“Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission”, the fight for a language

“Where there are people, there are words. And where there are words, there is meaning. And where there is meaning, there is independence.” Directed by the writer turned director Eom Yu Na, “Mal-Mo-E: The secret Mission” is a 2019 film revolving around the history of the first Korean language dictionary manuscript which showcases the importance of own words and also makes us feel attached as we also fought for our language Bangla in 1952.

From “The Age of Shadows” to “A Resistance”, there have been quite a few Korean films set during the Japanese occupation in the last few years. But the films rarely highlighted what Koreans did to preserve their own language at that time. Totally focused on that, “Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission” is something you will rarely watch. The movie is set in the 1940s when Korea was still under Japanese occupation.

The Imperial Japanese was on the verge of what will soon be their undoing – their involvement in World War II. But even as the nation prepares for war, the colonial government is doing its utmost in its colony to stamp out the Korean language. Its goal is to promote the Japanese language and culture at all costs. Against this backdrop, a group of people forms an unlikely alliance.

It all starts with one of the main characters of the movie Kim Pan-Soo, played by Yu Hae-Jin. After being fired from the theater he used to work for, Pan-Soo resorts to pick-pocketing to pay for his son’s overdue tuition fees and raise his younger daughter alone. He has been imprisoned several times and it is nothing special for him to go there. One day, he steals a man’s bag which he thought would be full of bundles of money but sadly the only thing he found was a manuscript of a dictionary. Eventually, he gets caught and tries to change his life by doing a proper job for his children.

Later, he tries to get a job at the Korean Language Society where he saved one of the members a long ago. Soon he finds out that the representative there is none other than Ryu Jung-Hwan (Yoon Kye-Sang), the man he tried to steal from. Jung-Hwan is the son of a wealthy Korean family who is pro-Japanese. But he is against speaking Japanese or changing his name to Japanese.

As the Korean language was on the verge of dying out, the Korean Society decided to make a dictionary to preserve the country’s identity with a small team for ten years. The group needs someone to do various errands but yet Jung-Hwan was strongly against hiring him as he’s an ex-convict and illiterate. Nevertheless, the rest of the team welcomes Pan-Soo with open arms, and he joins them with the condition that he must learn to read and write Korean properly. Even though he doesn’t understand first, he slowly gets why he had to collect ‘words’ instead of money or power to get an independent country. While the team has great difficulty collecting words from the country's many dialects, the Japanese have kept chasing them down for a while now, making it almost impossible for them to work. Still, they must complete the MALMOE before they are shut down by the Japanese government, and all is lost for the Korean language.

The title of the movie “Mal-Mo-E” (literally meaning: gathering the words) is actually a real name of the Korean dictionary put together by the members of Joseoneo Hakhoe/the Korean Language Society, for 13 years (1929-1942). The Korean Language Society was actually founded on 31st August 1908 by the linguist Ju Si-gyeong. Without them maybe preserving the Korean language could have not been possible. According to the historical records, 15 members of the Korean language society were arrested by Japanese authorities while two of them died in prison.

Some also confiscated the dictionary yet miraculously, on 8th September 1945, the dictionary was accidentally discovered in a warehouse at Gyeongseong Station. Despite the difficulties, Koreans never gave up and completed the dictionary 28 years later, with a six-volume set being published precisely on Hangeul Day (Korean language day), October 9, 1957. The dictionary contained 164,125 lexical entries, dialects, words outdated and technical terms, as well as a love for the Korean language and a desire for national independence.

We all know that language reflects our culture and without it, we lose a large part of our identity. During the oppression of Japanese imperialism, they tried to erase Korea's identity as a nation, forced the Korean people to pledge allegiance to the Japanese emperor, adopt Japanese names and accept Japan's history as their own, as they claimed they shared the same roots. It also became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts and authorities burned over 200,000 Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea. Doesn’t it sound quite familiar?

We can totally relate with this film as we also fought with the Pakistanis in 1952 for our own language, for our Bangla. The Pakistanis also wanted to make Urdu as the state language of Pakistan not caring about the more than 56% of people whose mother language was Bangla, just like the Japanese emperors. From 1948 to 1952, there was only one demand during the initial stage as pronounced in a single slogan- 'We want Bangla as a state language.' And we eventually got that with the help of uncountable martyrs.

From the casting to the acting of those cast members; the story to the meaning behind it, it was all incredible. “MAL-MO-E: The Secret Mission” was full of light humor harmoniously balanced with serious messages. It depicted the significance of the Korean language, and language in general, in an admirable way, all while giving a history lesson in a very entertaining manner. The movie has been a major hit at the box office, selling more than 2.3 million tickets with a total gross of $20,066,793 as of 19 February 2022. In an attempt to attract foreign audiences, the patriotic period-piece has also been released with English subtitles.

Many of the audience of this film didn’t know about this part of the history of Korea before watching it. This movie is very interesting and exemplifies how these events happened at that time, being a tribute to Hangeul Hakhoe and so many anonymous people who contributed to making the dictionary while fighting to protect the spirit and identity of their nation. The sacrifice that the society members go through just to preserve what little national identity they have left is admirable. The movie impressively shows that even small independence movements can mature into something big and that they can have enormous effects on a country. When all is said and done, the movie will certainly make some of us value language a little more.

Overall “Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission” is a very entertaining historical drama that is highlighted by outstanding performances and a well-written, emotionally impactful story.

* Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 10th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka