MovieChat Forums > Kim Bok-nam salinsageonui jeonmal (2012) Discussion > Do communities like this exist in Korea?

Do communities like this exist in Korea?


I was wondering if there are islands that are so isolated in Korea, with so few residents. The story seemed frightenly believable.

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There are definitely rural areas in Korea that seem to live outside the rest of the world. I don't know about any islands, but you don't need an island to be separated. I've also definitely met a couple ajuma that are so like the characters in the movie it's scary.



"It's true... I read it on Wikipedia"

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Thanks killian. Just makes the movie more real and intense...

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There was a case several years ago a bit like this - minus the killings - but it involved rape of women and children on the Pitcairn Islands. It had been going on for many generations and was the norm there, part of everyday life! Personally, I see that case as the inspiration for this film actually.

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Sadly, yes. There are still many isolated islands in Korea. Also, there were many actual cases that were very similar to the movie. Most victims were orphans and mentally-disabled women. The worst thing is the perpetrators are rarely punished b/c no one wants to testify and the maximum jail time for sex offenders is 15 years!!


This is why many Koreans are shocked by this movie.




English is my second language :(

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I wouldn't be surpised if there was many isolated communities like this in Korea. I remember seeing a map of Korea at night and other than Seoul the rest of the country had random places lit up that were spread far apart from other another.

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Let's go to the source.

PROMOTIONAL INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR YANG-CHUL-SOO

Q: "To what extent is Bedevilled inspired by real events?"

A: (Yang Chul-soo): "There were three shocking cases that shook Korean society, which had given me inspiration. First was the KIM Boo-nam case in 1991 when KIM, a 30-year-old woman, murdered a man who used to be her next-door neighbour and raped her when she was 9 years old. Second was the KIM Bo-eun/KIM Jin-gwan case in 1992 when KIM Bo-eun, with the help of her boyfriend KIM Jin-gwan, murdered her stepfather who had abused her sexually for 10 years. And the last was a case where a large group of high school boys had sexually abused two junior high school girls, who were sisters, in Milyang for over a year. Out of around 40, only three assaulters had received a mere 10 months’ sentence, and the police mishandled the case, one officer implying it was the girls’ fault. All three cases had extreme results because the bystanders showed no concern."

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Unfortunately, regardless of what the director says inspired the movie, there is real slavery happening on remote Korean islands today. It's not really talked about, although it has broken the news a few times, it's kind of accepted that they use disabled people on these islands and don't let them leave. This is what a quick search shows, but there was a much larger case that made the news when I lived there.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-islands-of-abuse-inside-south-koreas-slave-farms-for-the-disabled-9954527.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_on_salt_farms_in_Sinan_County



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