Session 37: 3-Iron (screening then discussion), First of three sessions

Topics for this session

❖ Recent cinema from Korea (Seoul): 3-Iron, first session of three

Overall, persistent topics for this film:

• What is the relationship between "society" and this couple?
• Comparative issue—reconstructing "worlds": Of the immediate cultural worlds of the films we have seen, which is portrayed as the most traditionally Confucian. Note that is is possible for a film to reference more than one "world".
• Role of Buddhism in this film.
• Comparative issue: Dreams and dreaminess in 3-Iron compared to Genji, Story of the Stone.
• Comparative issue: Dreams and dreaminess in 3-Iron compared to 2046, Dolls.
• Comparative issue: the place of women (romantically) in all of our films.
• Role/place of the woman in this and other films we have screened, including: Is this film misogynistic?

Possible topics for this session:

• How does one "define" a couple? What is needed for a couple to feel like a couple?

Thoughts*

This session, we see some other film segments by the same director. This gives perspective to the current film. That is, I suggest there are subterranean implications in 3-Iron that are not immediately evident. Since I am making a similar argument for "traces" of premodern values in our films, this is a contemporary example of a relevant but semi-hidden value. Specifically we consider the place of women in Kim's films but more generally I am arguing that 3-Iron is a violent film in its attitude towards women even if overtly appearing otherwise:

• Samaritan Girl, Walkman sequence (3 minutes) — This film is about a teenage who got involved in an informal prostitution business with her best friend, who then died, and the main protagonist decided to return the money made to each of the past customers. Her father, however, is a police detective ...
• The Bow, Wedding sequence (9 minutes) — This film is about a young, virginal girl who lives on a boat with an elderly man who is possessive of her. When other men come to the boat to fish (they rent fishing space as a source of income) and show interest in her, they are threatened away by the elderly man shooting arrows at them from the boat's bridge. While interested in one of these young men, the girl chooses to marry instead the elderly man ...

Because of the additional film clips shown, this would be a bad day to miss.

Spring 2012 (not relevant in the summer sessions but probably relevant in any regular year session): We handle this film a bit differently. It is shorter than the others so we do not have a full session after the screening for discussion. What discussion we do is during the film.

Required—to be completed for today's session

Summer 2012: I am probably adding some general reading on jeong-han. Not yet decided. (... decided not to in order to keep the weekend open for JES09 writing).

Access through sidebar tab FILM MODULES:

✓ 3-Iron: General comments (there may be none yet)
✓ 3-Iron: Director (place reading emphasis here)
✓ 3-Iron: Characters
✓ 3-Iron: First session questions (scene summaries optional) on the module for this day

Texts, multimedia notes, links*

The Bow, Wedding sequence: BOW-Hwal-Bigphim_split6

Other*

nothing yet ...

*THOUGHTS: Reading before class probably helps follow session content, reading afterwards might help consolidate notes, revisiting for tests is recommended. Content might be added before class or anytime up until about 24 hours ahead of a midterm.

*TEXTS, MULTIMEDIA NOTES, LINKS: If I have read from something, shown something or presented audio that is not elsewhere mentioned, I usually include that information here for the curious, sometime after the class (since I often make last-minute decisions about including something). It might take a while and sometimes I forget. You can email me.

*OTHER: When possible I note here names, places, and other details that I have mentioned in a lecture that would otherwise not be accessible in the assigned materials or easily located on your own. As with "TEXTS ..." this is usually sometime after class and, again, I might not be able to get around to doing it.