[HanCinema's Film Review] "Non-fiction Diary"

As the popular drama "Reply 1994" notes, there was all sorts of crazy stuff going on in Korea that year. Who could forget those cheerful episodes where the radical wealth distribution group the Jijonpa kidnapped and murdered people, then proceeded to dine on their succulent flesh? Or what about when the Seongsoo Bridge and Sampoong Department Store collapsed, a massive loss of human life caused by those same wealthy plutocrats the Jijonpa so desperately wanted to eat?

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Oh, right. those particular events rather go against the spirit of that particular drama, as they were terrible bad things that shined a rather nasty light on the whole era. So it is with "Non-fiction Diary", a documentary that explores the effects these incidents had on the Korean psyche, and asks to what extent these grisly happenings have had a meaningful impact on the country's modern collective consciousness.

I can't speak with much qualification on this point, as I am not a Korean. But contrasting the events this drama portrays with attitudes from my own country takes on some unsettling dimensions. As one police officer notes, the case of the Jijonpa sounds like something that came from the pen of an overly imaginative screenwriter. It's difficult to process it as being a real event- which makes me wonder why there aren't tour groups for it. Because you see, in America, people commonly tour the murder sites where the Manson family found its victims.

The Seongsoo Bridge and Samsoong Department Store accidents are also curious comparison. I was amazed, honest to goodness amazed, that the executives involved with the decisions were actually punished, not with fines, but actual jail time for causing the death of other human beings. In American jurisprudence this kind of event is almost inconceivable.

So, from my standpoint, Korea already dealt with these situations much better than I would expect anyone in my country could. And yet, for director Jung Yoon-suk-I, that's not enough. He contrasts public and official reaction to these various events and forces rather uncomfortable parallels about what it means to have one kind of justice versus another. The death penalty is explicitly discussed- this was, unsurprisingly, the ultimate fate of the Jijonpa. But the exact justice of the institution seems a questionable one when the story of what happened to the Jijonpa after their capture is compared to the fate of those powerful men with clear leadership positions in Korean society. These more well-connected men objectively caused far more death and destruction than what the Jijonpa could ever have possibly hoped for.

The documentary also has a strong sense of objectivity about it. It's easy to watch the film and come up with a completely different interpretation than what Jung Yoon-suk-I intended. Is the final scene supposed to inspire hope that people are really good at heart? Or is it a snide mockery of those who refuse to accept that they're part of the problem because they don't personally do anything evil? Likewise, the more politically astute may angrily question the way the documentary's objectivity implies a universal Korean reaction to these events. In any event, "Non-fiction Diary" is heady, complicated, serious stuff. Not a fun trip back to the year of 1994, to be sure, but definitely an informative one.

This review was written by William Schwartz as a part of HanCinema's DMZDocs (DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival) coverage.

"Non-fiction Diary" is directed by Jung Yoon-suk-I