The Second-Class Citizen
"The term 'second-class citizen'?"
At Son Min-gwan’s counter-question, Yoon-gi nodded immediately. "Yes. The movie we're filming, Pearl Harbor Massacre, needs to be written based on two major frameworks."
Yoon-gi continued quickly before Son Min-gwan could interject. "The first framework is 'Japan is a bunch of bastards.' We need to make it clear to the whole world—or at least the Western world, if the whole world is too much—just how evil a nation Japan is."
"That shouldn't be difficult. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor itself was an event that enraged the American public even back then."
"Yes, so I’m not worried about that part. That’s why the second framework is the important one."
"And what is that second framework?"
"We must imprint upon the audience that the actions Japan committed against Joseon were no different from those of the Nazis."
"Pardon?"
Yoon-gi, who had anticipated this exact reaction, pressed on. "The reason the Nazi Hakenkreuz is reviled is ultimately because of 'racism,' isn't it?"
"That’s right."
"But in the popular consciousness, racism is understood as white people discriminating against black people."
"That is... oh!" Son Min-gwan finally understood what Yoon-gi was driving at.
"You get it now?"
"Yes. Strictly speaking, the Nazis weren't discriminating against black people. They claimed the Aryan race was supreme and discriminated specifically against the Jews."
Yoon-gi nodded. "Exactly. So, what if we put Japan in the place of the Nazis?"
"Japan claimed they were the most superior in Asia and therefore effectively no different from white people, and that it was only natural for Joseon people to be discriminated against because they were inferior. That was Japan's policy at the time."
"Spot on."
In reality, Japan is quite fond of the phrase Datsu-A Ron—"Leaving Asia." While the literal meaning is to leave Asia and join Europe, in practice, it’s closer to an expression that Japan is different from the "other inferior nations of Asia" and is no different from Europe. It carries the nuance that Japan is the gateway from Asia into Europe. In short, it is a phrase underpinned by Japan’s unique sense of superiority.
"Let’s see... I can see exactly which scenes would benefit from the term 'second-class citizen.' And I’m thinking of other terms to reinforce it, too. This script is going to be easier to write than I thought!"
Yoon-gi wore a satisfied expression at Son Min-gwan’s confident tone. "Good. Let’s make sure the whole world knows exactly what the Rising Sun flag signifies."
During the Olympic opening ceremony, people around the world had felt a vague sense of, 'Is that similar to the Nazi flag?' But the moment they watched Pearl Harbor Massacre, their thoughts would change completely. They would realize it wasn't just a similar level—it was exactly the same.
Even though not even a week had passed, Son Min-gwan had completed the major framework of the script. Once the screenwriters at MEV began writing the detailed scenes based on that framework, it didn't take long for the full script to be finished. MEV Studio already had a perfect division of labor, just like Hollywood. Since the screenwriters were also consistently receiving training related to scriptwriting, there was no major difficulty in crafting a script that suited Western tastes. On top of that, there was Yoon-gi’s final review.
Yoon-gi wanted to convey a message to the world, but he had no intention of delivering it directly. 'Speaking directly is essentially the same as making a documentary.'
Pearl Harbor Massacre was, at its core, a commercial film. As such, he absolutely could not sacrifice the fun of the story by being too eager to deliver a message. That was why Son Min-gwan used a specific method.
Currently, MEV Studio was filming the scenes Son Min-gwan had written. Even though the Olympics were ongoing, what the MEV staff felt rewarded by wasn't the medal count of South Korean athletes, but the filming of the movie.
"This surprise attack is a crucial operation that will change the future of us versus Japan. As such, we need a lot of personnel. How about we deploy the Joseon-jins as well?"
"Are you hearing yourself? To think of putting inferior second-class citizens into such an important operation. Those inferior Joseon-jins won't even understand the importance of this operation, and they'll carelessly leak classified information to those around them. Are you hoping for this operation to fail?"
"No, of course not, but... I just..."
A meeting scene in the Japanese military camp. In this scene, the words 'Joseon-jin,' 'second-class citizen,' and 'inferior' were used naturally. And then, the filming of another scene followed.
"It is only natural for our superior Aryans to rule the world, and it is equally natural for the inferior Jews to be managed!"
A scene of Hitler’s speech. In this scene, the word 'inferior' that appeared earlier was used in the exact same way. After the short speech scene passed, they began filming a phone call between Hitler and Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister of Japan at the time. It felt like a simple wire-call between the leaders of allied nations. Through this scene, the nuance that Hitler and the Japanese leader Hideki Tojo were no different began to flow out strongly.
'Very satisfying.'
Yoon-gi felt genuine admiration for Son Min-gwan while watching these scenes. If he had entrusted this script to a novice screenwriter, there was a 100 percent chance a scene like this would have appeared:
[Discrimination is wrong!]
A speaker shouting at the audience. Such a scene would have appeared almost 100 percent of the time. But Son Min-gwan didn't insert a single line of dialogue like "Discrimination is wrong!" in any scene throughout the script. Instead, he perfectly matched the words related to 'discrimination' used by the Japanese leadership and the German leadership. Furthermore, he included a scene where the Nazis and Japan exchanged data related to human experimentation. The Nazis with human experiments on Jews, and Japan with human experiments on Joseon people. This scene was sure to imprint upon the audience that the actions of the Nazis and Japan were essentially no different, while simultaneously ensuring the audience was thoroughly immersed. It was clearly a scene containing a message, but because that message was delivered very indirectly, the immersion was never broken.
'Good, very good.'
Yoon-gi was genuinely satisfied with Son Min-gwan’s script. Looking at the entire length of the film, it occupied a very short portion, but it conveyed the core that Yoon-gi wanted perfectly.
'I should reward him by turning one of his novels into a film.'
Among the novels published without Yoon-gi’s review, there were a few that Son Min-gwan had a particular attachment to, but unfortunately, they naturally hadn't been adapted for the screen. But now, those would be adapted too. Because Yoon-gi was a person who gave generous rewards to those who performed their missions perfectly.
"Wilson! Wilsooooooon!"
A U.S. soldier with the rank of corporal, tears streaming down his face, clutched his comrade whose lower body had been mangled by the Japanese surprise attack. The heart-wrenching sight of a soldier lying on the ground, where shells were falling like crazy from the sky, holding his comrade and weeping. This sight was enough to make even the people filming it feel emotionally invested.
A moment later, the corporal let out a piercing scream, grabbed his rifle, and fired madly into the sky, and eventually, this soldier was also swept up in a shell blast, and the spot where he stood was covered in a massive cloud of dirt.
"Cut! Perfect!"
As the director shouted in satisfaction, the person with the corporal's rank, covered in dirt, began walking toward the waiting area.
"Wow, how are you such a good actor?"
To the question from one of the filming staff, the actor replied with a wry smile in fluent Korean.
"Because I've experienced it."
"What...? Oh! I, I'm sorry!"
"It's okay. I didn't experience it at Pearl Harbor, I experienced it in Vietnam. And since it's been a while, it's not as incredibly sad as it used to be, so I'm fine."
A strange, seemingly overcome sadness could be felt in his words. This actor’s name was Thomas. He was a member of the Soviet PMC owned by Yoon-gi, but he had been dispatched to Korea for the filming of Pearl Harbor Massacre.
"Seriously, the acting skills of those of you in the PMC are really outstanding. It's almost a waste to use you just as extras."
At the words of the assistant director, who was quite a distance from Thomas, the director nodded.
"That's what I'm saying. There are people here who could be used as supporting actors, or even leads in some cases, if they just polished their acting a bit more. I should suggest it to the President for the next movie."
Currently, in the battle scenes of Pearl Harbor Massacre, most of the scenes that required extras were being handled by PMC agents. Thanks to that, the depiction of the desperate battle situation was possible. The realism of the work was rising tremendously.
"I think it's really lucky to be filming a work like this. Don't you?"
At the director's words, the assistant director also nodded.
"I agree. Seriously, I think it was a good choice to join MEV."
While the director and assistant director were talking, Yoon-gi appeared out of nowhere and spoke to Thomas.
"How is it? Is the filming manageable?"
"Oh! Salute!"
Thomas gave a salute the moment he saw Yoon-gi. Originally, the U.S. military didn't have a salute slogan. But the soldiers belonging to the PMC were giving salutes with slogans to Yoon-gi without a moment's hesitation.
"Oh, you don't need to do that for me."
"No! We do it from the bottom of our hearts!"
In a way, it was natural. In the PMC, casualties were inevitable, but whenever an agent suffered a disability-level injury, Yoon-gi reassigned them according to their level, and if even that was difficult, he sent them to the nursing facility he had promised in the past to let them retire. He had kept the promise he made when he founded the PMC. Since the loyalty of the agents who saw this had no choice but to skyrocket, Yoon-gi was currently in a situation where he held absolute support from the agents. He had become the de facto commander-in-chief.
"Hmm, well, I suppose I can't help it for now."
Only after Yoon-gi returned the salute did Thomas lower his hand, and the other soldiers who were with Thomas also relaxed their rigid posture. After all, Thomas wasn't the only one in this place.
"Is the filming okay? Honestly, I was a little worried. Because there was the issue of PTSD."
Even though he had obtained their consent, the reenactment of war was not an easy task for them. That was why Yoon-gi was grateful to them, yet felt sorry.
"We are truly fine. The psychiatric treatment you supported us with was a significant help, and it wouldn't make sense if we, who work for the PMC, couldn't overcome even this."
At the words truly filled with sincerity, Yoon-gi smiled broadly and nodded.
"I'm really grateful that you think that way. After filming ends today, shall we all go eat some bulgogi?"
"Oh, bulgogi! That sounds great! There will be kimchi, right?"
Fluent Korean, liking bulgogi, and even looking for kimchi. They were honorary Koreans.
It goes without saying, but Pearl Harbor Massacre was not a movie that could be produced in a short period. To film the war scenes right away, they had to build large-scale sets outdoors, and they had to film in those sets for quite a long time. Of course, some scenes were filmed in studios and outdoors, but the main filming absolutely required the construction of sets. Therefore, Pearl Harbor Massacre was a situation where filming proceeded on its own, like auto-hunting, without Yoon-gi having to pay much attention to it. There was no reason for Yoon-gi to interfere with the construction of the sets or the filming one by one.
The same went for matters related to Japan. Japan was currently boiling inside, but they couldn't take any more hardline actions because of Reagan’s warning. Yoon-gi was in a similar situation. He was waiting leisurely because it wouldn't be until the middle of next year that he could give Japan a taste of their own medicine. In the meantime, he received a call from Ryu Geun-tae.
"President, Maryland has been completed!"
"Ah, right."