Introducing Touching Korean Movies #2

An Indelible Memory, <Hope>

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According to present situation of sexual violence, you can see increasing sexual abuse cases that have happened in Korea. And it isn't difficult to encounter these cases with a number of media including movies. We know very well that one of the deplorable incidents is the ‘Na young Case’, which was made into a movie, <Hope> in 2013.

The Nayoung Case is an incident that took place in December 2008, in which an eight-year-old girl (alias Na-young) was on her way to school and kidnapped by 57-year-old Cho Doo-soon, who was drunk at the time. Cho raped and beat her in a public squat toilet. Na-young had injures to her internal organs, and was taken to a hospital. Cho was arrested and eventually sentenced to twelve years in prison. The case sparked off outrages and protests of Na-young's parents and many other citizens over the country.

In the film <Hope>, adults try variety of psychological treatments for So-Won, the girl who was sexually assaulted and had both mental and physical shock. Considering that he was intoxicated from alcohol at the moment, the sentence was reduced and it consequentially sent the culprit of the case to jail for only 12 years.

Currently, Korea is trying to give a greater punishment to prevent this kind of case that should never happen from now on.