“Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island”
Note: This review contains spoilers.
Oh Minji: Spending your days retaking exams again and again to get certified so you can earn just a little more. Risking your life defeating monsters just to put food on the table. And still having a hard time paying for something as ordinary as a bowl of ramen or a book. The cute little characters in the world of Nagano’s manga “Chiikawa” and the anime adaptation show just how hard that life can be. Even in a dangerous, overwhelming world, Chiikawa and friends are still happy because they have each other. They know that, even if they’re hurt, as long as they’re alive, their friends will always be there for them. For them, friendship is the strength to keep going, even though life’s exhausting.
But “Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island” demonstrates how friendship doesn’t necessarily make for the best choices every time. Lured by an invitation promising 100 times their usual pay and every kind of free food from sweet to spicy, Chiikawa and friends arrive at their island destination. It’s not a relaxing vacation for long, though, as they’re soon tasked with defeating the Siren, a monster that’s been kidnapping the islanders. To the islanders, the Siren is a monster that kidnaps people they know, but to the Siren and the mermaids, it’s the islanders who are the real culprits after following through on a rumor that eating a mermaid makes you immortal. Caught between the two sides, Chiikawa and the others are chased around by the Siren and the mermaids. Scared to tears, they go to rescue the captives anyway, and they even get the Siren to promise never to kidnap the islanders again. When you’re friends, even fear won’t keep you from each other’s side.
Just when things finally seem peaceful, the movie reveals a past episode. It turns out there had been an accident involving the Siren that left islander Futaba for dead, but Hitoha caught and cooked a mermaid to feed Futaba back to health. Terrified of surviving alone, Futaba fed Hitoha the cooked mermaid too. Those who eat mermaids must carry batteries, and later, when Futaba’s battery is finally revealed, the Siren pieces things together. Hitoha committed the crime of killing a mermaid to save Futaba, and could have faced the punishment of being locked in a cage in the dark forever. Still, Hitoha couldn’t leave the side of a friend when they’re close to death—not even if that choice led to an irreversible change, and not even if it meant living with a secret literally forever. The islanders end up holding a festival, and on that day, Chiikawa clutches a pochette of mermaid scales they discovered in Hitoha and Futaba’s home, approaches the two, finds them hand in hand and trembling, then turns away without a word. Knowing what it’s like to have friends there to help you overcome your fears, Chiikawa must understand these islanders don’t want to lose theirs. In the small, fragile world of “Chiikawa,” where everyone’s trying to keep the people they care about safe, it’s all about that friendship, that sin, and that life—forever.
“Korean Hip-Hop: A Correction”
Kang Ilkwon (music critic): Hip hop had its explosive moment in Korea, too. Rappers climbed the music charts, landed spots in lineups for every kind of concert and event, and for a while, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing rap. Even people who didn’t listen to hip hop could name a few famous rappers. But documentaries about hip hop are hard to come by. Films that look back on the history of Korean hip hop or tell the stories of the people who lived it can basically be counted on one hand. Considering how popular it was, the effort to document that era and the people involved has been strikingly subdued.
That makes “Korean Hip-Hop: A Correction,” a recently released documentary from “The Segye Times,” a welcome addition. Clocking in at around 42 minutes, the film looks at Korean hip hop’s past and traces how the genre got to where it is today. MC Meta, Verbal Jint, 4WD, and Minos, artists who came up through Korean hip hop’s formative years, are joined by the voices of today’s younger rappers, like Hippie Kunda.
The story behind the title is a good one. In 1993, “The Segye Times” ran a column slamming hip hop as a “vulgar foreign fad.” Back then, hip hop was still seen as a strange, subversive culture. Now, more than 30 years later, the same outlet has put out this documentary and a series of featured articles looking back on the history of Korean hip hop. The choice of the word “correction” for the title says just how much Korean society’s view of hip hop has changed. Pretty clever to revisit your own archives with a new feature.
The investigative team at “The Segye Times” went even further, turning about seven months of research into a series of articles and an interactive website. Analyzing the lyrics of 4,008 songs, the team tracks how Korean hip hop has changed, then digs into the discrepancy between the image “Show Me the Money” created and the music itself, along with the realities young rappers face.
Of course, 42 minutes can’t possibly cover the entire vast history of Korean hip hop, and the story changes depending on which eras and figures you shine the spotlight on. Here’s hoping we only get more documentaries from even more perspectives. Some things you can only see clearly once the craze has settled down. The articles, video footage, and interviews left behind are invaluable records of a time and place, and hopefully “Korean Hip-Hop: A Correction” can serve the same purpose.
“The Ministry for the Future” (Kim Stanley Robinson)
Kim Boksung (writer): The state of the world is grim. An unprecedented heatwave in India claims 20 million lives. The future, in particular, looks bleak. The international community comes together and forms the Ministry for the Future, an organization with the stated goal of representing the rights of the generations to follow ours. Headed by Mary Murphy, the greatest existential threat to humanity is determined to be climate change. And so the world gets to work, finally.
Carbon emissions take priority over profits. Airplanes are grounded in favor of boats. Nature reserves become a key part of the global geography. Humanity slows down, and the world begins to heal in fits and starts.
Though this is a fiction novel with Mary as the main character, the reality is the 100-plus micro-chapters are told from a plethora of different perspectives and in countless different forms. You might call it edutainment, where author Kim Stanley Robinson has wrapped a variety of essay-like ideas for solving the climate problem in a more palatable narrative. Opinions, lived experiences, and unabashed infodumps from unnamed characters and even inanimate objects challenge pessimistic beliefs predicting our doom. At times naively optimistic, and for the most part scientifically accurate, “The Ministry for the Future” is best opened with an open mind—and you’ll likely close it at the end with an open heart.