This is my first attempt at reading Korean literature. I just wanna know the background of movies like Parasite, Squid Game, or Sweet Home. What are the social factors that give birth to these works? What is it like to be born in South Korea? To get a better sense of what makes a Japanese individual Japanese, or a Korean Korean is reading their literature.
Cursed Bunny is a collection of short stories that hops from genre to genre: body horror, gore, gothic ghost stories, fables, and fantasy. There's an undeniable sense of aloofness that blurs the lines of what's real and what's not. It reminded me of Charlie Kaufman's movies, like all these over-the-top weird happenings going on and the characters reacting to them matter-of-factly
It's a mushroom trip, a fever dream on period. There are ghosts, heads out of toilets, never-ending periods, fox spirits, multiplying bunnies, and more. Chung grotesquely amplifies her settings and plots to highlight the things she wants to convey.
Here's my take on the ten short stories:
1. The Head (2.5/5)
This is batshit KA-RAAI-ZY. To give you an idea of how crazy this story is, check out the first few lines:
She was about to flush the toilet.
“Mother?”
She looked back. There was a head popping out of the toilet, calling for her.
“Mother?”
The woman looked at it for a moment. Then, she flushed the toilet. The head disappeared in a rush of water.
She left the bathroom.
I don't even know how to describe it. It's horrifying, disgusting, disturbing, even funny in an absurd way? The atmosphere in The Head has an unmissable quality of nonchalance and detachment. Crazy things are happening and the people in this world go like 'so what'. But as a rule of thumb, the crazier a story gets, the meaningful it becomes. I tried to come up with an explanation. All I could hear is the story whispering to me things like: 'live in the now', 'cherish your body', 'accept yourself', 'don't settle for less',...
I guess Chung is playing with the expression 'down the drain' and the things that the protagonist dump on the toilet are a metaphor for her life, her youth.
2. The Embodiment (3.5/5)
A young woman is having a problem with her period that lasts for two weeks. She goes to a doctor and the doctor prescribes a two-week course of contraceptive pills. After three weeks, the problem isn't cured, so the young woman repeats the treatment only to discover later that she is pregnant.
Is the story about the importance of family as a unit? The pressures imposed on women? A criticism about patriarchy, that a baby isn't complete and whole in such a society? That women can't be independent and raise a child? You tell me.
3. Cursed Bunny (3/5)
A grandfather retelling a story to his grandson, about his distiller friend who lost everything to a competitive company that sells cheap wine.
A story about capitalism, corruption, how flawed the legal system is, greed, and revenge.
4. The Frozen Finger (3/5)
A woman trapped in a car sinking slowly in a swamp.
This feels like an episode of The Twilight Zone. The atmosphere is phenomenal: dark and eerie and scary in the sense of not-knowing-what-the-hell-is-going-on. It's also confusing, but you'll get the gist of it. A line got stuck in my head:
"It’s not her fault that her husband had an affair … Don’t you think it’s unfair?"
Maybe, it's about the double-standards women suffer from a patriarchal society, that men do whatever they want to do and not face the same consequences as women.
5. Snare (4/5)
Written in the style of ol' school fairytales, a traveling man comes across a fox caught in a trap, liquid matter pours out from its wound. When it dries, it turns into gold.
I didn't expect this one to veer into dark, dark territories. My absolute favorite of the collection.
6. Goodbye, my Love (2.5/5)
A developer working in a company that manufactures artificial companions transfers the data of her first model to a newer one.
Although this one deals with AI's, it soaks with emotion... and blood. Just another cliche.
7. Scars (2.5/5)
Dragged by unknown figures, a young man is thrown into a cave with shackles restraining him for good. A monster comes to feed on him regularly.
I don't know how to rate this one. I simply don't know what it's about. I mean, I thought I was, but then, that ending! But I'm sensing a sense of 'departure from the departure', whatever the departure is.
8. Home Sweet Home (1/5)
A young couple buys a four-story building and moves in.
9. Ruler of the Wind and Sand (3.5/5)
A princess sets out on a quest across the desert to lift the curse of a blind prince.
This one feels different in tone and style. Reading about strong female characters is a breath of fresh air.
10. Reunion (1/5)
A Korean woman listening to a Polish old man telling her about his grandfather.
A PTSD story.
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A couple of issue I must point out:
- the prose of some of the stories felt like a script. It felt cold and detached, mainly made for the purpose of advancing the plot.
- the stories at the beginning of the book had more oomph than the rest. In the second half, the stories kinda lost their appeal as their themes became paler due to the stories' length.
- the recurrence of unnamed characters throughout the book bothered me. For example, Chung referred to her characters as the following: the young man, the youth, the female, the woman, the little girl, the grandfather's friend, the grandfather of the old man, etc.
Maybe, Chung wanted her characters to be 'culturally free' and marinate them in a sense of timelessness and objectivism, but the outcome occasionally confused me trying to figure out who was speaking to whom.
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Summary:
Cursed Bunny is the Korean Love Death + Robots but with an emphasis on women's issues. Relying on the WTF factor, each short story is a genre of its own with themes teetering between capitalism, feminism, greed, gender inequality, patriarchy, etc.
First impressions are not entirely true. Be patient with the collection. Read one story at a time, and then attack the book the next day. I promise you'll get gems out of it.
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