Park Bo-gum's Good Boy, Yun Dongju and Philippine war against corruption

        Disclaimer: I am a self-confessed Park Bo-gum fan. I mean, he can be a believable Olympian boxer here, and also a silly pet puppy at the same time.  But that does not mean I watched the series solely on that ground. I watched his latest TV series Good Boy for another icing on top of the cake: a good story line. The central story of Good Boy is pursuing good to defeat the evil that is corruption. The former athletes, who were at one moment in time hailed heroes when they got their Olympic medals, joined the police force only to be discriminated against as "privileged," "no guts," "poster girl," "no good" and so on. And since, we are on this, let me say that the story line has some potential to be a classic but the comedy in an action K-series ruined that potential. But well, I'm not surprised. Disappointed? Yes, a bit because I love the reference to the poem of Yun Dongju. 

        The character of Park Bo-gum in the movie is named Dongju, after the beloved poet Yun Dongju, who was a beloved poet and patriot in Korean history, specifically during the period of Japanese colonization. Dongju is named as such because his mother reminded him to live his life with "no speck of shame when he gazes up towards heaven." 

 

Prologue by Yun Dong-ju

Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Darcy Brandel

Until the day I die

I long to have no speck of shame

when I gaze up toward heaven,

so I have tormented myself,

even when the wind stirs the leaves.

With a heart that sings the stars,

I will love all dying things.

And I will walk the way

that has been given to me.

Tonight, again, the wind brushes the stars.  

There are other translations but I think this is the one referred to in the movie when the whole poem was flashed on the screen in one scene towards the ending.  Another translation entitled Foreword here. 

       The k-series Good Boy is about the struggle of always choosing to do good and seeing till the end the triumph of good over corruption. The seemingly endless struggles of our Olympians-turned-policemen  and little triumph in every episode connects to our current struggle in collectively asserting our opposition against corruption. We want to win in the end and see our public fund restored, and laws passed to keep the disbursement of our public funds in the straight and right track. Not letting our money course through a bent track.

      Though I have already transposed the Prologue poem into Still A Prologue long before I started this specific collection of poems, I still shared it as part of my Poems Against Corruption series. My poem refers to our freedom of speech, "with a voice stringing stars, I will love all humming birds" and the challenge of not becoming instruments of fake news and disinformation, thus "until my last breath / I'll inhale no speck of dust / each time I look at the sky."  

      Let us use our voice to fight for a worthy cause such as the prevalent corruption in our country and to fight against disinformation and fake news used to divide and ruin us all.

     However small our voice, let us all say something against corruption, and especially, openly condemn corruption. Not only through jokes but through actions in our daily lives too. Watch Good Boy and be fired up in our fight against corruption.