SUMMARY: A brief look at the life of a poet who became a political activist participating in Korea’s fight for independence from the Japanese.
“The Vertex” (aka “The Peak”) is based on the true story of Lee Won-Rok (1904 – 1944), a poet from Joseon who used the pen name Lee Yook-Sa (or Yi Yuk Sa). The Japanese colonial period in Joseon (now North and South Korea) lasted 35 years (1910 – 1945).
There is no detailed biography left behind however, the scriptwriters presented a beautiful and sad story of a man who dreamed of a country free from foreign oppression. He had a gift for expressing his heart through poetry and decided to use his poems as a “voice” for the patriotic freedom fighters who were actively resisting Japanese colonial rule.
In “The Vertex” we meet Lee Won-Rok as a young child in Andong, Korea, and his grandfather told him he had a pure heart. He also told him that people like him will experience pain because the world is not pure. At a young age, Lee Won-Rok started writing poetry and continued writing into adulthood. As an adult, he lived with his parents and only wanted to study. His parents insisted that he get married and he accepted the woman they chose for him.
After witnessing the mistreatment and discrimination of people in Joseon, he came home and told his wife, An Il-Yang, he was going to Japan. Japan was supposedly civilized and lived by higher standards. That’s why the people of Joseon were not allowed to maintain their culture. In particular, they were forbidden to write or speak their own language. Many people believed that being Japanese was better than being from Joseon. Was that true? He said he needed to see it for himself.
When he returned home to his wife, he was depressed. What he saw and experienced in Japan was too much for his pure heart to bear. He decided to use the pen name Lee Yook-Sa (or Yi Yuk-Sa) to publish poems. He intentionally wrote in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, which had been banned by the Japanese government, and became an activist involving himself in the Korean independence movement.
The movie does not depict his death. In the end, he was arrested and imprisoned by Japanese authorities and died in a Japanese prison in Beijing, China. (NOTE: The Japanese also occupied China beginning in 1931 and this occupation lasted until the end of World War II in 1945.)
It was alleged that he was subjected to live experimentation, a common practice in Japanese prisons. Another report said saline solution was injected into his bloodstream in a prison hospital, and that killed him. Yi Yuk-Sa’s death showed the brutality of Japanese oppression and repression faced by Korean freedom fighters. But his poems survived and to this day the symbolize the noble warrior spirit of the independence fighters and are included in school textbooks in South Korea.
My personal rating is 9 out of 10 stars.
This film was streamed in 2 episodes on KOCOWA+ and it reminds me of “The Book of Fish”. By that I mean, it’s one of those Korean dramas that gets buried or swept under the rug. If my understanding is correct, this poet is a hero and worthy of honor. Yet this film never appeared on any of the published lists I’ve seen.
Some of the lists had K-dramas that dated back to the 1990s. It was very difficult to find information but it seems there were at least three (3) poets during the Japanese colonial occupation who used their poetry as “voices for independence”.
Other K-Drama Reviews PopGeeks set during the Japanese colonial era:
10 Best Historical K-Dramas Set During The Japanese Occupation | The Collider
mayries05. “[Trailer] The Peak (절정) – Korean Drama 2011.” YouTube, 12 Aug. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tySE3_PyM0w.
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