[Das Cine Magazine]
Published Sept 4, 2021 - Source
During the fifth edition of Venice VR, the virtual reality competition of the Venice International Film Festival, Tearless by Gina Kim is presented.
The Monkey House detention center was built shortly after the Korean War. It was a place where Korean women, forced into prostitution to entertain American soldiers stationed in South Korea, were deported and subjected to extreme penicillin treatments. Venereal diseases were widespread among American soldiers and caused numerous contagion problems within the allied army, so the Korean government decided to establish a detention facility for women suspected of being responsible for the spread of such diseases.
However, the medical treatment was not subject to adequate oversight, and many women died from excessive doses of penicillin or took their own lives. They were not allowed to leave, and many residents of nearby towns testified to hearing cries and terrifying female screams during the nights and throughout the center’s period of operation. Director Gina Kim brings us into the now-abandoned center, forcing us to see the sites of feminine agony, the spaces of pain and tears. We hear footsteps, cries, and screams as the ruined center reveals itself through its macabre remains.
A woman watches us while smoking a cigarette—perhaps she is a ghost of the center, perhaps the essence of all the victims of Monkey House. As we look around, objects from lost daily life appear, like specters of memory. They hammer at us and force us to empathize with the victims’ pain, drawing us into a shared experience with those who suffered and lived through monstrosity.
An important and painful film, an emotional and disturbing portrait of a forgotten page of South Korean history. Watching this return to places of memory, it is impossible not to think of Night and Fog by Alain Resnais. It seems that Gina Kim has learned from those teachings, and in the way she brings places of pain back to life, she appears to be searching for a contemporary variant of the style and experimentation of the great French master. The use of virtual reality in this case compels the viewer to enter the spaces of suffering, to hear the cries, to understand the fear, and to scream inwardly with the invisible women of the detention center.