My Heart (Jung, 1999)

Bae Chang-Ho

Korea

114 mins, color, Korean (English subtitles)

The director of MY HEART is a veteran of Korean cinema, having been responsible for launching what is now called the Korean New Wave. This film, unlike the previous works that mostly deal with urban problems of modernization, is set in the quiet of the 1920s. The slow-moving stylish drama is akin to Zhang Yimou's more famous films in execution, but its context and content remain essentially unique.

Sun-Yi (played by director's wife and co-writer Kim Yoo-Mi) is married off at sixteen to a ten year old spoiled brat, who grows to be a twenty-year old spoiled brat. Since Sun-Yi is barren and unsophisticated, or at least regarded as such by her husband, it is no surprise when he returns from the city with a mistress, whom he installs in the house. Having been tormented for a decade by her mother-in-law, Sun-Yi at first reacts with subdued hatred, but then realizes that her husband is deeply in love. Denied affection in her life, she resolves not to deprive her husband of it and, despite the unexpected opposition from the mother-in-law, leaves the household forever. The rest of the film follows her journey, as the vicissitudes of life take her from place to place, ever searching for her own, but, even after temporarily finding reprieve, setting out again, never resting.

What it lacks in action, the story makes up in rich dramatic content. The lush photography paints beautiful pictures that weave with the experiences of the heroine. The seasons virtually mirror her inner world, as the rich colors of spring replace the gloom of winter when the new companion makes a permanent friend. Dispassionate, but not submissive, Sun-Yi emerges as the dauntless strong-willed woman that commands the attention of the bus driver as easily as that of the audience. The film's affirmative message resonates strongly, as evidenced by the numerous awards it has gathered at international festivals. Curiously, MY HEART was ignored in its home country, which goes to show how Occidental its message might be after all.

September 5, 2001.