48 Film Review
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2022
CULTURE & ARTS
Round and Around
Drawing an Arc of Korean History Through the May 18 Democratic Movement Reviewed by Ashley Sangyou Kim
W
hen my film professor introduced Round and Around to me, he furrowed his brows, tilted his head to one side, and ultimately settled on the words “austere” and “abstract.” The official description of Round and Around uses the term “audio-visual project,” and the stated purpose is to “reflect [on] the significance of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.” This 90-minute film combines archival footage and photographs with chorus music and amplified sound effects to revisit different moments of state violence in 1980s South Korea. Director Jang Min-seung offers a fractured yet intimate representation of May 18 through an interplay between sight and sound. I will go through some of the
▲ Figure 1. The opening ceremony of the ’88 Olympics presents South Korea as a peaceful utopia. (Jang 19:03)
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thoughts I walked away with from watching this film. One of the most remarkable things about Round and Around is that it shows how wide the scope of state violence is. State violence can mean neglect after natural disasters, inhumane labor conditions, or the symbolic violence in a false representation of harmony (see Figure 1). All of these events point back to Gwangju, where state violence reaches senseless heights. Although this film is very specific to South Korean history, it does not require the audience to have previous knowledge on the subject. In fact, the unconventional and abstract style asks those who are familiar with modern Korean history to see the 1980s in a different light. In this film, history is not told through narrative. There is no logical procession from one event to another; although events are shown roughly in reverse chronological order, the footage frequently jumps back and forth between events. The film operates on a rhythm that is at times overwhelmingly fast and at others uncomfortably slow. This mimics how time is felt by the people who live through the history and thereby breaks the critical distance that often accompanies depictions of past events.
2022-02-23 �� 12:29:24
