There is strength in silence when the silence becomes your testimony of what is too difficult to speak aloud. In director Jee Hyewon’s latest documentary VOICES, which screened in the Korean Cinema program of the 2024 25th Jeonju International Film Festival, the silence and voices of the female survivors of the violent massacres that took place in 1948 on Jeju Island, are finally being shared with the world to listen to.
On April the 3rd, 1948 armed forces of the Namrodang South Korean Labor Party attacked 12 police stations located on the island of Jeju off the southern coast of the mainland. These attacks sparked a wave of violence that led to the executions of around 150 young women and men, and some teenagers one of whom was 17-year-old Kim Eun-yang, who was survived by her then 14-year-old sister Kim Eun-soon. Though 76 years in the past, that fateful day of the Tonso-ri massacre (named for the location on the island where it took place) left a deep scar of trauma within Kim Eun-soon, trauma that to this day makes it difficult to discuss everything she witnessed that year and the years of tumult that followed.
Joining Kim Eun-soon in sharing their testimony in VOICES, are Hong Sun-gong, Koh Jeong-ja, Kim Yong-yeol, and Cho Jung-hee, Jeju April 3rd Incident Researcher, who for the past 20 years has been documenting the testimonies of survivors and their descendants.
Despite gaining liberation from Japanese imperial occupation three years before in 1945, South Korea was decades away from becoming a democracy, for immediately preceding the expulsion of the imperial forces the spread of the fear of communism, known as the ‘Red Scare, that swept the world following WWII, spread throughout the country. Political leaders seeking to establish their own power aided by the U.S. military and government, placed former pro-Japanese officials and police officers were once again put in charge to stir up discontent amongst the people. These officials and officers’ chaos within communities and after the death of a child and 6 civilians which sparked the general strike known as the ‘Jeju Uprising’.
The fighting between government officials, police, and rebel factions resulted in the mass torture, displacement, forced imprisonment on their own land, and massacres of some 30,000 people of which it’s estimated 80% were men, between 1947 and 1954 at the end of the Korean War (officially the war between North and South Korea is in armistice). But that wasn’t the end to the troubles of the people of Jeju Island, for the stigma of being labeled as communist sympathizers, the violent and deadly betrayal by their own people, and the decades of denial and avoidance of what took place by their own government also compounded the trauma of survivors like Kim Eun-soon, Hong, Sun-gong, Koh Jeon-ja, and Kim Yong-yeol.
With all of the memories of all they had suffered weighing on their spirits and bodies, the women of Jeju Island were left with no choice but to put their pain aside in silence and carry on with the lives left for them to lead.
As a director Jee Hyewon is careful in how she gives the women the space to share what they’re comfortable sharing. The moments as they sit contemplatively after speaking of the horrors they witnessed and were forced to endure are given the time to stay on screen to resonate with the viewer. When Hong Sun-gong and Koh Jeong-ja former Haenyeo, share their stories of diving for abalone to make money to provide for their children, the reality that these women known the world over as the famous ‘female free divers of Jeju Island’, – as depicted in the 70s set 2023 action drama Smugglers by Ryoo Seung-wan – are much more than meets the eye or has been told. And finally, those hidden depths are being shared through this documentary.
In my interview with Jee Hyewon we spoke about her experience making the film and listening to the stories being shared and the importance of silence being a testimony for traumatic experiences, as well as this being the time to make a film such as this. I also asked Co-producer Kim Sunah, who acted as interpreter for the interview, about what it meant to her to be involved with a project like this.
For her work as a filmmaker and documentarian, Jee Hyewon has gained critical acclaim for her films Singing with Angry Bird (2016), Free Minu (2018), and Home Away Home (2021), and now Voices which won the Documentary Award in the Special Awards category at Jeonju IFF.
Carolyn Hinds
Freelance Critic, Journalist & Podcaster
African American Film Critics Association Member, Tomatometer-Approved Critic
Co-Host & Producer So Here’s What Happened! Podcast
Bylines at http://Authory.com/CarolynHinds
Twitter & Instagram: @CarrieCnh12
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