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TheLostChildhoodsofKorea:OunieLecomte’sABrandNewLife(2009)andSoYongKim’sTreelessMountain(2009)Ji-yoonAn,UniversityofTübingenAn,Ji-yoon.2018.“TheLostChildhoodsofKorea:OunieLecomte’sABrandNewLife(2009)andSoYongKim’sTreelessMountain(2009).”Cross-Currents:EastAsianHistoryandCultureReview(e-journal)29:15–30.https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-29/an.AbstractThis article analyzes two films from2009 that arenotonly striking in their useofchildren as protagonists but also noteworthy in returning to the once-popularsubject of abandoned children: So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain and OunieLecomte’sABrandNewLife.ThesignificanceofthesetwoworksliesintheirsimilarnarrativesofabandonmentandjourneyingbutalsointhecomparablebackgroundsofthefilmmakersasWesternerswithKoreanorigins.BothfilmmakersleftKoreaaschildren.Bothfilmswerecreatedasmementosofthefilmmakers’Koreanrootsandchildhoods in Korea. This article’s analysis of the films is twofold. First, a textualreadingrevealschildperspectivesandtheirmatchingvisualsasplayingcrucialrolesinunderstating—orconcealingeven—thegravityoftheissuesofabandonmentandadoption embodied in the narratives. Second, the author discusses the “accentedcontext”ofthefilmsandtheirfilmmakers,borrowingfromHamidNaficy’stheoryof“accented cinema” (2001). The geographic and thematic return to Korea and theKorean familyby theseWestern-Korean filmmakersbrings forthquestionsbeyondthenarratives,ofwhatconstitutesaKoreanfilmandaKoreanexperience.Keywords:Koreanfilm,Koreancinema,diaspora,accentedcinema,OunieLecomte,SoYongKim,children,abandonment,adoption

The subject of abandoned children is deeply significant in South Korea’s modernhistory (hereafter,Korea).TheKoreanWar (1950–1953) led toa steep increase inthe number of orphans, and the postwar era saw children suffer from war-tornfamilies, social unrest, and general poverty. The international adoption of Koreanchildren began during that time. The process started with the adoption of warorphansand“GIbabies”—theoffspringofWesternsoldiersandKoreanwomen.Thesuccessofinternationaladoptionduringthe1950sand1960s,however,resultedintransnationaladoptionbecomingan institutionalizedsocialwelfarepracticebythe1970s (E.Kim2010,5).During the1980s,mostof the leadingWesternmagazinesand newspapers like The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, and The DailyTelegraphextensivelycoveredtheissueofKoreanchildren’sinternationaladoption.

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However, it wasMatthew Rothschild’s 1988 article titled, “Babies for Sale: SouthKoreansMakeThem,AmericansBuyThem,” inTheProgressive that reallyopenedupthedebate (Rothschild1988).That investigative featureplayedacrucial role inportraying theKoreanstateasa full-scalebusinessselling itsownchildren.By thelate 1980s, Korea’s biggest export was said to be babies (Chira 1988), andinternationallyadoptedKoreanscametobeknownas“Korea’s lostchildren” (BBCWorldServices2010).

Althoughthesocialsignificanceofthistopicremainsprevalenttoday,ithasrarelybeenthethemeofcontemporaryfilms.Insomeways,thisdearthofattentionis hardly surprising; the subject of abandonment (and by extension, adoption)remainstabooinpresent-dayKoreansociety,dueinternationalcriticismthatKoreareceived in the 1980s aswell as the social stigmas that surround the reasons forabandoning infants. More importantly, in the current South Korean cinematicclimateofblockbustersandthrillers,childrenandchildhoodshavenotbeencentralnarrative topics. The child’s role in commercial films has been largely peripheral.1Althoughsomeindependentfilmshaveexploredchildhoods—fromthewell-knownTheWay Home (Chibŭro, directed by Yi Chŏng-hyang, 2002) to the lesser-knownWithaGirlofBlackSoil(Kŏmmŭnttangŭisonyŏwa,directedbyChŏnSu-il,2007)—childrenhavebyandlargebeenabsentfromthecontemporarycinematiclandscape.

Two films from 2009 stand out not only for their refreshing portrayals ofchildren as protagonists, but also for returning to the subject of abandonedchildren.2Ounie Lecomte’s debut film A Brand New Life (Yŏhaengja) depicts thejourneyofanine-year-oldgirlwhose fatherhas leftheratanorphanage.SoYongKim’sTreelessMountain(Namuŏmnŭnsan)tellsthestoryoftwosistersastheyarepassedamongvariousfamilymembersaftertheirfatherleavesthefamilyandtheirmotheremigratestoAmericatostartanew life.Releasedonlytwomonthsapart,the two films share many layers of similarities: a focus on child characters,comparable narratives on abandonment and journeying, and even similarproductionbackgrounds.Butarguablythemostsignificantfactortyingthetwofilmstogetheristhecomparablebackgroundsofthetwofilmmakers.BothfilmmakersareWesternerswithKoreanoriginswho leftKoreaas childrenandnow liveabroad— 1Thoughperipheral,childrenhavenotbeenentirelyabsentfrommainstreamfilms.ChildcharactershavefeaturedinblockbusterhitssuchasBongJoon-ho’sTheHost(Koemul,2006),YiChŏng-bŏm’sTheManfromNowhere(Ajŏssi,2010),andHwangTong-hyŏk’sSilenced(Togani,2011),whoseplotshaveinvolvedrescuingathreatenedchild.Althoughthechildren’srolesinthesefilmsareimportanttothenarratives,thefocusonandactualroleofthechildrenhasgenerallybeenminor.2Iusetheword“return”herebecausesuffering/abandonedchildrenwereafairlycommonhistoricaltopicinKoreancinema.EvenbeforetheGoldenAgeofthe1950sand1960s,severalprominentfilmsfeaturedchildcharacters,includingChoiIn-gyu’srecentlyrecoveredTuitionFee(Suŏmryo,1940)andhisAngelsontheStreets(Chibŏmnŭnch’ŏnsa,1941),alongwithYunYong-kyu’sAHometowninMyHeart(Maŭmŭikohyang,1949).Arguablythemostfamousportrayalsofsufferingchildcharacters,however,arefoundinthe1960sand1970s.KimSu-yong’sSorrowEveninHeaven(Chŏhanŭledosŭlp’ŭmi,1965)andLeeWon-se’sWorldwithoutMom(Ŏmmaŏmnŭnhanŭlarae,1977)arepowerfullysentimentalfilmsthatdepictboththeemotionalandphysicalhardshipsofchildrenabandonedbytheirfamiliesforcircumstantialreasons.

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LecomteinFranceandKimintheUnitedStates.ReturningtoKoreatemporarilywiththepurposeofproducingthesefilms,thetwoautobiographicalworksarebasedoneach filmmaker’s childhood memories of their Korean roots and childhoodexperiencesinKorea.

Thesignificanceofthesetwofilms,liketheirsimilarities,ismultilayered.Onadiegeticlevel,thefilmsareinterestingintermsoftheirnarrativesofabandonmentand their allusion to broader social issues, such as international adoption, brokenfamilies, and the Korean diaspora. Yet the significance of the narratives must beexplored alongside the visuals of the films, which are careful not tooversentimentalize the narratives. Both films remain steadfastly focused onmaintaining a child’s perspective, which is communicated not through an adult’susual modes of communication, such as dialogue, but instead by camerawork.Furthermore, whereas the narrative focus on children and striking visuals arecertainly noteworthy in terms of their cinematography, A Brand New Life andTreeless Mountain become all the more interesting in light of their productionbackgroundsandthebackgroundsofthefilmmakers.Thegeographicandthematicreturn to Korea and the Korean family by theseWestern-Korean filmmakers alsobrings forth larger questions beyond thenarratives concerningwhat constitutes aKoreanfilmandaKoreanexperience.

My analysis of these two films is thus twofold. First, through a textualreading of the films, I argue that the focus on child perspectives allows thecontentious social issues of the narratives to become “camouflaged” behind thechildren’seyesandthematchingcamerawork.Becausethefilmsfollowthechild’sperspective,andeachchild’sunderstandingofhersituationislimited,thefilmscanneither fully develop nor comment on the issues embedded in the children’ssituations.

Second, I follow this textual analysis with a discussion of what I call,borrowingfromculturalhistorianHamidNaficy’stheory,the“accentedcontext”ofthe two films and their filmmakers. Naficy (2001) coined the term “accentedcinema” in his eponymous book to describe the filmmaking of postcolonial, ThirdWorld, and other displaced (“deterritorialized”) individuals living in the West.Althoughtheexperienceofexpatriationvariesfrompersontoperson,Naficyrevealsthataccentedfilmsdisplaycertainstylisticsimilarities:fromtheiropen-andclosed-aestheticforms,totheirnostalgicandmemory-drivennarratives,andultimatelytotheiremphasison identityand transgressionof identity.AlthoughNaficydoesnotinvestigateanyKoreanfilmmakers,theconceptisdirectlyapplicabletotheKoreancontext,inwhichalargebodyofworksbyKoreandiasporicfilmmakers—adoptees,immigrants,andgenerationsofethnicminorities—remainlargelyunexaminedinthecontext of their Korean identity. Although this article uses accented theory toexplore only two films in the case of a Korean American’s and an adoptee’sexperiences, it aims to provoke broader questions regarding the boundaries ofKoreancinema in thehopeofstimulating further research into“accented”Koreanworks.

With these broader issues in mind, I have titled the article “The LostChildhoods of Korea”—a play on the title Korea’s Lost Children, a 2010 BBCdocumentary on Koreanwar orphans and Korea’s intense history of international

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adoption. This title acknowledges that the lost childhoods of modern-day Koreainclude economic orphans and other diasporic Koreans who left Korea duringchildhood,inadditiontowarorphansandGIbabies.ABrandNewLifeandTreelessMountainA Brand New Life and TreelessMountain are both low-budget independent filmsthatreceivedlimiteddistributionandscreening.Releasedameretwomonthsapart,ABrandNewLifehadsixtyscreeningswithfewerthaneighteenthousandviewings,whereasTreelessMountainreceivedfewerthaneightthousandviewingsinamerethirty-fivescreenings.Moreimportantly,bothfilmswereprojectsundertakenbytheAsian Project Market (formerly known as the Pusan Promotion Plan), a platformprovidedbytheBusanFilmFestival(BIFF)enablingfilmmakerstomeetprospectivefinanciers for projects.3TreelessMountainwas a project that started in 2005 as acoproductionbetweenKoreanandFrenchcompanies,andABrandNewLifewasaprojectfrom2008betweenKoreanandAmericancompanies.

Inadditiontotheiralmost identicalproductionbackgrounds,thetwofilmsshareparallel narratives that revolve around children. Theprotagonist ofABrandNewLifeisnine-year-oldJin-hee,playedbychildactressKimSae-ron.Oneday,Jin-hee’s father takes her on a “trip,” but the journey only serves his purpose inabandoningthechildatagirls’Catholicorphanage.Convincedthatherstayattheorphanage is temporary and that her father will come back for her, Jin-heestruggles—at times violently—to come to terms with her abandonment. Afterseveral attemptedescapes andmany tantrums, Jin-hee gradually adjusts to life inthe orphanage and befriends a fellow orphan named Suk-hee. Although she stillholdsontothehopethatherfathermayreturnforher,Jin-heewarmstotheideaofadoptionifshecanbeadoptedintoafamilywithSuk-hee.However,whenSuk-heeisadoptedaloneand leaves forAmerica, Jin-heeeventually letsgoof thehopeofher father’s return. The final scene shows Jin-hee traveling to France tomeetheradoptiveparents.

TreelessMountainfollowsthejourneyoftwosisters:six-year-oldJinandheryoungersisterBin.Thefilmstartswiththepremisethattheirfatherhasrecentlyleftthefamily.Duringonesummer,thegirlsareleftwiththeirkomo,thefather’seldersister, while the mother searches for their absent father. Suddenly taken out ofschoolandawayfromtheiraccustomedlife inSeoul,thetwogirlsarethrownintoKoreancountrylifewithanauntwhoislessthanpleasedwiththeresponsibilityoftakingcareofthem.Althoughtheywaitdaily,themotherdoesnotreturn.Instead,alettercomesfromthemotheraskingtheaunttotakethegirlstotheirgrandparents’farm,becausethemothernolongerhasthemeanstosupportthem.Passedalonglikeunwantedgoodsamongfamilymembers,thegirlsarriveattheirgrandparents’farmdeflatedanddisillusioned.However,throughthegrandmother’scareandlove,

3TheAsianProjectMarketwaslaunchedin1998tofurtherBIFF’soverallgoalofsupportingAsiancinema.Itinvitedfilmmakerstoparticipateinpanelsandroundtablediscussionsandtopitchpresentationeventstoencouragejointinvestmentsandco-productions.FormoreontheBusanFilmFestivalandtheAsianProjectMarket,seeAhn(2011).

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thegirlsslowlybegintoaccepttheirnewlives.Althoughthefilmendswithouteasyresolution, the final scene depicts the girls’ upbeat singing as they assist theirgrandmotherwithherfarmwork.

The first and foremost commonality between the two films is thecomparabletrajectoryofthenarratives:inbothfilms,childcharactersexperienceachange in their familial circumstance,which not only takes themaway from theirphysical homes but also requires them to redefine in their own ways theirunderstanding of family. This narrative trajectory of abandonment, emotionalstruggle, andeventual acceptance is the journey that these childrenmust take. Infact, the Korean title of A Brand New Life is Yŏhaengja, which translates as“traveler”—perhapsaeuphemismforadoptees.AlthoughtheEnglishtitle,ABrandNewLife, refers to theoutcomeof the journey, theKorean title, like itsnarrative,emphasizesthejourneyitself.

Thejourneysofbothfilmsbeginwithabandonment.ForJin-heeinABrandNew Life, abandonment is direct and sudden, whereas for the sisters in TreelessMountain, it is agradualprocessofneglectandbeingcastaside.Althoughwe,asadult viewers, immediately understand their situations, the child characters takelonger to perceive their abandonments. As the narratives follow the children’sexperiences, neither film becomes sentimental—an adult’s response to thesituation—but simply follows the children’s confusion and disorientation. Inconveyingthechildren’semotions,bothfilmmakersarecarefulnottoincludeadultlanguage, such as dialogue. Instead, the emotional responses of the children arevisualized through close-ups, shot compositions, and events captured from thechildren’sphysicalsightlines.

ABrandNewLifeopenswithasequenceofshortscenesdepictingJin-hee’sfinaldaywithher father.Assheridesabicyclewithhim,goesshoppingwithhim,andsingsasongtohimoverdinner,thecameracapturesonlyJin-heeinaseriesofclose-ups. Even in scenes in which Jin-hee is interacting with her father, onlyfragmentsofthefatherareseen,suchashishandsorhisback.Althoughhisvoiceisheard,hisfaceisnevercaptured.OnlyafterarrivingattheorphanagedoesJin-heerealizethatsomethingiswrong.Shethenlooksatherfatherforwhatturnsouttobethelasttime.Itisonlythenthatthecamerafinallyrevealsthefather’sface.4Theheavy use of close-ups as initiated in this scene continues throughout the film,emphasizing the film’s focuson the child’s disorientatedexperience and confusedperspective.

Treeless Mountain also uses close-ups to record the children’s everyreaction.Intheopeningscene,thecamerastays—attimesuncomfortably—zoomedinontheeldestdaughter.WhenJinstudiesinschool,thecameraframesonlyJin’sfacial expressions (in fact, the school setting is made known merely through theoverheardvoiceofateacher);whenJinwalkshome,thecameratrailsbehindher;whenJinisscoldedbyhermother,thecameraonlyshowsJin’sface.Insuchways,viewersaredeniedthefullpictureandpresentedwithonlyfragmentsofeachscene

4ViewersfamiliarwithKoreancinemawillbesurprisedtoseethatthefatherisplayedbySolKyung-gu,anactorwellknowntoviewersofKoreancinemaforhisroleinLeeChang-dong’sPeppermintCandy(Pakhasat’ang,2000).

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in both films. Yet, the viewer is nonetheless able to discern the situation throughsoundandsetting,andthelimitedvisualsbecomepowerfultoolsfornarratingthestories from the children’s perspectives. Such focus on children’s points of viewplaysacrucialroleinunderstating—orevenconcealing—thegravityoftheissuesofabandonmentandadoptionthatareembodiedinthesenarratives.

Although the journeys depicted in both films begin with spatialdisplacement, they take on a more emotional form as the children undergohomelessness, wandering, and loss. As in the opening scenes, the children’semotions are conveyed mainly through camerawork. In A Brand New Life, thecameraoftenactsonbehalfofJin-heetodisplayherfeelingsoffrustration,isolation,and longing.WhenJin-heedecidestorunawayfromtheorphanageandclimbs itsgate inanattempt toescape,astaffmemberopens thegatesandtells Jin-heetoleave if she wants. Jin-hee quietly climbs down from the gate and leaves theproperty,butsoonrealizesthatshehasnowheretogo.AsJin-heeslowlywalksawayfrom the orphanage, the gates continue to surround her, visually reinforcing hertrapped situation (figure 1). Unsurprisingly, the next scene reveals that Jin-heereturned to the orphanage. These gates are used throughout the film in a similarmannertodisplaytheorphans’“caged”situation.

Figure 1. As Jin-hee walks away from the orphanage, its gates continue to surround her,visuallyreinforcinghertrappedsituation.Source:ScreenshotofABrandNewLife(2009).

Atothertimes,thecamerasimplybecomesJin-hee.WhenthecamerastaysatJin-hee’sphysicalheight,viewersseewhatJin-heeseesandthusexperiencetheworldfromherstandpoint.Forexample,onthedayJin-heearrivesattheorphanage,shehidesinthebushes,refusingtogoinside.Inthisscene,thecamerajoinsJin-heeinhertightspaceinsidethebushes.Astheotherchildrentrytogetheroutoftheshrubbery, the camera alternates between a shot of the other orphans groupedtogetherandofJin-heealone,displayinghersenseof isolation.Whenthechildrenstandup togo inside fordinner, theirupperhalvesarecutoutof theshotas the

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camera remains at Jin-hee’s crouched-downheight.When the nuns approach Jin-heetotellhertocomeinsidefordinner,thecamerastaysinthesamepositionandviewerswatch thenunsbendingover and talking into the camera, as the viewershavebecomeJin-hee.Inthisway,thescenealternatesbetweenclose-upshotsandover-the-shouldershots.Thistechniqueisfrequentlyusedinbothfilms,withclose-ups reflecting the child’s experience and emotions and over-the-shoulder shotsconveyingthechild’sliteralperspective.

For Jin-hee, thegreatestobstacle isacceptingherabandonment.AsAdamHartzell(2009)notes,itispresumedthatJin-heeis“aneconomicorphan,”meaningthatitwasinthechild’sbestinteresttobetakentoanorphanage,asthebiologicalfamilycouldnotprovideforher.Unabletofathomsuchreasonsatherage,Jin-hee’sownsearchforanexplanationofherabandonmentis, inHartzellwords,in“heart-wrenching vein” (2009).Onher first night at theorphanage, Jin-heewakes in themiddleofthenighttofindotherchildrenplayingKorean“flowercards”(hwat’u).Intheir reality of abandonment where the future seems so unpredictable anduncontrollable, the children’s naïve hope lies in these picture cards, which theybelievepredict their future. In this scene, thecards reveal thataguestwillarrive.UnawareofJin-hee’spresence,oneoftheyoungergirlssaysthataguesthasindeedcome: the new girl. But Ye-jin, the eldest orphan, who has remained at theorphanageduetoherdisability,correctsthegirl.Ye-jin(playedexcellentlybyGoA-sung)says,“She’snotaguest.She’snowgoingtolivewithus.Soshe’sfamily.”Ye-jin’s comment here is crucial to the narrative as it is the only moment when adifferentmeaning of family for orphans is directly articulated.On hearing Ye-jin’scomment, Jin-hee breaks down in tears. Once again, the camerawork depicts herconfusionandisolation;Jin-heeisshownalone,andtheotherorphansaregroupedtogether.

Treeless Mountain takes a slightly different approach in depicting thechildren’s emotional journey.Unlike director Lecomte,who focuses on the child’stransition from confusion to acceptance, director Kim simply follows the childrenanddocumentstheirdailyactivities.Anexampleofthisapproachcanbeseeninashortscenenearthebeginningofthefilminwhichthemotherleavesthetwogirlsonthesidewalkwhileshegoestolookfortheiraunt.Althoughshetellsthemnottogo anywhere, the younger sister suddenly wanders off, and tension immediatelybuilds for viewers in anticipation of the dangerous situations that could follow.However, rather than fulfilling the adult viewers’ expectations, the camera simplyjoinslittleBinonhershortadventureasshewandersaroundanearbyfishmarket.As the camera alternates between close-ups of different kinds of fish and Bin’sreactions to them, the adult’s worried response slowly disappears, and viewersslowly become just as innocently lost in the child’s curiosity. By focusing on thechildren’sactivitiesinthisway,Kimisabletotrulydepictachild’sperspective,eveninasituationasbafflingasabandonment.

To cinephiles, this approach to filmmaking and storytelling calls to mindKore-edaHirokazu’sdepictionofabandonedchildreninNobodyKnows(2004),afilmaboutthedailystrugglesoffoursiblings,eachofwhomhasadifferentfather.Theirmother leaves them to live with another man. In several interviews, Treeless

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MountaindirectorSoYongKimremarkedthatshewasinspiredbyNobodyKnows.5Perhaps in lightof this influence,Kore-eda’sdescriptionof the children’sworld inNobodyKnowsisapplicabletoTreelessMountain:

I am confident that the world they inhabited was more than agreyishhell.Theremusthavebeenakindof richness in their livesdifferentfromtherichnessofmaterialabundance….Dowenothavea responsibility to imagine the richness they must have known,insteadofcondemning them, inour ignoranceof theirexperience,tohell?(quotedinLury2010,41)

ThiscomparisonisnotmeanttosuggestthatthechildreninTreelessMountainarewithout emotional struggles. However, unlike Jin-hee’s pain inA Brand New Life,made apparent both narratively and visually, Jin and Bin’s hardship is portrayedsubtlythroughtheirearnestattemptstobringbacktheirmother.Beforesheleaves,themothergivesthegirlsasmallpiggybankandpromisestoreturnwhenitisfull.Takingtheirmother’spromiseliterally,thegirlsspendthesummertryingtospeedup her return by selling grasshoppers and filling up the piggy bank with smallerchange(sip-wŏn)asopposedtolargercoins(paek-wŏn)—theequivalentofchangingdimes intopennies. Thepiggybankgets full, but insteadof theirmother’s return,thegirlsreceivealetterofmoredisplacement,askingtheaunttotakethemtotheirgrandparents.

The futility of these innocent activities is further emphasized in a crucialscene,towhichthetitleofthefilmrefers.Throughoutthefilm,thegirlspasstheirdays on top of a hill, looking down at the bus stop to see if their mother hasreturned.Boredofwaiting,thegirlsattempttoplantatwigonthehillofrocksanddirt.Thegirlseventuallysucceedinmakingthetwigstanduprightbysurroundingitwith rocks; they believe that they have successfully planted a tree on a treelessmountain. Of course, adult viewers know that the twig has no roots and willthereforebearnofruit.Thisactofplantingatwigonaheapinthehopesthatitwillbecome a tree seems metaphoric of the girls’ futile efforts to bring back theirmother. However, like all subjective works, this scene could be interpreteddifferently.Forexample,viewersmightseethechildren’ssuccessatgettingthetwigto stay upright as a kind of hopefulness that highlights the children’s innocenceagainstnatureandreality’s judgmentdeemingsuchactsas impossibleandfoolish.Regardlessof interpretation, it iscritical tonotethat thescene iscapturedfromadisturbingly close distance. The series of close-ups disorients viewers, making itdifficulttorecognizetheimportanceofthissceneanditsconnectiontothetitleofthefilm.Theoveralleffectisthatthisscene(andthechildren’sactivityinit) isnotemphasizedanymorethantheotheractivitiesofthechildrenthroughoutthefilm,thus actually deemphasizing an important moment in the film. This tendency toreducetheprominenceofsignificantscenesisexploredfurtherlaterinthearticle.

5Inthequestion-and-answersessionatFilmForum,NewYork,KimmentionedthatwhenshemetKore-edaatCannessheattemptedtofindouthowhedealtwithchildactors,butthelanguagebarrierprovedtoodifficult(S.Y.Kim2010).

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Bytheendofbothfilms,thephysicaldestinationsofthechildren’sjourneysbecome insignificantas thesegirls learntoaccepttheirnew lives. InABrandNewLife,acceptancecomeswithanactofrebirthforJin-hee.Afterlosingheronlyfriendattheorphanage,Jin-heeaskstheprincipaltofindherfather.Theprincipaltellsherthather father isnevercomingbackandshemust therefore“findnewparents,anewfamily,hereattheorphanage.”ThefollowingscenesshowJin-heedigging.First,shedigsupadeadbirdthatsheandSuk-heehadburied.Thenshedigsuntilshehasdugaholebigenoughtofitherself.Sheclimbsintotheholeandburiesherself.Thecamera once again alternates between capturing Jin-hee’s facial expressions andshowing Jin-hee’s perspectiveof herownhandsdigging and coveringherselfwithearth. Finally, Jin-hee covers her facewith earth and remains silent and static, asthoughdeathhascome.Onlyafewsecondslater,however,sheshakesofftheearthandbreathesagain.ThenextsceneshowsJin-heeattheprincipal’sofficelookingataphotoofWesternparents,andthefilmswiftlyendswithJin-hee’sadoptionbyaFrenchfamily.ThemomentthatJin-heeshakesofftheearthcapturesherultimateacceptanceofrealityandherdesiretolive.Asonecriticwrites,“Shelearnsthatthedesiretodieindesperationisthesameastheonetoliveapassionatelife”(Hwang2009).

Theessenceofthissceneinvolvingself-burial,clearlytheclimaxofthefilm,lies in the idea of the end of childhood. The twentieth-century French film criticAndréBazinperceived thataudiencesquicklybecomeenrapturedand tearywhenchildrenshowfeelingsthatareunusuallyassociatedwithgrown-ups:“Wearethusseeking to contemplate ourselves in them: ourselves plus the innocence,awkwardness,andnaivetéwelost”(2011,57).AlthoughBazin’sdescriptionhereisinreferencetotheroleofchildcharactersinwarfilms,thisobservationapplieswelltotheburialscenethatissomovingtoadultviewers.Itspowerliesintheunspokenfact that Jin-hee’sdecision toaccepther abandonment reflectsherprogress fromchildhoodtomaturity.Thevisualizationoftheendofchildhoodandinnocenceasakindofdeathwhere Jin-hee literallyburiesherselfonlyadds to filmscholarKarenLury’sdescriptionofchildhoodassomethingthat“isnowactuallydeadtotheadultwhosurvives”(2010,111).

Furthermore, this scene appropriately takes place in the bushes. Indescribing the forest settings in Grimm’s Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm,American folklorist Jack Zipesdescribes the forest as aplacewhere children “loseand find themselves.... The forest possesses the power to change lives and alterdestinies”(2002,65).Theforestis indeedthemostarchetypalsettinginfairytaleswheremanyliterarychildcharactersinteractwiththeirwildestimaginations.Giventhistraditionofwritersusingtheforesttoplayupachild’simagination,otherness,andgeneralchildlikeness,itisironicthatABrandNewLifeusesbushes—avariationontheforest—astheplacewhereJin-heeleavesbehindtheinnocenceofchildhood.Inaway, it is fittingthatchildhoodisburied intheplacewheresomanyfairy-talechildrenbecomelostbutwiserthroughadventure,aprocessthatultimatelyallowsthem to find their way back home. For Jin-hee, the wisdom gained is that ofacceptance,andthewaybackhomeisrevealedtobeadoption.Itshouldbenotedthat these complexemotional transformationsare conveyed in this climatic scenewithouttheuseofanydialogue.

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Like Jin-hee, thegirls inTreelessMountain learn to letgoof their longing.Thepiggybank isemployedasametaphor for thechildren’s lettinggo.After theyarrive at their grandparents’ farm, the girls’ pain and scars slowlyheal.On seeingtheir grandmother’s torn shoes, the girls decide to give their piggy bank to her,tellingher touse the coins tobuyanewpairof shoes. This actof givingup theirpiggy bank symbolizes the girls’ final acceptance of their reality. Having let go oftheir bitterness and anger toward their mother, the girls (as revealed in thefollowingand final sceneof the film)are finally livingeachday rather thansimplywasting each day with futile attempts to plant trees on treeless mountains. Thechildren are shown singing as they assist with their grandmother’s farming. Inconveyingthechildren’sultimateacceptanceoftheirsituation,thecamerapresentsthe audiencewith an extreme long shot for the first time,which serves a doublefunction. On the one hand, viewers feel a sort of relief from the claustrophobicseriesofclose-upsthathadinundatedthefilmuntilthismoment.Yetthatrelief isnotsimplyareflectionoftheaestheticsbutalsoladenwithemotion.Iftheclose-upsthroughout the film acted as an expression of the children’s disorientation andconfusion,thelongshotinthisscenebecomesametaphorforthechildren’ssteadystates of mind. As the children are no longer disorientated by their situation,viewers are also finally allowed to see the children wholly in their currentcircumstances. As in A Brand New Life, the cinematography becomes the keycommunicatorofthisclimaticmomentofTreelessMountain.TheAccentedContextThis analysis has so far explored the narrative of abandoned children and thecorrespondingcinematographythatreflectsthechildren’spointsofview.However,thesignificanceofthechildperspectivesliesbeyondthetextuallevel.Thefocusonchild characters and the matching cinematography functions to dampen thesentimental response that iswarrantedby thediegetic situations.But rather thanspotlighting the children’s hardship, the films seem to be camouflaging the socialissues—such as abandonment, broken families, lack of social welfare, andinternational adoption—that crop up in the narratives. In this sense, one couldargue that children are the tools that these films use to engagewith contentioussocialissuessurroundingtheKoreanfamily.

These issuesarenotonlyembeddedinthenarrativesbutalso interrelatedwith their filmmakers and their comparable backgrounds. Both filmmakers areKoreans livingabroad—onemightcall themdiasporicKoreans—andbothfilmsarelargely autobiographical. Their basis in personal experience and the resultingparallelsbetweenthechildprotagonistsandthefilmmakersarefarfromconcealed.The overarching storyline of A Brand New Life was entirely autobiographical,drawing on Lecomte’s childhood journey fromabandonment to adoption. Born inSeoul, Lecomtewas left at the age of ten by her father at an all-girls orphanageownedbyaCatholicfoundationintheSeoulsuburbs.Shestayedattheorphanagefor a year before being adopted by a French Protestant family. The film is set in1970s in suburban Seoul.TreelessMountain is also an autobiographically inspiredfeature.Kimremarksthatthestorywasbasedonaperiodinherearlychildhoodin

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Pusan,Korea,whenhermotherdivorcedher fatherand leftKimandheryoungersisterwith theirgrandparentsona farm.Kim’smotheremigrated toAmerica,andKimandhersister later joinedherandgrewupasKoreanAmericans. Inthepressreleaseforthefilm,Kimwrote,“Atthetimeoftheseevents,weweretooyoungtounderstandandourmotherdidnottelluswhatwashappening.”Hence,thestoryofJinandBinwaswritten“tosearchforcertainlostmemoriesfromthisperiodofmylifeandalsoasa letter tomymother” (S.Y.Kim2009). LecomteandKimarestillbasedinFranceandAmerica,respectively.TheywenttoKoreatomakethesefilms.

The autobiographical nature of the films recalls Hamid Naficy’s theory of“accentedcinema.”Naficy (2001)coinedthisatermtodescribethefilmmakingofdisplaced (“deterritorialized”) individuals living in theWest.The“accent”doesnotrefersomuchtoanaccentedspeechofdiegeticcharacters(asonemightassume)but, asNaficyexplains, to “thedisplacementof the filmmakersand theirartisanalproductionmodes”; “If the dominant cinema is considered universal andwithoutaccent, the films that diasporic and exilic subjectsmake are accented” (2001, 4).Indeed, Lecomte’s and Kim’s works are accented, or segregated from bothmainstreamWestern and Korean cinemas, in several ways. First, the filmmakershave identities as outsiders to the mainstream industries. The consequentindependentproductionofthefilms,nottomentionthecollaborationwithforeignproduction companies, reveals their “accent” from mainstream Korean cinema.Meanwhile, the stylistic characteristics and themesexplored in thenarrativesalsoresonatewithNaficy’saccentedtheory.

Naficy writes that accented films are, on the whole, characterized as“fragmented, multilingual, epistolary, self-reflexive…doubled, crossed, [with] lostcharacters… dysphoric, euphoric, nostalgic, synesthetic, liminal” and as having“subject matters and themes that involve journeying, historicity, identity, anddisplacement”(2001,11).Suchthemesofjourneying,homeseeking,homelessness,border crossing, identity crossing, and the imaginedhomeland are all in play inABrand New Life and Treeless Mountain. Not only do the overarching narrativesoutline the journeys undertaken by the child characters, but they also specificallyinvolve physical displacement from home, a crisis in homelessness, and anemotionaladaptationtotheunderstandingofthefamilyandtheself.Althoughthefilms focus on the filmmakers’ “defamiliarization” rather than their“deterritorialization,”theeventsofthenarrativealsoultimatelyleadtothe“bordercrossing”oftheprotagonistsaswellasthefilmmakersintonewterritory.

Furthermore, theauthorshipof LecomteandKim’sworks, like inaccentedfilms,isnotsolelyoneofparentagebutalsooneofperformance.Inparentage,theauthor is the creator of—and the inspiration behind—the work, whereas aperformance role refers to the author’s active participation in the work. Naficyexplains that the author’s “mode of habitation” in an accented text is not alwaysliteral;itcanbeonlyvisual(appearingoractinginafilm)oronlyvocal(narration),oritcanbeasfictionalcharacters,whatNaficydescribesas“authorsurrogates”(2001,6). In these ways, accented filmmakers engage in the performance of the selfthrough their works. In both Lecomte and Kim’s films, the child protagonists areclearly surrogates of the filmmakers’ childhood selves, allowing the filmmakers toreliveandexploretheirchildhoodmemoriesthroughtheirworks.

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It is interesting that both filmmakers chose not to focus on the displacementexperienced inanewcountry,but ratheron theirearly childhoodsspent inKoreapriortoemigration.Naficywritesthataccentedfilmmakers,whilenotreturningtotheirhomelands,“maintainanintensedesiretodoso—adesirethatisprojectedinpotent return narratives in their films” (2001, 12).However, Kim and Lecomtedonotexploretheideaofreturningtothehomelandintheirfilms.Rather,byfocusingontheirchildhoodsinKorea,bothfilmmakersinevitablyreconstructaKoreaofthepast—literally creating an imagined homeland of the past, which fits Naficy’sobservationthataccentedfilmmakers“memorializethehomelandbyfetishizingitintheformofcathectedsounds,images,andchronotopes”(2001,12).

Accented films typically “create a utopian prelapsarian chronotope of thehomelandthat isuncontaminatedbycontemporaryfacts”(Naficy2001,152).Suchan imagineddepictionof thehomeland is apparent inbothABrandNewLife andTreeless Mountain, as the films attempt to create a “nostalgic memorization” ofKorea as opposed to portraying the Korea of today. Although there is no subtextplacingeitherofthefilmsinthepast,thegeneralsettingestablishesthatbothfilmsaresetin1970s–1980sSouthKorea.

Forexample,thegenerallackofhigh-risebuildingsandbrightneonsignsinABrandNewLifeidentifythesettingasruralKorea.Thetintedcinematography,theclothingof the characters, and theprops in theorphanage suggests a past era.Apop song that Jin-hee singsat thebeginningand theendof the filmconfirms theperiodasthe1970s(“YouMayNotKnow”bypopsingerHyeEunYiwasoneofthemostpopularsongsofthatdecade).

The history of adoption also alludes to the 1970s and 1980s as themostlikelytimeperiodforthenarrative.TheRefugeeReliefActof1953initiallyopenedthedoor forAmericanfamilies toadoptorphansundertheageof ten, inorder tocare forwarorphans andbiracial children left bymilitary servicemendeployed inKorea. Thereafter, inter-country adoption expanded dramatically in the UnitedStates,peakinginthe1980s.FormerSouthKoreanpresidentsParkChungHeeandChunDoo-hwan’soverseasadoptionprogramsfromthelate1960sthroughthemid-1980s,aswellasseveralotherfactors,contributedtotheriseinabandonmentandadoption during the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas the first wave of adoptees fromKoreatendedtobemixed-racechildren,thereasonsforadoptionshiftedduringthisperiod.Industrializationandurbanizationarerecognizedtohavecontributedtotheincrease in rates of out-of-wedlock teen pregnancies and divorce. In thewake oflate-1980scriticismfromWesternmediaaccusingKoreaofbeingababy-exportingnation, during the early 1990s the Korean government set an overseas adoptionquota,whichdrasticallyreducedoverseasadoption.Consideringthatthe1970sand1980s had the highest numbers of overseas adoptions with 46,035 and 66,511,respectively, incontrasttothe1990swith22,925(Gill2017,17),thisbecomesthemostlikelytimeperiodforthestoryofABrandNewLife.

TreelessMountain seemsmoreconcernedwithpresentingageneralsenseofnostalgia thandepictinga realistic setting inaspecific time.Althoughthe film’stime frame is less obvious, the tinted cinematography and props generally evokefeelings of nostalgia. In addition, catching and eating grasshoppers—an activity inwhichthechildrenengageduringmuchofthenarrative—isamemoryofchildrenof

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the 1960s and 1970s, not the contemporary generation. More significantly, themothercommunicatestotheauntthroughaletterasopposedtoamodernmodeofcommunication, such as a phone call. Althoughmobile phones are present in thefilm—albeit older flip phones, another clue to the earlier era—the filmmaker’schoicetopresentthemother’smessagethroughletterwritingisnotonlyawistfulreminiscence of the past but also distinctly characteristic of accented films. Thislonging for a Korea of the past, along with the fictionalization of their childhoodmemories, may be a means by which both filmmakers revisit, remember, andpreservetheirKoreanidentities.

Interestingly, both filmmakers choose to present the films as entirely“Korean”andnotashybridsofthefilmmakers’twoidentities.BothfilmsaresetinKorea,usetheKoreanlanguage,andfeatureall-Koreancasts,likeanyotherKoreanfilm. In fact, without information on the filmmakers and the productionbackgrounds,theaverageviewermightnotrecognizetheaccentedcontextsofthefilms. A more typical accented narrative might have included the return of thefilmmakers’ surrogate characters to Korea. In fact, Lecomte’s original script wasabout a French woman visiting Seoul to find her roots (Hwang 2009). Lecomteintendedtoplayherselfandemployanotherdirectorforthefilm.OntheadviceofdirectorLeeChang-dong,oneoftheproducersofABrandNewLifewhomLecomtehad met during his visit to France for the release of his film Secret Sunshine(Millyang,2007),Lecomtedecidedtodirectafilmthatreflectedonhermemoriesofthetransitorytimebetweentwoworlds.Kim’sdecisiontofocusonchildhoodeventsforTreelessMountainisnotentirelysurprising.HerdebutfeatureInBetweenDayshadalreadytakenasitsbasisherteenagememoriesoffirstarrivinginAmerica.

By taking on the appearance of Korean films, both works becomesignificantlymoreimportantundertheumbrellaofKoreancinema.Thefilmsarenotonlybeautifulworks featuringchildcharactersbutalso rarecinematic testimoniesto the childhoods experienced in Korea by those no longer considered Korean.Despitethepertinenceofthetopicofabandonedchildren(particularlyinthecaseofadoptees) toKoreansociety,a lookat theconcurrent reviews reveals thatKoreanreviews failed to acknowledge the significant contribution made by these films.Instead, the two films were simply praised for using cinematography thatsuccessfully embodied the child-protagonists’ perspectives (Mun 2009). ThesereviewsneglectedthecommentarythatABrandNewLifemakesonKorea’shistoryof internationaladoptionand the insight thatTreelessMountainprovides into thecommunityofKoreanfilmmakerslivingoutsideKorea.

TheKoreanfilmindustry’stendencytoexcludeworksmadebyand/oraboutKoreans with bicultural diasporic identities has resulted in an absence of theirstories from Korean cinema. Granted, ethnic Korean minorities recently haveappearedmoreregularly incommercialworks,anddocumentariesor independentproductions on Chosŏnjok (ethnic Koreas living in China), Koryŏ saram (ethnicKoreanslivingintheformerSovietUnion),orNorthKoreanrefugeeshaveincreased.However,scholarshavenotedthatcommercialfilmsdepicttheoutsiderpositionsofminoritiesmostlyforeithercomicorthrillerpurposes(Bae2016,239).WhereasthejourneysofethnicKoreanminoritieswhoreturntoKoreahavereceivedattention,the stories of diasporic Koreanswho remainoutside Koreahave failed towin the

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attentionofKorean filmmakers.Yetnotonly is thepopulationofKoreans residingabroadsubstantial—Koreaisestimatedtohavethefifthlargestoverseaspopulation,surpassedonlyby theChinese, Jewish, Indian, and Italiandiaspora (Schwekendiek2011,220)—butaconsiderablenumberoffilmsbyandabouttheKoreandiasporaare being made outside Korea. In North America alone, several media artsorganizationsarededicatedtosupportingandfundingawiderangeoffilmsbyAsianAmericans, about Asian Americans, and for Asian Americans, such as VisualCommunications in Los Angeles, Asian CineVision in New York, and the NationalAsian-AmericanTelecommunicationAssociation inSanFrancisco (Naficy2001,63).Included in these projects are many works by Korean Americans. Yet theserepresentationsarebarelyacknowledgedinKoreaandtheKoreanfilmhistory.

Inaddition,one-thirdofallinternationaladoptionsbetween1958and2004were from Korea, which signifies a vast community of internationally adoptedKoreans in the diaspora (Schwekendiek 2011, 220). Representations of adoptedKoreans have appeared in Korean culture in a diverse range of media: fromacademic articles to newspapers, research reports to novels, television dramas todocumentaries,featurefilmstopopsongs,andpaintingstopoems.Yet,thisinteresthasbeenlimitedmainlytotheindependentandscholarlyspheres.Theoccasionallymore commercial works have been, more often than not, whitewashed withsentimentality,asinthetelevisionshowsdedicatedtofindingthebiologicalparentsof adoptees. A similar divide can be detected in cinematic works on the topic.AutobiographicalfilmsproducedbyadoptedKoreanshavetendedtoremaininindiecircles,whereascommercialandwell-knownart-houseworks that incorporate thetheme of international adoption into narratives have tended to lighten anddepoliticizethetopicwithgenericformulas.6

Significantly,thefilmscreatedbyeitheradopteesorKoreanAmericanshavetended to be in a foreign (non-Korean) language and to depict Korea from anoutsider’s point of view, no doubt making it difficult for the average Koreanaudience todigest theseworks.Against suchabackground,ABrandNewLifeandTreelessMountain becomeall themore significant inovercoming theseobstacles.The Korean scripts (along with the Korean settings) clearly made the films moreaccessibletothedomesticaudiencewhileassistancefromtheAsianProjectMarketandcoproductionwithKoreancompaniesallowedthefilmstobeeasilydistributedandmarketedinKoreaaswellasabroad.AtthecenterofthisKorean“wrapping”isthe focus on childhoodmemories, rather than an adult’s search for identity. Thefilmswereabletocamouflagethetroublingsocialissuesofthenarrativesandtakeonafully“Korean”perspective.NotonlydothechildhoodsettingsjustifytheuseofaKoreanscriptandsetting,but thenarrativesalsodepicta timewhentheauthorsurrogateswere“fully”Koreanintheiridentity.Inthissense,ABrandNewLifeand

6TheseincludeParkKwang-su’sBerlinReport(Perŭllinrip’ot’ŭ,1991),KimKi-duk’sWildAnimals(Yasaengt’ongmulpohoguyŏk,1996),KimSŏng-su’sPleaseTeachMeEnglish(Yŏngŏwanjŏnchŏngbok,2003),HwangTong-hyŏk’sMyFather(Maip’adŏ,2007),andKimYong-hwa’sTakeOff(Kukkataep‘yo,2009).ThemostsignificantcommercialfilmdepictingoverseasadoptionisarguablyJangGil-su’sSusanneBrink’sArirang(Sujanbŭringk‘ŭ-ŭiarirang,1991),oneoftheearliestpopularculturalworkstolookattheissue.

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TreelessMountain become rare and significant examples of cinematic works thathave received domestic distribution and critical attention, despite beingmade bythosewhomay not consider themselves (or be considered by Koreans) as “fully”Korean.ConclusionThisarticlehasexaminedtwoindependentfilmsfrom2009—ABrandNewLifeandTreelessMountain—that explore the subject of abandoned children. The analysishasbeentwofold.Thefirst,textualanalysisexploredthefilms’analogousnarrativetrajectories and their shared focus on child perspectives. Such child perspectives,andtheconsequentcorrespondingcinematography,havebeenshowntobecrucialin dampening the controversial issues and sentimentality of the narratives. Thesecond layerofanalysisexploredthe“accentedcontext”ofthesefilms,borrowingfromHamidNaficy’stheoryofaccentedcinema.ThissectioninvestigatedthesimilarbackgroundsofthetwofilmmakersasWesternerswithKoreanroots,comparingnotonlytheautobiographicalaspectsoftheworksbutalsotheirsimilaraccentedstylesandproductionhistories.

Throughthesetwolayersofanalysis,Iarguethattheinclusionofthesetwofilms in Korean film history is doubly crucial. On a diegetic level, they offer aninterestingandrareinsightintocertainchildhoodexperiencesofKoreanlifethatarerarelydiscussedordepictedinmainstreamKoreancultureandalmostforgottenbyKoreansocietyandhistory.Onaproductionlevel,thefilmsalsodrawattentiontoawidercommunityof filmmakerswhohaveKorean identitiesorpersonal rootsandarelivingoutsideKorea.Althoughtheseworks,liketheirfilmmakers,cannot—andina sense, should not—beneatly categorized into onenational identity, I stress theimportance of acknowledging at least some such works under the umbrella ofKoreancinema.ABrandNewLifeandTreelessMountainarekeycasesofdiasporicfilmmakingthathavesuccessfullypervadedthestrongnationalbordersurroundingKoreancinema.Theirchosenfocusonchildhoodhasplayedapivotalroleinthisfeatby allowing the films to appear as “fully” Korean, not only justifying the Koreanscriptandsettingbutalsoconcealingthediasporicbackgroundsofthefilmmakers.And yet, one wonders if the existence of such films also attests to the need todestabilizethenationalboundaryofKoreancinema.PerhapstheKorean“wrapping”thatLecomteandKimuseinthesefilmswillnolongerbenecessarywhenaccentedfilms,no longermarginalized,becomemorevisiblyacceptedasacategoryoftheirown.References

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AbouttheAuthorJi-yoonAnisaVisitingAssistantProfessorattheUniversityofTübingen,Germany.TheresearchforthisarticlewassupportedbyanAcademyofKoreanStudies[KSPS]GrantfundedbytheSouthKoreangovernment[MOE][AKS2015-INC-2230003].