🧩 Kim Ji Young Born 1982 Review

Chânthực, nhân văn, đầy âm hưởng nữ quyền, Kim Ji Young, sinh năm 1982 trở thành một trong những cuốn sách hay nhất viết về thân phận người phụ nữ. Tác phẩm đã được NXB Phụ Nữ mua bản quyền dịch và dự kiến phát hành bản dịch vào quý II năm 2019. [update: tác phẩm Based off the controversial autobiographical novel of the same name, “Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982” is a heart-wrenching uncovering of what it means to be a woman in a conservative patriarchal society. The movie stars veteran actors Gong Yoo Dae Hyun and Jung Yu-Mi Kim Ji-Young as leads, who have formerly worked together on the award-winning film “Train to Busan”. Following the protagonist Kim Ji-Young in the 80’s, the general storyline revolves around her troubled mental health that causes her to have lapses where she speaks as if she were her deceased grandmother or friend. Given the fame the feminist novel has garnered before the release of this film, it is expected that what matters more is not the storyline, but how the details of the story are presented through the female lens. With a focus on mother figures, the film’s narration forces us to critically examine stereotypical notions of a woman’s duties in the domestic sphere by highlighting its occurrence in daily life. For instance, we constantly see a favouritism towards men displayed by both male and female characters, especially from Dae Hyun’s mother who expects Ji-Young to work tirelessly throughout dinner preparations while her son sits idly. It is likely that many will identify with or have seen similar experiences, making the film’s impact all the more significant without having to explicitly state sexist tendencies of a conservative society. Aside from highlighting prominence of sexism in the everyday, the movie also expertly portrays how society’s patriarchy has progressed through the years. Through interactions between three generations of characters, we get to understand the motivations behind their actions, and the grievances as a result of sexist ideas. The use of Ji-Young’s condition to provide a voice for oppressed women was a well-done narration that gives greater insight into the conservative Korean society. What the film does particularly well is their use of male characters — while it is undeniable that Dae Hyun and Ji-Young’s father care for Ji-Young greatly, they are still susceptible to sexist tendencies that they may not have even been conscious of. This brings into focus that inequality may not always be born from hatred, but from the lack of awareness. The film also has skillful cinematography that leans towards an arthouse style, with jarring transitions that creates tension and draws audiences into the tortured minds of the characters. The only gripe would be that the time skips can cause some confusion in terms of characters; it becomes hard to name who’s who after various characters are introduced in a short time. Aside from that, the film was overall a thought-provoking watch that, while controversial, presents an empathetic depiction of women in Asian society that is not often highlighted. You can expect to become emotional throughout various points of the film, and reflective after. Although not necessarily an exciting movie for mass audiences, it is definitely a gripping watch, especially if feminist topics and societal issues are within your field of interest! Running Time 120 minutesThe Seoul Story’s Ratings “Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982” will be shown in selected cinemas mentioned in the poster above, from November 14th onwards. We would like to extend our huge thanks to Purple Plan for the invite! Written by CheyennePicture Credit Purple Plan — PATRONISE US TWEET US LIKE’ US WATCH US Thebook was hailed as one of the most important feminist novels in Korean - but also led to outcry. “What do you want from us? The dumb girls are too dumb, the smart girls are too smart, and the average girls are too unexceptional?” These are lines in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, the Korean novel hailed by The Guardian as a “South Korean MeToo bestseller.” With the recent release of the English translation by Jamie Chang, the groundbreaking feminist novel is now available to readers who seek to understand how society has designed the struggles of the modern Korean woman. The book focuses on the silent and subtle injustices experienced by a woman named Kim Jiyoung, whose name is implied to represent the Korean “Everywoman.” Cho’s narrative tracks the progression from childhood to adulthood, with inequality as the central aspect of Jiyoung’s life. These stories, which read more like third-person anecdotes, are interspersed with commentary and statistics that problematize how gender inequality manifests in South Korea. To that effect, Cho’s reportage emphasizes the broader contexts of sexist practices and institutions, while Jiyoung herself serves as the individual microcosm where daily sexism becomes apparent. The almost “hybrid” nature of the book is instrumental in illustrating the dynamics of womanhood. It is here that Kim Jiyoung evolves beyond a specific literary character and is given greater depth as the representation for a societal issue. As a child, Jiyoung is forced to endure a classmate’s daily harassment under the justification of “boys will be boys.” As a young adult, she cannot get hired because she is a woman; when she does get a job, she cannot get promoted. When she is married, she is forced to sacrifice her job to be a wife, which is implied to be the “only” job that she needs. When she is pregnant, she is told she is entitled for arriving to work late. When she becomes a housewife, her domestic labor is demeaned. At its core, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 expresses a woman’s struggles with what has become mundane and mediocre, products of a society that relegates women to inferior positions. These instances of sexism express the book’s central idea that not only is it difficult to be a woman, but also that cultural values have influenced a woman’s identity. As such, these values have become embedded into the very fabric of South Korean society. They have come to determine how women are allowed to live. There are so many poignant moments in the novel that it is difficult to only talk about one. Rather, it is necessary to examine the entirety of these moments as a composite whole. Within Jiyoung’s experience, both the mundane and the mediocre stem from the denial of equal opportunity and upward mobility for a woman. Yet they are also reflections of how for the Korean woman, mediocrity becomes normalized. Jiyoung experiences the imposition of gender constructs through both microaggressions and blatant attacks. Her subliminal acts of rebellion against these constructs involve her assuming the role of different women she has known throughout her life, including her mother. She is suspected to have postnatal depression, but it is psychosis that she has been driven to by a patriarchal society. What Cho does superbly well is create an atmosphere of suffocation and frustration. She evokes this all-consuming sense of helplessness within the emptiness of Jiyoung’s life; there is a constant idea that for Jiyoung, there is no way of dismantling the patriarchy other than losing the identity that she has created within it. The disintegration of Kim Jiyoung’s identity becomes a kind of rebellion, and the chronological structure of the book adds to its power. The reader does not just witness Jiyoung’s sadness as a housewife, but the quiet anger throughout her life as a woman. The English translation of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is admittedly not without shortcomings. There are parts where the language becomes so stiff that the book is difficult to truly comprehend. At times, the dialogue is awkwardly stilted, one of the issues that comes with translation as a process. But Chang handles Cho’s simplicity with skill, rendering the same ideas that were so powerful in the original. With Cho’s sensitive and forceful writing, Jiyoung becomes more than the profile of a Korean woman. She becomes universal, an expression of not only the “Everywoman” of injustices, but the “Everywoman” of human experience. “What do you want from us?” Jiyoung asks. Cho never gives an answer. euJPaF.

kim ji young born 1982 review