1959 Seoul, South Korea

Interviewee: Kwun Soon Kim

Born in 1941

Seoul, South Korea

Interviewed on February 6, 2022

by Hanah Jun

(Translated from Korean)

I had a lot of trouble trying to remember the first movie I watched, but I remember it now! It may or may not have been the first movie I ever saw, but it is definitely the first one I remember watching. It was a Korean film, is that alright? It is called “Heungbu wah nolbu” [which loosely translates to “the older and younger brother”]. I watched it about 50 years ago. So this must have been right before the 70s? I was about fifteen or sixteen at the time… no, actually, seventeen, so it must have been right before the 60s. 

I must have watched it with friends from my neighborhood. I don’t know who else I would have watched it with. We had to walk to the movie theater since we did not really have extensive methods of transportation back then. I had to walk for three miles back and forth from my elementary school every day, even in the winter. 

The theater wasn’t exactly in Seoul itself. It was in the countryside, actually, but I don’t remember where. Perhaps it was in Namwon. I also don’t remember the name of the theater. It took maybe forty minutes to walk there. 

I went with my friends because there was no dating of sorts at that time. In those days, we couldn’t date freely like you kids do now. It was a big deal if boys and girls spent time together when I was young. I went to see this movie with about five of my girl friends. We snuck out at night when our parents were busy or asleep, because parents didn’t let their children hang out beyond school hours, unless it was for a special occasion—if even that. This was partly because it was dangerous to be out at night, and partly because they were very worried their kids would do something stupid. Nighttime back then was when you couldn’t see the sun in the sky. Some of my friends’ parents punished them if they came home past sunset, even if it was only around 4:00 PM. 

My friends and I told our parents we would be sleeping over at a friend’s house, but we went to watch a movie together instead. Where do you think you get your diabolical behavior from? Anyway, we must have finished around 11:00 PM. In those days, we teenagers wanted to watch movies for fun, but our parents didn’t give us permission to go to the theater. Thus, we were forced to go secretly at night. If there was a fun movie playing, we snuck out to see it when we could. But the tickets were pretty expensive at the time. People didn’t watch many movies those days; we had “just enough,” a concept that must be foreign in America nowadays. 

Someone would be standing at the door to sell tickets, but there were no ushers in the theater. The theater itself was very big, and the screen was large as well. There were many places to sit. There were only chairs, and no mats, which was interesting because many public places, like restaurants, had mats to sit on. The decor had hints of a Korean theme, but I don’t imagine it was very different inside from American theaters. The accents on the walls were Korean in style. There were also no American movies playing during my childhood, I think. 

The theater did not sell food, nor… pretty much anything besides tickets. But no one had money in the first place, so no one bought anything regardless. The movie theater was also not complicated, like the megaliths you see today. You would see the movie playing right when you walked in. There were no food stands or ticket booths inside. You would just go in and sit down. The seats were comfortable and red, but not blackened or dirty with time. The sound quality was also very good for the time. The screen was large, and there were many places to sit. It wasn’t usually filled to the brim, just a little less than full. As you know, I grew up quite poor, so everything about the experience was exciting at the time.

I don’t remember many details about the movie itself, only that [spoiler alert] the younger brother was very, very nice. That is what the plot was mostly about. And the older sibling was a very bad guy, a nasty scoundrel of a human being. I sincerely do not recall more about my experience than that. It was very fun!