MovieChat Forums > Igla Discussion > That's odd

That's odd

posted 12 years ago by swazn
2 replies | jump to latest

The story of ethnic Koreans in Soviet Central Asia was not publicly acknowledge within the Soviet Union for more than 50 years. You would think Russian film critics would be eager to blaze new paths by addressing the ethnicity of the hero in this movie. But to my knowledge, not one has. Moro's ethnicity may be incidental to the narrative, but the very fact that Koreans were practically invisible in Soviet cinema and history for so many decades makes it incumbent upon critics to recognize Moro/Tsoy for what he was: Korean.

[–] kbelyshev-60-5582 12 years ago

actually, half korean. but russia is a weirdly racist place. in a different way from US, where i live now. racism is sort of taken for granted in russia. social class creates more tension or alienation between people. tsoi was almost a unique case of someone of a different nationality other than slavick to get a main part in a film. there were more, to be sure, but Igla was definitely more popular than other films. i'm not sure what's going on in russian cinema, but the impact its making seems to be diminishing in russia year by year. balabanov basically went off the grid after making cargo 200 and stoker. they are amazing films to be sure, but it seems arts are not saving russia from the grim situation it is in. or they are very successfully repressed.

[–] swazn 12 years ago

Very interesting, thoughtful reply, I appreciate it.