CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF KOREAN IDENTITY, IN INK AND ON FILM
Im Kwan Taek's Chihwaseon (Painted Fire)

by Angela Y. Choi

Chihwaseon opens with a close-up of Ohwon's vigorous, almost brusque brushstrokes as he paints for an audience of yangban, or Korean noblemen, in the late 1880s, during the prime of his career. Ohwan's performance is admired by those in attendance, some men actually miming his brushstrokes in midair, much the way today's music fan may play air-guitar to his or her favorite rock song. When the finished painting is held up for all to study, in a voiceover one of the yangban notes how Ohwon appears to "follow the rules, yet he breaks them at the same time." Ohwon is quick to reject the notion of rules, and at the end of this sequence, he is seen stomping away from the nobleman's house as, in another voiceover, a yangban warns against his recalcitrant attitude.

This opening sequence captures the overall theme of the film, exploring the tension between tradition and "modernity" and all the associated conflicts at this transitional period of Korea's history, the late Choson dynasty. (Some of the historical references in the film may be confusing to those unfamiliar with Korean history.) Coincidentally, some key events pertinent not only to Korea, but also to China, Japan, and the Western imperialist powers, bookend the life of Ohwon, who was born in 1843, one year after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of the Opium War between China and Britain, and who died in 1897, one year before the quashing of the Peasant Revolts in Korea. Some art historians have gone as far as to state that more than any other painter at the end of the Choson period, Ohwon represents the transition to modernity. Im's film concentrates on this period of transition, when the nation became a focal point for control between several imperial interests, including China, Japan, and Western countries such as the United States, Britain, and Germany. The Korean royal dynasty was in decline, and there were internal power struggles within the ruling families. Korea, which traditionally had been known as the Hermit Kingdom due to its isolationist policies, was becoming ensnared in the political ping-pong matches between China, Japan, and the West. However, in my opinion, this period should not be characterized as one of "opening" or "discovery" or "enlightenment," or even as one of a blatant plundering or exploitation of Korea, but rather as a time of encounter of different nations' histories, politics, and economics.

Throughout the film, historical events, coupled with Ohwon's seemingly insatiable appetite for women and alcohol, act as loosely drawn, episodic milestones in Ohwon's life. Despite the artist's humble origins, his talent was recognized early in his life by a Kim Byung- moon, a nobleman who worked with the Reformists (who wanted to eliminate some of the more objectionable elements of Confucianism, such as a class-based, hierarchical social organization) and played a key role throughout Ohwon's life. Initially, Kim rescues the young Jang Seung-ub (Ohwon) by intervening during a beating he was receiving at the hands of his sister's miscreant boyfriend, and later, by arranging an apprenticeship with a master artist, as well as other odd jobs in other noble households. These opportunities provided windows to the literati world that would soon recognize the artist's revolutionary vision. One key sequence demonstrates the sheer raw talent of Jang Seung-ub: he is discovered secretly making copies of paintings from his employer's art collection after only a single viewing. Yet, he was not content to merely copy the work of others. He engaged in a painful struggle to find his own voice, breaking away from the constraints of tradition, only to return with a different set of vocabularies, so that he could go "beyond the form to paint the meaning," as described by one of his contemporaries.

This artistic quest prompts Ohwon to wander the Korean countryside, with nature acting as his true and intimate source of spiritual and intellectual inspiration, a recurrent theme in Confucian ideology. Im, as in some of his previous films set in the late Choson dynasty, beautifully shoots this journey, from snow-covered rice fields to flocks of thousands of birds streaking across the sky juxtaposed against jutting mountains. Ohwon's emphasis on letting the painting speak for itself, without the use of literature or poetry to support the image, set him apart from some of the scholar painters of his time. Interestingly, throughout the film, there are references to a "divine force" or suggestions of drunken states that enable Ohwon to reach elevated planes of artistic expression.

Some viewers might argue that the story of the suffering artist, overtly apolitical in character, who strives to achieve greatness and transcend his times, lapsing into self-indulgent episodes involving alcohol and womanizing, is overdone. (The most frequently cited example of this archetypal story is Jackson Pollock, and the film Pollock was released in 2001.) But this type of figure has not been captured in a Korean film before, and therefore the movie has important ramifications in terms of Im's goal of capturing a fading Korean identity. In his movies, Im has continually explored periods of conflict in Korea's history during which Koreans have had to face the question of what makes them Korean in a way different than previously encounterednot as the student demonstrator or oppressed laborer or even the simple image of a 'pure' Confucian ideal man or woman.

Many critics have noted that Chihwaseon is Im Kwan Taek's most personal film, since the life of the main character parallels certain aspects of Im's life. To a certain extent, the film reflects an effort to re-invent the life history of Jang Seung-ub; it was a life that was not well recorded, and involved a reimagining based on the few remnants of his life, such as the paintings attributed to him, most of which were unsigned, and two biographies written by his disciples. However, it should be noted that the benefactor of Ohwon, Kim Byung-Moon, also evokes the voice of the filmmaker. During the course of the film, this man is transformed from a believer in the political reformation of Korea the nation to a searcher for the soul of Koreans; he finally stops pushing Ohwon to express the political in his paintings and begins to appreciate the peace in them. Im demonstrates an obvious nostalgia in his mission to distill or save a Korean identity; this nostalgia is present in some of his previous films, such as Sopyonje and Chunhyang, both of which are also period films set in the late Choson dynasty. In Chihwason, instead of trying to preserve a bounded, static identity, he succeeds in reformulating Korean identity into something more dynamic.