Today We Are All Kim Ji-Young

January 25, 2023

One night last week, I clicked on a movie that I wanted to watch for a long time but didn't dare to watch –– Kim Ji-young: Born 1982. Before watching the film, I learned through social media that the film had aroused strong social resistance and condemnation in South Korea before its production and release. Many Korean men believed that the film was suspected of antagonizing Korean men and women against each other. Although I did have a general understanding of the story, after watching it, I still couldn’t help being deeply shocked.

Kim Ji-Young, the main character in the film, is a Korean woman who was born in 1982 and grew up in a family with one sister and one brother. Although the entire film focuses on her story of experiencing postpartum depression, it is also interspersed with many fragments of her past experiences of sexual inequality.

What would you say when a ten-year-old girl came to you for help and told you she had just been sexually assaulted?

“Facing a kid walking up by herself, can he stand it?” This is what Ji-Young heard from her father. After being harassed on a bus on her way home, all her father gave her was criticism. "Why do you go to school so far away?" "Why are you wearing such a short skirt?" "Don't smile at people." "Be careful. Avoid those people. When you really can't avoid them, it's their fault .”

Sounds familiar, right?

While it's just a few short sentences in the movie, it's hard for women to avoid hearing it while growing up. It also reminds me that since a young age, my grandmother has been teaching me to keep my legs together when sitting down; to wear high-waist boyshorts instead of low-waist briefs; to avoid going out after 7 p.m. So I grew up with a lot of anxiety making sure I behaved and dressed properly as if something bad happened and it would be my fault, as my grandmother used to say, "dressing like this on the subway, men will think that you are seducing them, no wonder you don't get harassed."

Not only this clip, but what also depresses me is seeing that even in today's society, women's emotions are still being ignored, and their behaviors that do not conform to social norms can still be demonized. When Ji-Young’s husband shared his concern about Ji-Young’s mental health, his colleagues suggested that women with poor mental health should be isolated from society because they would quickly become witches, playing with knives and weapons. Staying together with them makes people a joke.

Who would believe that in the 21st century, there are still people stigmatizing mental illness and associating it with spirit possession? Of course, in addition to men’s indifference and lack of respect for women's emotions, such comments and acts of belittling women also show their pride in their privileges and their superiority. But is it truly their privilege or ignorance? I guess the latter seems to be more apparent.

In the film, Kim Ji-Young is still a lucky woman. She has a husband who can observe her abnormality, empathize with her feelings, and support her in seeking professional help while she also has her mother who resonates with her and helps her out of the dilemma. But how about the other Kim Ji-Youngs? We all know that there are still many women who suffer like Ji-Young without being seen all around the world. Who is gonna help them? To some extent, we are all Kim Ji-Yeongs. Hope that everyone who has seen the film can find the answer to escape from the dilemma while finding their own shadow.

SOME OTHER QUOTES

Watch Trailer at 👉

“The doctor asked me how could I feel pain, as the rice is made by the rice cooker and clothes are washed by the washing machine.”

“Children should be with their mother. No matter how successful her career is, if the children are not raised well, everything will be ruined.”