Geomsa-wa yeoseonsaeng / A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher

Yun Dae-ryong: 검사와 여선생 / Geomsa-wa yeoseonsaeng / A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher (KR 1948) starring Kim Dong-min (Prosecutor) and Lee Yeong-ae (Teacher). Poster photo from: Danielle Crepaldi Carvalho (São Paulo, Brazil): Filmes, filmes, filmes! (e outras cositas mais)  Impressões sobre filmes, óperas, espetáculos teatrais e afins.

Yun Dae-ryong: 검사와 여선생 / Geomsa-wa yeoseonsaeng / A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher (KR 1948) starring Lee Yeong-ae (Teacher). Photo: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

Lydia Jakobs: Pictures of Poverty : The Works of George R. Sims and Their Screen Adaptations. John Libbey Publishing, October 2021.

KOREA Prog. 3 Silent Films in the Age of Sound Films
검사와 여선생 / GEOMSA-WA YEOSEONSAENG (KR 1948)
[Il pubblico ministero e l’insegnante/A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher]
regia/dir: Yun Dae-ryong.
adapt: Yun Dae-ryong, dal romanzo di/based on the novel by Kim Choon-gwang.
photog: Park Hu-yeong.
cast: Lee Yeong-ae (insegnante/Teacher), Kim Dong-min (pubblico ministero/Prosecutor), Lee Up-dong (detenuto in fuga/Escaped Convict).
copia/copy: DCP, 62 min, sd; did./titles: KOR, narr. Sin Chul (byeonsa).
fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone. Corona emergency security: half programming, half capacity, COVID certificate required, temperature measured, hand hygiene, face masks, distancing.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi with e-subtitles in English and Italian, 7 Oct 2021.

Sungji Oh (GCM 2021): "First released on 5 June 1948, the silent film A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher reflects the reality faced by Korean filmmakers at that time. After liberation in 1945, the Korean film world was left in a state of disarray. The only equipment and facilities available were those left behind by Japanese filmmakers, and it was impossible to obtain raw film stock. In addition, the dominance of the Central Motion Picture Exchange (CMPE), a direct distributor in Korea of U.S. films, made the position of Korean cinema even more precarious. From liberation to August of 1948, around 15-16 feature films, 3-4 cultural films, and 5-6 documentaries and news films were produced in South Korea; silent films accounted for more than half of these, and many were shot on 16mm. One of the reasons that silent films were still produced was the shortage of sound-equipped film projectors in most Korean cities. According to one critical newspaper article (published in the Kyunghyang Shinmun [Kyunghyang Daily News], 1 January 1948), “This is nothing more than a series of mediocre 16 mm or 35 mm sound or silent films. In addition, the haphazard range of themes and contents leaves no room for any artistic system or trend.”"

"In 2000, the Korean Film Archive digitally restored the 16 mm original print of A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher donated by the Korean Film Council – featuring the voice of Sin Chul, the country’s famous last byeonsa."

"The plot is simple, but moving: A young teacher (played by Lee Yeong-ae) befriends a poor schoolboy, then leaves to get married. Years later, she gives shelter to an escaped convict, but her husband misconstrues her intentions. He threatens her with a knife, and accidentally stabs himself to death. Fortunately, the prosecutor on the case turns out to be her former student, who has never forgotten her kindness to him. With his help, she is found not guilty. He takes her to his home and shows her a book she gave him, which he has kept all these years."

"Despite the film’s technical flaws and incompleteness, it was designated a national cultural treasure in September 2007 for its historical and social value – a 16 mm silent film accompanied by a byeonsa, showing the reality of the Korean film world after liberation. However, given that A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher was produced in the era of sound films, it is ironic that the film was recognized partly for its anachronistic production and screening methods. It was remade as a sound film in 1958 by the same director, Yun Dae-ryong." Sungji Oh

AA: Paradoxically, for me, the most memorable movie of the 40th Anniversary Edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto was a Korean silent film called A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher, made as late as 1948 on 16 mm, immortalizing the voice of the last byeonsa Sin Chul on the soundtrack in this edition made later.

The voice of Sin Chui, the crying byeonsa, made all the difference. It was a voice from beyond, echoing primordial, universal oral traditions of poetry and storytelling. A testimony of sorrow and pain, but also of an innate spirit of goodness and love, in the wavelength of Immanuel Kant: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

In the last pre-pandemic edition of Le Giornate two years ago I visited what I found the best ever live benshi performance, Ichiro Kataoka's interpretation of Chushingura (1910). This Sin Chui experience is the second time that makes me fully realize the power of the benshi.

It makes me think of the current renaissance of the spoken word, such as Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" at the swearing-in of U.S. President Joe Biden in January 2021.

The byeonsa performance belongs to the most ancient traditions. The dirges from the depths of history, the lament of Sumer and Ur, the oral genesis of Homer and Aesop, in Finland the Karelian itkuvirsi tradition of wailing women and the entire Kalevala and Kanteletar legacy. A wealth of connections is evoked. Charles Dickens (a legend also for his readings) and Victorian England about which I'm currently perusing Pictures of Poverty (2021) by Lydia Jakobs, having received a copy in my festival guest bag. Leo Tolstoy. The Biograph shorts of D. W. Griffith, distinguished by Sunday school storylines and a sophistication and sincerity of expression.

In Finland I am reminded of the fondest childhood memories of the Nobel laureate F. E. Sillanpää (1888–1964) who told about the great narrators of the 1890s, first in magic lantern shows, soon blending into early cinema. The beloved narrators were what one came for, regardless of what was playing, even regardless, or because of, a prominent lisp, for instance when the explicador felt it necessary to comment an incident like "nyt ne pussaa" – "now they kiss". The impressions of these performances lasted a lifetime.

In this category is also the Sin Chui experience in A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher. It is naive but not naivist. It has pathos, but it is not pathetic. These are tales of extreme injustice, and a grandeur of spirit to match.

The source print of the DCP is awful and wobbly, but the flow of the film experience is more compelling.