Yoduk Story

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Yoduk Story is a stage play by North Korean defector Jung Sung San, released in 2006. The story is based on stories of political prisoners at the Yodok concentration camp. This harrowing musical premiered in the US in October of 2006. The writer and director, Jung Sung-San experienced Yoduk first-hand but was able to escape and find his way to South Korea, where in 2002, he learned his father was publicly stoned to death. In his sorrow and anger, he sought out a way to express all his feelings and promptly began writing this musical. He faced death threats and government pressure to make changes. When financial backers pulled out in the midst of pressure, he put up his kidney as collateral for approximately $20,000.

1 Songs
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Articles
5 External links

[edit] Songs

ACT I

우리를 보라 - Look at Us
당의 딸 - Daughter of the Party
조심 또 조심 - Careful, Be Careful
지옥의 수용소 요덕 - Hellish Prison Yoduk
차가운 핏줄 - Cold Blooded
죽여! - Kill Him!
심장이터지도록 - Until My Heart Bursts
언제나 또 볼까? - When Would We Meet Again?
나 살기 위해 꿈을 꿔 - I Dream to Survive
꿈 꿀 생각 하지마 - Don't Even Dare to Dream
오랫동안 꿈 꿔 왔지 - I've Waited for This Moment for So Long
난 미쳤어 - I Am Crazy
촛물 같은 생명 - Our Lives Are Just Like Candles

ACT II

변해가고 있어 - I Am Changing
내 마음을 모르겠어 - I Can't Read My Mind
때가 되면 - When The Time Comes
기도 - Prayer
내 마음대로 걷고 싶어 - I Want To Walk Free
마지막이 될지 모를 이 순간 - This Moment May Be Our Last
요덕이를 살려야해 - Save Yoduk
세균같은 자들 - You Are Like A Disease

[edit] Plot

"Kang Ryun-Hwa, an award winning North Korean musical performer, learns that her father was charged as a spy working for the South Korean Intelligence Agency. She is taken to Yoduk along with her family, as in North Korea, families are punished for the crime of an individual. Upon arrival, Ryun-Hwa is raped by Lee Myung-Soo, the Captain of the prison guards. Ryun-Hwa, pregnant with Myung Soo's child, struggles to forgive him and slowly tries to love him. Humbled and transformed by Ryun-Hwa's forgiving and loving heart, Myung-Soo falls in love with Ryun-Hwa, and advises Ryun-Hwa to escape with their baby, Yoduk, to South Korea. Myung-Soo is sentenced to death for trying to save Ryun-Hwa and Yoduk. Meanwhile, another inmate, a Christian North Korean rock musician, encourages and supports his fellow inmates by telling them of the hope they can have in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. He is captured when he is forced to flee and Kang's younger brother is shot by accident. He sacrifices himself by pretending he is the father of Kang's baby. Also an ambitious lieutenant of Lee, communicates with the government but is shown to lead a mutiny. When he is threatened with death, it is shown that he killed people to wash clean his career. At the end, he tries to persuade and help Kang and her baby and husband escape but is shot by Sergeant Ko. Ko is actually a spy for the government and shots dead the prisoners and Kang as she is scaling the top of the huge wall. The baby drops down the wall and is saved and Lee decides to save others who will be brought, tortured, and killed in this prison by destroying it. Using a remote detonator, he fires it and hidden machine gun nests fire at the prison guards. Finally he pulls out and uses a secret grenade to destroy the rest of the prison and the torturers--and his own life. Finally the narrator is shown to be the baby Yoduk, who tells of his parents' death but their love. Then the characters appear and sing, "God, Please Come to North Korea." This musical is based on the stories of people who experienced the horrors of North Korean prisons depicted in Yoduk, the living hell on earth."

Composer: Cha Kyung-Chan