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EBS History of Culture Series - Part 1 THE COUNT OF MYEONGDONG
Episode 14
It's Su Young!
Why aren't you coming in?
Are you just going to go?
I... quit drinking.
Still...
Can the sparrow just fly by the rice mill?!
Come in a moment. Have a drink with me.
I apologize.
I... really quit drinking.
That sounds worse than saying you quit living!
Just come in.
I also have something to talk about with you.
I'll see you in the morning, at the Bronze Coffee Shop.
Make up with Park In Hwan. Don't regret it when it's too late.
Seeing as you're singing,
looks like business went quite well today.
Money makes you more money nowadays.
You fool.
When will you ever get your own building, by fixing shoes all day?!
Go ahead, you fool!
Let that money virus hit you in the ass, you ninny!
Money what?!
I'd sure love to get hit with that every day, you ninny!
Seonsaengnim.
Take these.
I don't do translations anymore.
Still, take them.
There is nobody asking for these outside of you,
and as for me, I don't even understand English,
so should I just use it as toilet paper?
Thank you.
No need to do that...
Have a safe return.
Why are you shooting him?
Just as a souvenir, why?
Come again, I'll give you the photo.
You will look great!
That fella is a famous poet!
You're back?
Kim Su Young passed by, just a while ago.
Why? You haven't seen him?
No.
Looks like you missed each other.
Felt like he was looking for you.
A bottle of beer.
You're drunk already.
Didn't you just go out to puke?
Just to get the taste out of my mouth.
But you can't even handle alcohol.
That's right.
Just listen to her, for once.
What is with all this prattling?
I can just pay you!
You just wait!
We'll see whether alcohol wins, or I do.
Is that you?
Why did you come out?
Was afraid you'd be too drunk to find your way back.
Is Jun sleeping?
Your mother came.
Did you meet Park In Hwan?
Then, what have you been doing all this time?
What did my mother want?
She must have missed Jun, what else?
Have a safe return.
- We'll see you again. - Yes, I'll be waiting.
- Good night. - Ohh... so long.
Oh my...
Park Seonsaengnim!
Wake up!
Park Seonsaengnim?!
What do we do now?
Just let him be.
He's walking on a field of dreams already.
Then, are you going to stay by his side all night?
The curfew is about to start.
Fine with me!
Since we're here, let's drink until dawn!
Aigoo... really!
Park Seonsaengnim! Wake up, will you?
Park Seonsaengnim?!
In Hwan's mother came to see me at the store.
Said he's really hurting.
Looks like even his wife doesn't know.
She barely was able to take him to the hospital for a check-up by force,
and they said both his liver and kidneys are in bad shape.
He kept drinking what he couldn't handle...
Do you two have some grudge with alcohol or something?!
Take it easy, why don't you?
I quit drinking, Mother.
What is it?
You narrow-minded little rascal.
Can't you even accept his friendship?!
These were the curfew sirens, a now unfamiliar sound.
Every night at midnight, Seoul's sights and sounds would turn into silence.
Instead, police stations were always brimming with curfew transgressors.
Here... here.. let's go in. Uh? Go in.
Ahh... just go in!
Get out of the way!
I said let's have a drink inside!
Listen to this fella!
Don't you know who I am?
I'm Daehanminguk Kim Gwan Shik!
Yes, we certainly know.
Isn't that why we're just telling you to go home?
Listen!
I was just moved by concern for our officers spending the night...
protecting my fellow citizens,
so I brought you something to drink with side dishes on top!
We can't drink while on duty.
I'll take all the blame.
Ahh... and how are you going to do that?!
I! Daehanminguk Kim Gwan Shik!
Enough with the spectacle, and just go home.
If you keep this up, we'll arrest you immediately for curfew transgression!
Is that clear?
You fool! You little fool!
Is it a crime to have a few drinks together?
If even that's a crime,
police stations all over the country would be filled with transgressors!
Why did they drink so much?
Scribes, painters, musicians...
They drank, and drank even more.
People were doing their best to make a living over the rubble,
but those artists just stubbornly, desperately drank and drank.
In a way,
their drinking habits could have represented a sort of expression...
of the human despair and defiance of this era.
Whenever a period doesn't allow its people any breathing space,
even culture ends up in tatters.
As bombs fill the sky, and streets brim with starving people,
what role could art ever play in helping them?!
The Korea of the 1950s...
still didn't feel the need for culture and artists.
That is why they all gathered in Myeongdong...
and abandoned themselves in drinking frenzies,
as if waiting for better, more propitious days.
Or standing, trembling on a feeble bridge with no clear end in sight,
they might have been trying to protect the last few shreds of humanity...
this war had left intact.
And...
because of all that drinking,
along with the derangement which was engulfing Lee Jung Seop,
"Dandy Boy" Park In Hwan was one of the first victims.
~ 1955 Daegu Fatima Hospital ~
Jung Seop...
Can you recognize me?
Why are you refusing to eat?
You need to eat something and regain your forces.
Then you can go to Japan and meet your wife and kids.
You must eat a lot, uh?
I...
am eating something already.
It's really tasty.
What is it?
It smells great!
The smell of my electrocuted flesh!
It tastes great...
You know, like...
Execution platoons!
Open the door, you bastards!
What on earth are you doing to him?!
Come here and open this damned door!
Open it!
Open this door, you bastards...
"Like afflicted, haggard leaves falling around a roadside tree,"
"Here at the Poem we gather around the bottle."
"Poem, of the lady with the yellow jacket."
"She, with her deep nose and profound eyes, generosity on top."
"She who, when it is time, remembers every man's tab."
I got only this far, but how is it?
It was so nice, but then what's with that finale?
"When it is time, she remembers every man's tab."
Have I ever acted up because of someone's tab?
I didn't imply anything bad with that.
How could that line sound nice?!
Feels almost like I'm only after money.
Jo Byung Hwa (poet)
I just praised your shrewdness in quickly recalling everyone's tab.
I never intended it to sound as if you only have eyes for profit.
Did you really?
But, your scribes always have a way with words,
so I can't really trust you all the way, can I?!
Even all the dogs in Myeongdong know you're great with credit,
so would I possibly have implied anything else?
But, are you really going to publish that in the newspaper?
When it's done, I'll send a copy.
When you see it in the newspaper, buy me a drink.
That won't be much of a problem,
but what if people complain that a poet advertised this place?
It is no advertisement, it's poetry.
Because I always write about the places I go to, and people I meet,
I trust nobody will think that way.
So that must be the reason why your poems are so easy to read.
Like a popular song buzzing in your ears?!
Right. I'm not saying they're conventional.
How should I put it...
The mundane, trivial; the things so small, people even fail to notice...
It seems like you're really able to capture their beauty.
If I stare at this glass for a moment,
many thoughts cross my mind.
How many people could this glass have grazed...
before it was completed?!
How many hands and lips could it have caressed?
I must have made a fool of myself.
Nah, I was merely marveling at your beautiful poem.
What?!
Think of how beautiful it was.
"Who could have created this glass?!"
"Whose hands could it have grazed?!"
Your imagining such prose is exactly what poets do.
Don't make fun of me!
I certainly am not!
That is exactly the kind of prose I look for.
Here... listen.
"Like afflicted, haggard leaves falling around a roadside tree..."
This was poet Jo Byung Hwa.
Jo debuted in 1949 with his first anthology, "The Umbrella I Wish to Throw Away."
As a lyrical poet with a contemporary urbanite feel,
he pioneered his own particular prose,
which used everyday terms with extreme frankness,
a style which appealed to a wide scope of readers.
The most immediate trait of...
Jo Byung Hwa Seonsaeng's poems was their simplicity.
Kwon Young Min (SNU literature professor)
They were easy to read.
That simplicity didn't simply mean...
bastardizing its quality for mainstream acceptance,
it just proved how much his style adhered to mainstream sensibilities...
and their speech patterns.
Poets had the tendency to pick their terms carefully,
terms in a certain way separated from everyday lingo, with different goals.
They had the tendency to stray off everyday parlance and reality.
That, essentially, is what distanced poetry from the mainstream,
and often made it an abstruse artform.
But what Jo Byung Hwa did was bringing poetry back into the everyday world,
by using down-to-earth prose and getting closer to his readership.
"Despite knowing it would happen,"
"I aimlessly fell for you."
"Think not of such words as lamentable wounds."
"Think not of loneliness guiding my heart."
"Shattered by a violent storm, my feeble soul,"
"In your warm and precious embrace abandoned itself."
"It must have been the nightly sky."
"Night, the weak of heart's most welcome companion."
"Waiting for those fleeting instants of happiness,"
"For the night I waited."
How is it?
Did you like it?
It's so sweet, Seonsaengnim.
Right after the war, our society experienced despair.
Oh Se Young (SNU literature professor)
The cities were filled with rubble,
and since most had to worry about putting food on the table,
this created a sort of mental vacuum.
It was the kind of period which needed solace, in many ways.
It was in this kind of atmosphere that Jo Byung Hwa's poems on urban life...
gave people the kind of solace they were looking for,
and also stimulated a lot of the intellectuals who turned the city...
into the cultural mecca of the period.
Because "Before Love Withers" was such a success,
Jo Jin Hyung (Jo Byung Hwa's son)
the publishers Jeongeum-sa called my father right away for his royalties.
But when President Choi Young Hae called, my father refused to go.
The reason was to be found in "Before Love Withers" itself.
There was this pianist my father liked,
and because this was something he wrote as their relationship ended,
it represented a sad memory for him,
so he just refused to accept royalties for that.
In 1959, he was supposed to leave for an overseas trip with his fanclub,
but seeing as he didn't have money for the flight,
President Choi just called him, offering all the royalties he collected...
for "Before Love Withers," so that he could use that money for the trip.
I...
What brings you here?
I had some urgent matters to tend to, so I had to close up shop.
I wanted to pay my respects before leaving.
But, I don't see Lee Bong Gu Seonsaengnim?!
He still isn't back from Daegu.
Have a seat.
No.
Because of the store's contract, I have to go.
Store?!
Yes.
I'm planning to open a little import haberdashery in Namdaemun.
This...
What is this?
Lee Seonsaengnim?!
I thought I wouldn't get to see you before leaving.
That's a relief.
What is with those bags?
I closed up shop.
I'm starting another business.
Really?
I feel so sad to hear that.
We should at least have a parting drink.
Next time.
My new store is in Namdaemun,
so if I ever pass by Myeongdong, I'll give you a call.
But... I'm so sorry...
My tab must be no laughing matter.
Don't even mention that.
It was an honor to serve you people at the Mona Lisa.
There were many customers coming there just to meet you.
Is this Mona Lisa really that famous?
Of course she is!
Wait.
Looking at you,
it does resemble you, Madam!
Me?
Yes, exactly that smile!
So... I'll get going.
What is this?
What is all this?
The Mona Lisa's Madam left us all these.
Seeing all this, I feel so sorry and guilty.
On the other hand, I also feel strangely proud of being an artist from Myeongdong.
This...
Isn't this your watch?
Actually, this watch wouldn't even qualify as an antique,
but she still accepted it.
Think you were the only one who asked for credit leaving things like that?
She was such a warm person...
This!
Isn't this Su Young's fountain pen?!
Yeah.
Right...
What happened with Lee Jung Seop?
If I left him there any longer, they would have crippled him.
So I just brought him back, and left him with Han Muk.
You should stop drinking as well.
It was drinking what turned Jung Seop into that mess.
Where are you going?
To meet Jung Seop Hyung.
Come with me later.
Wait, In Hwan!
You must feel great, Oppa.
- You got paid today. - Ahh... this?
How are you going to spend it?
I'll save some more, and buy some chicks for our mother.
She wants to do some poultry farming up on Mount Dobong.
Poultry?!
Said running that store is too hard for her now.
And she pays too much taxes.
Uh?! She never told me that?!
You know she's had it hard. It's time she takes a rest.
She said she'll live a quiet life, reading sutras.
I'll get going.
Oppa!
You've become a dutiful son!
Why does he keep rubbing?
I have no idea.
He's probably trying to erase something.
Erase?!
Isn't the longing for his family what's making him suffer?
So I think he's trying to erase any memory of his family,
to strip himself of all that pain.
I asked him what was wrong with his hair,
and he said he did that because he wanted to see his sister-in-law dead.
Why would he think that?!
He misses them so much, so fervently...
that he goes to such extremes.
Jung Seop Hyung! What's wrong with you?
You don't remember?
It's Park In Hwan, the poet.
It's me, In Hwan.
You don't remember?
Jung Seop Hyung!
Don't lay your hands on me, you prick.
Touch me again, and I'll kill you.
You bastards...
I'm not going to paint anymore.
So, don't even touch me, you bastard.
Here...
Thank you.
Did you come back to Myeongdong for a cup of tea? Let's have a drink.
I don't think I have time for that.
Let's do it next time.
Is that so? Too bad, then.
You have about 2,800 hwan in your pocket, right?
And how did you...
Are you surprised?!
You didn't know I can see through?
You said you went to the Hyeondae Munhak because of your fee, right?
So, your pay for the poems would be 3,000 hwan.
And then you bought a packet of Baekyang for 200 hwan,
so you'd be left with 2,800, isn't it?
Here... here, let's go. Ahh... follow me!
Listen, Lee Seonbae. Let's drink another time.
I said I'm treating you!
It's not that...
I just came downtown because I ran out of chicken feed.
There's something more important than what your chickens eat.
Let's go. I said let's go!
Come on in...
- Welcome. - Yes...
Look at him...
Su Young!
Your fountain pen.
It's the one you left at the Mona Lisa for credit.
Mona Lisa's Madam just gave it back, when she closed up shop.
Thank you for everything, Su Young.
We had a lot more differences than things in common, right?
Still, I thought we had a connection in some way.
Although now it's probably all useless.
Are you moving to the States or something?!
Is it me you don't like, or just my behavior?
Can you distinguish between a person and his behavior?
If you like someone's behavior and what he says, you also like him.
There is no way you would, if such weren't the case.
Complicated.
You still are.
All right. Just go.
If you have anything to say, go ahead.
Since you're acting as if you'll never see me again,
and I have no intention of seeing you again, either.
Speak to me.
I have nothing to say.
Just... I missed you, that's all.
I recalled your face, while you were reading at the Marie.
Looks like you're busy, so just go.
That was their last meeting.
Kim Su Young didn't know at the time,
but Park In Hwan knew it would be.
Did Su Young leave?
That temper of his...
Take it easy with that wine.
Have something to eat as well.
Give it a rest.
You started drinking even before I got here.
You're too drunk already.
I'd love to get drunk.
But I can't, and it feels like hell.
What's wrong with you, In Hwan?
Is it because of Su Young?
That grumpy little prick?
But why do you keep drinking even more, to then puke it out, these days?
Lee Seonbae...
I always tried to look at the world with optimism.
"If today wasn't nice, tomorrow will be."
"If even tomorrow will be no better, the day after will improve."
But, today everything looks dark and gloomy?!
Tomorrow and the day after will be no better?!
What is it that's so bad?
Your life, your works?
If you're worried about making a living,
then it means you truly have become the head of your family.
And if it's because of your works, then you have to solve it with the pen.
I wish it was all about such teeming issues.
I did worry about all that until now.
I pranced around frowning, as if captured by some great principle or logic.
But, what I'm really worried about now...
has nothing to do with such extravagant issues.
And if it's not that...
The smallest things.
Trivial.
Why is liquor bitter?
Why do we drink it?
So is that why you keep guzzling without touching a side dish?
Because of your struggle to understand what you're drinking?!
You know, Jung Seop Hyung?!
It felt as if he was fervently waiting to die.
Was it the war what turned him this way?
Or was it just written in the stars for him to end this way?!
- That... - I can't answer those questions myself.
And that's why it's killing me.
It hurts.
There is nothing I can answer...
or help to answer in this world.
Why is liquor bitter...
Why do people drink... I don't even know why.
Leave those problems to philosophers,
and try to find the answer to such matters through your beautiful prose.
Beautiful prose?
I'm merely jesting with puns.
That's right.
That must be why Jung Seop Hyung refuses to pick up the brush.
He suddenly...
felt disillusioned by the act of painting itself.
Really?
So, let's listen how far your disillusion got.
What Su Young said is right.
My poems...
were just platitudes not even worthy of a newspaper.
Begonia this and that, such glamorous words covering nothing.
You're really bent on looking at everything negatively now.
Su Young.
Lee Seonsaengnim.
It looks nice on you.
I look like a farmer now, don't I?
Did Su Young go out?
He's in the back yard. Building a fence for the rabbits.
Rabbits?!
You're even raising rabbits now?
Tell me about it.
Don't know where he heard it, that rabbits will make us good money.
Ehh... you intolerant grump.
You went too far with Park In Hwan.
What's wrong with you and him?
The other day he really looked down.
So I hear he's really hurting?!
Who said that?
My mother heard it from In Hwan's mother.
And you still acted like that knowing it?
Just make up.
Even though I don't know what went wrong between you two.
In Hwan... Not only he's in bad shape,
but after quitting his job, he must be having it hard.
So does he need to prance around showing off?
He always needs to make it liquor, always shiny shoes.
He needs to buy his nice clothes even if there's no rice at home.
Poverty is not only In Hwan's problem.
He just didn't want to show that distress to others.
Know what Park In Hwan keeps telling me?
"Were you the only one who had to endure this war?!"
"Why do you need to act up as if you are?!"
Of course, poverty is not only Park In Hwan's problem.
Just like I wasn't the only one who had to endure this war.
But I tried all I could to leave that war in the past.
Don't I smell more of chicken shit than of that northern POW camp?!
Try it out for yourself. Am I wrong?
But, what's with In Hwan?
He's merely spraying thick perfume on himself to hide his poverty.
If one is to strip himself of poverty,
he must do it by sweating for it!
In Hwan is a scribe.
To them, writing is their labor,
and you can't chastize him for not sweating to earn his keep.
I know all too well how painful filling those blank pages can be.
But when it comes to criticizing the same world you walk on,
to go after some airy chimera up in the sky like Park In Hwan does,
that I have a problem with.
And I thought that was his greatest strength.
Portraying this soiled reality of ours as it is might be a scribe's duty,
but isn't the pursuit of an ideal state removed from this bleak reality...
one of a scribe's greatest social obligations?!
No, it's not.
If you smell of chicken shit, your prose should ooze the same scent.
I can't smell chicken shit on you a mile away,
and then have to endure all that perfume pervading your prose.
Park In Hwan and I live and think on a different planet anyway.
Did Lee Seonsaeng go?
He's not someone you can stick around for long, that Lee Bong Gu.
And where would you find someone you can stick around?!
You can only trust and lean onto your family.
So are you just going to stop meeting people altogether?
I won't stop meeting them, I'll just leave them at a distance.
If you do so, then they will do the same to you!
Let them do it.
I have no problem with that.
You know that?
Sometimes, you really can drive people crazy.
Why do you keep living inside your own world?
Does the outside world scare you that much?
What is that supposed to mean?
You know what this is?
You're acting like this because of all the anger and resentment...
you feel about me and this world.
And why do you think I would resent you?
Because we loved each other so much,
but then I betrayed you.
Listen.
You don't need to forgive me.
I'll still always remain by your side.
So, go out in the real world. Go out...
Meet your friends, drink, and write your poems.
Ajumma, some more drinks here.
Yes.
"I have now forgotten that name..."
Na Ae Shim (singer)
By the way, Ae Shim.
Yes?!
Aren't you staring at our In Hwan here a little too often?
Ahh... I'm not, I was just...
It's not like I'm ugly beyond repair,
but every time I follow him around, I end up losing out.
Ae Shim, don't let him get to you.
- He's just prattling. - I'm not joking.
I just feel bad, as a fellow man.
I apologize.
I'll only stare at your face from now on, Jo Seonsaengnim.
Only with words?!
Should I pour you a drink?
I'll take a song instead, if you will.
A song?
Lee Jin Seop (composer, playwright)
Listen to you!
It's not like Ae Shim is some part-time room saloon singer,
can she sing for us in this place?!
I guess...
I take that back, then.
It's okay.
It's just that I don't really have any song I could sing here.
But, if it's one of Park Seonsaeng's poems,
I think it would sound just right.
Lee Seonsaengnim, can you write a melody for us?
In Hwan...
Ohh... sure. Let me have a look.
Ahh... what's wrong with you?
I just want a peek at what made her fall head over heels.
It's just scribbling, give it back.
"I have now forgotten that name."
"But those eyes and lips still linger in my soul."
"Even when the wind blows, when rain drenches us all,"
"I still gaze at the street lamp outside..."
It still isn't finished. Just give it to me.
Just wait a moment.
Ajumma! Can you bring me pen and paper?
The man composing over Park In Hwan's poem is Lee Jin Seop.
But Lee Jin Seop wasn't a professional composer.
By working as a journalist, he ended up writing plays,
and later even wrote screenplays for TV dramas.
It was exactly around this time that his skills as a composer...
started attracting people's attention.
"Unable to forget the shadows of that night."
Here.
Try it out. Ae Shim.
This sounds like it could become a famous tune.
The poem is so wonderful, the music just flew out of my pen.
"I have now forgotten that name."
"But those eyes and lips still linger in my soul."
"Even when the wind blows, when rain drenches us all,"
"I still gaze at the street lamp outside the window..."
"When Time Flies."
It was the very last poem Park In Hwan left us.
Lee Jin Seop composed the song over those lyrics on the fly,
and Na Ae Shim of the hit song "Adada the Fool" sang it right there.
"Might love abandon us, the past will remain."
"A summer day's shore, that autumn garden,"
Park In Hwan wrote as if being engulfed by a crazed frenzy.
"Leaves fall, their warm embrace drenched in mud,"
And Lee Jin Seop turned those lyrics into music as if possessed by them.
Those final few lyrics from "When Time Flies" might just have been...
Park In Hwan's dying will.
Park Seonsaengnim.
It's such a beautiful poem!
Isn't it childish?
Childish?! It's so touching.
Park Seonsaengnim. You're giving this song to me, right?
We'll have to get the composer's consent first.
This is Na Ae Shim's song.
Your average pop singer can't give this justice.
Here... It's done.
Give it here.
You just thought of the melody like that?
The prose is so wonderful, it just came out spontaneously.
Wow... that's really something!
It's the first time I see someone write a poem while drinking like that.
And also the first I see someone compose a melody over it on the fly.
Here... give it a try.
Without accompaniment?!
Ahh... wait a moment.
Is there anyone with a guitar?
How can you find a guitar at a tavern?!
Ajumma! That guitar over there, please.
Jang Seok Ju (poet, critic)
I think it was the spring of 1956.
It was at this makgeolli* tavern in Myeongdong,
*Raw rice wine
a place where artists would usually gather.
Park In Hwan was there, along with Lee Jin Seop and singer Na Ae Shim.
Lee Jin Seop saw Park In Hwan write "When Time Flies,"
and it's been known that he composed a melody right on the spot.
Then, singer Na Ae Shim took his melody, and sang it.
Later on, tenor Im Man Seop and Lee Bong Gu joined them.
It was there that, looking at this music sheet,
Im Man Seop sang it with his imposing tenor voice.
As he was singing it, people on the street heard the melody,
and started gathering around this place.
That is how "When Time Flies" was born,
the most representative song of Myeongdong's 1950s,
known as "Myeongdong's chanson."
"I have now forgotten that name."
"But those eyes and lips still linger in my soul."
"Even when the wind blows, when rain drenches us all,"
"I still gaze at the street lamp outside the window,"
"Unable to forget the shadows of that night."
"Might love abandon us, the past will remain."
"A summer day's shore, that autumn garden,"
"Sitting on that bench."
"Leaves fall, their warm embrace drenched in mud."
"Covered by other leaves, should our love vanish,"
"It will linger inside this cold heart of mine."
Tonight, Park In Hwan's sentimentalism saturates the streets of Myeongdong.
Brought to you by WITH S2 Written In The Heavens Subbing Squad
Main Translator and Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: Victory
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link
Do you know about the genius that was stuffed?
I rejoice.
Here! Let us have a toast!
To our ideals, and Geum Hong Yi!
Those cigarettes you smoke...
I think I can finally understand why...
you love those cigarettes, instantly vanishing into smoke.
It's suffocating me...
Dear!
Dear!!
Here it is...
The wine you loved so much...
Drink it to your heart's content, and leave.
I thought you could get through it.
Even someone as inflexible as me did it...
But you're the first to abandon us?!
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