Korea Deconstructed David Tizzard

Park Chan-wook is a master of movie making. And he's seemingly getting better with age. Leaving the sex and violence of previous hits such as Oldboy, JSA, and The Handmaiden behind him, Decision to Leave / 헤어질 결심 (2022) explores the relationship between a Korean man and a Chinese woman, completely incompatible, seemingly madly in love, and destined to destroy each other. These two roles are played expertly by Tang Wei and Park Hae-il.
"The moment you said you loved me, your love ended. And the moment your love ended, my love began.”
The movie is a piece of art: a poem. It encourages you to watch it multiple times, with each viewing providing greater insight into the layers constructed: through sound, language, visuals, and mis-en-scene.
I sat down with two Korean women, Jimin and Yunsuh, and a Chinese woman, Jessie, to explore this movie from a variety of perspectives: art, beauty, gender, love, and morality. Each of them provided views and insights I would never have found myself. And yet, it still feels like there is so much that went unsaid.
 
Discussion Outline 
0:00 First Impressions
13:40 Park Chan-wook and Gender
18:46 Park Chan-wook’s Style
25:45 Is Decision to Leave Romantic?
34:58 Asian Vibes: The Mountains and the Sea
43:06 Tang Wei
1:08:25 Poetry, Yeokbek, and McGuffins
1:19:30 The Ending of the Movie 
1:38:50 Haejoon: The Male Lead
1:59:52 Park Chan Wook and the Oscars
2:08:00 A movie, a Book, a Song
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard 
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
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▶ Music: Rail Gun by Disorientalz

Bernardo Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and another Ph.D. in computer engineering. As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for CERN and Philips Research Laboratories. Bernardo's 11th book, coming in 2024, is 'Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century's only plausible metaphysics.'
This is me listening to Bernardo and asking him questions so as to better understand the world as mind. To do this, we explored what it means to be human. Bernardo explained the work of Nietzsche, Frankl, Schopenhauer, and Jung to me as well as how a bourgeoise has sought to wrest control of our culture away from the church and ultimately leave us stranded, meaningless, and seeking solutions elsewhere.
Bernardo taught me that we should not seek answers or solutions. These will never appear to us and we simply don't have the capability to understand what is going on. Instead, like the apple blossom in his garden, we should just be. We should listen to the noumena, the will inside us. We can describe it as duty, as calling, as fate, or as many other things. But ultimately, we are a violin and we should allow ourselves to be played by nature rather than seeking to force ourselves on the world. We should seek service instead of personal happiness. These ideas will stay with me for a while.
At the end, I asked him to recommend a movie, a book, and a song. The movie he suggested was The Double Life of Véronique (1991) by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. The song was Song to the Siren by Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. The book was Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation.
Bernardo's Website: https://www.bernardokastrup.com/
The Essentia Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/@UCHKZdDf09_8vVHm102fu0sg
Bernardo's upcoming book: https://www.amazon.com/Analytic-Idealism-Nutshell-straightforward-metaphysics/dp/1803416696
 
Discussion Outline: 
0:00 The importance of service
7:40 The bourgeoisie capture of culture
12:33 Immanent meaning
25:35 Spiritual but not religious
31:00 Carl Jung and our two stages of life
41:58 Introspection as the royal path to knowledge
48:15 Schopenhauer and the will inside us
54:52 Synchronicity 1:05:03 Religion and science
1:16:58 The world as mind
1:26:10 A book, a movie, and a song
1:31:10 The apple blossom
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Rail Gun by Disorientalz

William S. Gilbert is doing PhD research on Korean Taoism's syncretic qualities at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. He completed his Master's in Korean Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University in 2024 and was a graduate research assistant for the Korean Academic Expansion Project.
This is a conversation about Taoism, "Eastern" religions and ways of thought, life, death, god, and the poetry of the Korean scholar Yi Gyu-bo (李奎報).
 
Discussion Outline 
0:00 What is Taoism (도교)?
9:10 What is the Yin Yang (음양)?
22:09 What is Wu-wei (무의)?
32:50 Zen Buddhism (선불교) and Taoism
43:05 The Tao Te Ching (도덕경)
53:20 The Zhuangzi (정자)
1:03:11 Is there such thing as Asian thought?
1:15:52 Does Taoism feature in modern life?
1:29:40 Yi Gyu-bo (이규보)’s poem “In Sickness”
1:45:14 The “Creator” in Taoist thought
2:08:40 Closing thoughts
 
Will's Website: https://sites.google.com/view/williamgilbert/home
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Savage Penguin by Radical Gary (David Tizzard)

Cho Ye-won and Jeon Yunseo are students at Seoul Women's University while Park Kyung-hoon (Charlie) studies at Hanyang University. They discuss the best and worst things about living in Seoul, from the safety, the beauty standards, the gender differences, the economic challenges, and much more. They also talk about why some young Koreans want to move abroad.
 
Discussion Outline 
0:00 Do Young People Talk about 탈조선? 
3:30 What are Traditional Korean Values?
8:45 What Do Koreans Want from Living Abroad?
19:30 The Best Things About Living in Seoul
27:15 Does Gender Affect Your Life in Korea?
34:45 The Social Gaze (남의 시선) in Korea
37:00 How Do You Feel About Foreigners Coming to Korea?
47:00 Appearance and Personal Colour Tests
55:15 Is Comparison Culture Real?
1:05:55 The Economic Reality of Seoul
1:15:40 Using Korean Titles
1:20:45 The Rise of 평어
1:27:20 Message to People Leaving Korea
1:43:36 Being Gay in Korea
1:48:05 Yewon's Last Message
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard 
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard 
▶ Find us on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/koreadeconstructed 
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: The Reoccurring Peace Machine by Radical Gary (David Tizzard)

Jeanie Chang is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Jeanie is also the Founder and CEO of Noona’s Noonchi, LLC, a global company offering social media platforms providing deep dives into K-Content from a mental health perspective. In Korea to promote her tours and her latest book (How K-Dramas Can Transform Your Life), we sat down with her to discuss life, culture, society, identity, and, of course, K-Dramas.
Jeanie's Website: https://noonasnoonchi.com/
Her book: https://www.amazon.com/K-Dramas-Mental-Health-Jeanie-Chang/dp/1394210477
 
Discussion Outline 
0:00 Life in Seoul
5:39 Watching K-Dramas
33:23 Self-Care and Dramas
38:55 Mental Health and Gender
43:10 Antifragility
47:47 Generational Change in Korea
53:06 The Korean American Identity
1:16:40 Military Service and BTS
1:25:33 My Mister (나의 아지씨)
1:37:22 Jeong and Nunchi
1:49:20 Collective Society and Titles
2:01:55 Emotions in Korean Society
2:11:39 Shame and Redemption
2:20:47 K-Pop Idols and Karina's Apology
2:28:41 Is Hallyu's Popularity Declining?
2:47:37 Dr. Slump
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/
▶ Music: Tokyo Cafe by Tvari

John DiMoia is Associate Professor of Korean History at Seoul National University, South Korea. He is the author of Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-Building in South Korea since 1945 (2013)
 
Discussion Outline
0:00 What is History?
7:20 Korean Medicine
30:30 Plastic Surgery
39:30 Korea and the Pandemic
57:05 Korean Health
1:00:10 The Joseon Dynasty
1:27:30 Japanese Colonization
1:50:00 The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
2:09:33 The Division of Korea
2:26:55 Seoul National University
2:36:07 The Future of Korea
 
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Reconstructing-Bodies-Biomedicine-Nation-Building-Weatherhead/dp/0804784116
 
Korea Deconstructed by David Tizzard
▶ Get in touch: datizzard@swu.ac.kr
▶ Yunseo Jeon: https://www.instagram.com/y_jeon_s/
▶ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62047873
▶ Watch us on Youtube: /davidtizzard
▶ Listen on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/kr/podcast/korea-deconstructed/id1587269128
▶Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zdXkG0aAAHnDwOvd0jXEE
▶ Listen on podcasts: https://koreadeconstructed.libsyn.com/