By Mark Peterson
I've been struck by how the age ratings of the movie "Parasite" differ slightly in Korea and in the U.S. I thought I'd take a minute to look at how the ratings in each country are different, and what this might mean.
The first question for many people when considering whether to watch a movie is its age rating. The rating in the U.S. for "Parasite" is "R," meaning age 17 and above, but the rating in Korea is "15" ― age 15 and above.
Some of my Korean friends have talked about the differences in how Americans and Koreans see the film ― particularly in how each culture views its potentially offensive or "mature" material.
The basic definition of material that could be offensive is material that is sexual or violent in nature, or that contains nudity or violent language.
The most interesting differences between the U.S. and Korea, in the interpretation of these standards, is probably related to language. In the case of "Parasite," both cultures may perhaps agree on issues relating to sex, nudity, and violence. But I think the greatest difference in registering objectionable content was probably language.
Linguists have, in fact, conducted serious studies into "swearing" or "cursing," and comedians have made money pointing out the humor of the American standard ― see, George Carlin's famous, "Seven Bad Words You Can't Say on TV." The point I get from this, compared to Korean "bad words" is that the American style of swearing is very limited ― seven words. Korean swearing is unlimited and creative. The American seven words, are: (sorry, folks, I can't write them here).
When I was working in Korea, one time our office staff discussed the different styles of swearing, and I learned that Korean swearing contains a lot of variety. In English, you can call someone a SOB ― in effect questioning their parentage. In Korea, you have "SOB," "offspring of a dog," but you can also say offspring of pig, horse, insect, rat, and all kinds of things. It's creative swearing.
The biggest offender, in that it is least acceptable in polite company yet is heard most "on the street" is the so-called "F-word." I don't have data on this, but it seems that the threshold for using the equivalent word in Korea is lower.
I think this was the main reason for the "R" rating in the U.S., and the "15" rating in Korea. One of the standards in the American system is the number of offensive words in the movie ― basically, the number of times one of the "seven bad words" is used.
One of the evaluations available on American movies (or Korean movies with English subtitles) actually informs the reader how many times a bad word is used. It's almost like "uh, once or twice, I can live with; but not 10 or 20? ― I don't want to hear that." "Parasite" used the F-word how many times?
Twenty-two. If you thought, after watching the movie, "hmm, yeah, there were two or three usages of the F-word" maybe someone is used to hearing the word, and it doesn't "register." I confess, I was surprised at the fact that it was used 22 times.
This was, perhaps, one of the key reasons for the R rating. The violence was also, arguably, gory enough for an R rating in America, but clearly not in Korea. The one sex scene ― without nudity ― leaves room for doubt as to whether it would get an R rating. I think, if that were the only questionable scene, it might have been PG-13.
One school I know ― where parents don't want movies with offensive content shown ― had a problem showing a Korean movie where the English subtitles had the F-word, but the Korean original did not. The Korean dialogue might say, for example, "Get out of here," and the English translation used the F-word.
In total, there were four instances where the subtitles were translated as the F-word in English, which seems stronger than the original Korean word. This goes against my earlier observation that Korean movies use the F-word without as much offense ― here, the American subtitles opted for the "easy" use of a much more offensive word.
It's an endless debate ― how much coarseness is one willing to put up with? And it's a question in literature as well.
I frankly can't remember all 22 uses of the offending word in Korean in "Parasite." I know at times, it was the actual Korean F-word, but I feel that some words may have gotten lost in translation. I'm not going to go back and watch the movie to analyze the 22 F-words ― I'll leave that to my linguistics friends.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
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The first question for many people when considering whether to watch a movie is its age rating. The rating in the U.S. for "Parasite" is "R," meaning age 17 and above, but the rating in Korea is "15" ― age 15 and above.
Some of my Korean friends have talked about the differences in how Americans and Koreans see the film ― particularly in how each culture views its potentially offensive or "mature" material.
The basic definition of material that could be offensive is material that is sexual or violent in nature, or that contains nudity or violent language.
The most interesting differences between the U.S. and Korea, in the interpretation of these standards, is probably related to language. In the case of "Parasite," both cultures may perhaps agree on issues relating to sex, nudity, and violence. But I think the greatest difference in registering objectionable content was probably language.
Linguists have, in fact, conducted serious studies into "swearing" or "cursing," and comedians have made money pointing out the humor of the American standard ― see, George Carlin's famous, "Seven Bad Words You Can't Say on TV." The point I get from this, compared to Korean "bad words" is that the American style of swearing is very limited ― seven words. Korean swearing is unlimited and creative. The American seven words, are: (sorry, folks, I can't write them here).
When I was working in Korea, one time our office staff discussed the different styles of swearing, and I learned that Korean swearing contains a lot of variety. In English, you can call someone a SOB ― in effect questioning their parentage. In Korea, you have "SOB," "offspring of a dog," but you can also say offspring of pig, horse, insect, rat, and all kinds of things. It's creative swearing.
The biggest offender, in that it is least acceptable in polite company yet is heard most "on the street" is the so-called "F-word." I don't have data on this, but it seems that the threshold for using the equivalent word in Korea is lower.
I think this was the main reason for the "R" rating in the U.S., and the "15" rating in Korea. One of the standards in the American system is the number of offensive words in the movie ― basically, the number of times one of the "seven bad words" is used.
One of the evaluations available on American movies (or Korean movies with English subtitles) actually informs the reader how many times a bad word is used. It's almost like "uh, once or twice, I can live with; but not 10 or 20? ― I don't want to hear that." "Parasite" used the F-word how many times?
Twenty-two. If you thought, after watching the movie, "hmm, yeah, there were two or three usages of the F-word" maybe someone is used to hearing the word, and it doesn't "register." I confess, I was surprised at the fact that it was used 22 times.
This was, perhaps, one of the key reasons for the R rating. The violence was also, arguably, gory enough for an R rating in America, but clearly not in Korea. The one sex scene ― without nudity ― leaves room for doubt as to whether it would get an R rating. I think, if that were the only questionable scene, it might have been PG-13.
One school I know ― where parents don't want movies with offensive content shown ― had a problem showing a Korean movie where the English subtitles had the F-word, but the Korean original did not. The Korean dialogue might say, for example, "Get out of here," and the English translation used the F-word.
In total, there were four instances where the subtitles were translated as the F-word in English, which seems stronger than the original Korean word. This goes against my earlier observation that Korean movies use the F-word without as much offense ― here, the American subtitles opted for the "easy" use of a much more offensive word.
It's an endless debate ― how much coarseness is one willing to put up with? And it's a question in literature as well.
I frankly can't remember all 22 uses of the offending word in Korean in "Parasite." I know at times, it was the actual Korean F-word, but I feel that some words may have gotten lost in translation. I'm not going to go back and watch the movie to analyze the 22 F-words ― I'll leave that to my linguistics friends.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
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