Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary chronicles the life of Young-ja Wike, who came to the United States at the age of 26 as a Korean War bride. Forty years later she lives in Browns Mills, New Jersey growing red peppers with her GI husband whom she refers to only as “Grandpa”.

The photography in this film brilliantly accompanies and complements the story. The camera is brutally honest. There are many close-ups. We are spared none of Young-ja’s wrinkles. Her hands are thick and stiffened with arthritis and manual labor. She moves with the slow deliberation of the aged, whether tending her pepper garden or cutting her husband’s hair. She complains of rotting teeth. She complains that her husband has many pairs of shoes, where she has only one. She complains that she has no grandchildren, even though her oldest child, a son, is 45 years old. She has never learned to speak English well and has no close friends. Her children refuse to speak Korean and insist that she speak English. She appears to be a lonely, bitter old woman.

As the film progresses it subtly adds layers of additional information. Before marrying her American GI, Young-ja was married to a Korean man. One day, shortly after the war broke out, he simply disappeared and she was left to raise their four children alone in a village where you had to literally walk on corpses to go anywhere. Finally she could wait for him no longer and left the village to go to a larger city. On the way all four of her children died, one of them while he was on her back. When she married “Grandpa”, all her relatives shunned her, telling her she was a prostitute. Her first husband miraculously reappeared and asked her to go with him, but she refused because she felt defiled by her marriage to an American.

Contrary to popular wisdom, her new life in America was not the stuff dreams are made of. She and her American husband settled in New Jersey and had three children. The two oldest, Jimmy and Timmy still live with her and “Grandpa”. Timmy has served time for dealing drugs. Jimmy does not work and is verbally abusive. Her daughter Elaine blames Young-ja for not protecting her from “Grandpa”, who began to sexually abuse her when she was seven.

The subtle and unassuming camera work enhances the essential sadness of this story. This is the full-length version of producer/director Hosup Lee’s thesis short film for his MFA from City College of New York. The essential genius of the film is that by the end of the film the stereotype of an unattractive cranky old woman is peeled away to reveal to us a lonely soul, who has the courage to tell the truth abut her life. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when she tells us that her first husband, when he is pleading for her to come away with him again, says to her “We are not bad people, It’s just the times we live in.”

This film would be excellent for viewing and discussion in college classes in history, psychology or sociology. It is highly recommended.

Awards

• Best Film Award, Seoul Independent Film Festival 2003
• Best Documentary Award and Best Cinematography Award at Citivisions 2001
• Special Jury Award, The Hawaii International Film Festival
• Silver Dove, The 47th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary Film