The meaning of the movie title is for the comfort women's souls to return their home. When you watch that movie, it starts with a line, "This is hell".
Why they did some bad stuff to Korean girls. They like some beautiful flowers and pretty butterflies as normal girls do and I wonder why they feel guiltiness about themselves. In this movie, Korean people can aware of it happened during the World War II. Japanese soldiers were in Korea and without knowing any reasons, they just took some Korean young girls away from their family and home, and then, they abused the girls, made them sexual slaves, and did not let them go back. One scene which I selected, there are some parts in that scene I want to argue about; you can see their injuries (abrasion and bruise) on their faces and bodies, see one of girls' older brother's death, to guard for a crazy girl and said something make us frown, and a song.
When you watch the whole movie you noticed that the girls got injuries by Japanese soldiers. Some soldiers were sadists and if you disobey them, you be beaten then. That is how those girls got injuries. You also can hear many terrified screamings in the movie. But I think the producer of movie didn't represent well about actual fears that the comfort women felt, I'm not talking about some rape scenes. Producer only unidimensional represented of sufferings not internally.
In the scene, there is one girl who looks not normal person because she always holds a yellow flower, keeps walking around, and said "elder" to the soldiers. Her name is Sun yi. Why she always held a yellow flowers? Because meaning of the color yellow is remembrance and sickness. Sun-yi had a biological older brother who served in a Japanese military base. She is psychologically traumatized by her older brother's death because Japanese soldiers killed him by using weapons and trampled on him and two soldiers grabbed her both arms and let her kept watch him to die even though, she screamed so aloud. They killed him just because he was not Japanese. There is one more Korean boy who served as Japanese soldier besides her brother. After the scene that I selected to write about, he also died by the soldiers because they made him to kill some Korean girls, but he disobey the boss's order so he shoot the gun on his head. The beginning part that I chose, when he walked into a girl's room with puzzled face, bruise faced girl automatically started to take off her clothes and never looked up. Her name is Jeong min. He waved his hand and said that he is not going to do, he wants to talk. He asked her name with speaking Japanese because he never use Korean. She replied her Japanese name which is a leader of that place made. Jeong min kept head down, he re-asked her actual name. She dropped tears and said "I don't know" in Korean. Think about the scene, what does the scene try to make you feel about.
There is a river in bush, young girls soak their feet into the water and speak Korean. A Japanese soldier with gun on his left shoulder came up to them and said that stop using Korean. Sun-yi said that to join with them in Korean to that soldier since she became crazy girl she thinks every soldiers are her brothers. When he was going to strike her head by his weapon, there is a girl, Bun suk who has been there as sexual slave for long time than other girls, she walked up and guarded her. She hobbles. And Bun suk said "I will do well in my room, therefore could you give us about 10 minutes for having our time?" to the soldier. It makes me frown when I heard the line. Anyway, he accepted her request and pinched her cheek slightly. If someone watch only that part, they would be misunderstanding them as couple. Since she got permission she didn't life her head up until he leaves. This emphasis us more feel slaves.
She slapped Sun yi's face right after he left, her face turns to red, and then the yellow flower is dropped, and said, "you cannot die politely". When I heard that line, it makes me sorrow because they think themselves not going back home, do think to death.
Lastly, in the scene, a young girl asked to Bun suk to sing a song for them because she used to sing now in Northern Korea. We can realize that during the WWII, it wasn't divide two Koreas because Bun suk and several girls spoke in north korean dialect. She stood up and sang a song with a slight movements of her arms and in a sad voice for the girls. There are some emotions that I definitely feel and maybe so are you, which are sadness, resentful, resignation, and hope. There are two verses, the first verse is about a situation which don't want parting and the second verse is about a situation in unilateral notice of parting. It made me remind the beginning of the movie, all the young girls thought that they are going to shoes factory and stay there for few weeks and can come back home, but it is totally not.
Japanese soldiers suddenly take their daughters and soldiers said that they are going to some factories and will get back home in few weeks to girls. But the factories were hells and lived as not human beings. Also never get back home because they killed kids if they disobey, get pregnant, and to be sick and burn them. There is a few of comfort women in South and North Korea and they just want to hear Japaneses' apologies. That is all, but they never own up for that issue.
3 Reviews
Harrowing
Leofwine_draca11 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A dark and harrowing look at Japanese WW2-era war crimes from the point of view of the Korean women kidnapped by soldiers and forced to become 'comfort women', a euphemism for prostitutes on the Chinese mainland, shipped across to keep the occupying troops happy. It's as graphic and unpleasant as you'd expect for a film focused on rape and murder, and yet it's also very well made and acted, quite beautifully shot at times, and of course as visceral and moving as you'd expect.
Some pretty scenes make this worth watching
mrrcott28 October 2016
Spirits Homecoming (2016)
It is alleged that during World War 2 the Japanese army kept 1 million women from occupied countries and kept them as slaves where they were euphemistically known as 'comfort women'. If little is known about them, it may be because their story has not been told in film before. The film took the director 14 years to make. The actress playing Jungmin (Ha-nung) was not paid but will receive a share of the profits.
This film is effective at showing how girls as young as 14 were removed from their homes and ordered to with dozens of men daily, and where they faced terrible punishments for disobeying orders. The film is set mainly in 1943, interspersed with scenes in 1991 where a much older Young-OK tries to settle her past and say goodbye to her friend Jungmin who didn't survive the war.
When Eun-kyung goes to a temple to train as a shaman, she helps Young-OK communicate with Jungmin. The past is linked with the present in all kinds of interesting ways. Eunkyung is affected by her father's murder as one of the comfort women is by watching her brother's death. Keepsakes are given from character to character and the elderly Young-OK is seen cradling a charm totem much like the one given to Jungmin by her mother in the past.
The film doesn't shy away from scenes of violence both physical and sexual. Day in, day out, the girls are expected to have sex with dozens men which doesn't stop even when they are menstruating. There is no way out from this and girls who attempt to escape are rounded up and shot. However, it achieves a certain poetry in later scenes, such as when dozens of white butterflies float in the meadows, a visual metaphor for the souls of the girls returning to their homes.
Viewers familiar with Korean cinema will notice a sense of a nation finally able to acknowledge its past and the brutality of the Japanese occupiers in particular. Japan's invasion of Korea has already been depicted in recent films such as The Handmaiden and Age of Shadows. This film has a strong sense of Korean identity, with the traditional folk song Arirang played prominently in several scenes.
Lead actress Ha-Nang is very innocent and pure, playing a girl of 14 who somehow doesn't lose her innocence. Son Sook has the eyes of someone who has seen too many horrors but still has the capacity to forgive. The movie could have been better edited but it tells a difficult story well.
It is alleged that during World War 2 the Japanese army kept 1 million women from occupied countries and kept them as slaves where they were euphemistically known as 'comfort women'. If little is known about them, it may be because their story has not been told in film before. The film took the director 14 years to make. The actress playing Jungmin (Ha-nung) was not paid but will receive a share of the profits.
This film is effective at showing how girls as young as 14 were removed from their homes and ordered to with dozens of men daily, and where they faced terrible punishments for disobeying orders. The film is set mainly in 1943, interspersed with scenes in 1991 where a much older Young-OK tries to settle her past and say goodbye to her friend Jungmin who didn't survive the war.
When Eun-kyung goes to a temple to train as a shaman, she helps Young-OK communicate with Jungmin. The past is linked with the present in all kinds of interesting ways. Eunkyung is affected by her father's murder as one of the comfort women is by watching her brother's death. Keepsakes are given from character to character and the elderly Young-OK is seen cradling a charm totem much like the one given to Jungmin by her mother in the past.
The film doesn't shy away from scenes of violence both physical and sexual. Day in, day out, the girls are expected to have sex with dozens men which doesn't stop even when they are menstruating. There is no way out from this and girls who attempt to escape are rounded up and shot. However, it achieves a certain poetry in later scenes, such as when dozens of white butterflies float in the meadows, a visual metaphor for the souls of the girls returning to their homes.
Viewers familiar with Korean cinema will notice a sense of a nation finally able to acknowledge its past and the brutality of the Japanese occupiers in particular. Japan's invasion of Korea has already been depicted in recent films such as The Handmaiden and Age of Shadows. This film has a strong sense of Korean identity, with the traditional folk song Arirang played prominently in several scenes.
Lead actress Ha-Nang is very innocent and pure, playing a girl of 14 who somehow doesn't lose her innocence. Son Sook has the eyes of someone who has seen too many horrors but still has the capacity to forgive. The movie could have been better edited but it tells a difficult story well.
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