2014.07.12 sewol in theater

After a tragedy like the April 16 sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol, many are left wondering how to appropriately commemorate the lives lost without forgetting the awful truth of the actual incident. Last week a South Korean newspaper revealed that a two-hour documentary about the accident is being planned to be released next year to coincide with the one-year anniversary. The film’s backers are relying solely on donations and are seeking just 400 million won (US$392,000) to finance the low-budget project. And with the entire country paying extremely close attention to every tragic detail to come out of the investigations surrounding the accident, this film is destined to be an instant hit in Korean movie theaters.

The documentary is set to be called “A Goose’s Dream” after a song that high schooler Lee Bo Mee sang at a school festival. Lee was one of the 293 people who died in the accident and she sacrificed her own life while the Sewol sank to save others. Although any further details about the contents of the film weren’t revealed, the documentary will likely cover many aspects of the accident from the criticism of the government’s response to the intense media coverage of the sinking.

The filmmakers have said that they will use about 300 million won ($294,321) for production costs and spend the remaining 100 million won ($98,107) for advertisement. In October, they expect to have a 30-minute clip finished and plan to show it for free.

Although some Japanese netizens wondered if this was too soon to be making a film after the tragedy, others argued that it will always be “too soon” and that shouldn’t prevent people from moving forward. But with such a low budget, netizens worried that the quality of the documentary would be pretty poor and cynically thought this was to increase profits since any movie about the Sewol is likely to sell out across Korea.

With the death toll yet to be finalized as 11 people remain missing and the government is still investigating the details leading up to the Sewol’s final days, this tragedy is far from over and a two-hour documentary will probably not be able to cover every angle of the disaster. But for a country that has been mourning the almost 300 deaths of mostly high schoolers, the film could possibly be one way to continue to come to grips with what happened last April.

Feature Image: Wikipedia, Wikipedia edited by RocketNews24 
Source: Alfafa