Gendernauts

The first movie that blew me away. It was about time, after all those experiments yesterday. A documentary film from Germany about the life and being of Transsexuals in the San Francisco Bay Area. I don't have any connections to that group of people, so it was an interesting insight into a completely different world for me. The persons interviewed hade all their own special history of changing into the other sex, and thus also an individual way of living with it, feeling it and expressing themselves. The director, Monika Treut, had a very familiar, thick German accent, which added a little bit of humor to the story. Not only the people affected, but also normal people who are involved into the process of the sex change, the doctors, or the police - in case of assault against a transgender - and others also got to tell their part of the story. Monika Treut captured the hostility towards the isolated community as well as their social foundation in the city. I found that most of the people depicted put a strong emphasis on their gender, the way they present it to others. Being male or female or inbetween is not important in terms of being one or the another - but showing that there's a difference and they cross the line.

Digital Film

Tonight it wasn't only Digitopia which I went to see, but three movies, and Digitopia was just the second one. One of the surprises was that people wich (digital) film cameras could enter the theater, but before the movie an announcer said that picture taking during the movie is forbidden. Hard to tell if there's a video camera running. That's the way how black copies hit the internet. Of course the press was there, too, bothering people, but they were too busy with the director so they left the other foreigners alone. By the way, I counted only five foreigners, including me, but the announcement was bilingual again. Nice. The girl doing the announcement got a lot of applause when she stopped translating the introduction into English, I liked that.

The first movie was from China, called In Public. It didn't even really start, I already knew that would be wearying, but I didn't foresee how much it would bore me and the audience. It started with a scene in a train station, some guy, waiting for somebody. That's it, the first five minutes you can see him walking around, getting nervous because the camera is following him, etc. Folowing scenes included people waiting for the bus, people driving the bus (I do that myself everyday for two hours, thanks a lot), and other tedious events, besides the shaking of the video camera in the bus scene almost made me sick, it was like The Blair Witch Project, another blatantly overrated movie. Sometime inbetween I just slept, as the director of the movie decided to show nothing in particular at all and then plainly nothing happened. I woke up from some horrible music, it was a scene with people dancing in some kind of bar, the singer croaked something like

The vigorous and strong Chinese people are marching into the new age

Blabla. Whatever. Propaganda is everywhere the same. The only thing I found halfway interesting in that movie was that I say inner China as it is, unsparingly, poor, plain, waifed. The dragon lost weight today.

The audience was clapping out of politeness - or was it mercy? - because the director of the movie was present, but I don't think that many people liked that flick.

Digitopia was the second movie. The story is easy, some black guy in England has this idea of a relationship to an Internet prostitute, calls her up, wants more than a plain "bussines relation", but the women is avoiding him. The technical part of the movie is clean, well done with interesting camera shots and colors, the latter seemed to me as being adjusted to the personalities of the two protagonists. Inbetween, some theories about physics about the universe, the contraction thereof and the consequences to humans showed up but that didn't seem to be an integral part of the whole movie, more isolated and displaced.
The ending was quite abrupt, but that didn't hurt too much. This movie certainly woke me up again. In regard to the content of the last short film, I could have slept as well.

The last movie, A Conversation With God was again a Chinese movie, this time not as slow and boring as the first one, but there was also no storyline, no message I could read out of the presented scenes. It was like the director just went through the streets and filmed anything. No filtering, no intention. What happens when every bloke can afford a digital video camera. The first scene was halfway interesting, some guy in China, dancing in trance and chastening himself with several different weapons. The strange part was that although he was bleeding he had no wounds after some guy wiped his face and back with a towel. Everything after that was just horrible. The next scene was outside, some huge dance stange, cheap as the ugly fat-ass girl and the pimp on it.

Look how she dances, look at her body, how soft, how tight, push harder, harder! ...Sir, don't point with that camera at us, Sir!

Besides, the girl didn't even dance to the music, she just moved her hips awkwardly. When she started to take her tight bikini, the director has been hindered by spectators of the event and the pimp to continue the filming. The next scenes were taken just completely out of the blue. A few minutes in an underground walkway, where some people pissed, but that wasn't really interesting. Some people already left the theater at this point, I could feel with them. The next scene showed some dead fish at a river, some dying, some with maggots all over. The audience was delighted. The last scene was about some kind of fraud "medium", an old woman getting money from people for blessing them with scent sticks and prescribing strange medications with probably no other effect than diarrhea and loss of money for the patient who takes it. When the "blessed" a little boy with her scent sticks, I thought, get the poor kid out of there! If he has to grow up with such superstition around him, it will never die out...

I can just hope the other movies are better than what I had to watch today.

The Jeonju International Film Festival

It starts tonight! The masses are preparing for the opening ceremony, curiosity, impatience, anticipations, expectations are in the air! The show is about to begin...

I didn't know what to expect first, except maybe a lot of people and a great show before the movie. What actually was going on was interesting to observe. The organizators ostensibly did everything they could to give a certain professional and international flair to the event. I haven't seen so many press and camera men around since Michael Jackson's - or Michael Jackson's fake - visit of a bookstore in Prague. A few directors, actors and actresses showed up, but unfortunately I don't know anything about Korean starts, so I could just observe some Korean groupies reactions and how several TV stations tried to get some good interviews with people who perhaps were famous or important for the festival in some respect. Interestingly, the foreigners were treated like le creme de la creme. I had a MBC camera hanging on my lips for several minutes, which was already annoying. You can't even make a dumb face without having a few millions looking at you. ;-)

The Japanese and Chinese foreigners by the way didn't get any invitations, in contrast to the caucasian or african foreigners. Unfair, racist, but the motive is at least understandable, even if I don't agree with it. If you want to have foreigners on that festival, you need someone who look different and in Korea that's certainly not other Asians. Reminds me how I got a job in Japan once - I look like a foreigner, and that's what they want. My girlfriend - a Korean, residing in Tokyo right now - has been rejected for the same reason.

We have been seated right next to the Ambassadors, the common people had to content themselves with the seats in the rear. I enjoyed the show, but I didn't feel well with that situation after a while - but I didn't stand up and changed my seat with some resident of Jeonju either, so I better shut up. The German Ambassador unfortunately didn't show up, bad luck. I wanted to exchange a few words with him about his work.

The show started with the introduction by two famous Korean actors. Don't ask for names, please. They mentioned that in the following days, they are going to show over two hundred movies. I don't know about other film festivals, but that sounds like a lot to me. The introduction was held in Korean and English, which was nice for the few foreigners present. Again, the organizators tried to give a professional impression, even the minister for culture showed up, but at the end, they didn't leave out the trumpery when the mayor was on stage - again that flashy swags-thrower. ;-)

The first performance was modern-alternative, which probably scared away a few impatient people, and in the first place, it was very loud. Everything, not just the festival, the music in the restaurants, street-sellers, cafes or other public places is deafening. The second performance was great. It was a group of drums,
Samunori in Korean. It reminded me strongly of Japanese Taiko. The group was perfect, the synchorization was exact, the drumbeat dynamic, and flawless in spite of many changes in the rhythm - the lightning fit to it, and all in all, I think it was the best part of the evening.

The movie itself, Waikiki Brothers was ...different. The story was alright, depicting a group of unsuccessful musicians, who are trying to make a living by making music. The atmosphere of the whole film was depressing, all characters were unsuccessful in their lives and unhappy with it. The protagonist, although set into contrast to former members of the group who left and started to work as being the one who lives as he always wanted to, is basically not different than the other people. Lost existences, searching for love, fortune and happiness where is none.

The movie was in Korean, so I had to be contented with the English translation. There were jokes in the movie, but those I understood were really shallow, but somebody told me that the translation in regard to the jokes were bad and that the original meaning has been lost, so I can't really say something about that part. The excessive length of the movie was another problem for me, I had the impression that the director didn't know how to end the story. Parts of the movie's message and less important scenes have been repeated several times, they could have shorten it a little bit. ;-)

What was really dissapointing was the technical and asthetical part. Except one scene, the music was horrible, although that fit to the content of the movie. The colors, the camera, the performance of some actors was really B-movie. Is that what in the introduction has been called the New Korean Film? I hope not.

I notice that I have some difficulty to express my thought about the movie in English, I apologize. If I ever get to it, I'll post a link to a detailed review in German, but don't count on it. ;-)

After the movie was finished, everybody stormed to the busses to get to the reception at Hotel Riviera. In just one month, I made it twice there, not bad, eh? The V.I.P. bus even had an escort! It reminded me a little bit of the showing-off of the late croatian president Tudjman, who reigned in Zagreb like a king and used to drive around with a lot of escorts, stopping the traffic on both sides of his way. The reception itself was great, every time they have so much great food, Sushi, tons of Salmon and hundreds of other delicatesses. I must confess I didn't really pay attention to the speeches given, there was too much food waiting for me. When I didn't eat, I met a few professors from Chonbuk Unitersity and a few foreigner teachers who were of course all invited to the festival. The event was pure luxury, almost decadent - but I surely enjoyed it!

One little surprise that night was one of the actresses, Karo L...something, in the french movie La Comune: When we took the busses back to university, we planned to go to the Jukebox, a club in that area, she asked me after our destination in English. I turned around asking my boss ;-), and suddenly the actress also started to talk in German to me. Phew. Never presume nobody understands your language when you're in a foreign country. We talked about the movie - I almost have regrets I didn't buy a ticket for it - and how she and me ended up in Korea, about Japan and the schoolbook scandal and other things.

Sometime during the reception, a few guys from the press wanted to do an interview with me, via interpreter. "Well, err, I didn't listen to the speeches, but the food is marvellous... *burp" - what else could I have said? So I refused to volunteer for my five minutes of fame.

back to school II

This morning I had my second lesson at the highschool. The class was smaller, and the people were also more active than the first class. This time I avoided all mistakes I did the first time. I watched out that we had enough time for the last excercise and even the homework. I pushed the pupils in the first twenty minutes - again that "ask me, ask me what ever you want to know about" - by asking them questions if they hesitated too much. Basically, somebody then just turned the question around and asked me, but so we didn't sit around too much doing nothing. I did the same in the next exercise, they read the first text and asked about unknown words. If they didn't ask quick enough, I asked them to explain certain words - and if they couldn't, I did it. Smears off a few minutes. At the exercise they had to do in pairs, I explained much more. Part of that was using verbs (just inserting), yesterday I made the mistake I didn't check if they understood those words and if they can read my handwriting! At the university, students have some difficulty to read handwritten text - the same problem as the pupils at the highschool have. So, I tried to write neat, but my handwriting is still horrible. I guess I just have to get used to writing with chalk. After the lesson I thought it was good, but I asked Mr Kim, their teacher, to send me some feedback after I'm gone next week. I'm curious what the kids think about it.

the day before...

The Jeonju International Film Festival! Matin and I met at Kaeksa, the city at seven o'clock. A parade, was planned for that evening, as a prelude for the Fiml Festival, starting tomorrow. There were lot of people on the street, and later it got really crowded which reminded me of the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto last year.
Then there was that group of Taekwondo kids. First I didn't notice it, but then I was like "ehh??" - some of them had paint on their cheeks. The German flag on the left, the German Reichskriegsflagge - black white red - on the other. Again, I don't think there was any political intention, but there are certain images of Germans in Asia, which are used quite witlessly.

The policemen at the performance at Kaeksa were also different from those in Japan, at the Meji Shrine during New Years Eve. Those ones here turned their backs from the audience watched the performance, too. The policemen in Japan didn't move an inch for over an hour.

back to school

Today I had my first lesson at the highschool. The pupils were quite surprised when I walked in. Mr Kim didn't tell them anything about this lesson, and at the beginning he only told them that I'm doing an internship and conducting that lesson. I think the first shock came when I only talked in German to them. To easen up the situation, I asked them to ask me anything they wanted to know - but in German. First, they were hesitating, but then it was fun. They understood more than I anticipated, but I noticed that they were not accustomed to speek freely. We read a text about a girl in Heidelberg writing her parents in Korea, they asked for unknown words, then I asked them about the content. During the second part of the lesson, they had to use a sentence structure using new grammar - to want and to be able to - in pairs. It seemed that they didn't know what to do, so that part of the lesson didn't go that well. At the end of the hour, I gave them a letter from me, asking for a written reply. Might be too difficult, but we'll see what happens next week when I have my last lesson at the school.

tickets

I got all my cards for the International Jeonju Film Festival. One week, eight movies. Although I would have liked to see more, I'm going to watch only one movie a day - I have work to do, too, so I'm going to be busy enough. The movies are: Waikiki Brothers (at the opening), Seasons of Blood and Hope, I.K.U., K.aF.Ka-Fragment, Digitopia, Love's Bitch, Gendernauts and the closing movie. The latter is not decided yet, they are going to show a movie which recieved an award for supporting the new Asian film developement.

About I.K.U., I've been told it's the most controversial movie at the festival. I found out that controversial for Koreans in my age means lots of uncut sex scenes. Censorship is pretty harsh in Korea, mosaics over the slightest glimpse of naked skin, so usually all movies are censored, but not at the Film Festival! Great, if I.K.U. is really some kind of half-baked porno movie, I'll have to take care that the Koreans sitting left and right of me don't wet me.

exam week

The two beginner's classes had exam in German language. I didn't do much today except of watching the students during the exam. The questions were not too difficult, but I think listening was by far the hardest part. I tried to imagine how difficult for the students that task must have been. A few years ago I had the same level in Japanese, and I thought I could never learn so much to answer all those hard questions, but that changed. Being now in the perspective of the native speaker, it is not easy to imagine how it is for a beginner. When I started to study in Duesseldorf, I heard about a professor who was working on a new dictionary for Japanese learners - but he din't want to include readings for the Kanji! Obviously he lost the student's perspective, because with his dictionary most students would have to look up the reading in a seperate book, and a good dictionary is not supposed to be like that. I hope I won't forget the students perspective when - or better, if - I grow out of it one day.

German influence

Tonight I met with with a few friends of Ms. Choi close to Jeonju University. Last time we were talking about many interesting topics, and this time, too. One of the things I can remember from that evening was that corporal punishment is still in use at schools in Korea. Not really surprising, considering the antiquated educational system and it's hierarchy. In my school years I experienced twice corporal punishment - some teacher hit students - in Germany, and both times it was embarrasing for both sides, and the outcome didn't really help anybody.

Sometime later that evening we talked about Korean children songs: In Jeonju, children songs are from a very special breed. Surprisingly, the owner of the restaurant sang a song, but the melody was the same as a German children song! The lyrics though are Korean, but many have the same melody like German children songs. The answer: About one hundred years ago, a German concertmaster tought in Jeonju, and since that time, all Korean parents sing children songs in Korea, but with the original German melody. I tried to find out the name of the concertmaster, but until today, unsuccessfully. If you know his name, please click on my name below and enlighten me. :-)

Am I a number?

This morning I went to the bank with Matin to change my last Japanese money. It was hard to give it out of my hands as it is everything that's left from Japan. Except my Kanjibook, maybe. Instead of using my name for the money exchange, Matin used his - and his ID, a long, maybe eight or ten digit number. We hadn't time yet to talk about it, but that surprised me. I don't know anybody in Germany who memorizes his personal ID number - but Matin said that every Korean know his one. He didn't seem to mind, but I was thinking about discussions in Germany about how far (wo)man can merge in nowadays highly technological environment.

internet cafes

Internet cafes in Korea are great. They are cheap, the computers are fast, the internet connection good - and the service is outstanding. I planned to go to a print shop later and make an order for a stack of personal cards. I had only to check my faxnumber. So I sat down at the computer, opened my eMail account, browsed through my new eMails and wrote down my faxnumber. It didn't take even five minutes, when I went back to the counter - but the guy didn't want any money from me. He just smiled and insinuated with a gesture that I could go without paying. In Germany I had to pay the whole hour for the same thing. Now that's service.

oops

I think I dropped a brick last week. I just read on another page

Avoid writing the name of a living Korean in red ink. This is reserved for the deceased on the official family register.

Great. And I wondered why the Korean guy I wrote my eMailaddress and name for wanted me to use another pen. Well, I guess I'll know better next time. I wonder if there's stuff like that in German culture, where a presumingly "innocent" gesture or behavior can leave a completely wrong impression.

staying at the dorm

Last evening I met again with Ko, a student from the 3rd year at the German department. We planned to watch Matrix at the dorm, but the projector is broken so we had to do something else. In the end, we went to the entertainment area in front of the university. That was the first time that I was there during evening hours - over the day there are many people, but on Saturday nights it's really crowded and vibrating with life. The downside of the homestay is, I'm far from the campus, and thus missing a lot of the life and chances here. During that night I met more students than during the whole last week!

After sleeping over at his place, the next morning I went to the office to prepare a lesson. We met again for lunch, Ko was so kind to arrange a card for the students' cafeteria, so we could eat together. The cafeteria was surprisingly modern from what I expected. Compared to the cafeteria of Ritsumeikan, it was much, much cheaper, but they only had one menu. I was lucky that today they served fish and no meat. It tasted o.k. - no match for the Japanese cafeterias, who are almost like restaurants, but better then the one in Duesseldorf - but I was stuffed anyway. We ate together with some of his friends, and after lunch we sat in a nearby park and talked a little bit. I noticed again how age is important to set rules of behaviours - they asked for my age, of course, but as a foreigner it's not really expected to behave accordingly. The meeting was centered around the oldest one in the group though.