tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post1767894258011340138..comments2024-03-18T07:07:53.346-04:00Comments on Ask a Korean!: Ask a Korean! News: May 18T.K. (Ask a Korean!)http://www.blogger.com/profile/07663422474464557214noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-3475430297684179382011-12-23T01:02:57.262-05:002011-12-23T01:02:57.262-05:00I'm too young to know from "first hand&qu...I'm too young to know from "first hand", I was born in the 1989, and I was so so far away (Croatia, Yugoslavia back then) a country dealing with different problems and the internet was not something that was as available to everyone as it is today, so we had no informations about these protests in Korea at all, as far as I know.<br /><br />But judging from various sources written by people of various opinions and talks with various people, also judging from my knowlegde of politics and history and protests.... I agree the movie might be a bit too exagerated and the director was too subjective, for the movie being a little bit pathetic, but then, hey... I agree with the protesters' fight against the things that they don't want to be and that are caused by that and every stubborn government.<br />And also, they might have not died that day, but BECAUSE of that day they DID die and that IS a tragedy! And just as many people consider soldiers as heroes, for "fighting for their country", these protesters are valuable warriors as well and they do deserve all the respect and memorials.<br /><br />Rest in peace, Kwangju warriors, for you shall never be forgotten.Dac X Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15293064862842657519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-2327299725242961552009-05-26T13:07:57.296-04:002009-05-26T13:07:57.296-04:00Kudos for the translation.
"On May 18, 1980, seve...Kudos for the translation.<br /><br />"On May 18, 1980, several hundred citizens of Gwangju were killed while protesting for democracy." Besides being tendentious, that's also wrong. The uprising took place over 10 days, and, according to the official numbers, no one died on May 18. People most certainly died later from injuries received that day, and I wouldn't be surprised if, among the hundreds of missing, some died that day, but official records record the first death being the next morning.<br /><br />I've always preferred 'uprising' to 'revolt.' 'Democratization movement' doesn't really work for me, not just because it's too limiting, but because it's too damn long.<br /><br />Sonagi:<br />You may look more kindly upon Ggotnip after watching May 18; "slightly melodramatic" is one of the worst examples of understatement I've ever read. There are also problems with it factually - arguably the turning point in the first three days of the uprising was when the taxi drivers drove en masse downtown to protest their treatment at the hands of marshal law troops, which allowed the protesters to occupy space and threaten the troops. Despite the main character being a <EM>taxi driver</EM>, this is omitted from the movie. Just imagine the worst aspects of Korean melodrama (with bits of badly timed comedy) and you'll have some idea of what the movie is like.<br /><br />As problematic as Ggotnip is, (interesting though that it was based on the short story 'There a Petal Silently Falls,' by female author Choi Yun), it seems, in some ways, more faithful to what happened in its ten minutes of flashbacks than the entirety of May 18.matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-32381322682074142132009-05-22T15:03:21.031-04:002009-05-22T15:03:21.031-04:00It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is go...<I>It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is going on today. You'd think we'd learn from history.</I>Why does human suffering and history repeat itself over and over again? Buddhism has a term for this, they call it the "Samsāric wheel".<br /><br />History repeats itself because human life is finite. The accumulated wisdom of past generations fade and newer generations are doomed to make the same mistakes and discover the hard way why the old prophets and moral teachers were right after all. <br /><br />Buddhism says that the only way to escape this cycle is by attaining enlightenment. Christianity says that suffering is important for the process of redemption. Christianity also talks of "eternal life".<br /><br />We will not break out of this cycle until humans have won freedom from death.<br /><br /><I>“The conduct of life and the wisdom of the heart are based upon time; in the last quartets of Beethoven, <br />the last words and works of ‘old men’ like Sophocles and Russell and Shaw, we see glimpses of a maturity <br />and substance, an experience and understanding, a grace and a humanity, that isn’t present in children or <br />in teenagers. They attained it because they lived long; because they had time to experience and develop <br />and reflect; time that we might all have. Imagine such individuals – a Benjamin Franklin, a Lincoln, <br />a Newton, a Shakespeare, a Goethe, an Einstein [and a Gandhi] – enriching our world not for a few decades <br />but for centuries. Imagine a world made of such individuals. It would truly be what Arthur C. Clarke called <br />‘Childhood’s End’ – the beginning of the adulthood of humanity.”</I>kobuksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03050875766780761683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-28951807321970643332009-05-19T19:41:55.253-04:002009-05-19T19:41:55.253-04:00It happened almost 30 years ago. Given the rapidit...<I>It happened almost 30 years ago. Given the rapidity of South Korea's modernization, that's like 100-150 equivalent American years.</I>Sad but true. Korea's under thirty-somethings know only democracy and prosperity, both of which they seem to take for granted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-28705689836249076592009-05-19T12:07:00.000-04:002009-05-19T12:07:00.000-04:00"It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is g..."It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is going on today. You'd think we'd learn from history."<br /><br />No, mademoiselle, it is emphatically NOT "going on today."<br /><br />It happened almost 30 years ago. Given the rapidity of South Korea's modernization, that's like 100-150 equivalent American years.Won Joon Choehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09616918987942651496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-57374832004237003812009-05-19T09:23:00.000-04:002009-05-19T09:23:00.000-04:00It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is go...It's so hard to believe that stuff like this is going on today. You'd think we'd learn from history.Jennifer Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360330085131177132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-12707939232862903052009-05-19T06:21:00.000-04:002009-05-19T06:21:00.000-04:00When I first read about what happened that day, I ...When I first read about what happened that day, I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe it happened such a short time ago--and in a place like South Korea. You don't expect things like that to happen in modern times. As much as I like Lee Junki--I've seen enough bits of it to know that there's no way I could watch the movie without being nauseated. I couldn't take more than 5 minutes of Taegukki or DMZ either. yeah, I think 'heartbreaking' is a good word to describe things.uncute tomboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09064068788384913575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-40333462031824625742009-05-19T05:25:00.000-04:002009-05-19T05:25:00.000-04:00I watched that movie (May 18) on recommendation fr...I watched that movie (May 18) on recommendation from one of my students ~ good grief, I cried solidly the whole way through. It was a heartbreaking depiction of militant rule, and it really provided insight into that period of Korea's history and development over the last 30 years!Laurenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02517325346106175213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-75746344582586548822009-05-18T21:10:00.000-04:002009-05-18T21:10:00.000-04:00Hwaryeonhan Hyuga sounds more appealing than that ...<I>Hwaryeonhan Hyuga</I> sounds more appealing than that awful <I>Ggotnip</I> with that guy who raped that teenager over and over until she started slicing up her chest, and then he realized he loved her after she died or disappeared or whatever the hell happened to her. I understand that the teenaged rape victim was supposed to represent Korea or the Korean minjok or whatever, but the movie just didn't work for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36405856.post-2476149494032437042009-05-18T12:48:00.000-04:002009-05-18T12:48:00.000-04:00"On May 18, 1980, several hundred citizens of Gwan..."On May 18, 1980, several hundred citizens of Gwangju were killed while protesting for democracy."<br /><br />An extremely tendentious formulation of what really occurred. Given what I know from first-hand reports, I prefer Don Kirk's characterization as "revolt."Won Joon Choehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09616918987942651496noreply@blogger.com