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The French word ‘vacances,’ which means ‘vacation’ in English, makes a delicate difference in Korea. Vacances originally means “taking at least one month off in summer, and relax in nature such as beaches or mountains.” But to Koreans, it is understood in a slightly different context. The difference comes from the labor environments and leisure culture; although the labor laws in Korea guarantee employees’ right to take off three to five weeks annually, in reality, one can only take off a week at the longest. Therefore, office workers in Korea tend to be obsessed about the idea of having as much fun as “aggressively” as possible in a relatively short period of vacation.

 

Recent title Three Summer Night (2015) is a stereotype in such regard. Reminiscent of an American comedy Hangover (2009), the film focuses on three friends’ misadventures in Haeundae, a popular summer resort beach in Korea. They rush to join the crowd on the beach to get their money’s worth out of the precious three days free from their daily grinds, but unexpected incidents await them.

 

Lost In The South Mission: Going Home (2003) is another Korean film that presents beaches during the “vacances” season. Two North Korean soldiers accidently cross the border to South Korea. They stumble on South Korean summer vacationers on a beach, and the sight is totally a new world to them. The film shows the image of typical Korean “vacances”: bustling and frantic.

 

 

Then what is the first Korean film with vacances scenes? HAN Hyeong-mo’s Hyperbolae Of Youth (1956) is probably the one. Hyperbolae Of Youth is regarded as Korea’s first musical film. The director loaded the film with romance and popular songs of the era. Hyperbolae Of Youth, the theme song with the same title, begins playing as the lead couple swim and enjoy boating, gradually building a romantic relationship. The lyric reads “beautiful, blooming days, youngsters at the time of their lives.” Up until that time, there were things like romance by the beach.

 

In the 1980s when the vacances culture was widespread, however, summer resorts were occupied by local gangsters extorting money from vacationers for spots on ownerless lands, street vendors tripling food prices to rip off vacationers, and tent-based temporary nightclubs playing loud disco music until late night. These are the freakish sketches of urbanites that leave their cities but still can’t find any alternative, and end up spending time the same way they did in big cities. In a sense, those are the negative underside of the freaky growth that left time and culture behind the money it made.