동주 | DongJu; The Portrait of A Poet
개봉 Released
감독 Directed by
역사배경 History
주연 Cast
2016.02.17
이준익 Lee Joon-ik
윤동주 시인 Poet Yun Dong-ju
강하늘 Kang Ha-neul
박정민 Park Jeong-min
Dongju follows the life of renowned Korean poet Yun Dong-ju, who was detained and abused by the Japanese government for being involved in the Korean independence movement.
Yoon Dong-ju had an extraordinary passion for language and literature. He enrolled in Yonhui College in Gyeongseong (old name of Seoul) and later in Rikkyo University and Doshisha University, developing his skills as a literary writer and chasing his dreams.
Nevertherless, he wrote poetry in Korean despite the risks and chose 19 poems to publish in a collection he intended to call "Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem" (하늘과 바람과 별과 시), but was unable to get it published.
During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, the Japanese attempted to Japanize Korea, “demoting” the status and significance of the Korean language and eventually outrightly banning the use of the Korean language in 1938. In 1939, Koreans were required to change their names to a Japanese name or face severe disadvantages in society.
After crossing over to Japan, entering Kyoto Doshisha University in 1942, arrested by the Japanese police for an independence movement in 1943, imprisoned in a Fukuoka prison, leaving over 100 poems and died in prison at the age of 27. It is suspected that he, and many others, were used as a subjects in medical experiments, given unknown injections that eventually led to death. Unfortunately, he did not live to see his poems published.
It is thanks to those who risked their lives to preserve this single poetry book that we are able to enjoy Yoon Dongju’s poems today. The poet’s only remaining copy of Sky, Wind, Stars, and Poem was preserved by his literary friend and later scholar of classical literature, Jeong Byeonguk, and Jeong Byeonguk’s family who escaped Japanese crackdown and censorship to hide the manuscript in their hometown house in Gwangyang.
In 1948, after liberation, three collections of his handwritten manuscripts were published posthumously as "The Heavens and the Wind and the Stars and Poetry" (Haneulgwa Baramgwa Byeolgwa Si). With the appearance of this volume Yun came into the spotlight as a Resistance poet of the late occupation period.
In a period where the Korean language was prohibited, one could say that Yun resisted the Japanese occupation with a pen, writing poems in Korean.
The Yoon Dong-ju Memorial Hall is located in Yonsei University is open to visitors wishing to learn more about the poet.
