sipffen

Schedule

11/9 Sun 11:40 CGV Piccadilly1958 screen 4 (Commentary)

Synopsis

After losing his only son, Old Kim establishes Haksagol, an all-male boarding house. Admission requires a strict exam and interview, and anyone who breaks its ten rules—such as bans on drinking or protests—is immediately expelled. This year’s top entrant, Jin-young, is secretly a female law student disguised as a man. As she struggles to hide her identity, unforeseen events begin to shake the foundations of Haksagol.

Commentary

A Small Autocratic Republic (1990, dir. Yu-yeong JIN)

A male-centered society rooted in militaristic culture: a world that prizes hierarchy and regards the issuing of orders and obedience as the only virtues. In such a society, expecting respect for diversity or hospitality toward minorities is close to impossible. And yet, if we must crack this rigid order and build a society where everyone can live together in equality, what must we do? To explore this question, “A Small Autocratic Republic” assumes a virtual reality place, “Haksa-gol,” a men-only boarding house. Thanks to senior alumni who already occupy the ranks of society’s entrenched power, those who graduate from Haksa-gol are assured of future success—so long as they are men. Because entry is restricted to men, the promise of the future belongs to men only. Into this immense, male-centered Tower of Babel steps Jin-yeong (portrayed by Seo-ra KIM), a woman who dons men’s clothing to challenge for admission. Having defeated many competitors to enter Haksa-gol, Jin-yeong must prove—despite being a woman—that she in no way falls behind the men around her.

Cross-dressing films commonly deploy gender inversion to expose gender inequities in a paradoxical light. “A Small Autocratic Republic” likewise dresses Jin-yeong in men’s attire to lay bare the contradictions of a male-dominated power order, then asks whether one can live as a woman at the very center of male power. A woman’s desire for male power can, at a glance, be read as an attitude of compliance with the system. Yet the mere fact that Jin-yeong, who does not go out of her way to conceal her sexual orientation, infiltrates male solidarity in male drag already begins to fissure the system. “A Small Autocratic Republic” makes clear that the simple existence of sexual minorities can destabilize the order itself.

Made in the interval between the gains of the 1987 democratization movement and the still-unbroken Tae-woo ROH regime, “A Small Autocratic Republic” is, without doubt, a work that invites fresh reinterpretation at a moment when the nation has witnessed the bare face of male power. Through this jointly planned digital restoration and special screening by the Seoul International PRIDE Film Festival in partnership with the Korean Film Archive, we hope that figures like Jin-yeong will gather into a larger wave—one with the power to transform Korean society as a whole.