블라인드 Blind, Part 1: A Review – gordsellar.com
블라인드 Blind, Part 1: A Review
Tagged as: FILMS & TV, Korean film
August 15, 2011 October 30, 2013 gordsellar4 Comments
One More Thought on 블라인드 (Blind)
4 thoughts on “블라인드 Blind, Part 1: A Review”
I haven’t seen the film “Blind”; I wasn’t aware of it playing anywhere in Seoul with English subtitles and a couple of my Korean students actually advised against watching it. I may pick up the DVD whenever that comes out. That said, this was a very insightful commentary, particularly with regard to the notion that blind people are somehow pitiable and unable to live normal lives. Thanks.
I saw it without subtitles, and think it didn’t screen with subtitles. (It’s usually the crappiest action films that get screened with English subs.)
I don’t think the film in itself was brilliant, though I think it’s funny your students advised against it. Then again, you have students who watch films — or read the online reactions of people who do. On the first day of class in the course I teach where culture is studied via film, I asked people to name the last movie they saw… most were at a complete loss, and had seen none of the films, Korean or foreign, that I asked about thereafter. It was kind of sad, to the tune of, “Why are you taking a film class if you don’t love films?”
As for the pity thing, it’s weird, but I find this kind of overcompensation-for-pathos thing all over the place in Korean media. Like, as if people wouldn’t feel compassion for a handicapped person (or a hated minority, or whatever) unless they were utterly put-upon and abused. I find it a bit baffling, really…
I worked as a campus tour guide back in Berkeley, and a fellow tour guide was a blind woman — which is a remarkable feat because tour guides are supposed to walk backwards while talking. More than a few tour guides have tripped and fallen during the tour. One guy actually broke his wrist because of the fall. But not her — she would just put her cane backwards, and easily navigate throughout the campus. People were amazed.
While I understand why people would be astounded by it, actually, it’s less remarkable that a blind woman could do it… right?
I mean, the walking backward part is primarily hard for someone used to seeing stuff. If your blind, you’re blind in all directions at once, and I’m guessing it’s maybe more trivial to flip the cane and navigate from the same input, just backwards. (Sort of like I doubt people walking with a mirror held aloft would fall and injure themselves, once they got used to going around that way.)
But yeah, when you hang out with blind people it is sort of amazing all the things they’re capable of doing; we think of them as handicapped and no doubt one loses out on certain things when blind or visually impaired — but many also have capabilities that could blow the minds of the sighted. (Don’t even get me started on the way some of these people have a killer memory for details.)