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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Try to Remember - Documentary"

Being an American in my late twenties I have an appreciation (well, disgust is probably the better word) for the extent to which empty pop culture references pass for communication. And yet for all that, while I've heard the name Ed Sullivan, I never knew what Ed Sullivan actually looked like until I saw "Try to Remember - Documentary". There was this huge pop culture phenomenon regarding what I can best describe as lounge music, and today we don't even have a good word to describe what that genre of music even was. What does this have to do with Korea? Well, "Try to Remember - Documentary" is the story of the Kim Sisters- who became the first Korean girl group to break into international popularity.

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Their story is not one that's frequently told mostly because the background context is too weird to explain. The Kim Sisters were a novelty act. They were a very talented novelty act, to be clear. They sang in perfectly accented English and could play an obscene number of musical instruments. Director Kim Dae-hyeon is able to establish this much with archival footage alone- who knows how much bizarre variety the Kim Sisters had during the full course of their decades long career.

But for all the milestones the Kim Sisters broke they are still inexplicably primarily a manifestation of their era. While there is definite Korean influence to the way the Kim Sisters sing, and there are plenty of more traditional Korean songs sprinkled throughout, the Kim Sisters are primarily a manifestation of fifties-era American popular music culture. This was their audience, and the Kim Sisters played up their own exoticism as best as they could while still maintaining basic appeal.

"Try to Remember - Documentary" was frequently difficult for me to process precisely because the documentary feels more like an exploration of American fifties music culture than it does a story of the Kim Sisters. The fact that the Kim Sisters were able to mold themselves into that culture so perfectly is something that's still difficult to grasp. They couldn't even speak English, and yet the Kim Sisters knew exactly how to maximize their appeal.

The Kim Sisters weren't a runaway success though- that's probably why you've never heard of them. In an industry where live performances, recordings, and television appearances were the main avenues , the Kim Sisters only ever really hit the big time in the last category. To a generation of Americans who just knew of Korea as "that place with the war", actually being able to see Koreans was, if nothing else, a novelty worthy of Ed Sullivan.

It's not really that much more different than today really- sure we can think of Korean music as something coming from another culture, but in many ways the artists have to conform themselves somehow to maintain palatability in the world market. The Kim Sisters could never really go home again, having spent so much time in America. They just integrated with a broader international music culture. And that's OK, really. Like the Kim Sisters themselves, "Try to Remember - Documentary" is a bit of a novelty act. But it is an interesting one.

This review was written by William Schwartz as a part of HanCinema's EIDF (EBS International Documentary Film Festival) coverage.

"Try to Remember - Documentary" is directed by Kim Dae-hyeon

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