Old Marine Boy (2017) - full transcript
Jeodo Fishing Ground will open on April 1.
Please don’t cross
the Northern Limit Line.
There is a risk of being abducted
by North Koreans.
Of course, we know you don’t leave
the fishing zone on purpose.
But the Jeodo Fishing Ground
is very close to North Korea,
and there are warships around,
which could lead to abductions
or attacks at any time.
So I’d like to remind you to stay alert
and try not to cross the line.
Don’t try to pass that boat.
Slow down! Don’t pass that boat!
The fishing ground on the border
opens today.
It closes in the winter
and reopens on April 1.
It's small, but on the first day it opens,
the catch is amazing.
So every boat in the area shows up.
-One more!
-One more!
Cheongjin ship, pass!
The area is quite close
to the North Korea border.
The coast guard, marine police,
and battleships come to check the area.
Security is very tight.
There are only seven Meoguri ships,
but around 300 ships with female divers
and ships for catching octopus have come.
The ocean isn't big enough for all of us.
What a crowd! It's like a war!
Wow, that's incredible.
The number of boats
has increased terribly.
It’s increasing every year.
The female divers don’t have
to come so early,
but they’re ahead of us,
trying to catch everything.
Enter the Jeodo Fishing Ground now!
We can reach North Korea
in one minute if we go fast.
This area is the border between
South and North Korea.
So military tension is high.
Many military training drills
are done here.
The next day,
there are traces of military training left
on model airplanes in the water.
The compressor pushes the air
through the yellow hose
delivering it to the diver.
The diver depends on this hose alone.
For the diver to descend,
the air is let out to help him sink.
When ascending, the air fills back up,
and the diver comes up to the surface.
Don’t go down too far in front.
There are too many octopus boats.
Susanho boat is in front of us.
In the small area of the
Jeodo Fishing Ground,
we often run into other divers.
If the hoses get tangled up or caught,
we would be unable to go up and could die.
We must quickly go back opposite ways.
Did some of the octopus boats leave?
-None have left? Not a single one?
-No, they haven't.
It's been dangerous since morning.
Catching more octopuses
isn't necessarily a good thing.
There are no spots.
Since there are too many boats.
Is this spot fine?
We have to go further.
We can’t do it here.
Not here.
There’s no open space. Stop the boat.
Do you see any open space?
-Where are you trying to go?
-We have to stop here.
Hurry.
Pull.
One.
Put it over here.
And bring one more basket.
I think we can use two more.
CONSIGNMENT SALES RECEIPTS
PARK MYONG-HO
My daily routine.
I leave home at 5:00 in the morning,
start diving at 5:30 or 6:00,
come up around 12:30 or 1:00,
and then eat lunch and rest.
After that, I exercise.
And my day is over.
The day after tomorrow,
are you available?
That day is Malbok,
the hottest day of the summer.
Let's have dinner together.
I already asked Seong-gwan to come along.
Let's have some healthy, wholesome,
chicken herb soup.
Yes.
-That's good.
-Come here.
-Hello.
-Welcome.
It's this, right?
You made it.
-Hello.
-Welcome.
You're late, so we started without you.
We're having a party to celebrate Malbok
and I invited all the runaway communists.
Pour everyone a drink.
Since some of you don’t know each other,
I’d like you to introduce yourselves.
-Do I have to say where I’m from?
-Is my cellphone over there?
-Attention! Please listen to me.
-Okay.
My name is Ok Seong-gwan.
I’m 42 years old.
I was born in 1973.
I live in Geojin and I work as
a compressor diver in Sokcho.
That’s all.
And your hometown?
Hometown.
-My hometown?
-Tell us.
My hometown is Haeju, North Korea.
My name is Yun Yong-jin.
I’m 42 years old,
the same age as Seong-gwan.
I’m from Chongjin, North Korea.
I’m from Hyeryeong, North Korea,
and I came to Korea in October 2007,
so I’ve been here for seven years.
I’m in the process of trying
to build a new life here.
You know that mountain in Seoul?
Bukhan Mountain?
If you throw a stone from the top
of Bukhan Mountain in Seoul,
will it hit a Kim or a Lee or a Park?
They say it'll hit a Kim
-because there are so many Kims.
-There are just as many Lees.
That's how it was in the old days,
but now… You'll hit a cab!
That's a joke.
The wife of a diver
must always be psychologically prepared
to stand on her own two feet.
You must be able to support yourself.
You must develop yourself.
You must have a skill to make a living.
When a situation arises,
one can get through it.
I'd be too worried about you to ever die.
I’ll be fine.
Life always goes on.
Don’t worry.
As a diver,
if I die while working underwater,
that would be a great honor.
I’d be the luckiest man.
I would be able to pay back
my wife who has
taken care of me until now.
She’d get about two million won
in insurance payouts.
That would be my last gift.
My mom used to say
a man's looks don't matter
as long as he makes you happy
and provides for you.
That's why I love my husband.
When he was a North Korean soldier,
he urged us to defect to the South
but I said I didn’t want to run away
with my boys.
I was scared
and said never to speak of it.
Since we were born in North Korea
we should have stuck it out there.
But I couldn't see any future
in North Korea.
There's nothing on TV in North Korea.
So we secretly watched TV shows from here.
I felt we could raise our boys
and support them with our skills,
even in the South Korean countryside.
I was in the North Korean military
for 20 years, since age 17.
I experienced North Korea's ups and downs.
So I made the decision
to escape from North Korea.
It took several years
to come to an agreement with my family.
It took six or seven years
to convince them.
Most defectors go through China,
but my family decided to get on a boat
and sail down the West Sea to South Korea.
But we didn't have
any navigation equipment,
so there was the danger of getting caught
in the wrong current
and returning to North Korea.
We've seen many people
get executed from that.
We had to avoid North and South military
out in the sea.
They can shoot because they can't tell.
I picked the direction and rowed,
and my wife kept watch
at the bow all night.
The fear I felt then…
I thought my heart would explode.
My wife's face was ashen
when we got to South Korea.
She got huge crow's feet overnight.
We left North Korea on May 24, 2006
and arrived in Incheon, South Korea
on May 25.
It was like we died and came back to life.
A rotten and corrupt capitalist society.
Fierce competition.
A place that only cares about money.
That’s what I was taught
about South Korea.
I wondered how we'd make a living there,
if we went to that society.
Since we knew nothing.
I’d do compressor diving,
if nothing else worked.
I learned it in the North Korean military.
JEONGSEON MARKET
Let's have a look at the wild ginseng.
Wild ginseng.
WILD GINSENG
Do your hands and feet become numb often?
For pain in the arms, legs,
back, and joints,
these bamboo poria are amazing.
Bamboo poria.
How much does 300g cost?
-It costs 10,000 won.
-I’ll take 300g.
You don’t know if it’s good or not.
-It’s good.
-How do you know that?
I can tell just by looking.
My work depends on my health.
So my health comes first.
Wild ginseng, deer antler,
and even snake soup…
I eat these things every year.
I try to eat anything
that is good for your health.
That's how I survive.
Yu Woo-sung came
from North Korea in April of 2004.
Meoguri is such hard work.
If I work underwater
when I don't feel well,
my body aches the next morning.
My knuckles and back hurt.
Decompression sickness
hurts so badly at night.
A sauna would be nice
but I don't have one at home.
So it's better to go to a hotel
and stay the night to unwind.
You wouldn't able to work
the next day anyway.
I couldn't work out today.
Myeong-seong boat's diver
got decompression sickness,
and I got a phone call
asking me to take care of him.
He worked deep underwater
for the first time.
It was his first time catching sea squirt.
He said he had a stabbing pain
in both arms.
His work probably didn't go well.
He never used to dive for sea squirts,
but he got injured
because he went too deep.
All compressor divers get some
level of decompression sickness.
We call it "Shiberi."
He came up to the surface in a hurry.
Some die, some have rotting flesh.
Some become disabled
and can't use their legs.
I give them first aid.
I bring them underwater again
and make them exercise at low intensity.
In the good old days,
there were around 30 divers here.
Some died and got sick
and now we have only seven.
I've seen six divers die
since I've come here.
It's like one dies almost every year.
Diving suit, nine kilograms.
Helmet, 15kg.
Front lead weights, 11kg,
back lead weights, 10kg.
Shoes, six kilograms each.
It's around 55 to 60kg total.
It's over 120kg including my own weight,
so if the hose is cut and no air comes in,
there's no way I can float up.
What compressor divers fear most
is their air hose getting cut.
If the crew doesn't pay close attention,
the hose can get caught on the propeller,
and sometimes the hose gets severed.
And that's it for you. You're dead.
It's impossible to escape
from the diving suit.
You work in the netherworld
and live in this one.
A compressor diver is always standing
between life and death.
It's 7.6kg.
Yong-jin coughed up blood.
He's at the hospital.
-He coughed up blood?
-Yes.
-When?
-Yesterday.
-While diving?
-Yes.
-It was the water pressure.
-Really?
He coughed up blood,
and he got taken away by an ambulance.
They say he needs an organ transplant.
Organ transplant? Which organ?
His liver is messed up.
You need to get surgery?
Why are you going home without getting it?
I need a liver donor.
There’s no donor.
You’re done?
What happened?
After working underwater,
I came home and was taking a shower,
and I felt nauseous and threw up.
And blood shot out.
You almost died.
Something burst inside
because of the water pressure.
If the blood hadn’t come out,
it would’ve coagulated and killed you.
This means you can’t dive anymore.
You must not.
Poor fellow.
Yong-jin and Seong-gwan came to me
after they defected.
There wasn't much they can do
in South Korea.
So I trained them as divers
and got jobs for them.
They are like my brothers in South Korea.
Living here is making me more
like South Koreans.
When the weather’s bad,
I don’t feel like working.
Whenever I don’t feel like working,
I tell myself to remember
how I felt when I first started working.
If I don’t go to work today,
my family will starve tomorrow.
That's how we get to work.
North Koreans live hand to mouth.
That’s true human nature.
Humans are most beautiful
when struggling to survive.
When you run a business,
you hit many obstacles.
You should hit them.
And when you do, you fight,
regardless of whether you win or lose.
As long as you’re not sick.
HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY CENTER
PATIENTS IN WAITING
You got treatments twice,
in August and October.
Yes.
You didn't feel any symptoms
in the meantime?
Is there a difference in symptoms
when you’re underwater and on land?
It doesn't hurt underwater. At all.
I feel comfortable.
But it starts aching
when I’m out of the water.
As long as you continue working,
you will suffer these symptoms.
But you can’t quit working
and just get treatment.
Come and get treatment
whenever you have time.
You can go in now.
How is that?
Can you feel the air?
-Let’s start.
-Okay.
I can’t work like this.
I can’t work with such bad air.
Look at my eyes.
I can’t keep them open, so how can I work?
Unless you change the way you pilot,
I can’t work.
There were exhaust fumes in the hose.
The exhaust gas will ruin my eyes
and my lungs.
How can you drive this boat so badly?
You must park the boat
so the exhaust faces the back.
I knew he'd quit.
But nothing could be done.
The South Korean crew says that
working on a boat for Park Myong-ho,
a North Korean defector,
is the worst job ever.
I know they talk behind my back.
Cheol-jun?
The driver of the ship quit.
He quit.
I think you'd better come here again
and help me out.
Although he's the type
to do anything for family,
there's no way he would like this work.
He must be scared as well.
He knows he'll die if anything goes wrong.
That's why he called me to help.
There is no one to depend on but family.
Working alongside his family
is my father's dream.
Why do you exercise so hard? Every day?
Because I use my body…
for my work,
so it's a must.
If I'm not well, work is no fun.
If I'm sick, it's unbearable and painful.
This is the North Korean
People's Army exercise.
Before doing this in the morning,
we'd chant,
"Destroy the Yankee American imperialists
and South Korean puppet leaders!"
My father and I, both generations…
My father spent 40 years
in the army, and I, 20.
That's it for us.
It's time to end the division
of the Korean people.
No more military life. The end.
Race!
On the birthdays of Kim Il-sung
and Kim Jung-il,
kids received candies and snacks.
We had to spend Chuseok
without receiving anything.
The biggest holidays in North Korea
were their birthdays,
April 15 and February 16.
The Chuseok holiday was nothing.
-You can’t do it, can you?
-I don’t know how.
Doing this is how you celebrate Chuseok.
Try it. Go wash your hands.
If you want to get married,
you must learn this.
I don't. I can buy them.
Pinch hard so it won't split open.
It'll split open if you don't pinch hard.
Look at this.
It's a failure.
Father, you're pretty good.
Of course.
It's okay. Go wash your hands.
You got flour on your hands.
Cheol-hoon is almost here.
Did you put on some weight?
He has not!
He’s almost as skinny as a zombie.
You’ll have to make him exercise
while he’s here.
He needs to work on his physical strength.
Father, I bought you whiskey.
-You bought this?
-Yes.
You’re a better son than I am.
Of course. I’m over 20 years old now.
They sell this at your university?
Of course not.
What kind of university sells whiskey?
It looks like a college student.
Mom's disappointed
because you didn't bring wine.
Last time I brought wine,
so I brought whisky.
I bought some wine.
-You did? That’s great.
-You bought it?
I couldn’t rely on you kids.
Your brother is making a sacrifice
for the family once again.
-You're going to work with him?
-Yes.
When I first bought a boat
and became a shipowner,
he gave up going to college and helped me,
and that’s how I was able to get this far.
He hasn’t forgotten
how to do the job, has he?
Why did the driver quit?
Why did the driver quit?
He quit for his own work.
He is quite old, right?
He is old enough.
Everyone has their own path in life.
Wake the boys up.
Cheol-jun.
Wake up.
Why hang up the South Korean flag
on Chuseok? Isn't it weird?
People don’t?
I thought people did.
Here.
Move backward.
Backward?
Over there.
Whenever there's a national holiday,
I miss my parents
and my hometown in North Korea.
So I named my ship Cheongjin,
after my hometown.
CHEONGJIN
When I was a kid,
I used to dive underwater there.
I wish I could go and dive there again.
Before I get too old, before I die,
I wonder if I could go back.
-To unification.
-Cheers.
Your big brother's making
sacrifices again for us.
You’ve never done it once.
I’ll look after you for at least 40 years.
I’m not going to live another 40 years.
I think I need to study at least
ten more years.
-Stop talking nonsense.
-Ten years?
It's not like you're paying
for graduate school.
We have to pay for that.
I’m sure he’ll pay
for graduate school tuition.
I should pay for it.
Dad promised me he’d pay
-for my graduate school.
-Of course.
-Graduate school is…
-That's ridiculous.
I should at least pay for graduate school.
Is graduate school three years?
This is what graduate school is.
It’s where the professors make money.
If you don't show your good side
to the professors,
they won't let you graduate.
When I think about that,
I don’t want to go.
University is a business.
It’s all a business, didn't you know?
You have to be rich to educate your child.
Cheol-hoon, if things don't work out,
quit university and become a sailor.
I’m not you.
You think a college degree
will give you success?
-Do you?
-Eat up.
Cheol-jun takes after our dad.
How he thinks, I mean.
And I take after mom.
Dad is very decisive.
If he makes a decision, he just does it.
When we settled down here,
the South Koreans here
tried really hard to stop him.
South Korean people
have a web of relations,
family and relatives.
In a way, those connections
are a kind of asset.
But we only have each other,
the four of us.
We have no relatives.
We had to build each of the steps
we had to climb up.
At first, South Koreans pitied us
because we were from poor North Korea.
And when we started moving forward,
running our own businesses…
After that, as I wanted more,
they tried to stop me.
VOTING POLL
People saw North Korean defectors
as cheap labor.
They just overwork us physically.
There's an atmosphere of not letting
anyone be better than South Koreans.
Things you need
to survive in this society…
Wealth.
Intelligence.
Power.
Connections. We have none of that.
Except for physical strength.
If we lose this, we have nothing.
There is nowhere
and no one we can depend on.
This is the one.
I can only get this at the tax office?
You need this one to get this one.
CERTIFICATE OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION
So I have to get this one first
and bring it along?
DAEJIN FISH MARKET
RAW FISH, CRABS
A raw fish restaurant
would be perfect for you.
It's a real lifelong job.
We'll be busy during
the summer sea urchin season,
and the restaurant will be busy, too.
But we can hire part-timers.
After Cheol-hoon comes back from
taking language courses in Australia,
your mom will be familiar
with being the boss at the restaurant.
Your mom has to run a business.
Considering her personality and character,
it’s your mom who should
run a business, not me.
Since I ran a business instead of her,
our family hasn’t become very rich.
Peace Raw Fish?
-Peace.
-Peace?
Write "Peace" on the sign and…
Catching and eating fish is about peace?
Listen to me.
Write "Peace" and put a map of both Koreas
and write "Raw Fish."
I'm not really feeling that.
Then what do you want?
Everyone, come up with something.
It should be "Wild Raw Fish."
-Wild. It speaks to you.
-Look here.
Everyone has the word
"wild" on their windows.
So we should have it on the sign.
That won't look right.
Ongryugwan.
That's the name of
a North Korean noodle restaurant.
Subarashii Raw Fish.
Doesn’t it sound nice?
It means "excellent,"
"splendid" in Japanese.
There’s "Diver’s Raw Fish"
somewhere, right?
They even have
"Compressor Diver’s Raw Fish."
But we should call ours that.
Put it there.
Hey, you moron.
Slow down!
Don’t pass anyone!
That guy is piloting his boat badly.
Really badly.
It’s all sand under there.
Pass through here
and stop between the boulders.
Let’s go.
I’m coming up.
There are no rocks here.
Read the area and stop the boat.
If they don't stay there long,
they didn't do anything.
So we have to go to where they were
and get to work.
That’s their strategy.
If they act as if they
already worked there,
they think that we won't come.
After they go to a different spot,
they'll sneak back here
and catch everything later.
We have to read them.
Those boats are reading our every move.
That’s what the driver does.
-Hey! Turn on the compressor!
-Damn!
-Come here.
-Okay.
They were hungry but waited for you.
Did you drink?
I have nothing to worry about right now.
Cheol-hoon? I don’t care about him.
But when it comes to you
it is not the same.
Why?
Because I got you into this.
It is the turning point in your life.
You agreed to do this,
so the responsibility is on both of us.
That goes for what happened today.
What happens on the boat?
It’s actually quite simple.
What made me annoyed at you was just that.
I am responsible for my work.
But because you paid
less attention than I did,
that's what happened.
And that's what annoyed me.
Isn't that right?
Am I wrong?
I was quite distracted since it was 4 a.m.
I was drowsy and made mistakes.
Then, Dad scolds me badly.
He said, don't work like that!
And don't be sloppy!
But, I am doing my best.
But, he thinks that it's all my fault.
So I feel hurt.
I am not that happy
about this work either.
There is nothing for young people
to do here in the countryside.
No friends, no girls.
I sleep, work, sleep and work.
It is so routine.
Dad doesn't feel safe,
so he always works very hard.
But it is too much.
I can't keep up with him.
I don't know how much longer I can take.
Moron.
You scumbag.
I escaped from North Korea
in September, 2007.
Then, Cheol-jun's dad
asked me to come here
for helping him.
Because I have been friends with
Cheol-jun since I was in North Korea.
There is no sea in my hometown
in North Korea.
Only rivers, no sea.
It was amazing to see the sea for the
first time and this is my first job too.
-It is crooked.
-It is.
I don't want to learn how to swim.
I've got to go to the gym now.
If you are working on a boat,
you should know how to swim.
If it's an emergency, I would do it!
In an emergency, you'll drink a lot
of water and shout "Help! Help!"
That's how you'll be.
True.
One, two, three!
Do you want to come on board?
-Hook me up.
-Okay.
Help me.
-Just a second.
-Hurry up and grab it.
One, two, three!
One, two, three!
Hey, the water's not coming out.
The water isn't coming out.
The cooling water isn't running.
It's the O-ring seal. That's the problem.
It's stretched out, so it doesn't fit.
CERTIFICATE OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION
FROM THE CENTRAL SPORTS COMMITTEE
OF SOUTH HAMGYONG
Hello.
You didn't go to work today?
-I did.
-Then?
You’re going to be rich.
This will be a huge hit.
CHEONGJINHO RAW FISH RESTAURANT
You should be a success.
Successful or not,
what's mine, my world, what I've built…
Even if it's small, we're more desperate
to have it than South Korean people are.
Because we've never had anything
of our own before.
Thank you for coming.
I hope you become rich.
I wish you good health.
-Did you go diving today?
-Yes.
You’ll get rich very quickly.
Abalones, conch,
sea cucumbers, sea pineapples,
sea mustard, kelp, brown kelp.
We catch them all.
If you serve this much food,
you can't make money.
Not true. We make a good profit.
We serve what we catch.
I just have to bend down one more time.
You can blow it all, honey.
I’ll allow it for three years.
That’s okay.
If she still makes no money then,
she’ll be fired?
That’s just fine.
But if there’s never a big break…
Lose all your savings after three years
and be homeless?
Right.
You’re just talking big.
Your husband is supporting you,
so you're lucky.
I opened this restaurant
because he begged me to.
I’m sure your husband has plans.
Do I have that many wrinkles?
My goodness.
You can tell I had a hard life
in North Korea from the photo.
Of course there are no customers.
We have no friends or relatives here.
But it's still very stressful.
Goodness.
Why weren't we born here?
If we'd been born in this country,
we would've had friends,
relatives, and siblings,
and we could rely on them
when things got hard.
But we don't have any, which is sad.
Thank you.
You arrived here after a great ordeal,
but building a life here isn't easy.
South Korean prejudice
against North Korean defectors
leads to poor treatment
and lack of concern,
and this is causing more
and more people to feel dejected.
We're going to blow up these balloons.
Who's going to finish first? Get ready!
I should've told her I loved her
I hesitated and lost her
You can get whatever you desire
You can become whatever you want to be
And for this benevolent land
We are singing to celebrate it
Oh, the Republic of Korea
Oh, the homeland of our ancestors
Oh, we will love you forever
Together!
For my family,
we're from North Korea.
We are now citizens of South Korea.
But we were born in North Korea.
We can't ignore that.
What my dad said
before we defected was that
he wouldn't do it
if it were just him and mom.
He said because of me and my brother,
he had to do it before it was too late.
In North Korea, my dad was
a very responsible head of family.
He's not very young.
What he fears most
is not being able to work
and what to do if his family
was in a dire financial situation.
I think he constantly worries about that.
Why are you packing so much?
The backpack. Didn't you say you have two?
I think this is mine.
Is it Brisbane, Australia
you are going to?
-Let's have a drink.
-So long.
-Just so long?
-For Brisbane!
Come up.
What is it?
The cooling water isn't coming out.
It's not coming out?
Is the engine okay?
Can you handle it?
Did you turn the motor off?
-Did you turn it off?
-What?
The engine will melt and blow up.
It’s almost melted.
Almost?
-It hasn’t melted yet?
-Not yet.
When the ship broke down,
I felt like I was broken.
Ever since I escaped from North Korea,
I kept working.
Because I feel insecure.
Honestly, I am still scared
when working underwater.
But what I can do?
That's life, isn't it?
You can't avoid it even if you want to.
I am the father.
I am the husband.
I still remember that dark night
when we crossed over from North Korea.
Nothing has changed since that night.
We're still restless in the South.
I'm always in danger underwater.
There was a life-threatening accident
with a diver,
and people didn't know what to do.
No one could take charge
or decide what to do.
Take the helmet off, don't take it off.
It was crazy.
They did nothing but talk.
No one really helped.
If that happens,
if that actually happens, just follow
the instructions I laid out for you.
-You have them written down?
-Yes, I do.
I've already chosen my burial spot.
Over there, in that valley.
You and Cheol-hoon carry me
and go there with a shovel.
Don't go to a fancy funeral hall.
The funeral should only cost 50,000 won.
Don't go to a place like that.
-Just lay me down at home.
-In a coffin?
Why, when there’s my diver’s suit?
Just like that, even with the helmet on,
you can bury me just like that.
-Dad, you're 50 now.
-Yes.
If we assume you live 30 more years,
won't North and South Korea unify
in the next 30 years?
You have to go to North Korea.
South Korea isn't trying to unify
with the North.
Let's go.
When the man named Lee In-mo
returned to North Korea from the South,
he wrote a nice poem about azaleas.
Although not the kind of
scarlet red of a rose,
in early spring, they hurry up
and bloom powder pink
before any other flowers.
They bloom in bashful powder pink.
Azaleas.
These are for me?
They’ve already bloomed?
Aren’t you surprised?
-Let’s put them in a vase.
-Yes.
I’m coming up.
IN MEMORY OF JIN TAE-SIK
Please don’t cross
the Northern Limit Line.
There is a risk of being abducted
by North Koreans.
Of course, we know you don’t leave
the fishing zone on purpose.
But the Jeodo Fishing Ground
is very close to North Korea,
and there are warships around,
which could lead to abductions
or attacks at any time.
So I’d like to remind you to stay alert
and try not to cross the line.
Don’t try to pass that boat.
Slow down! Don’t pass that boat!
The fishing ground on the border
opens today.
It closes in the winter
and reopens on April 1.
It's small, but on the first day it opens,
the catch is amazing.
So every boat in the area shows up.
-One more!
-One more!
Cheongjin ship, pass!
The area is quite close
to the North Korea border.
The coast guard, marine police,
and battleships come to check the area.
Security is very tight.
There are only seven Meoguri ships,
but around 300 ships with female divers
and ships for catching octopus have come.
The ocean isn't big enough for all of us.
What a crowd! It's like a war!
Wow, that's incredible.
The number of boats
has increased terribly.
It’s increasing every year.
The female divers don’t have
to come so early,
but they’re ahead of us,
trying to catch everything.
Enter the Jeodo Fishing Ground now!
We can reach North Korea
in one minute if we go fast.
This area is the border between
South and North Korea.
So military tension is high.
Many military training drills
are done here.
The next day,
there are traces of military training left
on model airplanes in the water.
The compressor pushes the air
through the yellow hose
delivering it to the diver.
The diver depends on this hose alone.
For the diver to descend,
the air is let out to help him sink.
When ascending, the air fills back up,
and the diver comes up to the surface.
Don’t go down too far in front.
There are too many octopus boats.
Susanho boat is in front of us.
In the small area of the
Jeodo Fishing Ground,
we often run into other divers.
If the hoses get tangled up or caught,
we would be unable to go up and could die.
We must quickly go back opposite ways.
Did some of the octopus boats leave?
-None have left? Not a single one?
-No, they haven't.
It's been dangerous since morning.
Catching more octopuses
isn't necessarily a good thing.
There are no spots.
Since there are too many boats.
Is this spot fine?
We have to go further.
We can’t do it here.
Not here.
There’s no open space. Stop the boat.
Do you see any open space?
-Where are you trying to go?
-We have to stop here.
Hurry.
Pull.
One.
Put it over here.
And bring one more basket.
I think we can use two more.
CONSIGNMENT SALES RECEIPTS
PARK MYONG-HO
My daily routine.
I leave home at 5:00 in the morning,
start diving at 5:30 or 6:00,
come up around 12:30 or 1:00,
and then eat lunch and rest.
After that, I exercise.
And my day is over.
The day after tomorrow,
are you available?
That day is Malbok,
the hottest day of the summer.
Let's have dinner together.
I already asked Seong-gwan to come along.
Let's have some healthy, wholesome,
chicken herb soup.
Yes.
-That's good.
-Come here.
-Hello.
-Welcome.
It's this, right?
You made it.
-Hello.
-Welcome.
You're late, so we started without you.
We're having a party to celebrate Malbok
and I invited all the runaway communists.
Pour everyone a drink.
Since some of you don’t know each other,
I’d like you to introduce yourselves.
-Do I have to say where I’m from?
-Is my cellphone over there?
-Attention! Please listen to me.
-Okay.
My name is Ok Seong-gwan.
I’m 42 years old.
I was born in 1973.
I live in Geojin and I work as
a compressor diver in Sokcho.
That’s all.
And your hometown?
Hometown.
-My hometown?
-Tell us.
My hometown is Haeju, North Korea.
My name is Yun Yong-jin.
I’m 42 years old,
the same age as Seong-gwan.
I’m from Chongjin, North Korea.
I’m from Hyeryeong, North Korea,
and I came to Korea in October 2007,
so I’ve been here for seven years.
I’m in the process of trying
to build a new life here.
You know that mountain in Seoul?
Bukhan Mountain?
If you throw a stone from the top
of Bukhan Mountain in Seoul,
will it hit a Kim or a Lee or a Park?
They say it'll hit a Kim
-because there are so many Kims.
-There are just as many Lees.
That's how it was in the old days,
but now… You'll hit a cab!
That's a joke.
The wife of a diver
must always be psychologically prepared
to stand on her own two feet.
You must be able to support yourself.
You must develop yourself.
You must have a skill to make a living.
When a situation arises,
one can get through it.
I'd be too worried about you to ever die.
I’ll be fine.
Life always goes on.
Don’t worry.
As a diver,
if I die while working underwater,
that would be a great honor.
I’d be the luckiest man.
I would be able to pay back
my wife who has
taken care of me until now.
She’d get about two million won
in insurance payouts.
That would be my last gift.
My mom used to say
a man's looks don't matter
as long as he makes you happy
and provides for you.
That's why I love my husband.
When he was a North Korean soldier,
he urged us to defect to the South
but I said I didn’t want to run away
with my boys.
I was scared
and said never to speak of it.
Since we were born in North Korea
we should have stuck it out there.
But I couldn't see any future
in North Korea.
There's nothing on TV in North Korea.
So we secretly watched TV shows from here.
I felt we could raise our boys
and support them with our skills,
even in the South Korean countryside.
I was in the North Korean military
for 20 years, since age 17.
I experienced North Korea's ups and downs.
So I made the decision
to escape from North Korea.
It took several years
to come to an agreement with my family.
It took six or seven years
to convince them.
Most defectors go through China,
but my family decided to get on a boat
and sail down the West Sea to South Korea.
But we didn't have
any navigation equipment,
so there was the danger of getting caught
in the wrong current
and returning to North Korea.
We've seen many people
get executed from that.
We had to avoid North and South military
out in the sea.
They can shoot because they can't tell.
I picked the direction and rowed,
and my wife kept watch
at the bow all night.
The fear I felt then…
I thought my heart would explode.
My wife's face was ashen
when we got to South Korea.
She got huge crow's feet overnight.
We left North Korea on May 24, 2006
and arrived in Incheon, South Korea
on May 25.
It was like we died and came back to life.
A rotten and corrupt capitalist society.
Fierce competition.
A place that only cares about money.
That’s what I was taught
about South Korea.
I wondered how we'd make a living there,
if we went to that society.
Since we knew nothing.
I’d do compressor diving,
if nothing else worked.
I learned it in the North Korean military.
JEONGSEON MARKET
Let's have a look at the wild ginseng.
Wild ginseng.
WILD GINSENG
Do your hands and feet become numb often?
For pain in the arms, legs,
back, and joints,
these bamboo poria are amazing.
Bamboo poria.
How much does 300g cost?
-It costs 10,000 won.
-I’ll take 300g.
You don’t know if it’s good or not.
-It’s good.
-How do you know that?
I can tell just by looking.
My work depends on my health.
So my health comes first.
Wild ginseng, deer antler,
and even snake soup…
I eat these things every year.
I try to eat anything
that is good for your health.
That's how I survive.
Yu Woo-sung came
from North Korea in April of 2004.
Meoguri is such hard work.
If I work underwater
when I don't feel well,
my body aches the next morning.
My knuckles and back hurt.
Decompression sickness
hurts so badly at night.
A sauna would be nice
but I don't have one at home.
So it's better to go to a hotel
and stay the night to unwind.
You wouldn't able to work
the next day anyway.
I couldn't work out today.
Myeong-seong boat's diver
got decompression sickness,
and I got a phone call
asking me to take care of him.
He worked deep underwater
for the first time.
It was his first time catching sea squirt.
He said he had a stabbing pain
in both arms.
His work probably didn't go well.
He never used to dive for sea squirts,
but he got injured
because he went too deep.
All compressor divers get some
level of decompression sickness.
We call it "Shiberi."
He came up to the surface in a hurry.
Some die, some have rotting flesh.
Some become disabled
and can't use their legs.
I give them first aid.
I bring them underwater again
and make them exercise at low intensity.
In the good old days,
there were around 30 divers here.
Some died and got sick
and now we have only seven.
I've seen six divers die
since I've come here.
It's like one dies almost every year.
Diving suit, nine kilograms.
Helmet, 15kg.
Front lead weights, 11kg,
back lead weights, 10kg.
Shoes, six kilograms each.
It's around 55 to 60kg total.
It's over 120kg including my own weight,
so if the hose is cut and no air comes in,
there's no way I can float up.
What compressor divers fear most
is their air hose getting cut.
If the crew doesn't pay close attention,
the hose can get caught on the propeller,
and sometimes the hose gets severed.
And that's it for you. You're dead.
It's impossible to escape
from the diving suit.
You work in the netherworld
and live in this one.
A compressor diver is always standing
between life and death.
It's 7.6kg.
Yong-jin coughed up blood.
He's at the hospital.
-He coughed up blood?
-Yes.
-When?
-Yesterday.
-While diving?
-Yes.
-It was the water pressure.
-Really?
He coughed up blood,
and he got taken away by an ambulance.
They say he needs an organ transplant.
Organ transplant? Which organ?
His liver is messed up.
You need to get surgery?
Why are you going home without getting it?
I need a liver donor.
There’s no donor.
You’re done?
What happened?
After working underwater,
I came home and was taking a shower,
and I felt nauseous and threw up.
And blood shot out.
You almost died.
Something burst inside
because of the water pressure.
If the blood hadn’t come out,
it would’ve coagulated and killed you.
This means you can’t dive anymore.
You must not.
Poor fellow.
Yong-jin and Seong-gwan came to me
after they defected.
There wasn't much they can do
in South Korea.
So I trained them as divers
and got jobs for them.
They are like my brothers in South Korea.
Living here is making me more
like South Koreans.
When the weather’s bad,
I don’t feel like working.
Whenever I don’t feel like working,
I tell myself to remember
how I felt when I first started working.
If I don’t go to work today,
my family will starve tomorrow.
That's how we get to work.
North Koreans live hand to mouth.
That’s true human nature.
Humans are most beautiful
when struggling to survive.
When you run a business,
you hit many obstacles.
You should hit them.
And when you do, you fight,
regardless of whether you win or lose.
As long as you’re not sick.
HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY CENTER
PATIENTS IN WAITING
You got treatments twice,
in August and October.
Yes.
You didn't feel any symptoms
in the meantime?
Is there a difference in symptoms
when you’re underwater and on land?
It doesn't hurt underwater. At all.
I feel comfortable.
But it starts aching
when I’m out of the water.
As long as you continue working,
you will suffer these symptoms.
But you can’t quit working
and just get treatment.
Come and get treatment
whenever you have time.
You can go in now.
How is that?
Can you feel the air?
-Let’s start.
-Okay.
I can’t work like this.
I can’t work with such bad air.
Look at my eyes.
I can’t keep them open, so how can I work?
Unless you change the way you pilot,
I can’t work.
There were exhaust fumes in the hose.
The exhaust gas will ruin my eyes
and my lungs.
How can you drive this boat so badly?
You must park the boat
so the exhaust faces the back.
I knew he'd quit.
But nothing could be done.
The South Korean crew says that
working on a boat for Park Myong-ho,
a North Korean defector,
is the worst job ever.
I know they talk behind my back.
Cheol-jun?
The driver of the ship quit.
He quit.
I think you'd better come here again
and help me out.
Although he's the type
to do anything for family,
there's no way he would like this work.
He must be scared as well.
He knows he'll die if anything goes wrong.
That's why he called me to help.
There is no one to depend on but family.
Working alongside his family
is my father's dream.
Why do you exercise so hard? Every day?
Because I use my body…
for my work,
so it's a must.
If I'm not well, work is no fun.
If I'm sick, it's unbearable and painful.
This is the North Korean
People's Army exercise.
Before doing this in the morning,
we'd chant,
"Destroy the Yankee American imperialists
and South Korean puppet leaders!"
My father and I, both generations…
My father spent 40 years
in the army, and I, 20.
That's it for us.
It's time to end the division
of the Korean people.
No more military life. The end.
Race!
On the birthdays of Kim Il-sung
and Kim Jung-il,
kids received candies and snacks.
We had to spend Chuseok
without receiving anything.
The biggest holidays in North Korea
were their birthdays,
April 15 and February 16.
The Chuseok holiday was nothing.
-You can’t do it, can you?
-I don’t know how.
Doing this is how you celebrate Chuseok.
Try it. Go wash your hands.
If you want to get married,
you must learn this.
I don't. I can buy them.
Pinch hard so it won't split open.
It'll split open if you don't pinch hard.
Look at this.
It's a failure.
Father, you're pretty good.
Of course.
It's okay. Go wash your hands.
You got flour on your hands.
Cheol-hoon is almost here.
Did you put on some weight?
He has not!
He’s almost as skinny as a zombie.
You’ll have to make him exercise
while he’s here.
He needs to work on his physical strength.
Father, I bought you whiskey.
-You bought this?
-Yes.
You’re a better son than I am.
Of course. I’m over 20 years old now.
They sell this at your university?
Of course not.
What kind of university sells whiskey?
It looks like a college student.
Mom's disappointed
because you didn't bring wine.
Last time I brought wine,
so I brought whisky.
I bought some wine.
-You did? That’s great.
-You bought it?
I couldn’t rely on you kids.
Your brother is making a sacrifice
for the family once again.
-You're going to work with him?
-Yes.
When I first bought a boat
and became a shipowner,
he gave up going to college and helped me,
and that’s how I was able to get this far.
He hasn’t forgotten
how to do the job, has he?
Why did the driver quit?
Why did the driver quit?
He quit for his own work.
He is quite old, right?
He is old enough.
Everyone has their own path in life.
Wake the boys up.
Cheol-jun.
Wake up.
Why hang up the South Korean flag
on Chuseok? Isn't it weird?
People don’t?
I thought people did.
Here.
Move backward.
Backward?
Over there.
Whenever there's a national holiday,
I miss my parents
and my hometown in North Korea.
So I named my ship Cheongjin,
after my hometown.
CHEONGJIN
When I was a kid,
I used to dive underwater there.
I wish I could go and dive there again.
Before I get too old, before I die,
I wonder if I could go back.
-To unification.
-Cheers.
Your big brother's making
sacrifices again for us.
You’ve never done it once.
I’ll look after you for at least 40 years.
I’m not going to live another 40 years.
I think I need to study at least
ten more years.
-Stop talking nonsense.
-Ten years?
It's not like you're paying
for graduate school.
We have to pay for that.
I’m sure he’ll pay
for graduate school tuition.
I should pay for it.
Dad promised me he’d pay
-for my graduate school.
-Of course.
-Graduate school is…
-That's ridiculous.
I should at least pay for graduate school.
Is graduate school three years?
This is what graduate school is.
It’s where the professors make money.
If you don't show your good side
to the professors,
they won't let you graduate.
When I think about that,
I don’t want to go.
University is a business.
It’s all a business, didn't you know?
You have to be rich to educate your child.
Cheol-hoon, if things don't work out,
quit university and become a sailor.
I’m not you.
You think a college degree
will give you success?
-Do you?
-Eat up.
Cheol-jun takes after our dad.
How he thinks, I mean.
And I take after mom.
Dad is very decisive.
If he makes a decision, he just does it.
When we settled down here,
the South Koreans here
tried really hard to stop him.
South Korean people
have a web of relations,
family and relatives.
In a way, those connections
are a kind of asset.
But we only have each other,
the four of us.
We have no relatives.
We had to build each of the steps
we had to climb up.
At first, South Koreans pitied us
because we were from poor North Korea.
And when we started moving forward,
running our own businesses…
After that, as I wanted more,
they tried to stop me.
VOTING POLL
People saw North Korean defectors
as cheap labor.
They just overwork us physically.
There's an atmosphere of not letting
anyone be better than South Koreans.
Things you need
to survive in this society…
Wealth.
Intelligence.
Power.
Connections. We have none of that.
Except for physical strength.
If we lose this, we have nothing.
There is nowhere
and no one we can depend on.
This is the one.
I can only get this at the tax office?
You need this one to get this one.
CERTIFICATE OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION
So I have to get this one first
and bring it along?
DAEJIN FISH MARKET
RAW FISH, CRABS
A raw fish restaurant
would be perfect for you.
It's a real lifelong job.
We'll be busy during
the summer sea urchin season,
and the restaurant will be busy, too.
But we can hire part-timers.
After Cheol-hoon comes back from
taking language courses in Australia,
your mom will be familiar
with being the boss at the restaurant.
Your mom has to run a business.
Considering her personality and character,
it’s your mom who should
run a business, not me.
Since I ran a business instead of her,
our family hasn’t become very rich.
Peace Raw Fish?
-Peace.
-Peace?
Write "Peace" on the sign and…
Catching and eating fish is about peace?
Listen to me.
Write "Peace" and put a map of both Koreas
and write "Raw Fish."
I'm not really feeling that.
Then what do you want?
Everyone, come up with something.
It should be "Wild Raw Fish."
-Wild. It speaks to you.
-Look here.
Everyone has the word
"wild" on their windows.
So we should have it on the sign.
That won't look right.
Ongryugwan.
That's the name of
a North Korean noodle restaurant.
Subarashii Raw Fish.
Doesn’t it sound nice?
It means "excellent,"
"splendid" in Japanese.
There’s "Diver’s Raw Fish"
somewhere, right?
They even have
"Compressor Diver’s Raw Fish."
But we should call ours that.
Put it there.
Hey, you moron.
Slow down!
Don’t pass anyone!
That guy is piloting his boat badly.
Really badly.
It’s all sand under there.
Pass through here
and stop between the boulders.
Let’s go.
I’m coming up.
There are no rocks here.
Read the area and stop the boat.
If they don't stay there long,
they didn't do anything.
So we have to go to where they were
and get to work.
That’s their strategy.
If they act as if they
already worked there,
they think that we won't come.
After they go to a different spot,
they'll sneak back here
and catch everything later.
We have to read them.
Those boats are reading our every move.
That’s what the driver does.
-Hey! Turn on the compressor!
-Damn!
-Come here.
-Okay.
They were hungry but waited for you.
Did you drink?
I have nothing to worry about right now.
Cheol-hoon? I don’t care about him.
But when it comes to you
it is not the same.
Why?
Because I got you into this.
It is the turning point in your life.
You agreed to do this,
so the responsibility is on both of us.
That goes for what happened today.
What happens on the boat?
It’s actually quite simple.
What made me annoyed at you was just that.
I am responsible for my work.
But because you paid
less attention than I did,
that's what happened.
And that's what annoyed me.
Isn't that right?
Am I wrong?
I was quite distracted since it was 4 a.m.
I was drowsy and made mistakes.
Then, Dad scolds me badly.
He said, don't work like that!
And don't be sloppy!
But, I am doing my best.
But, he thinks that it's all my fault.
So I feel hurt.
I am not that happy
about this work either.
There is nothing for young people
to do here in the countryside.
No friends, no girls.
I sleep, work, sleep and work.
It is so routine.
Dad doesn't feel safe,
so he always works very hard.
But it is too much.
I can't keep up with him.
I don't know how much longer I can take.
Moron.
You scumbag.
I escaped from North Korea
in September, 2007.
Then, Cheol-jun's dad
asked me to come here
for helping him.
Because I have been friends with
Cheol-jun since I was in North Korea.
There is no sea in my hometown
in North Korea.
Only rivers, no sea.
It was amazing to see the sea for the
first time and this is my first job too.
-It is crooked.
-It is.
I don't want to learn how to swim.
I've got to go to the gym now.
If you are working on a boat,
you should know how to swim.
If it's an emergency, I would do it!
In an emergency, you'll drink a lot
of water and shout "Help! Help!"
That's how you'll be.
True.
One, two, three!
Do you want to come on board?
-Hook me up.
-Okay.
Help me.
-Just a second.
-Hurry up and grab it.
One, two, three!
One, two, three!
Hey, the water's not coming out.
The water isn't coming out.
The cooling water isn't running.
It's the O-ring seal. That's the problem.
It's stretched out, so it doesn't fit.
CERTIFICATE OF BUSINESS REGISTRATION
FROM THE CENTRAL SPORTS COMMITTEE
OF SOUTH HAMGYONG
Hello.
You didn't go to work today?
-I did.
-Then?
You’re going to be rich.
This will be a huge hit.
CHEONGJINHO RAW FISH RESTAURANT
You should be a success.
Successful or not,
what's mine, my world, what I've built…
Even if it's small, we're more desperate
to have it than South Korean people are.
Because we've never had anything
of our own before.
Thank you for coming.
I hope you become rich.
I wish you good health.
-Did you go diving today?
-Yes.
You’ll get rich very quickly.
Abalones, conch,
sea cucumbers, sea pineapples,
sea mustard, kelp, brown kelp.
We catch them all.
If you serve this much food,
you can't make money.
Not true. We make a good profit.
We serve what we catch.
I just have to bend down one more time.
You can blow it all, honey.
I’ll allow it for three years.
That’s okay.
If she still makes no money then,
she’ll be fired?
That’s just fine.
But if there’s never a big break…
Lose all your savings after three years
and be homeless?
Right.
You’re just talking big.
Your husband is supporting you,
so you're lucky.
I opened this restaurant
because he begged me to.
I’m sure your husband has plans.
Do I have that many wrinkles?
My goodness.
You can tell I had a hard life
in North Korea from the photo.
Of course there are no customers.
We have no friends or relatives here.
But it's still very stressful.
Goodness.
Why weren't we born here?
If we'd been born in this country,
we would've had friends,
relatives, and siblings,
and we could rely on them
when things got hard.
But we don't have any, which is sad.
Thank you.
You arrived here after a great ordeal,
but building a life here isn't easy.
South Korean prejudice
against North Korean defectors
leads to poor treatment
and lack of concern,
and this is causing more
and more people to feel dejected.
We're going to blow up these balloons.
Who's going to finish first? Get ready!
I should've told her I loved her
I hesitated and lost her
You can get whatever you desire
You can become whatever you want to be
And for this benevolent land
We are singing to celebrate it
Oh, the Republic of Korea
Oh, the homeland of our ancestors
Oh, we will love you forever
Together!
For my family,
we're from North Korea.
We are now citizens of South Korea.
But we were born in North Korea.
We can't ignore that.
What my dad said
before we defected was that
he wouldn't do it
if it were just him and mom.
He said because of me and my brother,
he had to do it before it was too late.
In North Korea, my dad was
a very responsible head of family.
He's not very young.
What he fears most
is not being able to work
and what to do if his family
was in a dire financial situation.
I think he constantly worries about that.
Why are you packing so much?
The backpack. Didn't you say you have two?
I think this is mine.
Is it Brisbane, Australia
you are going to?
-Let's have a drink.
-So long.
-Just so long?
-For Brisbane!
Come up.
What is it?
The cooling water isn't coming out.
It's not coming out?
Is the engine okay?
Can you handle it?
Did you turn the motor off?
-Did you turn it off?
-What?
The engine will melt and blow up.
It’s almost melted.
Almost?
-It hasn’t melted yet?
-Not yet.
When the ship broke down,
I felt like I was broken.
Ever since I escaped from North Korea,
I kept working.
Because I feel insecure.
Honestly, I am still scared
when working underwater.
But what I can do?
That's life, isn't it?
You can't avoid it even if you want to.
I am the father.
I am the husband.
I still remember that dark night
when we crossed over from North Korea.
Nothing has changed since that night.
We're still restless in the South.
I'm always in danger underwater.
There was a life-threatening accident
with a diver,
and people didn't know what to do.
No one could take charge
or decide what to do.
Take the helmet off, don't take it off.
It was crazy.
They did nothing but talk.
No one really helped.
If that happens,
if that actually happens, just follow
the instructions I laid out for you.
-You have them written down?
-Yes, I do.
I've already chosen my burial spot.
Over there, in that valley.
You and Cheol-hoon carry me
and go there with a shovel.
Don't go to a fancy funeral hall.
The funeral should only cost 50,000 won.
Don't go to a place like that.
-Just lay me down at home.
-In a coffin?
Why, when there’s my diver’s suit?
Just like that, even with the helmet on,
you can bury me just like that.
-Dad, you're 50 now.
-Yes.
If we assume you live 30 more years,
won't North and South Korea unify
in the next 30 years?
You have to go to North Korea.
South Korea isn't trying to unify
with the North.
Let's go.
When the man named Lee In-mo
returned to North Korea from the South,
he wrote a nice poem about azaleas.
Although not the kind of
scarlet red of a rose,
in early spring, they hurry up
and bloom powder pink
before any other flowers.
They bloom in bashful powder pink.
Azaleas.
These are for me?
They’ve already bloomed?
Aren’t you surprised?
-Let’s put them in a vase.
-Yes.
I’m coming up.
IN MEMORY OF JIN TAE-SIK