Oseam
Encyclopedia
Oseam is a 2003
South Korea
n drama
/religious
animation
directed by Sung Baek-yeop. It is based on a novel
by Korean author Jeong Chae-bong, who has described it as being a fairy tale
for adults. The title means “Five year old temple.”
Oseam follows two orphan
s, Ga-mi (감이) and her younger brother Gil-son (길손). Ga-mi is a gentle and reserved blind
girl, while Gil-son is hyperactive and often gets into mischief. The two seek refuge at a Mahayana
Buddhist temple, helping with the chores, as they cope with the loss of their mother and home several years ago due to a fire accident, which is also where Ga-mi lost her sight. Gil-son, too young to understand, still believes they will find their mother someday as Ga-mi has never told him she died in the fire. Soon later Gil-Son accompanies a monk to go meditate in the mountains and find a cure for his sister's blindness, but ends up sacrificing his life for Ga-mi's sight.
The movie is very slowly paced, often quite slice-of-life in its approach, though dotted with moments of flashback
and briefly intense scenes. A lot of emphasis is placed on the characters, particularly the orphans.
and France
, this movie is little known to English speakers. However, DVDs with English language subtitles
do exist but are only available as region 3 DVD's.
, yet "shows signs of some truly amateur filmmaking."
It has received a number of awards at film festivals around the world, such as the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. It won "Best Animated Film" at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
for 2004.
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
/religious
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
directed by Sung Baek-yeop. It is based on a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Korean author Jeong Chae-bong, who has described it as being a fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
for adults. The title means “Five year old temple.”
Plot
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
s, Ga-mi (감이) and her younger brother Gil-son (길손). Ga-mi is a gentle and reserved blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
girl, while Gil-son is hyperactive and often gets into mischief. The two seek refuge at a Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
Buddhist temple, helping with the chores, as they cope with the loss of their mother and home several years ago due to a fire accident, which is also where Ga-mi lost her sight. Gil-son, too young to understand, still believes they will find their mother someday as Ga-mi has never told him she died in the fire. Soon later Gil-Son accompanies a monk to go meditate in the mountains and find a cure for his sister's blindness, but ends up sacrificing his life for Ga-mi's sight.
The movie is very slowly paced, often quite slice-of-life in its approach, though dotted with moments of flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
and briefly intense scenes. A lot of emphasis is placed on the characters, particularly the orphans.
Releases
Due to its release limited to South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, this movie is little known to English speakers. However, DVDs with English language subtitles
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
do exist but are only available as region 3 DVD's.
Reception
Oseam is generally regarded as having impressive visuals and character drama, drawing comparisons to other animated films such as Grave of the FirefliesGrave of the Fireflies
is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film written and directed by Isao Takahata. This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work...
, yet "shows signs of some truly amateur filmmaking."
It has received a number of awards at film festivals around the world, such as the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. It won "Best Animated Film" at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became annual in 1998...
for 2004.