The Sadness of Mr. Kim, Mr. Park, and Miss Lee

If you are a fan of Korean pop culture, you know what I mean when I say that K-dramas, music and music videos are ridden with a sadness that goes beyond the average tear jerker material we see in North America.  Admittedly, on occasion, I enjoy melancholy slice-of-life dramas, ballads and music videos that use subtle storytelling to impart an important moral or lesson.  However, Korean popular culture is different in its execution of these entertainment products.  The decision making minds behind the production tend to take things to unnecessary extremes to guarantee the audience's tears.

Without giving away the plot, a perfect case in point is the 2002 music video for Kiss' hit song:  Because I am a Girl.  When I saw this video, I was in shambles.  Hey, I admit it.  It touched me.  To see if others would be affected, I did a little screening of my own.  First, I showed it to an Egyptian immigrant only 5 years new to this country.  His teary eyed response to me was, "My friend, why the hell do you show me this?  It's so sad".  I was not expecting a teary-eyed Egyptian.  No, especially not this particular Egyptian, anyway.  I had seen this man laugh out loud at the most bizarre situations where shock and awe would have been more appropriate.

For my second trial, I showed my coworkers - this time, females who were all non-Asian.  They cried.  They ran back to their desks and tissues were blown and sniffles discretely carried out.  One women came back to me shortly after in a half-mock angry manner, asking: "You ass!  How could you show me something so sad!?"  

Let's not forget the Korean movies and dramas where viewers are introduced to characters who not only deal with external and inner conflicts, but also death and grieving; a lost love; tragic mishaps; unparalleled disappointments; painful missed opportunities; and unfair, cruel karma.  In the world of the typical K-drama, anything that can go wrong for one person throughout five lifetimes is condensed, concentrated, and concatenated into the segment of one character's tortured life.

The plots are often silly and mostly ridiculous, and yet, for some reason, Asia seems to welcome all this Korean angst and melodrama with open arms.  The Korean entertainment export is big business in Vietnam, Philippines, China and Japan.  Someone told me that Mexico has now caught on to the "Korean Wave" and the whole country was quite mad over one of the many depressing K-dramas out there.  Hollywood is buying rights for reproduction to unbelievably exaggerated K-movies, like My Sassy Girl.

Often, I am asked, why are Korean dramas and music videos so sad?  Why is it that every drama has a scene where one of the characters is drinking alone while in the background, the musical score is some heart-wrenching ballad where the artist is on the verge of an emotional breakdown?  Initially, I had no definitive answer.  I never really thought about it, actually.  Since this time, however, I have given it some thought and believe anyone can understand where Korea's sadness stems from if they review its short 53 year past.

Consider Korea's sad and tragic history

Throughout Korea's history it was constantly invaded by foreign powers.  The need to defend its waters from unwanted visitors saw the rise of a 16th century Korean military hero named Yi Soon Shin who quickly became the talk of legend.  However, in 1910 the Japanese finally managed to successfully invade and conquer Korea.  At this time, the peninsula of Korea was intact (there was no North or South Korea).  For 35 years, Koreans were forced to speak, read, and write only Japanese.  Korean was strictly forbidden and had to be spoken in secret.  The Korean people were all given Japanese names.  They were to be assimilated into the Japanese empire, effectively becoming a colony/expansion of Japan.

When the Japanese got ahead of themselves and bombed Pearl Harbor, the Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which led to the immediate surrender of Japan.  With this surrender, Korea was free from Japanese rule. 

With Japan's defeat, the Koreans who suffered near assimilation thought themselves free and held public victory celebrations.  Many proudly paraded the Korean flag they had to respect and honour in secret for so many years.  The celebrations would not last.

In that same year, Korea was divided into two parts:  North Korea and South Korea.  For the entire history of Korea (we're talking thousands and thousands of years), it was always one country - different kingdoms existed, but they all existed as Korean kingdoms.  Now, without consulting the people of Korea, the United Nations, the United States of America, China and the Soviet Union decided to separate the country into two.  This resulted in the separation of families.  Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives...all separated from one another.

Five years after this divide, backed by the Soviet Union, the Chinese and North Korean forces launched a surprise invasion of South Korea.  Just when the Korean people thought things couldn't get any worse, it did.  Does this not sound like a sappy K-drama plot?

After the Korean War, in 1950, South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Sri Lanka.  To say Korea, at that time, was impoverished is a severe understatement.  It was without a doubt one of the poorest countries in the world.  This was 1957.  Think about it.  It's now 2010.  Do the math, that's only 53 years ago.  Those born and raised during that time would now be 53+ years old and hopefully, still living a wonderful life.

The Japanese occupation of Korea left a scar on the hearts of many Koreans.  For such a proud race to admit defeat is not easy.  This part of Korea's history is one that is very difficult for many to swallow.  During this time, many atrocities were committed by the Japanese military.  Furthermore, the division of its country by outside powers was just as hard to swallow.  The painful separation of Korea affected families and caused a lasting grief on the psyche of the Korean nation as a whole.

So, when a writer, producer or director - who was born and raised in this difficult, Japanese occupied and war-torn era - creates a narrative for a movie, drama or even a music video, perhaps you can now understand why there is so much unending sorrow and sadness laced within.

Whether you can relate or not, if you enjoy the touching, exaggerated, highly-unrealistic story lines, more power to you!  What matters, in the end, is that you are entertained.  And if your boyfriend, husband or girl friend is confused as to why you're crying so much, let them have a taste and start them off with that music video I showed my acquaintances!  That one tends to do the trick!