LIM Kiwoong
Arts&Culture History Lifestyle Personal&POV
The village is under construction. As Baedari village became gradually known, the local government started to develop Samirundong-gil Road and the facade project. A cafe also has been picked for the facade project, which is run by Park Sungjoon who recently moved to the village. He was not interested in the fancy appearance of this village. Rather, he was fascinated by the historical places like the secondhand bookstore, Abel Bookstore, and felt disappointed more than other residents. The owner of Abel Bookstore, Kwak Hyunsook, has continued to run the shop in the Used Bookstore Street. For her, the village is a place of gathering wisdom and experiences of life, and is more than a site used for selling and buying books. She first took action when the village was in the danger of going wrong due to the redevelopment and of penetration from an industrial road. Though the danger has not subsided, the village is going to become a tourist spot now - a real tragedy. The residents are showing what they can do to tend and protect their village through artwork, not via the administration or capital. Their protest has begun.
Seemingly forever, Baedari Village has been a popular site for shooting films and TV dramas as if they were annual events. Such films often do well at the box office and the TV dramas are typically popular, which drives a lot of sightseers to the village. Due to the wave of visitors, the administration set out to paint the village. The construction work on the exterior walls has changed the old and outdated buildings into a place which seems to be a set in the name of the facade Townscape Project. We feel sorry about this situation, because it is not far removed from the idea of the military regime when it displaced people and covered the outer walls of the old buildings after gaining the Asian Games and the Olympics in the 1980s. The buildings in this village are not something deserving of shame, and the residents are not beings who should be covered. This movie shows the original residents as the main characters who previously couldn't speak out about their rights. We are showing not a set, but a story of a community trying to keep the history of the Used Bookstore Street intact against the civil construction development force.
LIM Kiwoong