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Tuition AKA Su-eop-ryo AKA Jugyôryô
R0 - South Korea - Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (21st August 2015). |
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The Film
 11 year old boy Yeong-dal (played by Jeong Chang-jo) is living a difficult life. His parents have left him with his grandmother (played by Bok Hye-suk) for the past few months as they went off to look for better work. It has been months since they last wrote a letter or sent money to Yeong-dal and his grandmother, and with Yeong-dal’s tuition for school, their rent being behind, and Grandma becoming too sick to work, life gets worse day by day. At school, the Japanese teacher Mr. Dashiro (played by Kenji Susukida) asks for each student their tuition money. When some students claim they did not bring the money for various reasons, he is kindly understanding and does not punish them, including Yeong-dal. Another student that didn’t bring money was the female student Jeong-hui (played by Kim Jong-il), in which she admittedly says that her parents can’t afford it at the moment. The boys of the class including Yeong-dal and his friend Byeong-jun (played by Lee Dong-seong) think she is just a teacher’s pet, showing off by raising her hand in class, drawing during science class, and sharing her “experience” to the teacher about riding a train even though the other students know that her family is poor and is a blatant lie. At first Yeong-dal and Jeong-hui are like enemies, but they find a common bond: with both of them not being able to afford their tuition and both of them actually like to study and go to school. The two become friends and he opens up to her about his struggle. How he waits for the postman every day, hoping a letter would arrive from his parents, how the landlord comes to their place and continues to threaten kicking him and his grandma out if they don’t pay up soon. Not being able to go to school, the two read their Japanese textbooks outside on the hillside, reciting war passages as they would if they were still going to school. Although his sickly grandma is concerned about Yeong-dal not attending school, he tells her that the teacher is away for the time being, so she doesn’t need to worry. But when Jeong-hui’s parents get enough money to pay the tuition fee, she happily returns to school, but will Yeong-dal be able to continue his studies under the continued circumstances? “Tuition” was shot in 1940 during the Japanese colonial occupation in Korea during World War II. Elementary schools were called “gungmin hakgyo” / “kokumin gakko” in Korean and Japanese respectively, or “Citizen School”, which heavily emphasized schooling on The Empire of Japan, a propaganda-type schooling for the “Imperial Citizens”. During this time, there were dual Korean language classes and Japanese language classes for students, with heavy emphasis on the Japanese language. During the war years, it became more restrictive for Korean language classes, to the point where some schools did away with Korean language entirely. In the film “Tuition”, all the classroom scenes are in Japanese with no scenes of Korean studies, although it is likely because of Japanese censorship and restrictions the Korean classroom scenes were not filmed. Originally, the film was to be made entirely in the Japanese language, which was quite common for Korean films to be made entirely in Japanese such as “Straits of Chosun” (1943), as the Japanese occupying government were emphasizing Japanese language more in education, entertainment, and culture. Director Choi In-gyu and his brother Choi Wan-gyu established the Goryeo Film Company, 5 years prior to “Tuition” in 1935 for film making and film distribution. “Tuition” was actually written by a fourth grade student, Wu Su-yeong who won a prize for the story. The adaptation was done in Japanese by writer Yasutaro Yagi who worked in the 1930’s on both silent and talkies, including director Tomu Uchida’s early films. As stated before, the script was originally almost entirely in Japanese, but later turned into a bilingual Japanese and Korean dialogue film. School scenes were entirely in Japanese, while scenes of the children outside of school talked in their mother tongue of Korean, and Yeong-dal talking to his grandmother is in Korean, which makes perfect sense as she would not have had any Japanese language education. The scene in which the teacher Mr. Dashiro visits the sickly grandmother and having difficulty since his Korean is limited makes perfect sense, with Byeong-jun’s older sister (played by Kim Sin-jae) translating for them. During production unfortunately, director Choi In-gyu fell ill, and had to be completed by director Bang Han-joon, and so both are credited as directors of the final film. Japanese propaganda is sprinkled everywhere in the film: The map of the Japanese Empire in the classroom, the Japanese history textbooks being read out loud, Yeong-dal singing Japanese military songs while walking to his aunt’s place, for examples. Looking back at Korean films and Japanese films during this period is cringe-worthy, as is watching films like “Triumph of the Will” with millions of Germans following the words of Adolf Hitler blindly through propaganda. But rather than looking at the films of war periods and blaming them, it’s more important to look at them to understand how propaganda works at manipulating people’s minds, and to understand cinema as more than just an artform from a historical point of view. The directors were both praised for their portrayals of children and the harsh realities without the suffering being violent or abusive. The film was praised by critics in both Korea and Japan, and Choi continued with the theme of children and education in his next film “Angels on the Streets” in 1941, and continued directing postwar. Bang continued in Japanese propaganda films such as “Dear Soldier” in 1944, and after the war was appointed as the technical manager of the Joseun Film Federation and head of the film department at the US Army Military Government of Korea. Unfortunately for both directors, their lives did not continue in a positive direction, as both were abducted by North Korea during the Korean War. The music was composed by Senji Ito and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Ito was already an established composer of films such as “The Only Son” (1936) directed by Yasujiro Ozu, “The Masseurs and a Woman” (1938) directed by Hiroshi Shimizu, and “The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums” (1939) directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. He later worked on the Korean films “Spring of Korean Peninsula” (1941) and “Angels on the Streets” (1941) directed by Choi again, and postwar with Ozu again with the scores for “Late Spring” (1949) and “Early Summer” (1951). As a story told through the eyes of a child with most of the main characters being children, the acting is not exactly top notch. For many it was their first and only film. (And no, "Kim Jong-il" is NOT the former supreme leader, as he was not even born when the film was made, and it was a female actress.) The adults fare better, with Kenji Susukida as the teacher being one of the well-known actors of the film, coming from the New Tsukiji Theater in Tokyo, and later featured in films such as the 1940 “Musashi Miyamoto” films by Hiroshi Inagaki (not to be confused with the later 1950’s series of “Musashi Miyamoto” films starring Toshiro Mifune and also directed by Inagaki) and consistently appeared in films until 1963, when he had an intracranial hemorrhage leading him to retire. He died in 1972 at the age of 73. The grandma played by Bok Hye-suk was only 36 at the time of the film, but with make-up looking much older. She acted in countless films afterward, including “Spring of Korean Peninsula” (1941), “Straits of Chosun” (1943), “Holiday in Seoul” (1956), and all the way in the 1980’s. Kim Sin-jae who played Byeong-jun’s sister seemed to be underused in the film. What almost seemed like a love interest for Mr. Dashiro was never fulfilled, although scenes of them walking together, the invitation to come to her home, and the two of them standing together near the end of the film may signal something between them. Although she furthered her career by appearing in “Angels on the Streets” (1941) reuniting with director Choi, “Straits of Chosun” (1943), “Holiday in Seoul” (1956), “A Female Boss” (1959), “Sorrow Even Up in Heaven” (1965), “Mist” (1967), “The General’s Mustache” (1968), and continued in film through the 1980’s. Note this is a region free NTSC DVD and can be played on any DVD player worldwide.
Video
“Tuition” was a lost film until its rediscovery in the China Film Archive in 2014 and luckily had all 8 reels of the 35mm print intact. Korean Film Archive’s presentation of the film is in its original anamorphic 1.33:1 ratio in the NTSC standard, with black bars encoded on the left and right of the screen to fit a widescreen TV. The print stored at the China Film Archive was the original theatrical print, which had burned-in Japanese subtitles on the right side of the frame for the Korean language scenes, which was standard for the films in the colonial period. Transferred from the 35mm theatrical print to a standard definition NTSC master, it looks very good. The usual scratches, specs, and splices cover the print, but it is in a highly watchable state. Overall the black levels have faded, but detail is still visible. Gladly they have not tried to boost contrast and kept it in the original state with some minor digital cleanup and restoration done. Considering only a year ago, the film was considered completely lost, it is a revelation. The film opens with information about the finding of the film and Korean Film Archive credits, and the end has restoration credits attached. The runtime is 82:28 with the additional credits. 
Audio
The audio is in Korean/Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono. Half of the dialogue is in Japanese and the other half is in Korean. Although the picture looked good for its age, the audio is sadly not. Fidelity is lost and the dialogue is very difficult to catch. Some scenes have at least some intelligible lines, while others just sound like muffled mumbling. One good point is that the audio was restored to remove hisses and pops, but it may have removed a little too much. Luckily there are subtitles: optional English, Korean, and Japanese subtitles for the entire film, and optional Korean subtitles for the Japanese portions only. The white subtitles are easy to read and I could not find any spelling or grammar errors. They are very necessary even if you understand Japanese and/or Korean, because of the fidelity issue.
Extras
“Image Gallery” Stills from the film and the Japanese posters are here in a manual slideshow. 32-Page Book As with all Korean Film Archive sets, the informative booklet is half in Korean and half in English with film information, director biographies, and essays. The essays consist of both the discovery of the film, the importance of it in history, and about Goryeo Film Company. No commentaries, no documentaries, no restoration featurette on this title unfortunately.
Packaging
The DVD of “Tuition” is packaged in a clear amaray case with doublesided artwork, housed in a slipcase which holds the case and the 32-page book. The book cleverly looks like an aged school notebook, and a clever but easily overlooked part is inside the outer slipcase looks like a blank notebook for writing (Korean or Japanese), which is reminiscent of the opening credits. A slight error though, with the packaging mentioning the film is “1.33:1 non-anamorphic” when it is actually “1.33:1 anamorphic”.
Overall
“Tuition” is not particularly a masterpiece of a film, but it is enjoyable, heartbreaking, and also quite inspiring and not just in a propaganda way. It shows the hardships of poverty and how children are the ones to suffer, mostly due to terrible circumstances. Korean Film Archive’s 5th installment in their “Past Unearthed” series comes recommended for ones interested in the Japanese colonial period. Currently this title is not available on the Korean Film Archive YouTube Channel and is exclusively available on DVD.
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