Another War That Didn't Count

source: Truman Library

"The Cry of the Magpies"

From "The Cry of the Magpies" by Kim Dong-ni:

Ok-nan said that her coughing fits had occurred even before the half year had elapsed. When months passed by without a word from me and the magpies continued to cry in the mornings, my mother's eyes began to glare in a strange way. Then the strange glaring of her eyes seemed to shift over to a long spell of coughs. At first her condition was not so very bad, but beginning about one year after I left home, she got to coughing almost wihtout fail whenever the magpies cried in the morning....

I remember my mother was in the habit of mouthing such words as "O, God!" or "Help me!" after her occasional coughing fits even before I left home for the battlefield. And now she was replacing those words with "Bong-su!" and "Kill me!"

In my view, there was not much inconsistency in this development. Rather, these seemingly contradictory expressions were no more mutually exclusive than the two sides of one coin. The way I looked at it, "Help me" could very naturally become "Kill me", a suffering deepened into bottomless despair.

[From ""The Cry of the Magpies", Kim Dong-ni, The Portable Library of Korean Literature, Jimoondang Publishing, Seoul, 1961, 2002.]

Truth Marathon -- trailer

Truth Marathon -- trailer

This is the internet trailer for my screenplay-novel, Truth Marathon. It's meant to capture Truth Marathon's theme of contemporary big-city life -- in particular, the relationship between Paul and Sarah. But it's also meant to capture the novel's underlying theme of the power of history and how it constantly exerts its effect on people, even when they're unaware of it.

There are two major historical events addressed in Truth Marathon: the first is Pearl Harbor, the second the outbreak of the Korean War. About the latter, it is safe to say this still makes its effect felt on the Korean people -- not on a daily basis, but nevertheless regularly, inexorably.

History matters. It matters to individuals. It matters to nations. Yet the paradox of history is that quite often, even when scholarship shows certain facts to be true, it can be glossed over by myth.

[Special thanks to Yang Sang-joon and friend for putting this together]

TRUTH MARATHON - 1

This is the new opening to my screenplay-novel, Truth Marathon:

EXT. A STREET IN PRE-WORLD WAR TWO TOKYO. MID-DAY.

TITLE: TOKYO, JANUARY 26, 1941.

The street in front of the Japanese branch of the National City Bank of New York. The street is covered with a thin film of snow. Crowds move back and forth quickly: Japanese men, mostly, dressed in sober dark suits, but also the occasional vendor pulling a large wagon or, with her head bowed, a woman.

Sometimes the women are young and officious and also dressed in dark, business-like fashions. But once in a while, they are wearing bright kimonos.

The overall visual effect is of a series of monochromes, from the black of window frames and wrought iron fences, to the dark grey of stone walls, to the steadily dirtying white of the snow -- but all this dotted by an infrequent bob of colour.

A car pulls up in front of the bank. A WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN emerges from it. He enters the bank.

INTERIOR. THE BANK. A MOMENT LATER.

The WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN stands in line. After a moment, he reaches the front.

JAPANESE MALE TELLER: [with an accent] Hello. May I helping you?

WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN: [speaking in a well-educated accent, Ivy League-inflected accent. His manner is friendly; clearly, he is trying to be genial] Konichiwa. Yes, I’d like to convert some yen to U. S. dollars.

JAPANESE MALE TELLER: How much?

WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN: [reaching into his jacket and pulling out a big envelope] Well, it’s rather a large amount….

JUMP-CUT. JUST BEHIND THE WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN.

ANOTHER WESTERN MAN, also well dressed, taps the first on the shoulder.

OTHER WESTERN MAN: [with a Latin-American accent] Mr. Bishop.

BISHOP (FIRST WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN): [startled] Oh, Dr. Schreiber. You surprised me.

DR. SCHRIEBER: [somewhat anxiously] I’m sorry. May I have a word with you?

BISHOP: Shoot.

DR. SCHRIEBER: No. A private word.

BISHOP: [friendly] Sure. Just a moment.

Bishop turns back to the teller, finishes his business, then turns back to Schreiber who is clearly agitated.

SCHREIBER: [whispering] What I have to say is of paramount importance.

BISHOP: Oh. All right, then.

The two walk to an alcove.

INTERIOR. A CLOSE-UP OF THE TWO MEN. THE BUSINESS OF THE BANK CONTINUES IN THE BACKGROUND.

SCHREIBER: What do you know about Japanese foreign policy toward your country?

BISHOP: [in a rather hale tone] Well, it’s complex, isn’t it? [Trying to be witty] That’s what the Japanese do so well. Make things complex.

SCHREIBER: Well, of course. There is complex. But there is also hostile.

BISHOP: Good god, why should the Japanese be hostile?

SCHREIBER: You are interfering with their aims.

BISHOP: What? In China?

SCHREIBER: Well, yes. In China. But also --. [Schreiber turns his head and does a quick nervous scan of the bank. Then he turns back to Bishop] Well, it would seem that since they signed agreement with Germany and Italy….

BISHOP: [shaking his head] Oh, yes, a foolish business, that. Very bad form.

SCHREIBER: Well, since they have allied into an axis, they --. There seems to be a change in your government’s attitude toward them.

BISHOP: [bluffly] I should hope so!

SCHREIBER: But why? You don’t fight in Europe’s war.

BISHOP: No, no. But we thoroughly disapprove of it. We disapprove of fascism.

SCHREIBER: But that is a European movement. Not Asian.

BISHOP: No. But in Japan it might turn into something close enough. And what Tojo’s people are doing in China right now. It’s very shameful.

SCHREIBER: Mr. Bishop. We are both diplomats. We know countries do not pick fights with each other because they think one country’s actions are shameful.

BISHOP: No, no. That’s true. But we can express disapproval.

SCHREIBER: At the diplomatic level, surely. But not the policy level.

BISHOP: What are you driving at?

SCHREIBER: The Japanese have noticed a change in your government’s policy toward them since they signed their agreement. They view this change as a provocation,

BISHOP: [a little pugnaciously] Well, they can view our policies any way they want. Maybe they might take it as a sign they should change some of their own policies.

SCHREIBER: Mr. Bishop. I have to speak more plainly. [Again, he scans the room.] ...

cont'd

[If you're an industry professional and would like to read this in its entirety, please email me at fharvor AT yahoo DOT com.]

To read more about the project, click here.

Slow news day

Here's a story which deservedly received very little attention in the media:

THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.

;

The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.

more

There is, incidentally, a Korean angle to all this, since it is North Korea, not Iran, that has recently succeeded in testing nuclear weapons. But that story, too, is in a slow news cycle.

It simmers in the background, however. My wife and I are in the habit of going to Gwangwamun in downtown Seoul on weekends. We like to stroll around the area close to Kyungbukgong and the Kyobo book store. As we make our regular rounds, we pass two rather non-descript buildings. Both are constantly cordened off by bus-load after bus-load of riot police.

The first is the Japanese embassy. It is shrouded in a darkness that is positively eerie. A building that does not want to bring attention to itself (it was deliberately constructed on a side-street), it nevertheless exerts a quiet and unwanted influence on Korean affairs. While the Japanese government publicly states it wishes to eliminate nuclear weapons from the region -- from the world, in fact -- elements in Japan are preparing the groundwork for a build-up of its armed forces. This is partly justified as a reaction to the North's proliferation. But in fact it is also a reaction to the rapid re-ascendance of China to the status of genuine superpower.

The second building is the American embassy. It is situated on a piece of real estate that has pride of place, directly across from the Sejong Arts Center. It is not shy about its presence, since the United States has played so many roles in South Korea's history: benefactor, protector, and, on occasion, oppressor.

These days, even on weekends, the embassy's lights have been on late into the evening, burning brightly. Scenarios are being played out, actions meditated upon.

The peninsula these days is placid on its surface. But underground -- kilometers, or perhaps, decades, deep -- it rumbles.

Standard HI

Richard Diraddo has new fiction up at Standard Hostility Index. Also, a spanky, er, spanking new homepage video. Finally, as always, the art page, a particular favourite of mine.

TRUTH MARATHON -- character sketches: Paul

Drawing: Finn Harvor

[Note: the above is how I conceive of Paul, one of the main characters in my screenplay-novel, TRUTH MARATHON.]

TRUTH MARATHON -- OPENING SEQUENCE

This is the new opening to my screenplay-novel, Truth Marathon:

EXT. A STREET IN PRE-WORLD WAR TWO TOKYO. MID-DAY.

TITLE: TOKYO, JANUARY 26, 1941.

The street in front of the Japanese branch of the National City Bank of New York. The street is covered with a thin film of snow. Crowds move back and forth quickly: Japanese men, mostly, dressed in sober dark suits, but also the occasional vendor pulling a large wagon, or, with her head bowed, a woman.

Sometimes the women are young and officious and also dressed in dark, business-like fashions. But once in a while, they are wearing bright kimonos.

The overall visual effect is of a series of monochromes, from the black of window frames and wrought iron fences, to the dark grey of stone walls, to the steadily dirtying white of the snow -- but all this dotted by an infrequent bob of colour.

A car pulls up in front of the bank. A WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN emerges from it. He enters the bank.

INTERIOR. THE BANK. A MOMENT LATER.

The WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN stands in line. After a moment, he reaches the front.

JAPANESE MALE TELLER: [with an accent] Hello. May I helping you?

WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN: [speaking in a well-educated, Ivy League-inflected accent. His manner is friendly; clearly, he is trying to be genial] Konichiwa. Yes, I’d like to convert some yen to U. S. dollars.

JAPANESE MALE TELLER: How much?

WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN: [reaching into his jacket and pulling out a big envelope] Well, it’s rather a large amount….

JUMP-CUT. JUST BEHIND THE WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN.

ANOTHER WESTERN MAN, also well dressed, taps the first on the shoulder.

OTHER WESTERN MAN: [with a Latin-American accent] Mr. Bishop.

BISHOP (FIRST WELL-DRESSED WESTERN MAN): [startled] Oh, Dr. Schreiber. You surprised me.

DR. SCHRIEBER: [somewhat anxiously] I’m sorry. May I have a word with you?

BISHOP: Shoot.

DR. SCHRIEBER: No. A private word.

BISHOP: [friendly] Sure. Just a moment.

Bishop turns back to the teller, finishes his business, then turns back to Schreiber who is clearly agitated.

SCHREIBER: [whispering] What I have to say is of paramount importance.

BISHOP: Oh. All right, then.

The two walk to an alcove.

INTERIOR. A CLOSE-UP OF THE TWO MEN. THE BUSINESS OF THE BANK CONTINUES IN THE BACKGROUND.

SCHREIBER: What do you know about Japanese foreign policy toward your country?

BISHOP: [in a rather hale tone] Well, it’s complex, isn’t it? [Trying to be witty] That’s what the Japanese do so well. Make things complex.

SCHREIBER: Well, of course. There is complex. But there is also hostile.

BISHOP: Good god, why should the Japanese be hostile?

SCHREIBER: You are interfering with their aims.

BISHOP: What? In China?

SCHREIBER: Well, yes. In China. But also --. [Schreiber turns his head and does a quick nervous scan of the bank. Then he turns back to Bishop] Well, it would seem that since they signed that agreement with Germany and Italy….

BISHOP: [shaking his head] Oh, yes, a foolish business, that. Very bad form.

to read more, click here