1961 Mokpo, South Korea

13Feb - by Olivia Johann - 0 - In 60s Yale University

Chun-sik Park (박춘식)

1943

Mokpo South Korea

Interviewed on February 7, 2022

by Olivia Johann

This interview has been translated from Hangul

From my memory, the first movie I watched was, let’s see. I can’t remember much, but it was an American film, O.K. Mokjang Ui Gyeoltu [1]. It was a western film, a cowboy movie (you know what cowboys are, right), and I was obviously ecstatic, the film having cowboys in it and all. The movie starred Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. As for the plot, there were bad cowboys and the good ones, and they faced off against each other and fired their guns, like ba-ba-bang, bang, BANG

I watched Gunfight at the O.K. Corral at the Mokpo Theater sometime between 1961 and 1962. At the time I was probably around 17 years old, and I went to watch the movie with my friends, a bunch of us together. And we walked, since we didn’t own cars back then. I bought the movie ticket myself. It was expensive, too. Back then, since the country was poor, there weren’t any concession stands. Now, Korean theaters sell things like popcorn or ice cream, right? However, back in the day, because the country was too poor, there wasn’t anything like that. But we did have ushers.

According to my memory, the theater itself was a two-story building, and there were tiles, white tiles, attached to its walls. And in the front hung movie posters. Huge posters. They had to be, because the movie actors had to be drawn big. The theater seats were the color of chestnuts, the color of trees, since the seats themselves were made out of wood. Yes, a dark tree color. 

For the American films, we didn’t understand English, so we had subtitles in Hangul. The audience in the theater was silent throughout the entirety of the film because it was so entertaining. I remember when the good cowboys were standing in the O.K. Corral, keeping watch, and the villains approached them. They all pulled out their weapons (like chalssak! [2]) and fired. The best part of the movie was how, after the two cowboys had won against the bad guys (they killed them all), they walked off, exiting the scene.

That’s one kind of movie I’ve seen, and there’s a bunch of others, since I love movies. Actually, the one I remember the most is Maeum Ui Haengro [3]. A movie about love! I watched it at around the same time as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, so I also don’t remember much about it, but I remember enjoying the film.

What happens is that a man goes to war and gets amnesia, and is thus unable to return home. Then he ends up marrying a woman, and he just lives his life like that. But then one day, his memory returns, and so he goes back to his original home from before the war. He’s completely forgotten that he’s a married man! His wife leaves to look for him. It turns out the husband is an extremely rich man and the head of a huge company, and since he doesn’t recognize her, she enters the company as a secretary. And the wife tries so hard to make her husband remember her, all sorts of things. 

Anyway, the thing is, there’s this key. The man, well, so, he’s wondering what the key is for. He knows it’s definitely something of personal significance, so he searches and searches and searches, and coincidentally ends up in the neighborhood he lived in after the war. He sleeps at an inn, and when he wakes up, he eventually makes his way to the house he lived in with his wife. And then when he puts the key into the keyhole, the door opens immediately. Right at that moment, his wife had somehow also returned to the house, miserably. She goes there, unaware that her husband has found the house. 

So right when the door opens, the man is just about to remember, but the thing is, he doesn’t know his name from before. But then: “Smithy!”

Right then when the wife calls his name, the man is so surprised to hear something behind him, he turns around, and it’s his wife. It’s his wife, but also his secretary! Oh man…right then his memories return.

In that last scene, there are cherry blossoms right outside the house. So when the wife calls out his name, “Smithy!” and the man turns around—Ohhh!

I relished Random Harvest very much. I’ve seen it three times. I even watched it again last November. But the feelings I had watching it that time were the same as when I first watched the movie. It’s a black-and-white film, and nowadays all the movies are in color, but I think having only black and white makes it more impressive. 

[1] Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: “Mokjang” means “corral,”  “Ui”is a particle indicating possession, and “Gyeoltu” means “duel” in Hangul. 

[2] “Chalssak” (찰싹) is Korean onomatopoeia with various uses; in this case, it seems to be used to describe the sound of taking out or using a gun.

[3] Random Harvest: “Maeum” is generally understood as “heart,” “Ui”is a particle indicating possession,  and “Haengro” means “path” in Hangul. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *