The Union for North Korean Freedom hosted
its play, Ojakgyo, at the Myeongdong Samilrochango Theater from October 14th to
the 26th. Both South and North Korean actors took part in the
performance, centering on themes of unification between the two Koreas.
The title of the play actually
derives from a Korean folk tale where the daughter of the King of Heaven falls in
love with a herdsman from Earth. After the king finds out about this and
banishes both of them to opposite ends of the Milky Way, the magpies and
crows of Earth take pity on their pain and decide to make a bridge using their
own bodies every evening on July 7th according to the lunar calendar. This
bridge enables the king’s daughter and the herdsman to meet each other in the
middle of the Milky Way once a year on this date.
The play employed similar concepts to that
of the folktale, in which a boy and girl fall in love but are faced with
adverse circumstances–an allegory for the current situation between South and
North Korea in terms of unification.
In the play, Cheol Soo, played by Yeon Lee,
who dreams of becoming a director for a documentary, finally decided to move to
Seoul in hopes of gaining better opportunities. Being the eldest son on his
father’s side of the family, he is also under constant pressure from his
parents to get married before he gets any older. His mother, who is always
nagging him to get married, sets him up on a blind date. Cheol Soo agrees to
the arrangement and falls in love at first sight with his date.
His date, Young Hee, played by Soo In Yu,
does not share Cheol Soo’s enthusiasm during the blind date and treats him
coldly in hopes that he will give up trying to impress her, which only serves
to increase Cheol Soo’s attraction to her. His persistence begins to draw her in, until he reveals that he is producing a documentary on female North Korean
defectors and she abruptly ends the date, perplexing both Cheol Soo and the
audience.
Despite strong disapproval from friends,
Young Hee eventually ends up dating Cheol Soo for a year, while pretending to
be a typical city girl born and bred in Seoul, covering up the truth that she
is actually a North Korean defector. Young Hee’s identity is eventually
revealed by a mutual friend who takes part in the documentary, and Cheol Soo
nonchalantly asks if she would consider becoming part of the film.
Young Hee’s testimony kept the audience on
edge as to how the story would end. She told the story of how she crossed the
Tumen River with her mother after leaving North Korea and despite successfully
escaping, the two were separated after her mother was caught by public security
forces in China. Cheol Soo eventually forgives Young Hee for lying and the two
have a traditional Korean marriage. Their desire to be together seemed
impossible due to the social pressures, but they were able to
overcome the hardships and find peace and unity together.
Although the play ended with a typical
“happily ever after” scenario, the two Koreas are far from such a joyous
conclusion. Over 60 years have passed since the division; we can only
wait and hope that the South and North will see a peaceful unification like
that of Cheol Soo and Young Hee.
The playwright and director of the play,
Professor Lee Dae Young, mentioned that most South Koreans are willing to help North Korean defectors, but when it comes down to a defector marrying his
or her child, the situation becomes significantly more complicated–a sad
reality in today’s South Korean society he pointed out.
This truth is conveyed in one the most poignant lines
from the play, when another defector character in the play uses humor to express the displacement he feels
in South Korean society, “Although our skin color is the same and we speak the
same language, we get treated worse than those big-nosed [a common portrayal of
Westerners in North Korean propaganda] Yankees.”
