Comments on: 서편제(Sopyonje)

By: mstrum

mstrum — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:45:16 +0000

@Gomushin Girl Wow, that's pretty cool!

By: Gomushin Girl

Gomushin Girl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:28:04 +0000

tres bien! Nice review ~ one of my history professors at grad school used to mention the sensation this film caused when it first came out. Apparently it was a “mini-blockbuster” and helped spawn a temporary resurgence in the popularity of pansori. And, on a totally unrelated note, I know the woman who played the lead as a young girl ~ and she’s still performing as part of a well-known “modern” pansori group.

By: mstrum

mstrum — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:27:36 +0000

@Gomushin Girl agreed, done.

By: Gomushin Girl

Gomushin Girl — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:40:58 +0000

I hate to harp on this, but you really, really should change the sub-heading and sentence where you call the women serving in bars “comfort women” It’s a very sensitive subject, and leaving the phrase there is very problematic.

By: Gomushin Girl

Gomushin Girl — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:45:13 +0000

Such women are and were generally referred to as a hostess in modern parlance. It’s a mostly undefined work position that can run the gamut from “woman who brings you drinks” to “woman who brings you drinks and flattery and a little something else afterwards” In contemporary Korea (as in Japan), they’ve developed into a sub-industry closely alligned with the greater prostitution industry where men visit clubs that specialize in this particular kind of service. “Juicy bars” in the Itaewon and camptown area’s are the foreigner-oriented equivalent, but generally speaking much lower class. There’s also some “host bars” where young, attractive men cater to women wealthy enough to foot the bill. But essentially all of these grew out of the flexible role of women working in inns and pubs. Also, it’s unspoken but fairly widely known that the greater range of female entertainers, including wandering pansori singers, were also sometimes available for sexual services (as were some male performers)
In short, comfort women is completely inappropriate and refers to a very specific group of WWII sex slaves, and while 기생 has some overlap in that they both often provided some level of sexual services, the kinds of women you saw serving in 서편제 were in a broadly undefined and fluid set of hospitality and entertainment services without a particular name. However, “hostess” is in fact the modern version and a recognized term, as well as the one I would use.

By: mstrum

mstrum — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:09:54 +0000

@Gomushin Girl
I have also never heard about hope being included in 한.

I don’t know if bar hostess would be the correct term either (though I agree that it’s probably closer than comfort women). In American terms, I would think of a bar hostess as simply a girl who brings you some drinks whereas the Korean version includes girls who’s job it is to flirt with you and pour your drinks. This might be one of those terms where there’s no good equivalent.

By: Gomushin Girl

Gomushin Girl — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:24:39 +0000

The term 기생 and comfort women (위안부 in Korean, 従軍慰安婦 in Japanese) are NOT equivalent. Nor are they what you see in 서편제.
기생 are only roughly equivalent to geisha, in that giseng were primarily government slaves, albeit in a skilled and seperate category from regular slaves. They also had non-entertainment roles, particularly if they were attached to government offices away from the capital.
Comfort women (위안부) is a euphamism for sex slaves of the Japanese army during World War II. Women were recruited, often under false pretenses, or outright kidnapped to provide sexual services to soldiers of the Japanese army.
The women you see in 서편제 are bar workers and hostesses. Neither 기생 nor 위안부 is an appropriate or approximate term. I would generally go with the term “bar hostess”
I also dispute that there’s much “hopefulness” in 한. It’s not a positive emotion, but rather a combination of anger, frustration, sorrow, and hopelessness. It doesn’t show any hope that you can rise to the top, but is an expression of the mingled anger/sadness/resignation of people who have little hope for fufilling their dreams or expectations – another reason it’s primarily associated with women.

By: mstrum

mstrum — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:54:28 +0000

@Chris in South Korea Thanks for the great input!

By: Chris in South Korea

Chris in South Korea — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:18:51 +0000

The word for the ‘comfort women’ is 기생 (Gisaeng), quite similar to the Japanese geisha, and served much the same purpose.

As for han, the most succinct definition I’ve heard is ‘long-suffering hopefulness’. It’s the dream, the idea that a Korean person, no matter where they started from, has the chance to rise to the top if they work hard enough. It also says something about the hope for their country – if they work hard enough or try hard enough, their country will become a better place. Hope it helps