Seoul, SOUTH KOREA – A brand new film about South Korean historical past is getting a whole lot of consideration right here.
Konkuk Jeonjaeng, (The Start of Korea), which dropped February 1, paints South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, because the nation’s true hero. It does this by way of a retelling of true tales beforehand saved underneath wraps and by detailing how the nation was born.
By the top, the film has utterly debunked the misunderstandings about Rhee to subvert the viewers’s prior misconceptions.
Konkuk Jeonjaeng mentions how Rhee is well-known for his “controversial presidency,” which is usually known as a partial dictatorship.
The film recurrently diverts from detailed explanations of historic occasions to a extra informal interview with consultants for his or her opinions concerning these occasions.
Throughout Rhee’s presidency alone, many tragic occasions transpired. For instance, the infamous April nineteenth Revolution began off as a protest carried out by college students nationwide about their training and election fraud, leading to many painful deaths and injury.
A typical sentiment amongst consultants interviewed within the movie about this occasion highlighted the argument that it’s tough to say Rhee’s presidency was led utilizing dictatorship mechanisms and attributes.
The consultants proven within the movie embody Prof. Gregg Brazkinski of George Washington College. They argued that so-called ‘dictatorships’ present excessive deprivation and exclusion of primary human rights however that President Rhee didn’t deal with his residents in an inhumane method as quintessential dictators like China’s Mao Zedong and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines did.
Regardless of consultants not designating him a ‘dictator,’ the vast majority of folks nonetheless seek advice from him as one. Whereas it’s simple that his authorities was repressive and to some extent, authoritarian, it’s all the time straightforward to criticize a authorities for its dealing with of a particular disaster with not a lot perception in regards to the state of affairs.
On the similar time, the opposite half of Korean folks consider that Rhee considerably impacted the South Korean financial system by presenting them with ladies’s voting rights, land reforms and even going so far as making a secure relationship with the US that led to a long-lasting, fruitful alliance between the 2 nations that also stands immediately.
General, Konkuk Jeongjaeng explains the misunderstandings about Rhee in a completely fascinating, pleasing documentary film that leaves viewers questioning all the things they thought they knew and questioning what else has been misconstrued in historical past.
Josephine Yein Lee is a Junior Reporter with Youth Journalism Worldwide.
