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EBS History of Culture Series - Part 1 THE COUNT OF MYEONGDONG
Episode 15
Just let him go.
He'll puke it all out, I guess.
How can he drink as if it was the last thing he will do?!
"Thirteen youngsters scurrying on the bare street,"
"A blind alley hampering their next step."
"Fear colors the eyes of the first child,"
"Partaking in dread with the second child,"
"In daunted frenzy joining the third child."
It is a passage from Lee Sang's "Crows Glazing Below."
The same genial poet whose short life ended at a hospital in Japan back in 1939,
Lee Sang.
It was exactly the same Lee Sang who was embraced by Park In Hwan...
as a spiritual "muse" of sorts.
"Fear does the fourth child bemoan."
"And in fear basks the fifth."
"The sixth joins them in fearful despair."
"Seventh is the name of he whom fear cannot vanquish."
"Nor can the eighth free himself from their same destiny."
Through the next two episodes,
we will depict the deaths of Park In Hwan and Lee Jung Seop.
There are several theories concerning the cause of Park's death,
but his drinking problems are the most likely culprit,
while starvation is what killed Lee Jung Seop.
Why? For what reason?
Why did their lives have to end in such an extreme manner?!
Listen to this.
"Rebirth, excitement, passion and illusions are what you taught me."
"Rescuing our literature from the bottomless pits of dissolution,"
"O, muse and emperor of our minds."
Were you commissioned to write something?
I'm writing for the DongA Ilbo, celebrating Lee Sang's memory.
Are you going to organize that ceremony this year as well?
I must! Of course I should.
When will it take place?
Starting tomorrow evening,
until the day after Lee Sang died, the 17th at 3.20 p.m.
Why?
So you won't come home for a few days?!
Dear.
Lee Sang died aged twenty-eight.
Do you know how many works he published in that short time?
No... that number might actually not be that impressive, after all.
But the spiritual achievements he left behind to our literary circle...
I am nothing compared to that.
I couldn't get a single thing done,
even though I'm already past thirty.
The embalmed genius of Lee Sang.
The reason why Park In Hwan drowned himself in alcohol...
might just have been because he could not surpass Lee Sang's timeless legacy.
~ Pawn Shop ~
Park Seonsaengnim!
He just put up that sign and nothing more.
It's not open for business yet.
Please come in. We're open.
You can come in. You'll get your money's worth.
Does seeing me make money annoy you that much?!
Ahh... yes.
Th...That!
Money is all he thinks about.
It was the same last year.
He spent an entire month bedridden, after the event was over.
He stopped eating and drinks all day...
He probably doesn't even have the money,
why would he organize that ceremony?!
I guess a few drinks will be enough.
If he had that money, he should bring it home.
Help me out, Lee Seonsaengnim.
He at least seems to listen to you.
All right.
Don't worry too much.
Park Seonsaengnim...
What happened to your coat?
It's still cold out there, how can you pawn that coat?
Go get it back.
I'll just lend you a little money.
Forsythias will bloom in a matter of days, what coat?!
If I leave it home, it will all get moldy during the rainy spell.
- Aigoo... - Hey!
Do you even know from whom you got that coat?
He's none other than a poet!
So I paid him generously, didn't I?!
You... dull-witted son of a miser!
Is money everything for you?!
The alternative was some antique of a watch he was forcing on me,
what else could I do?
Should at least make it a coat!
Ahh... I really ought to... Listen.
Don't ever do business with this skinflint!
Thank you.
Kim Dong Geun (young businessman)
I can't even pay you any rent, and you gave me this place with open arms.
Aigoo... what rent?!
I should be the one to help you out, on the contrary.
What are you saying?
By the way, there will be quite a crowd...
My wife will take care of the side dishes,
and I took care of the drinks.
In Hwan.
Let's have a word.
It won't cost much.
Money is not the problem.
What's the point of doing this again, now?
Lee Sang is my greatest inspiration.
That's just an excuse to drown yourself in alcohol until you collapse, isn't it?!
So I guess you had a little talk with my wife?!
Don't worry.
Once this ceremony is over,
I'll retreat to some temple and only focus on writing.
I've already lived three years longer than Lee Sang,
so it's time I do something myself.
You published an anthology already.
That was garbage, nothing more.
Lee Seonbae.
You know?
I just covered mediocrity with a veil of sentimentalism.
I might fool the world that way,
but I'll never fool myself.
You live in different worlds.
Lee Sang lived during the gloom of our colonial period...
That is why I am even more ashamed of myself.
Despite living in such a beautlful world,
I can't write a single tolerable piece of prose.
Why do you keep staring at me?
I'm just in awe.
At what?
Staring at you while you cook,
I realize how remarkable life can be.
I mean it.
To me, life almost feels like a cursory parade,
but you go to the market every day,
and cook for me so meticulously.
And what's so remarkable about that?
Life might just as well be made of such simple things,
but I keep making things more complex than they already are.
You know what I mean?
Not really.
What I'm saying...
I wish people could be something like the laundry.
Like with laundry, if we could only cleanse all the stench and stains inside us...
What is it that makes you struggle so much?
Me?
Sometimes I wonder.
What is afflicting you so much.
"Who could that man be, weeping before that graveyard?"
"Whose tears drench the grievous, dusty rubble?"
"Like clouds of smoke quenched by a crimson tide,"
"What is decaying inside a man's soul?"
"What lies beyond the sunset of a twelvemonth?"
"Where can I meet the cherished compeer the war stole from me?"
"I will take demise, if this sorrow you can erase."
"I will give you mankind, so you can swelter creation with punishing gales,"
"So that ghastly flowers shall never again bloom over those graves."
"The days, the years, the painful memories of this war..."
"They are the throeful vestiges you bring forth, O crimson sea of despair."
Life is covered with doubts.
Poets attempt to answer those doubts with countless questions,
but there is no one who answers, no voice can be heard.
Looks like that Lee Sang you so deeply admire couldn't find them, either.
Have you read them, Lee Sang's works?
They're in your room, all his books.
Wow... my wife is quite clever!
I thought you had no interest in literature whatsoever?!
Let alone literature...
I don't even know you.
Neither this Lee Sang, nor Park In Hwan.
~ Lee Sang's Night ~
Inside the prisons of Fukuoka,
the twenty-nine years of Yoon Dong Joo's short life...
ended with a brief outcry.
The Lee Sang whose legacy we are gathered here to honor...
confessed he wanted to once again taste lemon, before he left us.
I reflected upon what I would have done, had I been in his shoes.
Would the very last moment of my existence...
end with a brief outcry?
Or...
reminiscing on the lemon Lee Sang so dearly loved,
would I breathe out my final moments?!
It's suffocating.
Yes! Indeed it is.
This world we live in is suffocating me.
Nice excuse!
Let's guzzle all night, is that it?!
Yes!
Let's drink the night away!
Honoring Lee Sang's legacy while being sober...
is nothing but an affront!
Here... cheers!
Cheers!
Can't you do that later?
Jun needs to go to sleep.
Dear!
Don't get angry at me.
I told you it's a tight deadline!
Is that page empty because of me?!
You keep making noise...
You didn't even go to Park In Hwan's publication party.
But...
I don't even like Lee Sang.
So why would I go to a party dedicated to him?
Because Park In Hwan is waiting for you to go there.
What's wrong with you?
Why do you keep sticking to me with the same old routine?
You're the one using the same old routine!
Can't you live like everyone else?
Listen well.
That Park In Hwan has no endurance whatsoever.
Just a moment of loneliness, and he's already wailing like a drama queen.
He was mocking me with that haughty smile of his,
asking me whether I went through this war alone,
but what about him? I'm not giving up.
I've never tried to escape from any difficulty this world has thrown at me.
But, as for Park In Hwan,
he runs away at the first sign of trouble.
So why did someone who knows him so well end up turning his back on him?!
Can't you show him a little warmth, for once?
I've had enough of his acting like some damsel in distress.
And what's wrong with lending him an ear?!
I told you, didn't I? We live in different ways!
Sometimes, you really scare me.
Did you even forgive me for real?!
What is it you're so afraid of?
Are you afraid that something will melt that frozen soul of yours?
Listen...
You know?!
I wish you could be a warmer person.
I hate running away!
I can't stand people who run away from their problems!
"Do you know of a man's genius, embalmed by time?"
"I am in awe!"
"Even romance stirs me from within!"
"My very flesh, endlessly wavering,
"The mental clarity only that suffocating fatigue can give you."
"As nicotine permeates every inch of my stomach like vengeful vermin,"
"White pages fill my mind, waiting to be freed from desolation."
"And above that lonely white I throw wit and paradox!"
"Like a game of baduk, raging in my thoughts."
"Basking in the cursed lack of common sense drenching them!"
That sounds nice.
Park In Hwan should have become a stage actor.
How about it, will Shinhyeop try to scout him out?
He does show promise, but it's a bit on the tearjerker side.
What's wrong with tearjerkers?
Life is just as savory as a good old tearjerker.
Here!
Let's have a toast!
*A famous gisaeng Lee Sang met in Liaoning in the early 30s
To Lee Sang, and to Geum Hong*!
And, following in the footsteps of Lee Sang's embalmed genius,
to another genius we've been blessed with,
to our friend Park In Hwan!
I might have been embalmed,
but I'm no genius.
What's with all this self-adulation, just for a good glass?!
To drinking, cheers!
Cheers!
Ahh... by the way.
What was that song again?
The one Park In Hwan wrote, and was turned into melody by Lee Jin Seop.
"I have now forgotten that name."
"But those eyes and lips still linger in my soul."
It's nice...
It's a tearjerker, all right.
Look, Gwan Shik.
Let's drink quietly tonight, shall we?
"Even when the wind blows, when rain drenches us all!"
"I still gaze at the street lamp outside the window..."
Lee Jin Seop (composer, playwright)
"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."
Why do you drink, if you have to puke it all out?!
What a waste!
"Covered by other leaves, should our love vanish,"
"It will linger inside this cold heart of mine."
Bravo!
You need to come out, something's happened.
Park In Hwan fell down the stairs!
Maybe he was too drunk,
but he suddenly fell down the stairs at the Orient.
What?!
Thankfully, it looks like he didn't get hurt,
so I just took a taxi and brought him here.
Here, Park Hyung... careful. Let's go in.
Where... am I?
Dear.
Why am I here?
You got drunk, and fell down the stairs.
You don't remember?
What time is it?
Almost eleven.
Where are you going?
Put on something to warm you up before you leave!
He didn't hurt himself, did he?
He was just a little drunk, but could even walk on his own.
We'll have to stop Park In Hwan from drinking, from now on.
That is out of the question!
You...
I knew it!
I was sure you'd bring me back home, and then come back for more!
Seonsaengnim... Allow me to apologize.
Here... Here, let's just call it a night.
Ajumma!
Bring us something more to drink.
I need to close up shop in a moment!
It's almost curfew time.
So just close the doors, and turn off the lights!
We're spending the night here!
Did In Hwan come back?
He wasn't with you?
He wanted to spend the night drinking,
but we used the curfew as an excuse and all parted ways.
I then grabbed a taxi for him...
I was a little worried, so I came back to check.
He didn't come back home last night.
Here you are, let's start.
The chair.
Aigoo... you're up early this morning.
He'll open up much later.
Yes.
She said he hasn't been home in two days.
Where on earth is he wandering?!
Maybe we should have spent the night there?!
If he comes looking for you, don't let him go.
He must be trapped somewhere guzzling the day away, I guess.
There he is!
Where?
Park Seonsaengnim!
Seonsaengnim!
Aigoo... Seonsaengnim, I've been looking for you all over.
Here, wear your hat.
And.. this, too.
Put it on.
Ahh... it's still quite cold, isn't it?!
*Old northern (around Pyeongyang) diminutive for overcoat
This is your oba*, Seonsaengnim. Just keep it.
And...
Don't you worry about the money.
I paid the pawn shop instead.
Thank you.
What are you saying...
You can get a really nasty cold if you don't dress warm.
So just keep these on, will you?
Wait...
How much would this make me?
You need some more money?
No...
If you do, then just tell me.
If it's someone like you, I'll be glad to help you out.
Where...
Seonsaengnim!
Park Seonsaengnim!
You...
Where have you been?
I hear you asked Kim Cha Yong for some money?!
Lee Seonbae...
Go ahead. Tell me.
What?
Just speak to me!
I'll get going.
In Hwan!
Go back home at least!
Do you realize how worried your wife is?
Jin Seop Hyung!
Ohh... Isn't this In Hwan?!
Let's have a drink.
Just go home.
Jin Seop Hyung.
Have a drink with me.
Aigoo... that smell.
Have you been drinking all day?
I'm still sober! Let's have a drink.
Ahh... really.
All right, I got it.
Then, we'll only have a drink and leave.
- Ajumma. - Yes.
- Give us something to drink. - Yes.
Promise, just this and we go.
All right...
An emergency order has been issued to everyone in Myeongdong.
That, should anyone meet Park In Hwan,
they should neither give him money nor pay him a drink.
What on earth is wrong with you?
"This exhausting life."
"Falling down, brick by brick."
"And in this trend I join,"
"Walking the last few steps towards the dark,"
"Yet gasping in frantic urge, for those last few breaths."
"Yet witnessing a limpid stream of consciousness, trapping me."
"O!"
"Witness the scene behind my last spectacle's curtains."
"Money for drinks, shoes, books is what only yesterday they wanted back,"
"Those compeers now witnessing the final show."
You puked it all out?
I had some jjajangmyeon earlier today,
and it seems like that messed me up.
Then, it's time to stop.
We'll finish this another time, so let's just get up.
Aigoo... we said we'd first finish this.
Only this can make my indigestion go away.
Jin Seop Hyung.
I only recently found out about the essence of life.
Should I tell what that is?
What is it?
Is it something comparable to Buddha's enlightenment?!
I might not be cultivating my mind under lime trees,
but it is quite a striking and significant truth about life.
"If money falls in our pockets, let us first buy some food!"
If money falls in our pockets, let us first buy some food...
And what is that?!
Listen to that... Are you kidding me?
Why?
You're telling me you only realized that now?
That noble and sacred essence of life you talked about.
Indeed.
There is nothing more special than that mantra.
Hunger is not what creates art.
You first need to put something on the table, and then worry about art and whatnot.
Of course!
If you begin starving, just living as a normal human being is hard,
so what would art ever matter?!
You're right.
That is why Su Young is raising chickens.
Wh...What's that supposed to mean?
By enduring the extreme hardships the war put him through,
he must have discovered that simple but important philosophy of life.
Facing the horror of death,
the pain of starvation,
that is exactly the kind of truth Su Young found.
Perhaps art is merely a lie!
Equally pretentious and mendacious.
How childish would I have looked to Su Young's eyes, then?!
Yes!
I am nothing but a poseur.
Can you really get home by yourself?
Should I come along?
No worries...
I could find the way home from Myeongdong even blindfolded.
I guess... rain or snow,
it's the road you take 365 days a year.
All right, then. Be careful.
You needn't worry about me.
Bye Bye...
~ Bronze Coffee Shop ~
Seonsaengnim.
Those cigarettes you so fervently enjoy.
That fervor instantly vanishing into smoke,
capturing your everyday imagination...
I think I can finally understand its beauty.
Seonsaengnim!
I wish you good health.
Dear!
What's wrong with you?
It's suffocating me...
What is?!
Here...
It suffocates me.
Dear!
Dear!!
~ Mourning Lantern ~
He just...
collapsed in front of our gates.
But even after bringing him in, lying down, he said,
"It's suffocating."
"My heart is suffocating me."
So...
I went to the pharmacy,
and bought him some digestives and tranquilizers.
"It's suffocating me."
"Suffocating."
It's Johnny Walker, In Hwan.
Your favorite, Johnny Walker.
Why did he...
drink his life away?!
In Hwan...
Coming home...
puking it all out the entire night.
Drink.
Drink all you want, and then you can go.
If you'd always end up puking it out,
why even drink so much?!
Didn't they say that those with a beautiful spirit...
are the first to leave?!
Is that really true?
He was only...
barely...
thirty-one years old.
Drink!
"You were the shiniest of our stars,"
"Your prose resplendent with beauty."
"You spent your life with the spontaneous joy of a playful child."
"In Hwan, all the people who loved you,"
"Cherished your company,"
"Who will forever remember that happiness money couldn't buy,"
"They are all gathered before you, lamenting this loss."
"As if betraying our long-lasting friendship,"
"You are the first to leave us all."
"The buoyant prose gracing your lips,"
"The burning fire caressing the pages with your poems and critiques,"
"The passion drenching your loneliness and despair,"
"They have now taken the last ride on that Wooden Horse."
The elegy Jo Byung Hwa wrote for him.
Yes.
Park In Hwan left behind...
all his cherished friends and family, and abandoned Myeongdong.
He abandoned the cruelties of life,
of the war and poverty altogether, and bid us farewell.
Couldn't a poison named alcohol be what his feeble and sentimental soul...
chose to write the final passage of his glorious life with?
You wretched fool.
You don't even show up at the funeral of an inseparable friend like him?!
Who the hell are you?!
What is so great about you, to act so haughty and indifferent?!
I thought you would endure it all as well.
I...
thought you would put all that in the past.
Even someone as inflexible as me made it...
In Hwan.
Didn't you hold this world in your hands,
with your smiles, your romanticism, your glamorous gestures and...
all that wonderful talent of yours?!
But...
But you're the first to fall down?!
"A drink in hand, we converse on the life of Virginia Woolf."
"And of that lady's skirt, she who left riding the wooden horse."
"Time, coming and going."
"Avoiding isolation, and then withering."
"It's indeed time, we should part ways."
3rd Presidential Elections (May 1956)
May 15, 1956 marked the start of the third presidential elections.
The Liberal Party's candidate was the current president, Lee Seung Man,
while their candidate for vice-president was Lee Gi Bong.
Contending with them was the Democratic Party,
with Shin Ik Hee and Jang Myeon as their respective candidates,
right as Shin Ik Hee's popularity was touching the sky.
Democracy, my ass. Will democracy feed you?!
Without freedom of the press, people can't live, you moron.
What I'm asking is whether your mouth feeds you!
Why, are you using something else to eat other than your mouth?!
- Shut your mouth! - Can't people even speak?!
Keep acting like that, and you can forget about setting up a shop.
Don't even dream of borrowing money from me.
Aigoo... look at that, look!
Uh?! He makes a little money, and he's already blackmailing people!
- Aigoo... - Can't take this anymore! Let's change!
Think anything will really change?
Mr. Hwang. Say something, will you?
Didn't this country get rid of communism thanks to Lee Seung Man?!
Still, you need to change every now and then.
First time I see a northern fella take the commies' side.
What are you prattling about?
Are you saying Shin Ik Hee Seonsaengnim is a commie?
Jo Bong Am... Jo Bong Am is one, you idiot.
Listen, Hong.
Don't even mention such nonsense.
Stagnation will only bring stench.
And also, Lee Seung Man doing two terms is enough already.
Lee Gi Bong is no president material. Uh?!
If the Liberal Party wins again,
Lee Seung Man will eventually leave his post to Lee Gi Bong,
that's the issue.
That's why we must vote for Shin Ik Hee Seonsaengnim!
Indeed!
Yes, that's right! No doubt!
Listen to them prattle like ninnies.
That's why you keep sitting on boards and dream about setting up stores.
I can't take this anymore, let's change!
Changing is no use, you ass.
Ajumma.
Come over here.
I said come here!
Close an eye, I need to make a living as well.
White Bear Ajeosshi asks for too much.
Ajeosshi.
Come here as well while I'm just talking.
Think about it, Lee Sajang.
This time, you need to take a stand.
I have no interest in politics.
And who asked you to get involved in politics?!
Look at Lee Jung Jae.
See how he's getting all involved in this election.
What could he possibly be scheming? Uh?
That is exactly Myeongdong! To gain control of Myeongdong,
he's sticking to Lee Gi Bong all the time, that's what!
Looks like Sirasoni has joined the Democratic Party.
It seems he's acting as an escort to Shin Ik Hee Seonsaeng.
What are you going to do?
Well...
Shouldn't I choose one side, whichever it is?!
Listen, Boss Shin.
Yes, Sajangnim.
A caterpillar lives off pine needles,
and should a crow tit start walking like a stork, its crotch will tear apart.
Gangsters should live by the fist.
If they start smelling the taste of power and politics,
it could easily ruin them. Understood?
I am certainly aware of that,
but with all those detectives harassing us...
You can't just let any burden like that get to you.
You'll regret it later.
Yes, I understand, Lee Sajangnim.
Looking for me?!
Aigoo...
Keep this up, and see what happens.
Do as you please.
Welcome.
- Welcome. - Yes.
Aigoo... business is going well.
Money always follows all elections.
Once this election is over, why you don't you call it quits?
Listen to him.
I can pile up money just by sitting here, why should I?
Know who came here tonight?
Kwak Young Ju came.
He's this over at Gyeongmudae (Blue House).
You're starting to lust over politics as well?
People are political and social animals.
Whichever trade you work in,
you must get in touch with politicians, if you want it easy.
Hwa Ryong.
Why don't you work as escort for Lee Gi Bong?
Don't let Lee Jung Jae steal your spot.
Did Kwak Young Ju come here to ask that?
Aigoo... listen.
Someone much higher up asked me.
Aigoo! My sister's flying up high, it seems!
Are you out of money?
Don't worry.
I can make a decent living, now.
Hwa Ryong.
Swim in a big pond.
When are you ever going to make it big, trapped down there in Myeongdong?!
In a political atmosphere where anti-communism was the be all and end all,
a democratic slogan became the rage.
Through the 1954 parliamentary elections,
Park Tae Gyun (SNU professor)
a relatively solid party system was established,
leading to the 1956 presidentials.
The 1948 elections favored candidates without party affiliations,
but in 1954, party affiliations started making their mark,
after which the Democratic Party was formed in 1955.
With the Liberal Party's presence in the parliament through the 1954 elections,
we essentially moved to a bipartisan political system.
Hong Seok Ryul (Seongshin Univ. History professor)
Back then, president and vice president...
were elected separately.
But, because Lee Seung Man was already way past his seventies,
and because the vice-president had rights of succession,
that election was tremendously important as well.
So the election for vice-president saw the Liberal Party's Lee Gi Bong...
square off against the Democratic Party's Jang Myeon,
with Jang Myeon winning by a really wide margin.
Seo Jung Seok (Seonggyungwan History professor)
At the time, a really popular slogan emerged:
"We can't take it anymore, let's change!"
It went more or less like this, and was incredibly popular.
The Liberal Party responded with a "Changing will be of no use."
They did try to counter with that, but it didn't make much of an impact.
The Democratic Party's slogan was effective in attracting people,
disenchanted with the Liberal Party's corruption and tyranny,
and the fact that Lee Seung Man was once again candidate for presidency.
All these factors put together made a big impact.
It's Lee Jung Seop.
Lee Hyung.
What are you doing?
Lee Hyung.
Ahh... Will you stop him?
He's been doing that all day.
Really?
He's completely out of his mind.
The soil is all battered, what is he trying to do?!
Lee Hyung.
Ahh... Lee Hyung!
Lee Hyung, that's enough.
Ahh... it's done!
Lee Hyung.
I bought some bean jam for you, let's go in.
It's clean, uh?
It's dirty again?!
Lee Hyung!
Brought to you by WITH S2 Written In The Heavens Subbing Squad
Main Translator and Timer: MisterX
Timing QC: wichitawx
Editor/QC: thunderbolt
Coordinators: mily2, ay_link
That's enough, Lee Hyung!
I said give it a rest!
You're bleeding!
My wife...
My wife abandoned me.
I want to kill her.
Why didn't she bring me along?
Balgarak (toes).
My Balgarak.
My Balgarak...
I hate her.
I hate her!
I want to kill her.
On the next episode, following Park In Hwan,
we will bid farewell to Lee Jung Seop.
Please do NOT hardsub and/or stream this episode using our English subtitles.
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