Status Updates From Córki smoka

He tells her it will be expensive when the channels open back up.he calls her years later and he has found her and can set up a meeting but the cost has doubled, her dad remortgages the house to pay for it. Anna goes to Korea again and spends time with her grandmother sharing her life in America, and then takes her to see her sister. It’s beautiful when the two old woman meet after 60 years apart 🥲🥲

They search their luggage and then for the comb but find nothing.
Once back in the us Anna tells her dad everything. Her grandmothers story has inspired her to handle her life after her adopted mother’s death and she applies for law school.
The comb arrives in a pot from Korea via fed ex and anna puts it in a safe deposit box.
She speaks to a man to look for soo-he in North Korea.

Soo-bo dies in labour, ja-hee tells the nurse to put her up for adoption as she has nothing she can give her.

In the present Anna realises she is about to miss her plane. Her grandmother asked her two things: listen to her story and she would like to find her sister. Anna takes the comb, goes to a shop, buys 2 pots, goes to the hotel to get her dad and goes to the airport. The men are waiting at the airport.

She asked the guide what 5 toes meant and she said it would be royalty. Her comb is royal. As it’s been passed within the family, they must be royal. She believes that the comb has kept her safe for a reason to keep the bloodline on and in giving the comb to soo-bo believes it will protect her in this pregnancy to continue the bloodline. Soo-bo agrees to keep the baby.

The story of the comb finally comes out, when she was a child her mother always told her it was passed down mother to daughter in the family. In the museum there is a sword with the dragon on but it has 4 toes not 5. The sword is thought to be the only remaining 2 headed dragon symbol. She asked a museum guide about the toes and more toes meant more important/ the sword belonged to a merchant so 4 toes.

She is removed from the uni campus and told not to return. She’s told to stop bringing her story up because they know her daughter’s father was a communist and they can make life hard for her, so to protect soo-bo she stops.
10 years later, soo-bo is pregnant and alone. Her doctors tell her that her heart is weak and not to keep the baby. Her mom begs to her to keep the baby by taking her to a museum.

The woman just shakes her head, she has a husband and doesn’t want the shame brought on her new life.

😣 hate how everyone is just expected to move on with their life’s after what happened and it’s glossed over because Japan are allies now and also the perpetrators are having normal lives and if the woman bring up what happened to them they are the ones who are held responsible?! The fuck!!

Saying that she wants Japan to be held accountable and reparations for the victims. The uni staff tell her she can’t be there and they will call the police. A student questions why they aren’t being told it. A woman gives her money and she realises she was a comfort woman too, she tells her she was sold to the Philippines and raped. She said all the victims should stand together and get justice

The next day they get the contract back and it’s favourable and her translating talents are heralded. However the next day no one speaks to her and her boss fires her and tells her she must leave immediately. Clearly her fiancée has been telling about her past (what a dick😤)
Fast forward 8 years and she is on a uni campus handing out leaflets she printed telling people WHAT REALLY HAPPENED DURING THE WAR

She speaks to a black market man about finding her sister in the north and getting a letter to her, he says it will cost 1K American. She doesn’t have that kind of money. She is at dinner with her fiance planning the wedding and she decides to tell him the truth about her past, if he really loves her he will accept it. He doesn’t, he tells her she should’ve died with honour and now she’s embarrassed him 🙄

She asks the census people if they have record of her sister surviving and originally when she tells what happened to her and how she came to think her sister was dead he tells her he will not make a record of it because Japan are allies now so they don’t want to bring up bad things they did!! 🙄🫠 eventually he checks the records and finds a letter from her sister, she is alive and in the north.

NORTH Korea. That is under communist rule and cut off from the South with little to no communication between families either side of the boarders. She is stunned and has no idea if he’s playing with her, or telling the truth. She vows to find out. It’s been 20 years since she saw her sister.

He says no one needs to know what happened in dongfeng, he said he will give the company favourable rates if she stays quiet. He was fulfilling his duty to Japan as was she. She asks why the other girls were killed and he denys it. Then he sends his regards to her sister who she reminds him was also killed, he said that the sick were transferred to pushun where she was operated on, recovered & returned to Korea.

Who ran her camp as a comfort woman and favoured and impregnated her sister. He was violent. He doesn’t look at her the whole meeting and she hopes to stay under the radar until the end, when her boss calls her over by name, she sees a flash of recognition as he looks at her. He comes back to the office when she is alone under the guise of flirting with her and calls her by her Japanese name.

South Korea has moved on in 10 years and the Japanese are now there on business and all sorts. Ja-hee hates working with them; it feels like all is forgiven. They have an important contract meeting and the clients are Japanese, her boss tells her they must keep them happy so they get a favourable rate. The company senior vice president has come to the meeting - it’s the kempei (Japanese military police officer)

Must be clean! She agrees. 10 years pass. She uses a bribe to get soo-bo in to school as not having a father means they don’t have a family name. She is seeing a man high up in the company with a well respected family, he asks her to marry him and she says yes. Thinking her life will finally be stable and soo-bo will be able to go to uni (as she knows she won’t be able to bribe the uni)

She walks past the receptionist and upstairs to mr park, luckily mr hans is there and he asks who she is and she explains she took a translation test several weeks ago and is yet to hear the results, he reads her test and hires her. Mr park said the receptionist said she wasn’t interested anymore. Ja-hee tells mr hans she knew the colonel and he said he won’t ask how, having a past is okay but now reputation

She repeatedly goes back to the construction company only to always be told they don’t have her results. It’s been several weeks and her money is running out and she’s desperate. She considers selling the comb, she speaks with a pawn shop about it and the man is very interested and tells her if she has such a thing he would give her a lot of money, she takes the comb and goes back to the construction office

Ja-hee goes to a construction company and asks to see mr Han, she is told he is not around but mr park tests her translation skills. While she being tested the receptionist looks after soo-bo, when ja-hee picks her back up she has drawn their old home the ‘cat club’ the receptionist is cold and refuses to look at her. Ja-hee secures a place in a boarding house. And continues to look for work with no luck.

He asks if they could’ve fallen in love, she dances with him one last time. She’s going to miss their talks about the world and politics like she used to with Jin-mo. She goes back to the bar and tells Alan she’s leaving he tries to persuade her not to offering more wages / a cut of the profits, but she won’t have it and she tells the young girl to go home too and gives her money to get there.

Or the Americans being here and using them as sex slaves under the guise of earning wages for it, the whole system is wrong either way you look at it. His family are big in construction in America and very rich. He is shipped out to become a general and in a final move before he goes clears her debts with Alan, gives her a lot of money and some contacts for construction company’s in Seoul who need a translator

Alan wants her to sleep with him because he’s rich and she will make lots of money for him as she’s in demand but she refuses. She looks after a young girl who was left there by her American boyfriend and became a juicy girl and keeps the bar tidy, the bar has become one of the most popular bars for the soldiers to drink in. The colonel and her have a discussion about the difference between the japs raping them

She ends up at camp Humphrey’s military base working in one of the bar/brothels but she refuses to become a juicy girl, she just works the bar. The owner Alan fronts them their rent but keeps the situation so they will never make enough to pay him back. She keeps the place clean, and speaking English makes her a bar favourite. The colonel takes a shine to her and asks her to join him for many conversations

Also she was blacklisted for having previously worked for the north as SK was angry and looking for people to blame for the war. Who better than the defectors from the north. So she was unable to get work, was in danger and had to disappear for a while.

They have to duck out of truck and then get to a fence but they are told to stay on the path. The family she is travelling with go off path and the father is killed by a landmine the wife gives the child to ja-hee and is caught. Ja-hee makes it to South Korea with the boy and gives him to his uncle. In SK she struggles to find work as she had her baby girl Soo-bo and she was premature and sick.