The Korean Wave 2006 - Korean Cultural Service

The New York Times, FRIDAY, march 31, 2006
a4
Gay-Themed Film Gives
Closet Door a Tug
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
SEOUL, South Korea
and the Clown” lacked a single top star from
South Korea’s booming film industry, or the
“King
other usual ingredients of a surefire blockbuster.
And in a country where homosexuality was removed
from the Youth Protection Commission’s list of “socially
unacceptable” acts only in 2004, the film centered on a
gay love triangle in a 16th-century royal court: a young
male clown torn between his love for a fellow clown and
an amorous king.
But to everyone’s surprise, not least the director’s, in mid-
March the movie became the most popular ever in South
Korea’s history, seen by more than 12 million people, or
one in four residents. In American terms, it would perhaps
be the equivalent of “Brokeback Mountain” – to
which this movie has been loosely compared – grossing
as much as “Titanic.”
As a cultural phenomenon, “King and the Clown” has led
to sometimes confused, sometimes uncomfortable discussions
here about the nature of homosexuality, something
that was rarely discussed publicly until a few years ago.
At the core of the movie, which the producers hope to
take to the United States, are two male clowns, a masculine
one named Jang Saeng and a feminine, delicate-looking
one named Gong Gil, who assumes the female part
in skits. Itinerant performers who depend on handouts
for their survival, they are condemned to death one day
for a bawdy skit insulting Yonsan, a king remembered in
Korean history for his tyranny. But after succeeding in
making the king laugh, the clowns are pardoned and allowed
to become court jesters.
The king becomes enamored of Gong Gil, and the ensuing
relationship fuels Jang Saeng’s jealousy. Physical displays
of affection are subtle: the king kisses the sleeping
clown in one brief scene; in another showing the two
clowns sleeping next to each other, Jang Saeng gently
tucks in his partner.
17