『映画』Approved for Adoption（Couleur de peau: Miel/はちみつ色のユン）

2018年10月28日

「Approved for Adoption（Couleur de peau: Miel/はちみつ色のユン）」・・・Painting with Light (Festival of International Films on Art)

公開年：　2012年

製作国：　フランス、ベルギー、韓国、スイス

監督：　Jung（ユン）, Laurent Boileau（ローラン・ボアロー）

見た場所：　National Gallery Singapore

National Gallery Singapore（ナショナル・ギャラリー・シンガポール）主催による、芸術についての映画を集めた映画祭「Painting with Light」で上映。この「Approved for Adoption（原題Couleur de peau: Miel）」は、ベルギーのバンド・デシネ作家Jung（ユン）が、自らの半生をアニメーションとドキュメンタリー映像で描いた作品で、ドキュメンタリーの作り手であるLaurent Boileau（ローラン・ボアロー）との共同監督作。日本でも「はちみつ色のユン」というタイトルで公開された。

映画祭のプログラムから

冒頭、雪の積もる山間の施設から、先生のような人と一緒に歌いながら歩いてくるアジア系の子供達。一転して食堂のシーンになり、子供達がお椀に注がれたお粥を食べている。自分に与えられたお椀を食べ終わると、隣の子が食べ残していったお椀を当然のように取り上げて、ひたすら食べ続けている男の子が一人いる。この子が、この作品の主人公、ユンである。彼の境遇とどんなキャラクターの子であるのかをこの最初の数分で描き切った、非常に印象的な出だしだった。

ユンは、朝鮮戦争後、海外に養子縁組に出された20万人の孤児の一人である。彼らは米兵と韓国人の母親との間に生まれた子などで、母親が韓国社会の中で子供を育てることができずに捨てられ、海外に養子としてもらわれて行ったのである。ユンも5歳の頃、1人でソウルの通りをさ迷い歩いているところを警察に保護され、孤児院に収容された。そして、ベルギーの夫婦に引き取られて海を渡った。

映画は、アニメーションによるユンの子供時代の回想を中心に、養父母達が撮影した当時の8mm（？）映像、朝鮮戦争後の韓国の状況を説明する記録映像、そして現在、四十代のユンが、養父母に引き取られて以来初めて韓国に「帰った」時の様子を撮影した映像からなっている。

　養父母にはすでに男女合わせて四人の実子がいた。冒頭のシーンからわかるようになかなかタフな性格のユンは、しっかりした養父母の元、四人の子供達とともに、かなりやんちゃな子供としてのびのびと育っていった。しかし、その一方で時おり開かれる密かな記憶の扉があった。

人種が違うゆえにどうしても養子であることを意識せざるを得ない瞬間。街をさ迷っていた孤児の頃。そして（自分を捨てた）顔も思い出せない幻のような母。自分は愛されていたのか、そして愛されているのか。腕白坊主として振舞っているだけにいっそう、言い知れぬその悩みは深い。

　ティーンエイジャーになると、その不安はアイデンティティの揺らぎとともに、ユンの生活態度に現れるようになる。（同じアジアのせいか）日本人に憧れてみるのはまだしも、家出して教会に転がり込み、そこで韓国人たらんとして、ご飯にタバスコ（！）をかけて食べ続ける。（韓国人なら辛い物が食べられるという認識なのだ。）

　タバスコご飯で体を壊したユンを家に連れ帰り、彼の苦悩を優しく受け止めたのは、ベルギーの養母だった。その時、ユンが夢想してきた幻の母はようやく実体を持つ。最後のユンのナレーションの一部、

「人が自分にどこから来たのかと問うのなら、自分はここからで、同時に、別のどこかからなのだ。自分はアジアであり、そしてヨーロッパである。」

　どちらでもない、のではなく、どちらでもある。ユンがそこに行き着くラストは、とても感動的だった。

　ところで、ユンの養父母はさらにもう一人韓国人の女の子を養子にするのだが、養父母が体の弱いその子を特に気遣うことにやきもちを妬いたユンは、こっそり彼女をいじめる。人が悪いことだが、私はこのシーンが何となく好き。（2020年3月25日）

『映画』The Hand of Fate（運命の手）

2017年11月26日

「The Hand of Fate（運命の手）」・・・Singapore International Film Festival

公開年：　1954年

製作国：　韓国

監督:　Han Hyeong-mo

出演:　Yoon In-ja, Lee Hyang

見た場所：　National Museum of Singapore

　「Gerak Kilat（ガラック・キラット）」と同じSingapore International Film Festival（シンガポール国際映画祭）のスパイ映画特集なのだが、こちらの作品はずっとシリアスで、朝鮮戦争休戦直後の韓国を舞台としたメロドラマ的スパイ映画である。バーのホステス、Margaret（マーガレット）と貧しい大学生、Young-chul（ヨンチョル）が恋に落ちるが、実は女は北朝鮮から来たスパイ、男は防諜捜査に従事する政府機関の捜査員であった。互いの正体を知らずに愛し合う男女の悲劇が描かれており、メロドラマ的スパイ映画というよりも、スパイもの設定のメロドラマ、という感じである。

　バーホステスを装った女スパイというと、ハニートラップとかそういう言葉が頭に浮かぶが、1954年の映画なので、そういうシーンはない。店に出る前に港や駅に立ち寄っては、到着する韓国軍の兵力を目測するという、むしろかなり地味なスパイ活動に従事するマーガレットの姿が描かれる。映画の途中で銃撃戦もあるにはある。またラストでは、マーガレットのボスである北朝鮮スパイと、貧乏学生の振りをしていたが実は捜査員なヨンチョルとの格闘シーンも見られる。しかし、それらに見応えがあるわけではなく、（表の顔においても）異なる世界に生きる男女二人の交情を描くことが中心になっているように見える。作品全体を通して、二人が彼女のアパートにいるシーンばかりが印象に残る。

　マーガレットは、泥棒に間違われて警察に捕まったヨンチョルを助けたことをきっかけに、以降彼に何くれとなく世話を焼き始める。貧相なハンサムに人目惚れしたと言ってしまえばそれまでだが、「なぜ？」とは彼自身も観客も不思議に思う。しかし、それはマーガレットに言わせると、彼女のような職業の女にとっては、夢のあることなのだ。「水商売の女が、貧しい学生に経済的な援助を施していた。数年後、罪を犯した女が法廷に立った時、それを裁くのは立派な法律家になったかつての学生だった。」というような話をヨンチョルにするのだが、彼女が言及しているのは「滝の白糸」ではなかろうか。韓国にも同じような物語があるのかもしれない。お金は持っているが社会的地位の低い女性が、貧しいゆえに将来を閉ざされている若者を身を挺して助けるというロマンに、彼女が自分の夢を仮託している点がいじらしい。マーガレットのボスは、「西側の自由に味をしめやがって」みたいに彼女をなじるのだが、彼女にとっての「西側の自由」とは、資本主義社会のひずみにひっそり咲いた恋である。西側にいれば万事解決というものでもなく、表の顔の方であっても二人の恋には悲恋の予感がある。

　休戦直後にして（それとも休戦直後だからなおさらなのか）、マーガレットが「なぜ38度線なんてものがあるの」と、直球でヨンチョルに嘆いていて印象的だった。ラストは、ヨンチョルを救うために仲間を裏切り、ボスに瀕死の重傷を負わせられたマーガレットが、あなたの手で死なせてほしいとヨンチョルに頼む。（ラストでは、お互いの正体はすでに明らかになっている。）ヨンチョルはマーガレットに口づけると、悲しみをこらえて彼女を撃つ。

　上映前に、Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学）のAssistant Professor、Lee Sang Joon氏の作品紹介があった。この映画は、韓国で初めて女性スパイが描かれた作品というだけではなく、韓国で初めてキスシーンが描かれた作品としても記憶されている。それが前述したマーガレットの最期のシーンである。ヒロインの美しさが極まった美しいシーンではあるけれども、キスそのものは今ならちょっとしたもので、紹介したLee先生も「あまり期待しないで」と上映前に言っていた。しかし、当時はセンセーショナルに受け取られたようだ。監督のHan Hyeong-moは、日本の東宝で撮影技術を学び、第二次大戦後に映画監督としてデビューした。1950年代の韓国映画史において、最も重要な監督の一人と見なされている。

　アクションものを期待するとがっかりするのだが、メタシアター的に「滝の白糸」を演ずる東西スパイ男女の悲恋メロドラマだと思うと、味わい深い。この時代の韓国映画を見る機会があまりないので、貴重な体験でもあった。オープニングのタイトル「運命の手」の表記が、当時は漢字とハングル混じりで、それもまた興味深かった。（2018年1月11日）

[Theatre] Trojan Women

9 September 2017

“Trojan Women”---Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA)

Country: Singapore, South Korea

Produced by: National Changgeuk Company of Korea, National Theater of Korea and SIFA

Directed by: Ong Keng Sen

Written for Changgeuk by: Bae Sam Sik

Pansori Composed by: Ahn Sook Sun

Composed by: Wen Hui

Cast: Kim Kum-mi, Yi So-yeon, Kim Ji-sook

Location I watched: Victoria Theatre

For SIFA Founding Festival Director, Ong Keng Sen, 2017 was his final year. “Trojan Women”, his new work based on Euripides’ play, was co-produced with the National Changgeuk Company of Korea belonging to the National Theater of Korea. This company performs changgeuk, traditional Korean opera in the Korean folk song style called pansori.

“Trojan Women” is a simple story. It is set in the Kingdom of Troy just after 10 years’ Trojan War ended with Greece’s victory. Trojan women from the royal family were captured and now, they are waiting to be taken to Greece as slaves. The women realize their fate and grieve deeply.

“Trojan Women” opens with Soul of Souls singing the prologue with an orchestra. After that, the queen of Troy, Hecuba, and the other Trojan women sing their lines like they are shouting almost for the next 2 hours. The performers have put on microphones, but I did not think that they needed it. Their voice was very loud. As already mentioned, the story is just that horrible fate is awaiting them. There is no solution or surprise at the end. The women erupt with their anger, grudge and grief.

The white stage set is simple. In the centre of the stage, there is a square arcade shaped like an entrance of a tent for captives. The roof of the arcade is connected to a platform with two staircases on either side of the stage. The back of the stage is cut into a semicircle shape. Various images---fire, stars and clouds---are sometimes projected in that arcade and the semicircle part. Trojan women wear white while Helen and the Greek solders wear gray. “Trojan Women” focuses on each woman one by one---Hecuba’s lament, Cassandra, her daughter’s grudge and madness, Andromache, the wife of Hecuba’s son’s grief and sorrow, and then the queen of Sparta who was the main cause of the Trojan War, Helen... In one scene, Andromache’s baby son was taken by the Greeks. When he was returned to his mother, the cloth that wrapped him turned from blue to red. Even this tragic incident is not the climax of this story. The play climaxes when Hecuba’s fury and grief explode. She says that even if they die, their brave figures will be talked about long into the future. She climbs up to the roof of the arcade and stands firm. Then she declares that she will never leave Troy. Finally Soul of Souls appears again and sings for the end of the play.

Before the show starts

For me, Ong Keng Sen’s work from last year, “Sandaime Richard” was not a successful one. “Sandaime Richard” is based on a Japanese theatre director/play writer, Noda Hideki’s play. “Sandaime Richard” was written for Noda’s former company, “Yume no Yumin-sha” in 1990. In this play, Shakespeare meets Shylock and the world of “Richard Ⅲ” is replaced by a family feud in a school for Japanese flower arrangement. While the narrative is deconstructed using vast wordplay, actors “play” using up their bodies. Chaos on the stage suddenly drives the audience to a moving catastrophe. That is the unique feature of Noda’s play, I think. Ong Keng Sen’s concepts were ambitious --- mixing Southeast Asian culture with Japanese culture, making the characters’ gender vague and showing traditional arts with contemporary style. However, perhaps one of the most important things to make that play fascinating was where Ong Keng Sen as a theatre director is not his strongest. There is not enough “play” on Ong’s stage. This “play” does not mean performing arts and literary means “playing”. Maybe it is better to describe as being a “fool”. Ong’s “Sandaime Richard” was beautifully unified and the intellectual theme was clear. However, its beauty or intellect did not have enough enthusiasm to move the audience. Performing arts are done by the human body, and the audience directly experiences that. The human body is not always beautiful. Enthusiasm given by the human body is not so logical. On stage, vulgar passion or nonsensical energy is often important to give enjoyment to the audience, I think.

On the contrary, this year’s “Trojan Women” is Ong’s more successful work. Trojan women’s grudge or grief becomes passionate and powerful by Korean pansori. This simple concept worked well. The rough and strong impression of the performance prevented the stage from falling into unexciting beauty.

However, one scene was unacceptable for me. That was Helen’s scene. After the Trojan women brought out their grief, Helen appears on stage. Suddenly a grand piano with an accompanist appears as well. She starts singing along with the piano accompaniment. She is the root cause of the Trojan War. Nevertheless, Helen is singing for forgiveness to Menelaus, her former husband. Menelaus is moved by her song, entreaty and eventually forgives her. She never meets the tragic fate of the Trojan women. That unfair and injustice makes Hecuba furious. Helen is wearing grey, the colour used by the Greeks. More importantly, a male actor is playing this role. The male actor is disguised as “the most beautiful woman all over the world” and sings with the piano accompaniment. He is not just wearing a grey costume, but his song also does not sound like pansori, used by the Trojan women. This completely different and sudden scene should have created modulation on the stage because the Trojan women’s passionate grief by pansori constantly keeps high tension and it makes the audience tired. However, I do not think that this modulation worked well. It should have become a partly comical scene, but it is likely to have caused a snigger. Maybe the reason is that until reaching this moment, the serious scenes were too long and there was no space for a playful tone. This sudden comical or sarcastic scene feels like a not funny joke and it is lacking in balance. Besides I do not like the idea that the only one woman who never share the sorrows with the Trojan women is played by a male actor. Grey and white, Greece and Troy, men and women and a “traitor” among the women acted by a man...the contrast is beautiful as formation. However it is unexciting on stage because we see the concept too clearly.

The general impression of this “Trojan Women” is that everyone is constantly shouting for grief or grudge. It is like listening to sirens that never stops. This makes the audience a little bit exhausted. However, this unrefined passion and tension eventually makes that climax powerful. When Hecuba climbs up to the roof and declares that she will not leave Troy there, she raises the audience’s spirit, as well. In the tragedy of war, the Trojan women cannot do anything. They are violated and there is only despair and ruin in front of them. However, even though they know there will be no happiness in their future, they strongly show how they are surviving through this terror. Among the sorrow of women, war casualties, on the contrary, women’ vitality wells up.

However, the most moving moment is when the characters just speak in ordinary and calm tomes---no shouting and no singing. There are only a few scenes in this play, so they feel more impressive. For example, Cassandra --- she has the power to predict the future --- told Hecuba, “Mother, your suffering will end soon because you can live only for a few days.” Or, one of the Greek soldiers offered the Trojan women for Andromache’s killed baby, the heir to Troy, “I will help to bury him.” On the one hand, the intense passion from anger and sorrow show the audience the last glow of the Trojan women’s life. On the other hand, the words in natural and ordinary tones touches us with humanity to sympathize with others. And “The 10 years’ war ended, and the next 10 years’ war will begin.” When Hecuba quietly says, that sounds as if she talks about our era, our anxiety and tension in the contemporary world. There is no requiem. There is just a shout and fury. (3 January 2018)

Curtain call by the cast

Victoria Theatre

[Film] Autumn, Autumn (Chuncheon, Chuncheon)

08 July 2017

“Autumn, Autumn (Chuncheon, Chuncheon)”---The O.P.E.N. (Singapore International Festival of Arts)

Release Year: 2016

Country: South Korea

Director: Jang Woo-jin

Cast: Yang Heung-ju, Lee Se-rang, Woo Ji-hyeon

Location I watched: The Projector

Story from the festival program:

Ji-hyeon longs to escape his stiffing hometown of Chuncheon. A job opportunity comes and the young man goes to Seoul for an interview. On the train back, he meets a middle-aged couple, Heung-ju and Se-rang, who presumably are revisiting the places they once saw when they were young.

A young man and a middle-aged couple on the train.

I went into the screening about 5 minutes late and I am sorry for that. Anyway, Chuncheon is located about 80 minutes by train north of Seoul. It is famous for its beautiful lakeside landscape. Although I missed the first part of the film, I assumed that the film began with the last train to Chuncheon taken by a young man, Ji-hyeon and a middle-aged couple, Heung-ju and Se-rang. Ji-hyeon’s job interview from the above Story is just a setting. While the 3 of them meet in the train as mentioned in Story, they do not get to know each other. Ji-hyeon sat down next to Heung-ju. When he left his seat, he asked Heung-ju to watch over his bag. That is all. They meet as total strangers and get off the train as total strangers. After that, their lives never cross each other.

When the train reached Chuncheon, at first, Ji-hyeon’s story---how he spent 2 nights and 2 days there---begins. After his story finished, the time goes back to Chuncheon station the last train reached and the story of the couple, Heung-ju and Se-rang begins in the same way. Actually the couple is not a husband and wife. They have their own family, but they are not having an affair with one another. They are accompanying each other on a sentimental journey to Chuncheon. Like Ji-hyeon, they also have a problem in their own lives. In Chuncheon, Ji-hyeon and the couples never encounter, but they visit the same places. For example, the couple visits the same temple on the mountain Ji-hyeon visited. They have lunch at the same restaurant where Ji-hyeon was helping. Ji-hyeon looked at a mantis on the ground. The couple also saw a mantis in the restaurant and talked about a mantis. The day after the three of them arrived is the day of Chuncheon Marathon. There are scenes where both of them encounter the race crowd.

“Autumn, Autumn” is a film about the life of ordinary people who never shares intersecting moments in spite of being close each other. At the same places people go and come, they just pass by one another. But each one will have a different story like me or you. In one way, it sounds beautiful. However, in another way, this is a feature film made by combining two boring stories from ordinary people. Life is amazing for everyone. At the same time, any life---even for a billionaire or a king---is also not so interesting. That is why I think that at least film is a way to make life glamorous. What I mean with “glamorous” is not related to sexual allure or production design. For example, filmmaker Sono Shion’s early work, “Bicycle Sighs” was a story about 2 lackluster young men and shot on 16mm film. However, that film was glamorous for me.

A scene that was not good for me is when the couple is having lunch in the restaurant. While they are chitchatting, they are lighted or shaded by sunlight, depending on the drift of clouds. The scene was taken by one take. It may be expected that the lighting gives some special atmosphere or suggests something significant. However, I felt annoyed that I had to listen to their long chitchat (which is not so meaningful) under the poor lighting. Some scenes of the film are good and memorable, like a scene Ji-hyeon passing by his old friend on the escalator of Chuncheon station. Also the actors playing the couple were good. As a couple they do not know each other well, their awkward atmosphere is interesting and a little bit suspenseful. The second half of the film is more dramatic than the first half, but the couple’s awkward tension is not enough to draw me. This film lacked a strong appeal for me who likes something gorgeous. (04 August 4, 2017)