Korean Stage Nudity

[flanker7]

This has become one of my "research" interests recently, and Pedro's recent post of "Nude Korean Ballet" reminded me I had some things to post myself. A little while ago I came across the article pasted below, and it got me searching. I don't know that much about Korean culture, but from what I've been able to learn, nudity and sexuality are still fairly taboo in art, but there's so much Westernization going on that it's beginning to become more and more present, and this mix has created a bit of controversy.

So, basically, it seems that while it's daring for any actress to bare it all on stage, it's particularly the case in Korea, yet it's occurring more and more. Which I think we like.

Anyway, here's the article, followed by some pics from a production of "La Dispute," the play discussed in the article (http://joongangdaily.joins.com/artic...sp?aid=2911233):

Skin is in at theaters in Daehangno
An increasing number of plays featuring nude scenes

Take a stroll around the hip theater district of Daehangno and you’ll likely notice signs outside some venues proclaiming that photography is not allowed, tipping you off to the fact that something is a bit different here.

Some actors and actresses are opting to bare it all on stage in Daehangno as theaters look to push creative boundaries, draw bigger crowds and, of course, make more money.

Some of these plays have in fact become adults-only affairs, meaning parents who want to give their children some culture will have to look elsewhere.

To attend the play “La Dispute,” for instance, you must be over 20 years old and sign a release promising not to take any photographs. Break the rules and you could even be subject to criminal punishment.

Such restrictions are understandable as the show, written by renowned French playwright P. Marivaux, shows a scene where a nude man and woman face each other under bright stage lighting, which has sparked a major controversy in Daehangno’s theater community.

“We’re trying to be more experimental, so I don’t think that the actors and actresses always have to be fully dressed when they’re on stage,” said Lim Hyung-taek, producer of La Dispute and a professor at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. “We chose to show nudity in our play because we wanted to accurately portray the love between a man and a woman.”

La Dispute, which took the stage in August, has set a box-office record and performed to a sold-out crowd every night, prompting the organizer to extend its run through Oct. 24 - nearly three weeks later than initially planned.

And then there’s “The Professor and the Female Student,” an upcoming play that focuses on an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and his pupil. In this show, the actors and actresses are completely nude on stage. Whether audiences respond as enthusiastically as they have to La Dispute remains to be seen, as the play goes on stage next Friday.

Some productions featuring elements of nudity have hit choppy waters, however.

The production “Oh! Please” came to an abrupt halt after just five days on the stage last month. It was immediately buried under an avalanche of audience complaints surrounding the short length of the play and the fact that it didn’t feature as much nudity as originally advertised. The organizers quickly decided to pull the plug.

There have been some side effects of this trend for other performances, some of which get mistaken for being “nude theater.” And of course there’s sometimes backlash when an ample amount of skin makes its way to the stage.

“Rashomon,” an adaptation of a 1950 period film by Akira Kurosawa of the same title, has seen some of this controversy. The play is about a thief that kills a samurai and sexually abuses the samurai’s wife. “We couldn’t take out the scene where the wife gets sexually abused, so we tried to minimize the amount of nudity. I don’t understand why this is such a big deal,” said stage producer Ku Tae-hwan.

[flanker7]

As you can see most good stuff is either censored or cropped, which is not surprising, given the discussion above (though I believe the photo of the man and the woman curled together against the white background does show nipple...).

Anyway, I came across this pic of the cast, which they'd Photoshopped to obscure the nudity. Of course, Photoshop giveth and Photoshop taketh away, so I played around with it a little bit and got something a little more revealing. Perhaps someone more skilled than I could do even more.

[flanker7]

For you the like context for your nudity, here's an awesomely detailed interview with the lead actress, Chaeyeon Yoon, specifically on the subject of nudity, how she prepared for it etc. I appears to be from a student newspaper.



So, I interviewed Chaeyeon Yoon who is one of the four main performers in the play “La Dispute”. I met her at the Dongsoong Art Center Theater on the 27th September after her 3.p.m. play was over. She shared with us her opinions about nudity in stage play as a woman.

From the interview with Chaeyeon Yoon, the actress.

First, I watched the play very well. I was moved by your acting. I guess it’s not easy for a woman to be on
the stage naked, was there any mention about nudity ahead when you got the script? If so, what made you
to make up your mind to do this play in spite of the nudity?
As director wanted to do this play, he told us about nudity ahead of time. When I first heard about that, I
had doubts about nudity. I even told the director that I couldn’t be in this play the day before workshop.
However, as I became more involved in this play and this character through workshop, I started to think
about the main point of nudity. Then, I didn’t want to lean on clothes or props and wanted to show real me.
That’s when I got courage to do this play. Another reason to take this play was that I thought this could be
the only chance to experience the very first moment of human being and it’s not something that everybody
can experience.

What do you think about the debate of nudity? It’s used to show human purity but accepted in different way
and even it is often raised as an issue.
Human have been wearing clothes for a very long time so I think it is a natural reaction. When we meet
people for the first time, we have many kinds of prejudices. I think director wanted to show the moment
when people meet each other without any prejudices and biases. Through this play, I really hope that
audiences will understand the director’s intention.

How did you practice this play?
At first, we wore clothes and imagined we were naked. However, imagining you are naked and being naked
are totally different. When I practiced my lines with nothing on, I felt feeling of freedom and realized nudity
is right for this play. However, on the actual day of performing nude, I was so ashamed that I asked director
to make the light little dimmer. haha

I guess it wouldn’t be easy for you to tell your friends or family members about the play. Who was the first
one who knew about it? What were their reactions?
I told some of my best friends about this play when I was doing workshop. They were worried about
me a lot at first. After having watched this play, however, they told me it was beautiful and they could
understand how I could do this and why I was doing this. I told my parents about this play because once
the performance starts, they will know anyway. First, my mother said that if I had to do this as an actress
then I should just do it. However, after having seen the poster, they were shocked so my parents haven’t
seen the play yet. That makes me sad but I don’t think I am doing something wrong as a daughter.

The play “La Dispute” is gaining more and more popularity. On the other hand, there’s a criticism that the
contents of the play is not substantial enough. Do you think nudity played a part in its popularity? What do
you think the play would be like if there was no nudity?
I also think that if there’s no nudity, it wouldn’t be like this. Because there’s nudity, people come with
curiosity. I think it is a natural phenomenon.

This interview will be published in University Magazines. If you have something you want to say to
students, please do.
I just want them to feel it as it is. Natural human beings without any biases and prejudices.

[flanker7]

On to another play, entitled, "The Professor and the Female Student." For you ENF fans, here's pretty much the all-time winner for embarrassed reactions for an actress baring it all on stage. This article is just awesome.

Below it are the pics of the lead actress doing her thing onstage. Pics are angled or censored to limit exposure, but they're still pretty nice.

Nude-Performing Actress Suffers Breakdown

A theater actress was hospitalized due to a nervous breakdown Tuesday after a man tried to record images of her naked body with a hidden camcorder several days earlier.

According to the stage production company Cham, a 50-year-old unidentified man was caught while trying to record actress Choi Jae-kyeong's naked body and sex scene during the play "The Professor and The Female Student" on Dec. 15. The actress had a nervous breakdown, which led the doctors to advise her to report to the hospital.

"There might have been more cases we couldn't detect. It could lead to being a serious crime", the production company said in a press release. The director decided to replace Choi with an understudy cheerleader-turned-actress Lee Tam-mi.

"The Professor and The Female Student" is about a 45-year-old university lecturer discovering his power through sexual intercourse with his female student. The show includes a sex scene, where both actors are naked for about five minutes. The play caused a stir when a man in his 50s tried to grab Choi during the play earlier this month. Last month, another audience member suffered a heart attack during the show. He later said he was "overly excited".

[flanker7]

I have just a bit more to post later on, but I plan on continuing to search and add as I come across stuff. I know this is kind of an esoteric topic, but I find it fascinating, and hope some of you all enjoy it as much as I do.

[Klondike]

yes, you all know I like context with my nudity. Clearly, you have put a lot of work into this and I appreciate it, Flanker!

Looking forward to more...

Klondike

[flanker7]

Thanks. And yes, researching this has a low effort/reward ratio. As with the Russian stuff, in order to get any real results, you first have to search the English names (titles of plays and actresses, etc.) then find pages that are in both English and Korean, figure out which Korean characters represent the titles and actresses, then search using those. Otherwise you get just the basic news wire info that gets reposted into English language pages, whereas we want more of the original source material for the decent photos, etc.

Which is kind of fun when you actually find something, but what it tells me is that there's a ton of material out there we'll never find because we don't speak Korean (or Chinese, or Japanese, etc.) I wonder if there's a bizarro/parallel universe OCC out there in Korean, that's just chock full of Far Eastern public nudity. Kind of makes me want to order Rosetta Stone right now.

Anyway, here's a couple more promo photos from the "The Professor and the Female Student." Not sure 100% the actress is also the model, but I think it would make sense that it's her

I find it odd and intriguing that she had no problem with the naked (albeit shot from less revealing angles) promotional stills from the production and possibly these studio shots, but when confronted with the possibility her performance was taped, it pushed her over the edge. As I said above, I find culture taboos about sex and nudity in all Asian countries--not just South Korea--fascinating. In so many ways they're just like the West, and in so many ways completely different.