chief of his decision to stay in the village. Similarly to his father, Haek had hoped that the village would procure him a new starting point in life. Having lost his job, divorced his wife, and destroyed the prosecutor’s Park career, Haek saw the village as a place to rebuild his life while enjoying the fresh rural air. Haek’s decision to reside in the village and his attempts to uncover the mystery behind his father’s death stirs up conflict between him and Chief Chun. On numerous occasions, the Chief’s henchmen tried to kill Haek since he was a huge threat to the Chief’s leadership.

Despite having to look over his shoulders all the time, Haek still had to fulfill his father’s wishes of unraveling the secrets of the village. In the course of defending himself against, the Chief’s henchman, Sung- kyu who ends up dying in a fire, Haek decides to return to abandon his search and go back to the city. Young Ji, who at the time was giving Haek a ride to the hospital, persuades him not to leave without finding the truth. She reminds him that finding the truth is his solemn duty to his father since it is what he wanted him to do.

Kang Woo’s portrayal of how a son inherits his father’s battles and suffering presents an allegorical moment that represents how Korean fathers passed on their suffering and oppression to their sons. Fathers during the colonial era suffered and were exploited at the hands of Japanese colonialists. Although these men fought hard to liberate themselves from the colonial rule so that their sons and future generations would live better lives, the post-colonial governments of Syngman Rhee and Park Chun rendered their efforts useless. In addition to depicting how trauma repeats itself from generation to generation, Kang investigates how this trauma is inherited and passed down to different generations.

In the film, Chief Chun adopts intimidation, money, and violence to ensure his subjects are traumatized enough to provide him with blind loyalty. Through the money he illegally collects by exploiting the village residents’ real estate, Chief Chun bribes higher authorities to turn a blind eye to his authoritarian rule. Through Kim Deouk-Chun’s ss dramatic outburst before Haek and prosecutor Park, Kang Woo reveals the Chief’s intimidation and violent tactics that he employs to ensure he remains in power and generational suffering repeats itself. Possessed by the fear that Haek was out to kill him, Kim Deouk- Chun begs for life by stating, “I don’t know anything but what I was told. I didn’t do anything! I just took things back and forth, as he said. I beat them like I was told and killed …. I did what I was told. Buy land for the governor, send two apple boxes to Senator Park…the Chief said, put in money in place of the apples, secret number 2736, take out 30,000 in cash…Chief says the guy is suing us after selling his land over, kill him. You deal with messy things like that. The Chief is busy meeting and handling things with the senator then I grab the bastards, neck. Make him sign the contract if he won’t get his thumbprint if you can’t get that cut off his finger if he resists cutting his neck.”  The Chief’s violent and intimidation acts resemble the violence that existed during Rhee and Park Chun’s administration. Similarly to how Chief Chun ordered the killings of folks who resisted the manipulation to give up their lands, the two presidents ordered for the killing and arbitrary arrest of people who opposed their leadership,

After revealing how the Chief uses money and violence to ensure his subjects lie down like moss in the face of his oppression, a traumatized Kim Deouk –Chun goes on to narrate how the Chief makes him obey his orders. “No chief, please don’t hit me. Don’t smile while you beat me. That scares me more, I’m scared. No chief .please.” In spite of Kim Deouk being a criminal, through this scene, Kang Woo takes his audience back to the traumatic experiences that have made him the criminal he is. Through physical and mental torture, Chief Chun denied his henchmen the salvation Ryu had initially promised them and turned them into his weapon of destruction and trauma. To depict the extent of trauma Kim Deok-Chun had suffered, the film used both high angles and medium shots. Through these visual effects, audiences see a traumatized Kim Deouk tightly clasping his arms as he wails and begs the chief to stop beating him. As Kim Deouk’s dramatic meltdown progresses, the film switches to use long shots so that audiences can see Kim Deouk kneeling and bowing while the chief pleading for mercy. The scene’s terror peaks when the camera shifts its focus from Kim Deouk to a close up of Chief Chun sinister and disapproving glaze at Kim Deouk through the secret tunnels. This scene serves to invoke nostalgic memories of Park Chun tactics to ensure his administrative bodies were loyal to him. As depicted by **, Park mandated different bodies to spy on each other’s activities and then report back to him. This strategy led to the law enforcement bodies turning and falsely accusing each other of disloyalty to gain favor from Park.

To ensure that trauma and generation suffering repeated itself from generation to generation, Chief Chun depended on the strategic location of his house. According to Lowenstein (2005), generational trauma, also referred to as historical trauma is trauma passed on from one generation to another. On his arrival in the village, Prosecutor, Park notices that the Chief’s house resembled a feudal Lord’s castle, since he would keep an eye the whole village when there. The Chief’s house was strategically at the top of the hill, which enabled him to monitor the actions of his subjects closely. To effectively watch the villagers, the only street light is positioned in the Chief’s house. After Seon Kyu’s death, Kang Woo converts the audiences’ attention to Chief Chun, who lit up the street light on his balcony so he could effectively look down at the village and identity Haek’s location.  In addition to the strategic location of his house, the Chief had built underground tunnels that led to different houses belonging to the villagers. The tunnels enabled him to spy on the villages to ensure they were quiet and did not object to his leadership. As Kim Deouk-Chun confessed and pled for life before Haek Guk and prosecutor Park, Chief Chun was quietly spying on them through the tunnel that led to Ryu’s house. These control tactics invoke nostalgic memories of how President Park Chun, fast-tracked, developed roads in rural using the SMU program. The roads severed to open up the rural areas so that the police would gain access to opposition stronghold.

Through depictions of Chief Chun’s abuse of power, audiences of the film, Moss, are taken back to the repressive regime of Park Chun where the police were considered as the sovereign authority. Chief Chun asserts his sovereign authority by stating, “I am the beginning and end in this village.” The first instances of abuse of power and police brutality are evident when Detective Chun arrests Ryu Mok –hyeong. The corrupt detective arrested Ryu Mok since his influence among the rural population had caused a decline in the earning of the prayer house. Kang Woo displayed Chun’s excessive police brutality during Ryu’s imprisonment. Chun bribes the prison’s warden so he can procure an opportunity to kill Ryu. However, Ryu’s supernatural calmness and peace inhibited the goons from killing him.  Flabbergasted by his ability to brainwash people, Detective Chun enters into a partnership with Ryu to save criminals. Despite this decision originating from a sound motive, Chun abused his detective position by failing to take three criminals to prison and instead of placing them under the care of Ryu Mok for their redemption from sin. To defend his excess brutality, Chun often quotes Exodus 21 “An eye for an Eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand and foot for foot.” The depiction of abuse of power and police brutality allegorized the police brutality expressed by the authoritarian regimes of Rhee and Park Chun.

The Piper

To unravel how rural nostalgia in films contributes to allegories of historical trauma, this dissertation also analyzes the film The Piper by director Kim Gwang -Fae. The film is an adaptation from the folktale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The film retells the story of a post-war father traveling to Seoul in search of medicine for his boy, Young Nam, who was battling with tuberculosis. The pair then approaches a tiny isolated village where the post-war father, Kim Wong Rong, offers to help the villages in getting rid of the predatory rats that have invaded their home. Like other hillbilly films, The Piper is set in a remote village that is completely isolated from the rest of Korea. In the film, Kim Gwang –Fae employs rural nostalgia as part of trauma’s origin. In addition to the rural milieu, the film’s setting aids it in representing historical traumas. This dissertation argues that Kim Gwang’s film assumes a representational role in depicting historical traumas. Contrary to the Moss where audiences, have to view o the traumatic events beyond their representation to procure the meaning of the film’s allegories, audiences watching the piper are presented with both the allegories and their meanings. Kim Gwang’s choice of setting plays a significant role in giving away the interpretations of allegorical moments depicted in the film. The piper is set in a tiny rural village with no name during the Korean War under the rule of Syngman Rhee. The film discourses how rural areas were affected by the war and how people lived in fear and suspicion of one another.

The film, The piper, depicts rural areas as landscapes full of secrets, violence, and oppression. As Kim Wong –rong and his son travel to Seoul through the thickest of forests, they come across a tiny village completely isolated from the rest of the country. In addition to being so isolated, the village is engulfed with a plant camouflaged fence that makes it difficult for one to discover the village. Kim Wong and his son were only able to access the village due to a previous storm that had knocked the village’s gate down.  Unlike most social paradigms that represent rural areas as idyllic places inhabited by friendly people who have the propensity to accommodate and welcome weary souls in search of a new origin, the village in The Piper assumes a different pattern. The village’s inclination to detachment and rejection of visitors is a significant element of Western folk tales in the 20th century. As seen folk tales such as the Pied Piper and Rumpelstilskin, village dwellers discourse in-depth anxiety and loathing for outsiders arriving in their villages. In her book, Adaptations and Appropriations, Sanders reveals that the new trend in Western folk tale served to allegorize the social, political environment of the 20th century. Drawing from this notion, this dissertation posits that the suspicion and fear of being labeled as communists, lead the villagers to isolate themselves and shut their doors for visitors. During the Korean War, President Rhee’s administration had used intimidation tactics that deemed individuals suspected of communism and those that associated with communist suspects as traitors who needed to atone for their crimes through execution. Given the situation and the increasing tension and suspicion of villages, the village’s isolation and rejection of visitors are viewed as a normal self-preservation tactic.

From the opening scenes, it is clear that Kim Gwang chooses a paradoxical representation of rural landscapes. Instead of depicting an idealized rural village with hardworking and friendly villagers, the film narrates a tale of a strange village on the verge of destruction by deadly carnivorous rats.  As Young –Nam and his father walk up the village’s hill to speak to the Chief, Young –Nam is startled by the children’s ears that appear to have bite marks. Later on, father and son learn of the carnivorous rats that have rained terror on the village. As a talented piper, Kim Wong offers to eradicate the rats in exchange for the price of a cow. The rats in the film are employed as allegories that represent the current administration of President Rhee and the previous Chosun dynasty. Just like the rats tormented and destroy the village, Rhee’s government has subjected Korean citizens to suffering, trauma, and oppression. Through characters such as Mi Sook  (Lady Cheong Ju), Kim Gwang reveals that the war was the most traumatic event in their lives. Having lost their homes and loved ones, the villages are too traumatized and apprehensive about leaving the village. The villager’s current state of life is a direct representation of how lively hoods were distorted as a result of the Korean War.

Following the propensity of hillbilly films to represent rural populations as troubled, ignorant, and deviant individuals who will stop at nothing including murder to achieve their personal goals, the carnivorous rats serve to contrast the heinous crimes committed by the villagers. Although the rats are malice to the village, the well-hidden crimes committed by the villagers are far worse than those committed by the rats. The villager’s secret crimes are well guarded with the Chief, Lee Sung Min, reinforcing the necessity of the villagers maintaining idly status. In the movie’s context, the term idly refers to being mum about their secret. Kim Gwang reveals the naïve nature of villagers when Lee Sung Min coerces Kim Wong not to inform the villagers that the war had been called on armistice grounds. Traumas experienced during the war confine the villagers to the village where they continue living in ignorance about what is happening in the rest of the country.

The film’s unsnarling of the village’s secret presents allegorical moments that represent the social and political notions regarding shamans in South Korea. In pre-independence, Korea, the Chosun dynasty, vehemently engaged in the dissemination of neo confusion cultures and were therefore keen on eradicating all Korean cultural practices and a sense of national identity. The shamans who served in the erstwhile administration were significantly affected by the eradication of Korean cultural practices. Before the Japanese invasion, the religious leaders accompanied government officials in performing ceremonies such as rainmaking ceremonies. Shamans during the Chosen dynasty were considered as outcasts, and they were banned from executing any rituals. With the rumors of a communist army approaching the village, Lee Sung Min gathered his subjects and fled their village before the army’s arrival. In their exodus, the Chief threw away all the leapers and one shaman who still resided in their village. Referring to them as beasts, Lee Sung Min and the villagers fled the village leaving behind the ‘beasts’ to the mercy of the communist army.

Despite the much-anticipated arrival of the communist army in the village, the army never descended in the village, and the villages had to return to their home after independence. On arrival to their village, the leapers and shaman who had been cursed away from the village were not willing to accept the villagers back into the village. After begging and using their children as ammunition to procure mercy from the shaman, the villagers are allowed back into their village ephemeral until the war concludes.  Akin with the post-colonial government of Rhee that promised to restore Korea back to its whilom glory, before colonization and instead advanced the violence and suffering experienced by Koreans; after settling back in the village, the Chief banished the leapers and the shaman to a gloomy cave. With the aid of his subjects, Lee Syngman locked up the ‘beasts’ and left them to die in the cave. As time passes, the shamans regain their religious and social status as the post-colonial authorities attempt to restore the cultural identity of the Korean people. The renaissance of the shamans’ role forces the Chief to bring back the banished shaman. Still angered by the villagers’ betrayal, the not so quick to forgive shaman curses the villagers and the Chief for their betrayal and refuses to assume any shaman duties. To bury their atrocities against the shamans and the leapers, the villagers set the shaman on fire and decide to never talk of what happened on that particular night.

Kim Wang uses the carnivorous rats as a base to compare the villagers’ reprehensible crimes towards their shaman and the lepers. Despite being ignorant, the villagers fit the social representations of rural populations found in Korean hillbilly horror. Led by their cunning Chief, Lee Sung Ming, the villagers form a cult that believes that all crimes committed for survival will be forgiven. Kim Wang depicts the village cult as an organized group that has arrived at a consensus that their actions towards their shaman were justified and that by isolating themselves, they would not only be safe from the ongoing war, but their secret would also be safe. Given that the villagers’ crimes led to the infestation of the carnivorous rats, Wang presents a deeper allegory in this scene. This dissertation posits that the villagers in the film, The Piper, also had a hand in the origin of traumas they experienced. A significant ramification of the pejorative social and political attitudes towards Shamans and Communism was the origin of crimes committed for survival.  Both the Chosen dynasty and Rhee’s presidency had the propensity to favor the employed of intimidation tactics as a mechanism to consolidate their power and authority.  While the Chosun dynasty implemented intimidation tactics to eradicate Korea’s cultural and national identity, President Rhee used the tactic to quell down his opposition.

In his theorization of Korea’s historical traumas, Kim Wang reveals how the intimidation tactics of Rhee’s administration adversely affected livelihoods in the villages. Before the Korean War commenced, Rhee employed intimidation techniques to control rebels who opposed his authority. Using the police as his weapon, Rhee ordered the arrest and public executions of individuals who were deemed as communists or those who associated with communists.  Korean villages were significantly affected since the majority of the rebels used the villages’ mountainous vegetation and terrain to hid and planned their attacks. With this tradition, villagers lived in fear and suspicion of each other. To protect themselves from the dogmatic principles of Rhee, villagers accused each other of communist activities. Kim presents this allegory when the Chief turns against Kim Wong –Rong. Syngman Rhee’s authoritative regime was dominated by witch hunt actives aimed at weeding communists and rebels from the villages. Rhee’s intimidation tactics had resulted in widespread paranoia where Koreans lived in fear and suspicion of each other.

After Kim Wong successfully rids the village of the rat infestation, Chief Lee Sungman recognizes the weight of having to pay the piper and commences a plot to kill the piper.  Drawing from Rhee’s intimidation mechanism, the Chief disseminated the paranoia that he suspects Kim Wong is a communist.  The witty Chief exploits his son’s craving for fatherly attention to convince him to join his cause to destroy Kim Wong.  Following Korea’s patriarchal system, the father-son duo held a meeting with the rest of the village men. During this meeting, Lee Sung Min and Nam Sou coerce the other villagers that Kim Wong is a spy. Nam Sou argued that only a communist spy would have located their strategically isolated village. He also implies that the white powder Kim Wong had spread throughout the village was his way of communicating with his other communist comrades. The thought that a communist is among them is too much for the villagers to handle that they concur with the Chief’s plot. One villager defends their actions by stating, “If we pay him, it will finance communist operations and if people find out …our village is done, finished.”  In an attempt to show the villagers fear of the repercussions that will follow them once word gets out they have a communist among them, the film adopts both high angles and close-ups shots. Through the close-up shots, audiences can see the fear written on the faces of the village against the stern and sly appearance of the chief who is hopeful and confident that his evil intentions against Kim Wong will prevail. To ensure that all the village men share his notion, the Chief reinforces the notion that, “spies caught amidst war are executed.”

The naïve villagers agree to support the Chief in his vindictive plot to get rid of Kim Wong so as to continue his authority without the villagers discovering that the war had long been called off. As Kim Wong requests for his money, the villagers turn against him and accuse of being a communist spy. As if to prove his loyalty to his father, Nam Soo chops off Kim Wong’s wingers as his father rummages through his belongings. During this scene, Kim Wang uses close-up shots to allow the audience to feel the terror Kim Wong experienced. With the camera set at a low angle, audiences see a scared and shocked Kim Wong stammer, “my fingers.” Looking down at Kim Wong in a cold and cursory gaze, Naam Soo hastily picks up the chopped fingers and throws them away. Even after his fingers are thrown away, through the close-up shots, audiences continue to see the fear in Kim Wong’s face as he screams in pain while holding his bleeding hand. The naïve and illiterate villagers’ belief Lee Sung when he shows them a map Kim Wong had drawn in his quest to eradicate the rats.  He convinced them that Kim Wong had used the map to spy on them, and Dr. Arthur’s address was a communist address. During the witch hunt, intimidation and fear associated with the communist spy amongst themselves cause the villagers to torment and traumatize Kim Wong and his son. Kim Wong’s friend, who casually referred to him as a big brother, also sided with the Chief and accused his trusted friend of being a communist. Fear of being persecuted alongside Kim Wong significantly influenced Lady Mi’s decision to betray her suitor. As a result of fear of being persecuted for harboring a communist suspect, the villagers engaged a second crime for survival.

The Chief’s use of communist fear and intimidation as a basis of influencing the villagers to join his vindictive plot allegories the intimidation tactics of both the Chosun dynasty and President Rhee’s intimidation tactics. Akin with the Chief, these governments disseminate antagonist social and political perspectives that specifically target their political evidence. Capitalizing on these negative perspectives, both authoritarian governments employed excessive force when punishing individuals practicing or associated with these negative notions. The excessive force implemented caused paranoia among the Koreans and resulted in hunts to weed out both communists and shamans during Rhee’s administration and Chosun dynasty, respectively.  The rampant witch hunts were termed as crimes of survival since the people deemed them necessary for their safety during these authoritarian regimes.  Through this ‘survival crimes,’ the Korean citizens aided their authoritarian governments in traumatizing other citizens. The survival crimes saw innocent individuals chased away from their homes and even executed on the basis of they look just like communists.  Just like the carnivorous rats that terrorized the villages, through their crimes for survival, the villagers terrorized groups of people negatively represented in the society.

This dissertation argues that The Piper’s use of the carnivorous rats as a  base for comparing the villagers’ heinous acts originates from Carol Clover’s description of Urbania. Urbania is described as the fear of rural and wilderness areas and its inhabitants by urban people. Carol Clover compares Urbania to cannibalism; the human nature to create horror and barbaric acts. Kim Wang depicts the villagers’ cannibalistic nature when they turn against Kim Wong and throw him out of their village even after he significantly aided them in getting rid of the rats. Their violence towards Kim Wang escalated when the chief poisons the food in the visitor’s bag, which led to the death of his son, Young Nam.

Through the analysis of the film, The Piper, the researcher identifies allegorical moments that represent the historical traumatic experiences inflicted by the Chosen dynasty and Rhee’s government. The dissertation also identifies several aspects of Western influence among the Korean people. Having participated in the Korean War, Kim Wong interacted with American soldiers and learned some elements of western medicine. Due to westernization, Kim Wong and his son adorn modern clothes as the rest of the villagers continue wearing ancient Korean attires. The influence of western medicine also causes Kim Wong to commence the journey to Seoul in search of Dr. Arthur, who he expected to cure Young Nam’s tuberculosis. Aspects of westernization are also evident in the cigarettes that Kim Wong uses to gift the villagers.  To thank Lee Sungman for hosting them, Kim Wong handed the Chief a packet of cigarettes. American cigarettes also made an appearance during the Chief’s meeting with the village men.

Both films, The Piper and Moss, are dominated by elements of Korean patriarchy society. The films portray Korea as a hyper-masculine society, given that only a few women appear in the films, and when they do, they assume eccentric roles. In the Moss, Young Ji is the only female character, and she is continuously in the background helping other characters develop their role. Although in his film The Piper, Kim Gwang included a handful of women characters, akin to the Moss, the women assume feeble roles. Mi-Sook, who is given the attention, assumes the character of a sad widow traumatized by the war and the loss of her family. Through her unfortunate rape story, she creates an opportunity for Mr. Ryu and Chief Chun to partner up with the aim of reforming criminals. Women in both films assume traditional roles where they often are seen preparing meals for the community.

To reveal the patriarchy system of leadership, both films have the propensity to restrict authoritative positions to only male characters. The male leaders assume the role of the father parent responsible for the welfare of his ‘children’ subjects. The chiefs in both films expect unconditional loyalty and obedience from their ‘children’ subjects and exert violence and brutality when their leadership is opposed or threatened. Although the Confucian patriarchy leadership system argues that fathers and sons should maintain tight relationships for the development of better future leaders, father-son relationships in the film Moss contradict this notion. Mr. Ryu and his son Haek Guk had a troubled relationship due to Ryu’s decision to abandon his family and start living a new at the village. Unable to fathom his father’s decision to choose his religious lifestyle at the village over their family, audiences see Haek’s struggle to accept his father’s death. As Haek Guk stands at the entrance of his father’s house overlooking his lifeless body wrapped in linen, Chief Chun has to remind Haek that he should view the body. Through Haek’s condescending monologue with his dead father, Kang Woo creates a window to discourse the distressing father-son bond. In his monologue, Haek states, “What is this? How can you just die like this? I’m not even sad for you. I just finished my duty. So don’t resent me even I didn’t resent you.” Despite the agonizing relationship between the two, once Haek undercovers inconsistencies in his father’s estate, he decided to investigate the sale of his father’s land alongside his death.

Kim Wang also unsnarls the strenuous and quite nonexistent relationship between Chief Chun and his son, the police officer. To reveal the extent of their challenging relation, Kim Wang waits until the last scenes to real that, in fact, the police offer is Chun’s son. The nonexistence of a father-son bond between them is revealed in the way in which they address each other. The police offer refers to his father as sir and even salutes him as they part ways.  Alike with most sons who crave their father’s attention, the police officer is ready to undertake any task assigned by his father in an attempt to procure fatherly attention and validation. As detective Chun entertains and shares a drink with Haek Guk on his first night in the village, Kim Wang diverts the audience’s attention to the police in a different table having dinner with his friends. Although the officer is having a good time with his friends’ feelings of sadness and rejection overcome him as he watches how eager his father is to maintain casual interactions with his henchmen and Haek Guk. Having no interest in fostering a relationship with him, Chun exploits the officer’s yearning for attention and uses him as a weapon to fight his political enemies. This is evident when Chun takes over the officer’s duty to arrange for Ryu’s post mortem so as to keep the cause of his death a secret. Given that Chun has no regard for his son, he is ready to jeopardize his son’s safety to save himself and maintain his position of authority. Chun directed his son to burn all the evidence that could incriminate him, and in the process, the officer dies trying to win his father’s approval.

Unlike the Moss, the film The Piper demonstrates a patriarchal society dominated by strong father-son relations. Having lost his wife in the war, Kim Wong –Rong values his relationship with his son Young Nam who is the only family he has left. Kim Wong exhibits all the three characteristics of a patriarchal parent. Taking up his responsibility duty, Kim Wong gathers his belongings, and together with his son, they commence the journey to Seoul in search of western medicine to cure Young Nam’s tuberculosis. Despite his love and fondness for his son, Kim Wong is still able to be strict and discipline Young Nam. During their meal with Chief Lee, Kim Wong hits Young Nam back for interrupting them in their conversation.  Although Kim Wong is a moral, strict, and responsible father, he often jeopardizes the safety of Young Nam. In the process of eradicating the rats, Kim Wong underestimated the quality of rats in the villages; he realized later that for all the rats to fit in the designated tunnel, he had to block them. Young Nam, who constantly loved to accompany his father while working noticed the era and unaware of the potential danger he was exposing himself to, Young Nam took it upon himself to block the rats. Kim Wong treats audiences to a suspenseful scene where a frail Young Nam struggles to support the door which he intended to use to block the rats. To express the magnitude of the danger bestowed on Young Nam. Kim Wong included aerial shots of how the numerous rats rushed to enter the tunnel as they followed the white powder. The scene’s suspense climaxes as some of the rats climbed the door and began moving towards Young Nam’s tiny hands. Luckily at that time, Kim Wong had identified his era and rushed to help his son. Together, father and son successfully eradicate the rats from the village.

In addition to representing the different dynamics of the father-son relationship, both films also allegorize the hyper feminized nature of Korean societies after the war. Given that both villages are ruled by authoritarian patriarchy chiefs, society adopts the role of the feminized Confucian daughter/wife. In the film, Moss Kim Wong reveals how society adopts womanly virtues as prescribed by the Naehoo. As good Confucian daughters, the villagers are not only obedient to their chief, but they also aid him in performing his masculine duty. Unaware that the Chief’s Chun interests are purely heteroclite, the villagers help him in spying on Haek guk. While Haek Guk visits the local cyber café, the owner portrays his eagerness to help the chief in discovering what Haek’s internet activities. When asked if he can help the chief procure Haek’s internet history, the villagers confidently states, “Of course, that’s pretty easy.” However, the keen Haek Guk overhears the conversation, and in a computer close up audiences watch him erase his search history.  Although the Naehoo dictates that community members should be careful about their speech, Kim Deouk Chun often forgets this rule and states inappropriate statements. On Haek’s arrival, perplexed to learn that Ryu had a son Kim Deouk excitedly utters, “Looks just like his dad.” Kim Wang strategically uses close-up shots to demonstrate the disapproving and harsh glare the chief gives Kim Deouk after he completes his statement.  Aware of his mistake and with remorse and fear written all over his face, Kim Deouk corrects his mistake and states, “Ah! No, completely different.” The film, in the film, The Piper, also exhibit hyper-feminine features in the way they obey and assist their chief to keep their past atrocities hidden. Using the statement ‘remain idly’ the villagers are often reminded of their duty in watching their speech to safeguard the village’s secret. In addition to observing the Naehoo virtue of speech, the villagers also share similar negative perspectives about communists with the state. This virtue is depicted as they attack Kim Wang because he is a suspected communist.

This dissertation argues that by upholding the Confucian values of relationships and Naehoo virtues, the Koreans not only gave the authoritarian governments of Rhee and Park Chun power to continue their harrowing regimes but also supported them in tormenting their political enemies. Akin to Chun Yongouk and Lee Sungmin, both Rhee and Park had the propensity to mask their personal political interests as national safety issues. While Rhee labeled rebels to his authority as communists, Park Chun developed the SMU program to consolidate his political position by fostering economic growth. With their hidden agendas, they then capitalized on the Naehoo virtues to acquire support for their draconian acts and policies. By blindly following and obeying these authoritarian governments, the Korean people prolong the cycle of trauma under authoritarian governments.

Chapter 5

Summary and Conclusions

Overview

In this chapter, the researcher addresses a summary of the study and also provided his conclusions for the study.

Summary

This study aimed at investigating the adaptation of rural milieu in hillbilly horror films as a mechanism to allegorize historical trauma. To effectively answer the research question, the researcher developed four objectives which served as research variables throughout the study. In his investigation of hillbilly horror and their propensity to use rural nostalgia, the researcher was explicitly interested in Korean hillbilly films. The researcher’s interest in Korean hillbilly horror originated from the desire to contribute to the limited scholarships that discourse the trauma Pre-war and post-war Korea suffered under the authoritarian governments of Japanese colonizers, Syngman Rhee and Park Chun. Through an in-depth analysis of the films, The Piper and Moss, the researcher identified how rural milieu was adopted to present allegories of historical trauma in pre-war and post-war Korea.

Through the literature review, the researcher was able to generate and refine his study. By reviewing past literature, the researcher revealed the existing relationships and theories that allow films to represent historical traumas. Through past writing, the study discovered the paradoxical representations of rural areas that will enable the milieu to be used to represent traumas. By capitalizing on the ironic portrayal of rural landscapes, hillbilly films incline to begin by depicting rural areas as peaceful environments that are welcoming and accommodating to weary individuals in search of new beginnings. The rural areas are visualized as suitable surroundings for people to take a break from their busy and hectic urban life. However, as the films progress, this peaceful representation is then juxtapositioned by the mystery, violence, and brutality that lies behind the uncanny rural spaces. The researcher was also able to identify a typical pattern where most hillbilly films portrayed rural populations as ignorant and deviant people who are capable of crossing human boundaries to meet their interests. The study also discovered the variations in the representation of hillbilly populations in Hollywood hillbilly films from their representation in Korea hillbilly films. While Hollywood depicted rural communities as disgruntled, disorganized maniacs who are obsessed with killing visitors in their rural towns, Korean hillbilly films depicture their rural populations as organized cults who are obsessed with obtaining and power to consolidate their leadership positions.

Analyzing past scholarship procured the researcher an opportunity to comprehend the traumas the authoritarian governments of Japan colonizers, Syngman Rhee, and Park Chun inflicted on the Korean people. Given that Korea had isolated itself from the rest of Asia for quite long, Japan found it easy to annex and invade Korea. Japan’s invasion of Korea was rooted in Japan’s desire to access China, and thus Korea served as an economic base for Japan to achieve its mission. Despite the vast gap in knowledge that describes Korea’s colonial period, the study unraveled that the Japanese engaged in vigorous assimilation techniques to erode Korea’s culture and national identity. The Japanese colonizers schemed to transform Korea into another Japan whose sole purpose was to avail cheap labor and food to its expanding population back in Japan. The Japanese employed excessive police force and brutality in squashing any opposition or rebellions towards their authority.

With the liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonizers in 1945, the Korean people hoped that the suffering and trauma they had experienced during that regime was over. Colonial rule in Korea not only resulted in trauma but the division of Korea into leftist North Korea and rightist South Korea. With Syngman Rhee in power as the president hopes for peace and tranquility in Korea diminished since the patriarchy leader adopted the dogmatic principles and institutions of his predecessor, the Japanese colonizers. Following Confucian patriarchy leadership, Rhee expected his subjects to obey and support his anti-communist crusades. Rhee’s intimidation tactics, abuse of power, police brutality, and spread of communist fear resulted in rebellions such as the massacres on Cheju Island, which spilled over into the Korean War. After the Korean War, which claimed numerous Korean lives, Park Chun, through a military coup, took over as president. Park‘s primary purpose as president was to spearhead economic development in Korea. To achieve his objective, he collaborated with Korea’s former colonizers, which sparked a severe backlash from the Korean students. To quell this opposition, he adopted his predecessor’s brutal strategies, such as arbitrary arrests and police brutality. Park was, however, successful in fostering economic development through the Saemaul Undong program.

Through the analysis of the films Moss and The Piper, the researcher depicts how rural landscapes are used in allegorizing historical traumas. Both films depict the paradoxical representation of rural areas, as explained by Brown and Shaft. In addition to using rural areas as the source of the films’ horror, the films have also adopted rural areas as spaces in which horror unravels. Through the films, the researcher identified numerous allegories that represent historical traumas the Koreans suffered at the hands of the Japanese colonizers, President Rhee, and President Park Chun. In addition to identifying and elaborating the allegories, the researcher also recognized the role played by the Korean people in aiding these authoritarian governments to prolong trauma from one generation to another.