The Camera as the Victim’s Eyes in Park Chan-wook’s N.E.P.A.L.

Short Film, 2003

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Why the peculiar spelling of the title? Because it is an acronym: Never Ending Peace and Love—Nepal. Woe to those who find themselves far from the Edenic birthplace of Buddha, and a hundredfold woe if fate happened to cast them into South Korea just a few decades ago.

Chandra Kumari Gurung (Author’s screenshot from N.E.P.A.L.)

Park Chan-wook’s short film, lasting just under thirty minutes, reconstructs the story of a Nepalese woman. It belongs to that genre of documentaries that reproduce events with the help of actors. In the opening scene, we set out to find the protagonist and encounter the real Chandra, allowing us to form an image of her appearance. During the reenacted events, however, she never appears again; yet, an actor does not take over the role. Instead, the camera itself becomes Chandra’s eyes, through which—as if we were looking with her—we witness the events.

(Author’s screenshot from N.E.P.A.L.)

With this, Park Chan-wook perfectly realizes the "if you were in my shoes" state, as every viewer is placed in Chandra’s position while others talk to or about her. This concept, If You Were Me, is the title of the six-part omnibus film that dealt with various human rights issues, supported by the National Human Rights Commission. In 2003, it provided an extremely deep diagnostic report on Korean society. The film has since become a series, with a new collection of short films released under similar titles year after year.

Although we know that Korea’s historical existence as a "Hermit Kingdom" has conditioned reflexes of seclusion and a wariness toward the rest of the world even to this day, it is nonetheless shocking how society failed to handle such a trivial problem. Chandra arrives in the country without language skills, and on one occasion, she loses her money and her identification, leading her to a police station. Her ordeal, lasting more than six years, begins here. Shockingly, no one recognizes the fact that they are dealing with a foreigner who is terrified and, in her fear, is trying to explain herself and ask for help by mixing a few Korean words with her native tongue. The representatives of officialdom are characterized by professional negligence paired with personal laziness and apathy; everyone passes on the "troublesome woman." Initially, the police view her as a "dim-witted provincial," shrugging off the fact that they simply forgot about the report filed regarding her disappearance. However, doctors officially classify her as mentally ill, and so Chandra ends up in a psychiatric ward.

Park Chan-wook relentlessly exposes not only personal human habits but professional errors and the general practice of shifting responsibility as well. It is sobering to see how the recognition and treatment of mental illness occurred with a fundamental lack of expertise. Behind the polite demeanor of the nursing staff, we experience a total insensitivity toward a human being who—and this is why it is brilliant that the director uses the camera as a substitute for the subject—seems invisible to those handling her. It is as if they are blind to her true being; they see only what they want to see: a simple-minded Korean. They even give her a domestic name, despite the poor woman’s protests as she constantly repeats her own name and the name of her country.

The film is particularly interesting due to the paradox that it portrays this total insensitivity so vividly. We are inevitably confronted with the problem-sensitivity and attitudes of Korean people on both sides of the camera, and through this, perhaps with the changes that the last decades have brought to Korea. By the year the film was made, it must have been quite jarring for domestic audiences to see that the name of Nepal meant little to people, or that not a single person could be found to translate for the woman—or rather, that it didn't even occur to them to look for one seriously.

Yet, the short film finds room for one more extremely important message: that there are phases of hopelessness where helpful intent alone is insufficient; a degree of expertise is also required to handle it. The small mistake made by the Nepalese man arriving as a savior, which nearly becomes fatal in Chandra's condition, is highly instructive.

Behind a specific story requiring the intervention of human rights organizations, Park Chan-wook’s film outlines the problems of forced labor mobility, the necessity for preparedness in both job seekers and host countries, and the challenge that a shrinking world poses to individuals and nations: the capacity for intercultural understanding and learning.

Chandra’s horror story is presented as a black-and-white film, which only gains color at the moment of her homecoming. Let us hope for a time when every region of the world becomes part of a colorful realm of peace and love, where the individual shades of every "Chandra" are recognized.

Disclaimer: All images from N.E.P.A.L. are property of the respective production studios and are used here under Fair Use for the purpose of criticism and review.