Catherine Xia | EALL 215

Analyzing Societal Divides in East Asian Cinema

Like other countries, Japan and South Korea have a long history of conflicts and

divisions. Besides political conflicts, lately, there have been concerns over the increasing

economic inequality between the rich and the poor in East Asian countries – an issue that was

exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Films often reflect issues that the director finds

important to discuss. Thus, portrayals of societal divides in East Asian films reflect the everyday

issues that people in the respective countries experience, while allowing international audiences

to better understand the conflicts in those societies. In this paper, I will focus primarily on four

films (Joint Security Area, Parasite, Shoplifters, and Black Rain) that best portray the three types

of societal divides that are commonly presented in films – political, class, and cultural.

Political Divide

Political tensions have always been prevalent in East Asia, and thus, many films tend to

tackle these issues. In this section, I’ll focus on Joint Security Area, a 2000 South Korean film,

and its take on the political divide between North and South Korea.

Joint Security Area is centered around uncovering the truth of a shootout that occurred

within the demilitarized zone. For context, the demilitarized zone is a buffer zone between North

and South Korea and is one of the most fortified borders in the world (Kim, Hyung-jin). As the

film progresses, the audience learns that the four soldiers in question were all friends, with the

two South Korean soldiers (Sgt. Lee Soo-hyuk and Pvt. Nam Sung-sik) even occasionally

visiting the North Korean soldiers’ (Sgt. Oh Kyeong Pil and Pvt. Jung Woo Jin) outpost. But

even though they’ve grown close, the friendship is still somewhat fragile. Any discussions of

politics can and do ruin the lighthearted mood that they’ve created. For example, when Lee jokes
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that the two North Korean soldiers should defect to South Korea so they can eat as many

chocolate pies as they want, Oh immediately launches into a loud speech about how he hopes to

serve the republic. The air is tense afterward, leaving the audience feeling worried if this will

shatter the utopia that the four have created for themselves. From this interaction, the audience

understands that these ideologies are still ingrained in Oh’s mind. Even in a shared space, there is

still a political divide that is hard to ignore.

To emphasize this point, director Park Chan-wook utilizes certain framing to divide the

screen. Shots of the border that divides the two countries serve both a literal and metaphorical

purpose. When Lee first invites Nam to join him in visiting the two North Korean soldiers, Nam

hesitates at the border. As Lee tries to persuade Nam, the shot does not focus on the character’s

faces but instead focuses on the border and each character’s feet on either side (see fig. 1). Lee

has already crossed the line; he overcame the mental hurdle and became friends with people he’s

supposed to think of as the enemy. Thus, when Nam finally crosses the border, it’s not only him

literally crossing the border that divides the two Koreas, but also overcoming the political

differences that divide the two Koreas.

Figure 1 - Nam (left) and Lee (right) stand on opposite sides of the border line that splits the frame in half.
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Most importantly, all the things that divide the screen are external – such as trees, the border line,

or windows – as if to say the division between North and South Korea are external, but not

necessarily coming from within the characters. In the end, the film questions the national

division between the two Koreas and wonders about the possibility of a reunified Korea.

Class Divide

Class divides between the rich and the poor is a topic that is often explored in East Asian

films and television shows. In South Korea, economic inequality has been a growing concern. In

2020, Korea has a poverty rate of 17.4%, which is the second highest among countries in OECD

(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (Kim, Yon-se). In this section, I’ll

focus on Parasite, the award-winning South Korean film released in 2019, and how it showcases

the class gap between the rich and poor.

In Parasite, director Bong Joon-ho tackles the growing wealth gap by intertwining the

lives of two drastically different families – the poor Kim family and the rich Park family. As the

poor Kim family slowly infiltrates the Park family’s house, the gap between the two families

grows more and more obvious. This contrast is best seen when the two families are reacting to

the same event, such as a heavy rainstorm. The rainstorm leaves the Kim family stranded and

their semi-basement home flooded. Yet, during the rainstorm, the youngest son of the Park

family enjoys the rain in his backyard and sleeps soundly, knowing that the tent his family got

from America would not leak and let the rain through. The aftermath of the rainstorm resulted in

the Kim family being smelly, as they had to wade through sewage water, and uncomfortable, as

they had to sleep with tens of other people in a shared shelter. But the Park family is wholly

unaffected, and in fact, they are appreciative of what the rain has brought, “Today the sky’s so
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blue, and no pollution! Thanks to all the rain yesterday” (Parasite 1:44:36-1:44:45). For the Park

family, the rain was a “blessing” and brought clear air and nice weather, but for the Kim family,

they lost their home and most of their belongings were ruined. Despite experiencing the same

rainstorm, it impacted the families in drastically different ways.

Another element that emphasizes this divide is visually depicting the divide when

framing shots. Throughout the film, Bong will use lines to indicate the divide between the rich

and the poor, as if to show that there’s a line that they can’t be crossed. For example, Bong will

use the lines on the glass and place a member of each family on either side of the line (see fig. 2

and 3). The careful placement of each character further highlights the unbridgeable gap between

the rich and the poor. Like in Joint Security Area, the divides are due to external factors (such as

Figure 2 - The father of the Park family (left) and the Figure 3 - The father of the Kim family (left) and the
father of the Kim family (right) divided by the line on the father of the Park family (right) divided by the line on the
glass glass

glass windows), but they are much more subtle than in Joint Security Area, reflecting how nearly

invisible and everyday these divisions are. Similarly, the visual contrast of having to go up the

stairs to enter the Park family’s home compared to the Kim family living “underground” in a

semi-basement home contributes to Bong’s critique on the class divide in South Korea. Most

notably, in the pivotal rainstorm scene, Bong directs multiple shots of the Kim family going

down many flights of stairs to get to their house. Not only that, but the Kim family was leaving
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the Park family’s home. Thus, this scene visually indicates their socioeconomic status, and the

many flights of stairs represent the large gap between the rich and poor.

Furthermore, Parasite can be interpreted to criticize the societal structures in South

Korea that uphold these inequities, with the film touching upon how important connections and

education is with social mobility. According to the mother of the Park family, recommendations

and referrals are the best way to find employees, calling this a “belt of trust.” Nepotism or hiring

practices that favor the rich and powerful are common in South Korea (Song). Those without

connections, often lower-class families, have a harder time getting their foot in the door

compared to those who can “buy” their way in. The only reason the Kim family got the

opportunity to infiltrate at all was because of a referral for a tutoring position from a friend. In

addition, throughout the film, the audience learns how clever and smart the Kim family can be.

As mentioned before, the son of the Kim family, Ki-woo, is asked by his friend to take over his

English tutoring position. This request implies that Ki-woo is good at English. Ki-woo only

failed to enter university because he had no money to pay for the tutoring class for the college

entrance examination. Additionally, it’s hinted that the daughter of the Kim family, Ki-jung, only

failed to complete high school due to the family’s poverty. Unlike in the United States (where

public high school education is free), attending high school is not free in South Korea. On

average, attending high school in South Korea can cost around $3000 to $4500 (Park). Their

financial situation impacts their ability to attend college, which impacts their ability to find a job,

and thus, impacts the rest of their life. It’s a cycle that is difficult for poor people to escape. But

the audience knows that Ki-woo and Ki-jung are capable because once they were given the

opportunity (thanks to the “belt of trust”), they were able to deceive the Park family for a while.

But unless people give them the opportunity, they are not able to climb the social ladder. And, as
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we have discussed prior, people won’t give them these opportunities due to their lack of formal

education and lack of connections. As Chang Liu states in his paper, “… Becoming unemployed

is not simply the result of not working hard” (81). Ultimately, Parasite exposes the wealth gap in

South Korea by showing the two different worlds in which the rich and poor live.

Cultural Divide

Before analyzing the two films under this section, I want to preface with a disclaimer that

the idea of a “cultural divide” is admittedly vague and difficult to define. However, I chose to

define the last category of societal divide this way in order to cover a wider range of topics. In

this section, I’ll be examining two Japanese movies and how they represent a divide in how we

think about family and how we think about atomic bomb victims.

Shoplifters is a 2018 film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. While this film does touch

upon the class divide in Japan, I wanted to focus mainly on how this film challenges how we

define family. Family is an incredibly important aspect of Japanese society, having been

influenced by Confucian ideals of filial piety and hierarchical social structures. As a result,

people’s identity, reputation, and responsibilities are all connected to family (“Japanese Culture –

Family”). At the beginning of the film, the main family looks like any traditional three-

generation household. Later, we learn that nobody in the family is related by blood, and yet, they

all still consider each other as family. More importantly, they are family because they chose each

other as family, as seen in a conversation between the grandmother and the “mom” of the

household, Nobuyo Shibata, “Maybe it’s stronger when you choose them yourself.” “What is?”

“The bond.” (Shoplifters 43:31-43:41). On the other hand, the investigators represent people who

hold a more traditional view of family or hold the idea that one’s blood family is the most
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important. This “family first” ideal can be seen when Juri, the youngest “daughter” of the family

who was allegedly kidnapped by the Shibata family, is returned to her abusive parents. Even

though the investigators should have plenty of suspicions about Juri’s parents’ ability to raise her

since they never reported her missing, they prioritized giving Juri back to her abusive and

neglectful parents. The divide between what is considered family is further shown in a

conversation between an investigator and Nobuyo. Nobuyo challenges the notion of what makes

somebody a mother, “Giving birth automatically makes you a mother?” The investigator

responds, “You can’t become a mother unless you do” (Shoplifters 1:42:43-1:42:52). The

investigator’s narrow-minded response represents the cultural divide of those who believe that

family is limited to those who are related by blood or are on the family registry. As one critic

puts it, the film “spares no effort to ironize these privileged ‘legal’ but cold families in

comparison to this ‘illegal family’” (Zhang).

Another important aspect that Shoplifters touches upon is child abuse and the lack of

resources for such children. Child abuse continues to be an important issue for Japan to tackle.

During the pandemic, Japan saw a record number of children abused, with a record high of 2,174

cases of child abuse in 2021 (“Japan Police Report Record High Number of Child Abuse Cases

in 2021”). But Japan’s foster care system is underdeveloped. In an interview, Hirokazu pointed

this issue out, “It is true that blood ties is something we put a lot of importance on in Japanese

society… and that’s one of the reasons why foster care systems have not really evolved in Japan”

(Shackleton). Unlike in other countries that place most abused and neglected children in foster

homes, Japan puts more than 80% of such children in residential-care facilities. But these

facilities are often a poor alternative and leave children unprepared for the “real world” (Kim,

Chang-Ran). After Juri is returned to her biological parents, she is shown to be fearful of her
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mother and refuses to get close to her, keeping herself a safe distance away. In contrast, when

Juri was with Nobuyo, they hugged often and Juri smiled more. Thus, Shoplifters is also

criticizing the poor foster care system that is in place for abused children.

Moving on, Black Rain is a Japanese film released in 1989 about the discrimination that

people who were exposed to radiation (also called hibakusha) experienced in terms of

marriage. Hibakusha and their children experienced intense discrimination due to ignorance

about the consequences of radiation sickness. Many people thought that women who were

exposed to radiation would be more likely to give birth to disabled children. Even today,

discrimination against hibakusha continues (Hiroshi). In Black Rain, the main character, Yasuko,

gets rejected by potential suitors over and over because she is rumored to have been exposed to

radiation. Even though she initially received a clean bill of health from the doctor, people didn’t

care. As the matchmaker said, “The suitor was very fond of Yasuko, but his parents insisted on

health over beauty” (Black Rain 28:06-28:14). Typically, class and wealth are some of the most

important factors for a good marriage prospect as parents always want their children to marry

someone well-off. But even though Yasuko’s family does come from a respectable background

and would normally be thought of as a prime candidate, the stigma around hibakusha ruins her

chances at marriage.

The divide deepens when Yasuko is paired up with Aono, her fourth suitor. Aono is eager

to be intimate and kisses Yasuko, all the while completely dismissing Yasuko’s concerns about

radiation sickness. As Tachibana points out in his essay, “The emotional gap

between hibakusha and non-hibakusha is deepened within Yasuko by this dismissive

response…” (308). According to Tachibana, Aono is representative of Japanese people in the

1950s who “devoted themselves to material success and ignored the aftermath of the war” (308).
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Another important element is the act of synchronizing the clocks. Their attempts to fit in with

society only further highlight how marginalized and separated they are from society, “The

routine act emphasizes her family’s attempt to continue an ordinary existence, an attempt that

they themselves know is ironic…” (Tachibana 310). In Black Rain, the director wanted to

highlight the marginalization and discrimination against hibakushas, especially during a time

when people kept trying to ignore the issue by pretending life is normal again.

Overcoming the Divide

Even though each movie tackled a different type of societal divide, they all shared one

thing in common: how the bonds and relationships that the characters formed helped them

overcome these divides. For example, in Joint Security Area, the four soldiers did the

unthinkable and became friends, despite their differing political ideologies, “The ideological

training they had received to hate and to kill the enemy loses its legitimacy in the face of reality

— the kind of reality that gets created when people meet and talk to one another” (Seo). It is

through making bonding and forming relationships that the four soldiers can overcome their

differences (Gleason). Thus, despite the tragic ending, the film seems to suggest that

reconciliation and reunification can happen, but only through genuine conversations and being

open-minded.

Another example is in Black Rain, when Yasuko finds herself connecting with Yuichi, a

war veteran who has PTSD. They confide in each other and bond over their trauma. Unlike how

Yasuko felt with Aono, Yuichi validates her feelings and makes her feel less alone. Throughout

the film, we see how Yuichi suffers from PTSD, mistaking every engine sound for a tank. At one

point, Yuichi hears a motorcycle engine going by his place and “attacks” it. And, despite the
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number of people trying to diffuse the situation and explain what happened to the motorcyclist,

the motorcyclist still yells and kicks at Yuichi. Occasionally, Yuichi’s PTSD provides comic

relief (although his disability serving this purpose also raises some important questions on how

his disability is seen), it mainly shows the gap in people’s understanding of PTSD. But the

audience can see how Yuichi is able to overcome his past and PTSD when he helps Yasuko onto

the ambulance, not bothered by the sound of the engine at all, “His love for her (or her love for

him) makes him finally overcome the past, for he is no longer maddened by the sound of an

engine” (Tachibana 306). Through their relationship, Yasuko overcomes the need to fit in and

Yuichi overcomes his PTSD, with both overcoming the divide between them and the rest of

Japanese society.

In conclusion, the various external factors that divide our society can be overcome by

forming relationships and mutual understanding for one another. By letting political and

socioeconomic divides get in between us, we create a more stratified society instead of creating

an empathetic society that benefits everyone.

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