the diving squad

[patriotic music]

REBIRTH ON THE YELLOW SEA

1961 Ministry of Information

[Russian translation]

[narrator, deep authoritative voice, though with some wavering due to quality of film]

The village of Yuho-ri.  [panoramic sweep of village, boats, harbor]  One of many innocent towns badly bombed by capitalist forces during the recent war.  [farmers using primitive hoes in field] Farming, though improved by Lysenko’s techniques, barely is adequate to support the population of three thousand.

[outside view of school, with students filing in]  Of course, the People’s Struggle continues with the new generation, through rigorous schooling, socialist analysis, along with the necessary disciplines of science, language and technical arts.  [panorama of large classroom, teacher at blackboard, students in neat rows in their school uniforms, writing at their desks]  Three hundred boys and girls attend Kim Il-sung School where they are developed in mind and body.  [in gym uniforms, doing calisthenics]

[large outdoor assembly, rows of students listening to speaker in front of North Korean flag]  However if one looks closely one sees something different about this school.  [rear panning closeup of students’ legs and feet properly crossed under their chairs, dark pants or skirts, dark socks, black shoes . . . now a girl with her legs and feet bare . . . a few seats later, another . . . pan to another row, then another . . .]

Yes, that’s right, these girls are not wearing a uniform, in fact not much at all.  [Two girls walking down stairs, wearing nothing except a loose thigh-length shift, their bare legs and feet contrasting with the fully uniformed girls next to them, apparently they are all friends, smiling and talking]  These four girls go about in this simple covering all day, and intend to do so right through the Korean winter.  They are part of the People’s Project to revive what was once the main industry in this area: pearl diving.  [a traditional print of pearl diving women]

[older male professor in empty lecture hall, speaking to camera] “Pearl diving, and not only that, diving for delicacies such as abalone and oysters, was the anchor of the coastal economy.  It was done by women because they were better able to withstand the cold water of the Yellow Sea.  Unfortunately most of the women had to be conscripted in recent wars.  Diving requires special breathing techniques which must be taught” [cut to professor pointing to drawing of lungs inside bare female torso, with protruding breasts] “so without teachers, that part of the economy disappeared.”

[narrator] [two old women in workers’ garb walking down street] There are two former pearl divers still in Yuho-ri, Binna Park and Chae-won Kim.  Unfortunately they were heavy smokers in their youth and their lungs can no longer support the stresses of diving.  [now from the rear, walking away from the camera] However they are assigned to train the girls who have qualified as the new generation of pearl divers, or as they were traditionally called, the Haenyeo.

[one of the old women speaking, then a pan of a rocky beach, with a small tent coming into view]  [narrator] Madam Kim describes what is required of a Haenyeo.  [close-up of girls’ bare toes grabbing rocks as they make their way across the shore] [old, cough-y voice] “Slippers are impractical.  Feet must be made tough.  That is why the girls never wear anything on their feet, day or night.”  [pan of the sea] “Also they must be able to withstand the cold water.  The temperature of the water here is about twelve degrees Celsius, and even colder at depths.  So to acclimate them they are to wear nothing more than the shift, even at night, with no blankets.”

[narrator] This may seem cruel but in fact girls’ bodies are very adaptable at this age and they have taken to it.  In fact sometimes they complain that when they come in from recess that the school is too hot!  [playground at recess, girls and boys throwing soccer ball around, all in winter coats, breath coming out in clouds, with the four bare-legged and barefoot girls playing amidst the rest, smiling; occasionally their shifts fly up and flashes of pubic hair are seen, no one notices]

[back to the beach, closeup of the tent, then flap opens, camera comes inside] [narrator] This is the “tenteu”, the traditional tent where Haenyeo prepare for their dives. [with the help of Ms. Kim and Ms. Park, the four girls take off their shifts, then stand naked as white cloth thongs are threaded through their crotches and around their waists; small stove in background]  The Asian mind is not offended by nudity, and there is no sense of hiding their bodies as the girls tie on their “gajug”, the only clothing for a traditional Haenyeo.  [the girls turn around as Ms. Kim and Ms. Park make sure their gajug are secure; their breasts range from almost nonexistent to medium size]  Near-nudity is advantageous in swimming and diving, and also maneuvering in tight spaces around underground formations.

[closeup of the stove] The scorching heat inside the tent is to prepare the girls for the immersion in freezing water to follow. [four girls, wearing scuba masks now, each naked except for gajug and carrying a basket and a long knife, pick their way with bare feet over the rocks toward the water, with Ms. Kim and Ms. Park watching from behind]

[heavily-clad professor in fishing boots, up to his ankles in water, brings up thermometer as nearly naked girls walk past him] “Eleven degrees Celsius.”

[the girls slowly walk into the water, up to their waists to which ropes have been tied] [narrator] And so the dive begins.