"Mal-Mo-E : The Secret Mission", the fight of Korean people to protect Korean Language

 "Mal-Mo-E : The Secret Mission", the fight of Korean people to protect Korean Language

I really love to learn Korean history and find out many interesting facts about the country. But sometimes learning history from books can be boring  so I always watch korean movies that related to history to understand the story. One of the korean history i would like to introduce you is the history of the making of korean dictionary and the language itself. There is one movie that i love to watch and i can say this movie remains beautiful thoughts about how pretty the Korean language is and how korean people appreciate their language very much.

About The Movie

Source

Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission, is a historical drama film directed and written by Eom Yuna. The film's title comes from an old Korean saying 말모이 which means 'collect words'. Director Eom was a little bit worried when choosing the title as people around her thought that the Korean public wouldn't understand the film's title. But Mal-Moe became the top of korean box office selling over a million tickets.

The movie began on April 1, 2018 and finished by July 15, 2018. The title comes from the first Korean Language Dictionary manuscript which was written by Ju Si Gyeong and was published in 1911. Ju was one of the founders of modern Korean linguistics

Synopsis

This movie tells about a group of literary freedom fighters, the members of Korean Language Society who were on a secret mission to make and publish Korean dictionary in the early 1940s when at that time, Korea was being invaded by Japan. It was the toughest time for the freedom fighters where Japan tried to erase Korean cultural identity, including the Korean language and implemented a brutal crackdown on any attempts related to Korea's independence movement.

During those times, Japan also has forbidden Koreans from speaking Korean and changed all korean names into Japanese names. People became mad when there was a Korean spoke korean and not Japanese. Even at school, every students had to change their names into Japanese name and only use japanese when they speak.

The story is started from the main character, Kim Pan Soo who used to work for theather but was fired. In order to pay for his son's school tuition fees and raise his younger daughter alone, he pick-pocketing people. He has been imprisoned before so it's nothing if he has to go there again. But one day, he steals a man's bag where he found was bunch of papers of manuscript. The man was Yu Jung Hwan who is a scholar of Korean Language Society. Pan Soo also tries to change his life and tries to get a job in there. Jung Hwan is the son of a wealthy Korean family who is pro Japanese. Even though his family pro Japanese, he always againts speaking Japanese or getting involved with Japanese. As Korean language was slowly dissapearing due to Japanese rule, Korean Language Society decided to make a dictionary and has been working on it for 10 years. 

The group needs a lot of people to help and with a lot of things to do so they also need  Pan Soo to work with them. But unfortunately Jung hwan was strongly against hiring him because Pan Soo was illiterate. Nevertheless, the other people are so welcome to work with Pan Soo, with one condition Pan Soo has to learn read and write in Korean. Pan Soo starts to learn Korean and slowly gets why he had to collect the 'words' instead of the money that he has been looking for this whole time. Korea has to be independent so that he and his children can live freely. 

The team has difficulty in collecting words from many dialects while the Japanese have kept chasing them, making it impossible to collect the dialects in time. Pan Soo always comes with great ideas in solving the problems when doing the secret mission. Eventually they almost finished the dictionary, the Japanese finally found out about the mission and tried to chase them again

Based on True Story

Mal Moe movie is based on true story and the title of the movie "Mal Mo E" is the real name of Korean dictionary that was made by Korean Language Society for 13 years from 1929-1942. This gathering of Korean words was done in secret as that time Japanese ruled Korea and had forbidden Koreans from learning Korean language and using it in daily life. However, the members of society in the movie are fictional names. Even the  movie was based on true story, there are scenes that was made up. For example, the character of Pan Soo who accidently join society for money and eventually sacrifices his life to keep the dictionary. According to the history, Korean Language Society members were around 33 members, and 15 of them were arrested by Japanese and 2 of them died in prison. The rest of them was released after Korea's liberation in 1945

Left : Original Mal Mo E which can bee seen at National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, Right : Mal Mo E shown in the movie

One of most impossible scene of the movie is then the dictionary is suddenly discovered following liberation. It seems that the director made it up but it actually happened. A few weeks after liberation on September 8, 1945, a wooden box was discovered in the former Seoul Station. There was 26,000 pages of Mal Moe inside. 

Korean Language Society in 1949

What I Love about the Movie

There are so many good aspects that I can see from this movie. First, the movie was full of light humor harmoniously balanced with serious messages. The first scene of the movie, I thought it would be a comedy movie, especially Pan Soo character was so hilarious and always happy. But at the same time, he's also serious. I can see many different side of Pan Soo, how he can be very responsible for his family, a loving father and at the same time a serious person. Secondly, this movie tells a good story of the story of Korean people really fight for the language from Japanese imperial. Another insightful topic mentioned in the movie, Korean people who always us "우리" or 'Us" vs. 'Me." For the example, in English when we want to say 'my family', we use the 'my' as individual. But in Korean, it says 'our family' which refers to society. Korea is not only one but for all. Lastly, the most important thing about this movie and why I recommend it to you is the patriotism. 

This movie is just a work of art. If Koreans didnt respect and love the ancestors, there wouldn't be Korea and liberation. Identity became very important and Koreans didnt want to lose it. I actually cried while watching this movie and it made me realized how important the identity of a country is, especially the language. I felt so attached to the characters and understand how hard it is to love and protect our mother language. 

*****

"Much respect for the people who suffered greatly to protect the language from invaders"