Girls in My Hometown [DPRK 1991]

내고향의처녀들
Director: Pak S.

Like part of Mauricio's Diary, this film takes place at a time when 20th century socialism was coming to an end all over the world. But unlike that film and other Cuban attempts to come to grips with the dilemmas of the 1990s, this film is more like Breaking With Old Ideas in that it makes the choice between good and evil crystal clear: a dignified life sacrificing for socialism and the motherland; or a materialistic, self-centred life in which one gives up on one's fellow human beings in exchange for a little easy pleasure.

The film begins and ends with young girls gazing up at the stars and wondering what their place in the universe is, perhaps, as Petrov says, mirroring the sense in 1991 of the DPRK also wondering what its place could be in the world now. The girls have heard bad news from the outside world: people have stopped living for community, nation and revolution, and now just live for their own pleasure, without thinking of others. The way they talk, it is clear that this is partly a new development, and this implies that this scene is a reference to the fall of socialism elsewhere. This sets the scene for the film, which then goes on to teach a moral lesson about the choice that people must make for socialism, in spite of influences to the contrary from abroad.

The moral point around which the film revolves has to do with a soldier who is blinded in an explosion. Local women, who have a history of supporting the soldiers going back to the war, take care of and have relationships with them. One of them is the girlfriend of the wounded man; her elder sister is influenced by the West, listens to western pop music, thinks she should marry a man from the city or from the West and wear western clothes, and encourages her to break up with the soldier now that he is married. But this brings shame on all the local women, because she has abandoned him when he needs her. So another girl steps in to take her place and honourably goes off to marry him, though many people try to dissuade her. In the end the first girl deeply regrets her choice as a result of the example set by the second girl, and parts with her sister, swearing to devote the rest of her life to the revolution.

This can be seen in a couple of ways. First, the film demonstrates the virtue of a life within the revolution and condemns those who would turn people against it. It pits traditional Korean practices--flute music, traditional dress--against corrupting western pop music and clothes. And it pits the two value systems against each other, apparently attempting to dissuade people from choosing the capitalist one.

Second, it can be seen as providing a model for what people should do when someone they know is losing belief in the revolution and adopting capitalist values. One of the older men tells a concerned girl that the girl who has gone astray cannot just be taught that she is wrong, but she must find out for herself. But the way in which she finds out is by watching the example of her friend. The point here being that those loyal to the revolution should act as role models to help those who have been led astray to see what life can and should be like.

Third, beyond the moral lessons here, the film can be read as an allegory for the situation of the country as a whole. While in 1991 the 'Arduous March' had not yet begun, clearly things were beginning to get harder. People in the country were faced with a choice, at least within themselves: remain faithful to the revolution, in spite of the difficulty and sacrifice that would be required, or be tempted by the values of the West, where things were apparently easy but lacked virtue. The girl's decision to marry the wounded soldier and care for him can be seen as a metaphor for people staying faithful to the revolution. Her vindication, and the sorrow and solitude that befall the girl who left the soldier, seem to indicate that the sacrifice is worth it, because there is more to the revolution than material well being or comfort.

Several interesting points come up about society in the DPRK. One is the seemingly fixed role of women. They are clearly portrayed as the caretakers, those who support and inspire the men in the army, those whose job it is to be pretty and caring to their husbands and please their parents. At one point one of the girls sees a man doing his laundry and says, laughing, 'Do you do your washing for your wife?', making clear that she thinks women normally do the washing. There is one disabled veteran female soldier, but aside from that the soldiers are all men and the role of the women seems fairly conservatively defined.

There are also several bits which should fit with the expectations of some of those, like Petrov, who see the DPRK as a Confucian society. In marked contrast to Breaking With Old Ideas, in which Confucianism, including even bowing, is denounced as reactionary, in this film great significance is attached to bowing, e.g. the mother of the wounded soldier bowing in thanks to the girl who marries him. There are other rather traditional and Confucian elements, including the way in which parents are consulted before marriage etc.

Most importantly perhaps is the way the Party and Kim Il-Sung are spoken of; the happiness of the people 'grows in the bosom' of Kim, and the Party is referred to as 'the mother Party'; great emphasis is put on loyalty to the Party by ordinary people. Thus, the role of the Party seems very different to many other socialist countries, where it has variously been seen as an organisation for technocratic management, an organisation for the most devoted revolutionaries to channel their efforts, a bureaucratic roadblock between the people and the leader, and a self-organising democratic organisation. Here, even if it is any of those, it also seems to take on a special, honoured, and unimpeachable status along side the revered leader. Undoubtedly there are those who will wish to understand this phenomenon through the lens of Confucianism.

Another interesting aspect is the relationship between the military and civilians. In a way more reminiscent of Venezuela's 'civico-military union' than of Soviet 'War Communism', the military here are depicted as mainly being occupied with building projects, providing help to the people and so on, while the people happily support them. Apparently as the songun policy of primacy of the military in economic and political affairs took over in the late 1990s, this film became more popular; for it does indeed lay great emphasis on the importance of an intimate, supportive and trusting relationship between military and civilians.

Visually, this film is fairly reminiscent of earlier Hollywood films. There is a great deal of shots of nature, emphasising the village setting, along with musical sequences that create a sense of a romanticised countryside idyll. There are only a couple of shots of modern-looking buildings, mainly a railway station. It seems thus to be designed either to appeal to peasants, or to appeal to a sense of what is traditional and 'authentic' in Korean culture, or perhaps both.

What is really interesting about this film is the comparisons that can be made with Cuban films of and about the same period. While Cuban film testifies to a painful process of soul seeking in response to the end of 20th century socialism, this film seems designed to pre-empt and possibly to de-legitimise such soul seeking. It seems that those behind this film had a sense that there would be increasing numbers of people tempted by capitalism, given events in the outside world, and that they had better do something about it. Contrast this with the Cuban approach which, although at first it may have avoided straying too starkly into deeply sensitive areas, has increasingly been honest and understanding about the different paths people have chosen to take in these years.

This film, anyway, is in some sense a bit of socialist realism, in some sense a Hollywood-like melodrama, in some sense a bit of moralising; but I think there is a slightly deeper allegory here, and one which is not as simplistic as it first seems. There are certain parallels between the girl who leaves the soldier and the man who leaves his child in Barrio Cuba, and while the treatment here is far less sensitive, there is at least a message of forgiveness in the end.