[한시를 영화로 읊다]〈89〉The taste that comforts me
In Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” (2016), Kouzuki, a vicious Korean who acts like a Japanese person, enjoys Pyongyang cold noodles only at mealtimes. The poem written by Jang Yu (張維·1587∼1638) of the Joseon Dynasty while eating cold noodles is as follows.
Du Fu’s “Gwaeyeop Naengdo (槐葉冷淘)” is a famous poem about naengmyeon. It describes adding green sap from the leaves of the juniper tree to the dough to make naengmyeon. Du Fu’s “Naengdo Myeon (冷淘麵)”, which he said would make one’s worries disappear when eaten, originated from the court cuisine of the Tang Dynasty, but unlike our naengmyeon, it uses jade-colored noodles. There is also a mention of this Chinese-style naengmyeon in a poem by Yi Saek (李穡) from the Goryeo Dynasty (“Summer Days”). It is unique in that the poem above describes our naengmyeon. However, the food the poet ate is different from the buckwheat noodles in the clear broth of Pyongyang naengmyeon, which is popular today. According to the description, it is closer to the appearance of “Seomyeon (細麪)”, which is made with honey in omija water and white noodles made with mung bean starch powder. The same cold noodles described in the poem appear in the records of the food served to envoys from China (迎接都監儀軌, 1643). The poet said that the mouth-watering aroma and chilling coldness made him forget the loneliness he felt in a foreign land.
Although it is not cold noodles, in Shuichi Okita’s “The Chef of the South Pole” (2009), noodles eaten in a foreign land also relieve nostalgia. When Kaneda, the leader of the wintering camp at the South Pole, runs out of ramen to eat during the winter, he complains to Nishimura, the main character in charge of cooking, that he cannot live without ramen. There is no brine in the South Pole camp to knead the noodles, but Nishimura eventually makes some and with great difficulty completes the ramen. Kaneda is so touched by the ramen that Nishimura has prepared with care that he ignores his mission to observe the aurora in order to focus on eating.
Su Shi of the Song Dynasty wrote about eating Chinese cold noodles, saying that even if it is not a sumptuous feast, there is joy in eating it with a good friend (‘February 19th, 携白酒·鱸魚過詹使君, 食槐葉冷淘’). During the Japanese colonial period, Baek Seok wrote about Pyongyang cold noodles, “Ah, what is this welcome thing/What is this grayish, soft, plain, and bland thing?” (‘Noodles’). The poet said that the unique taste of cold noodles calms even the impatience to go home. Although the cold noodles they praised are different, they have something in common in that they have a taste that comforts and soothes worries.
Reciting a poem into a movie >
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Reciting a poem into a movie
Lim Jun-cheol, Professor of Chinese Literature, Korea University
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2024-09-05 04:15:22