어멍의 바당 S1

In the wake of 해녀 being named by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, a journalist returns to her hometown (situated on a tiny island off 제주도) to make a documentary about them. Her mother and grandmother are both 해녀, which presents the opportunity for her to connect to her family and learn about the life of 해녀 in more depth. The series is available on the KBS제주 youtube channel, although it may not be available in all regions. I feel I should also point out that this is a more low-budget drama than you might be used to, as it’s made by a regional branch of KBS.

Entertainment

I primarily watched this due to my interest in 해녀, and the series includes interesting information about their history and culture. For example, 해녀 return to the water only three days after giving birth, and when the country was under Japanese colonial rule they were forced to collect seaweed used in the manufacture of gunpowder. There are several scenes of 해녀 at work, including underwater footage of their dives, which was enjoyable to watch. There’s also a scene of the group of 해녀 being interviewed, which touches upon the difficulties they face, which was interesting.

There is the story of the family running alongside the making of the documentary: the grandmother’s lack of acceptance of her daughter-in-law in the past, the father’s inability to work which leads to him making bad decisions, the mother’s struggle to support her family while hiding her illness, and the main character’s sweet relationship with her older sister. We get flashbacks into the past which helps the viewer understand the family’s history and dynamic: one such instance shows that upon learning she is pregnant, the desperate mother ingests 해녀콩 (interesting name!) as they’re known to cause miscarriages. Unfortunately, this ends up harming both mother and child: their eldest daughter is born with a developmental disability, and it may have contributed to the illness which ultimately takes the mother’s life.

While I did enjoy the family drama to an extent, it strays into melodrama too often for my liking. The acting is generally okay throughout the series, but at dramatic moments it can get very over the top. This is exacerbated by the music, which is excessively dramatic (and loud) in these scenes - it would be much more impactful with more appropriate music, or even none at all. The audio can be a problem, especially with scenes set outdoors, as you get a lot of ambient noise that can make it difficult to hear the dialogue. Unfortunately, it seems like loud music is used to try to mask the unwanted noise, which only makes it even more difficult to understand what the characters are saying. Thank goodness for subtitles!

There is also a tiny little bit of romance, with the main character being admired by both her work colleague and her childhood friend; however neither of her potential love interests really do anything about their feelings, so she remains oblivious til the end. In a way, I find this a refreshing change from the hyperfixation on romance in dramas - while a hint of romance is there, it is very much in the background, with the main character’s work and family taking precedence in the story.

While there are definitely aspects that impacted my enjoyment of the show (melodrama, occasional ropey acting, poor audio, music issues), overall I found it an interesting and engaging watch. The educational aspect is definitely the main appeal of the series: learning about 해녀 life and culture is fascinating, and of course you get lots of beautiful scenes of the ocean, diving (from above as well as underwater), and the island. The family drama allows the viewer to consider other aspects of the 해녀’s life and how their work relates to their family, touching on topics such as poverty, education, illness, and disability. If you are interested in 해녀, this is definitely a worthwhile watch.

Content warnings: attempted self-induced abortion, illness, death

Language

Most of the dialogue is in 제주어 and has accompanying hardcoded subtitles, although rather than a transcription of what’s being said, it’s a “translation” into standard Korean (there is standard Korean dialogue peppered throughout the series; this doesn’t have accompanying subtitles, but the auto-generated subs are fairly accurate). This can make it difficult if you’re interested in learning the dialect - there were parts I had to rewatch to catch what was being said, because it’s difficult to listen to the dialogue and read subtitles that don’t match at the same time. The hardcoded subs also make it difficult if you usually use things like Language Reactor or subs2srs to aid your learning.

So from a language-learning perspective, it’s a bit of a mixed bag: the subtitles are helpful in a way, but can take away the focus from the dialect, which is a problem if you’re actually interested in learning 제주어 (I assume most non-native Korean speakers would be watching this series precisely because of their interest in 사투리). The main character’s code-switching is interesting from a narrative standpoint, but may not be ideal for those purely interested in the dialect. The biggest issue for me was the subtitles not matching the dialogue; I feel like it would have been much more beneficial as a language learner to have a transcription rather than a translation. The recent drama 웰컴투 삼달리 takes this approach, and it made learning and understanding the dialect a much smoother process.

I’ve written a bit about some of the differences between 제주어 and standard Korean in my review of 웰컴투 삼달리; this series uses more dialect, including vocabulary that is completely different from standard 한국어. For example, 수웨기 (the 제주어 word for 돌고래) get several mentions throughout the series, one of which being when the 할머니 tells her granddaughter that when 수웨기 appear, it means it will rain for three days - an interesting bit of folk wisdom that demonstrates the 해녀’s connection with nature.

Conclusion

This is a great watch if you’re interested in 해녀, and I’d really recommend it; if you’re interested in 제주어 you may find it useful depending on your tolerance for mismatched audio and subtitles. If you aren’t particularly interested in either, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, as the other aspects of the show don’t really hold up on their own.