VOL.69/2024.04

Korean Theatre Director’s Pick

2023.05.02

The first book I would like to introduce is For Teenagers Asking About Peace and Reunification (Seohaemunjip), by Jung Wook-Sik. Writer Jung is a peace activist that studies a nuclear-free world and peace by establishing a peace network and spreading its values. The illustrations were drawn by illustrator JUNO.
I have been making original plays based on history. I believe that you can find grounds for problems that remain unresolved today through history, and find clues for the future. In particular, the division of the Korean peninsula is one of the issues that I want to touch upon as a creator. In this context, this book provides easy explanations about things that we know vaguely about, or have no knowledge of, by starting with a question, “Can we become happier if the two Koreas are reunited?” Being familiar with something or things being obvious does not mean that you have a good understanding of it. Here, the book talks about why the Korean peninsula was divided in the first place, why wars occur, why peace is yet to come, what the countries North Korea, the US, and China to South Korea are, and how to maintain peace, while asking meaningful questions to reflect on.
This book is also referred to as a guidebook for peace and reunification, targeting teenagers. But, I strongly recommend it to people – not just teenagers – interested in the division and reunification of the Korean peninsula, as well as war. The writer says that there is no single answer to peace and reunification. But, if we come up with our own answers and continuously ask questions to overcome the barriers of division, I believe that we will take a step closer to peace and reunification.

The next book I would like to introduce is writer Kim Do-Young’s play A Hawk: The Story of Wangseogae (Eum Books). I also directed the work at Namsan Drama Center in 2020. In the book, “Wangseogae,” who was working as a falconer in Manchuria in 1932, loses his wife and his young daughter to five Japanese soldiers. Surviving alone, he works in China Town in Yokohama, Japan, as a delivery man after the war, with the name “Wang Genjo.”
The story begins as he delivers a package to Japanese Ichigo’s place. As always, he hands over the package to Ichigo, playing up to Ichigo’s endless chat. There, Ichigo asks about the old crate that he has been carrying all along, all of a sudden. Triggered by that question – the question that he has never let go of in his heart and has never spoken of for the past 21 years, Wangseogae is resolute in finding the answer to it. He seeks after the 5 Japanese soldiers sitting on 5 horses on “that day” 21 years ago.
Wangseogae is a person that lives with the tragic memory of his family, which spans a long period from the 1930s to the 1950s. This book asks if an individual with pain from the past can have their life recovered, and whether true forgiveness and reconciliation can happen for real. The book will be a chance for us to look back at where we are right now at the same time. I hope the book gives us the time to analyze ourselves from an offender’s perspective and think about guilt and emotions to empathize with others’ pain.

Written by Lee Jun-Woo (Head of Vaeda Theater)