1954 Seoul, South Korea

Suyun Lee

1936

Seoul, South Korea

Interviewed on January 31, 2022

by Allison Lee

(Translated from Korean)

One of the earliest movies I remember watching is a film called Bitter Rice. It wasn’t the first one that I watched, but it’s a movie that left a deep impression on me. I had only seen American films up until that point, so I must remember it because it was my first Italian film. It felt different from the American movies I had seen before. I can’t recall much of what happened except that they worked in rice fields. And I clearly remember the main actress. She wore farmer’s clothes and worked like a man. She was a woman but had her pants rolled up as she did laborious work. I remember her because it was fascinating to me. Her actions and mannerisms reminded me of a wild horse. I even remember how she killed a man with a gun at the end! Though I can’t seem to remember why. Her name was Sophia Loren. Wait. No no, I meant Silvana Mangano. She was a true Westerner. She had big eyes and a strong build. You know that Korean women were not built this way. 

It was probably around 1954, so I think I was in my 2nd year of high school, probably 18 years old. The Korean War had just ended. My family had moved to an area that was safe for civilians and on Sundays, I would occasionally go to my aunt’s house. My aunt was my father’s older sister who had an eldest daughter and a younger son. Her daughter, my cousin, had gotten married to a man who worked at the bank. While not necessarily rich, they still lived comfortably. Every time I visited on Sunday, the couple would take me to the movie theaters and pay for my ticket. And funnily enough, we wouldn’t take her younger brother, who was two years younger than me, because there was “hak-seng bul-ga” (no students allowed). Though I was still a high school student, too, I must have been able to sneak inside. Or maybe I’m remembering that wrong… Either way, it was just the three of us: my cousin, her husband, and me. 

At the time, people were still struggling through the aftermath of the Korean war. But even if taxis were expensive, people invested in movie tickets and saved just enough to take trips to the theater. They would usually ride the bus or walk. We would always walk to the theater that was on Euljiro 3-ga. I remember that the seats were comfortable and that there were no ushers. You would just arrive early to get good seats. And because Korea, fresh out of war, lacked the technology, the cameras, the movie companies, and the actors to film our own films, everyone watched Western films, mostly American ones. So of course, there were always Korean subtitles at the bottom of the screen. There were no concessions, but the three of us would eat dinner together afterward and discuss the movie. My older cousin asked me if I liked Bitter Rice or not, and I remember telling her that I really enjoyed it.

The theater on Euljiro 3-ga has a really interesting history, too. I can’t remember the name of the theater, but I know that it was probably the 4th biggest theater in Seoul. During the Korean war, the theater only admitted Americans, specifically only American generals and soldiers. So after work, they would go to this movie theater to relax and watch movies. No Koreans were allowed in the theater. So when the war ended in 1953, they finally gave the theater back to Koreans and opened it up with showings of American films. I also think that’s why I saw so many American movies – because that’s all that we had at the time.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve watched a movie because I’ve been slowly losing my eyesight. And when I immigrated from Korea to New York, there was no way to access Korean movies. So I can’t tell you about any modern-day movies, American or Korean, since I haven’t watched them. But I heard about how Korea won an Oscar and all that, so we’re doing fine now it seems. Next time you go to Korea, you have to try and find the theater on Euljiro 3-ga for me.