Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

Modernity and tradition coexists in 'Kongchilpal'

Actresses Choi Mi-so, left, plays Ok-im and Shin Eui-jung plays Yong-ju in the musical "Kongchilpal Saesamryuk".
/ Courtesy of Moby Dick Production

The story of two women who jumped in front a moving train in April 1931 has been made into the musical "Kongchilpal Saesamryuk".

Advertisement

The title is an old Korean phrase meaning to talk about this and that behind people's back. It was widely used in modern Seoul in the early 1900s. It is also the name of a children's song by composer Hong Nan-pa, who was the uncle of the musical's heroine Ok-im, who wrote a children's poem by the same title.

Penned by Yi Su-jin with music by Naomi Lee, the show brings an unfamiliar subject to Korean musicals - lesbian lovers. Subtitled "Love Story in Springtime Seoul", the musical revolves around two young ladies - Ok-im (played by Choi Mi-so) and Yong-ju (Shin Eui-jung) - and their desire to be liberated in Seoul in 1930.

Ok-im, a freshman at the music department of Ewha College (now Ewha Womans University), is excited about being a "modern" girl with newly-cut bobbed-hair. She is a bubbly, ahead-of-the-curve girl from a rich family and her father Hong Seok-hu is one of the first modern doctors in Korea.

Her gaiety fades when she finds out about her father's affair with promiscuous actress Hwa-dong and Mr. Ryu, a doctor-to-be who has a crush on her, asks for her hand in marriage. She becomes disillusioned by the two faces of "free love" in modern Seoul, where men shamelessly take mistresses and women need approval from their parents before dating.

When she hears the news that her friend Yong-ju, who lives with her conservative parents-in-law and was forced to quit high school to get married might return to school, Ok-im visits her.

The young women realize they have feelings for each other when Yong-ju is rejected for readmission because she was married and runs away from her in-laws' house. Ok-im desperately searches for her and finds Yong-ju in male attire at a theater and confesses her love.

Though inspired by a true story, all details - except for the two young women jumping in front of a train near Yeongdeungpo - are fictional.

The concept of homosexual love in the '30s was quite different from that of the present, the creative team said. Through extensive research on the incident and the period, Lee and Yi found that homosexual relationships, especially for women, were rather encouraged as it was considered "safer" than dating a man.

Lee went to the United Kingdom when she was 13 to attend the Junior Academy of Royal Academy of Music. She then studied at the Royal Academy of Music and earned her master's degree from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University's musical theater writing program.

After spending some 15 years overseas, she stumbled on a news story of the two women and decided to return to Korea.

According to the composer, a waltz in the prologue foretells the tragedy, as it is impossible for three people to waltz together. Swing music in a party scene brings a previously popular music style to modern Seoul.

The songs of Ok-im and Yong-ju mainly focus on expressing their feelings for each other, while Mr. Ryu and Hwa-dong's numbers are more specific in reflecting the times the musical is set in. Mr. Ryu and Hwa-dong's characters are clearly expressed through tango and bossa nova, respectively, but Ok-im and Yong-ju remain just two sweet girls stuck in the wrong time.

Lee's lyrics Rhyme and cling to the melodies, which is exceptional for a homegrown musical.

The real story is dramatic enough but the musical fails to convey the emotional wreckage. The tragic love is diluted in a time when modernity and tradition coexist. It is more likely that the true protagonist of "Kongchilpal Saesamryuk" is Seoul, going through modernization in the '30s.

The show runs through Aug. 5 at Small Theater Blue at Chungmu Art Hall in central Seoul. Tickets cost 40,000 won. For more information, call 1577-3363.


By Kwon Mee-yoo

❎ Try Ad-free