Maybe The Childe (2023) wasn’t meant to dig deeper into the issue of the Kopino people. It is not a documentary. It is an action-filled commercial, designed and written for the market from tip-to-toe. But it introduced the topic to the global audience.
This is where Korean films are different from other mainstreams. For Hollywood and Bollywood, film is a moneymaking industry—without any message. But when Koreans make mainstream films, they usually keep a message inside.
Film is meant to connect with the audience. Many artists still highly revere it as an art form. But many simply do not care to reach everyday people. The Korean industry understands this. They know the audience wants entertainment first, and very few can sit through a few hours of documentary.
Yes, better Korean films on Kopino people are possible. Other Korean films made on Kopinos include Tropical Manila (2008), My Little Hero (2013), and Wandeugi (2011). But The Childe is the first blockbuster on the subject.
Initially, it was titled “Sad Tropic.” And it has let the world know that Kopino people exist.
Who Are the Kopino People?
In a nutshell, Kopinos are people with a Korean father and a Filipino mother. Many of them do not have a clue about who their father is. The word is a portmanteau of Korean and Pinoy—a Filipino.
Born as a result of the sexpat adventures of Korean men who come to the Philippines as tourists, they usually live in hard, batshit poverty. The Korean fathers abandon them in most cases. Their Filipino mothers raise them. The media sometimes featured their cases. But arguably, it didn’t get enough limelight.
There have been incidents of leaking the identity of these fathers on blogs online, and lately, it has also sparked a “finding father” campaign, led by activist Koo Bon-Chang, whose name always turns up in all top search results for the keyword “Kopino.”
An estimated 30,000 Kopino children live in the Philippines. They are called “half-foreigners” in both countries.
A Half-Written Protagonist
The Kopino of the film is Marco Han, a character who keeps appearing in bruises which only keeps getting worse without any chance of healing.
Kang Tae-joo, a newcomer to the industry, played the character. It is his debut film. For most of the film, he doesn’t speak at all. It almost seems like the scriptwriter decided not to give him much dialogue.
Marco is the bargaining chip between two warring factions fighting for inheritance of a dying chaebol and his empire. If he dies, all the fortune goes to the daughter. Her half-brother wants it all for himself. To keep him alive, he has to bring Marco to Korea for a heart transplant.
Marco plays the role of a silent lamb about to be slaughtered. It almost seems he was born for organ harvesting. His Filipino mother is sick as well and needs surgery herself. And he works in the underworld to keep her alive.
At some point, I started wishing his character had more to his story and a few more words to speak. Was he ever bullied at school? How was it growing up without a father? The film doesn’t show any of that. It does offer a glimpse into an organization dedicated to Kopino children. But it is too short.
Altogether, it made Marco Han an incomplete character. He primarily speaks English and often switches to Korean, without a single word in Tagalog. For the entire screen time, he is either being chased or getting tricked into one death trap after another and surviving.
If the film has one flaw, it is this. The scriptwriter chose to write Marco Han insufficiently. He remains a half-written protagonist, though he delivers his role convincingly. Otherwise, the film delivers what it promises—all the suspense, action, and thriller.
The Action Hero
Kim Seon-ho plays the other protagonist without a name. His character is listed as “Nobleman” or Gwigongja (귀공자) in all the official databases. It is the film’s Korean title, too.
Normally, Korean films do not always touch upon subjects that can bring shame to their nation. The Childe did. Through his character, the scriptwriter gives a vivid description of racism in Korea.
On the flight to Korea from the Philippines, he tells Marco that when he is in Korea, he should always speak English and use the American accent. He says Koreans will love it and “lick his balls.”
Other than that, his screentime consists of being an action superhero who fights off a hundred enemies alone and kills all of them. The film opens with him butchering a number of men brutally. He is shown as a cold-blooded killer draped in “designer goods.” He is also the only character who spoke a few words in Tagalog.
There’s more to his story, but I will leave that for the audience—without ruining the surprise.
A Hopeful Start
Korean films have arguably been a source of learning the history of the other victims of World War II. In South Korea itself, however, it has often merely boosted nationalistic jingoism in recent times.
Very few Korean films are open about the shameful chapters of their own histories. Korean soldiers committed war crimes in Vietnam once. It came to the film screen only twice, in White Badge (1992) and R-Point (2004).
Though The Childe isn’t the very first Korean film on Kopinos, it is the first blockbuster. Park Hoon-jung, known for New World (2013) and The Witch (he made the hit sequel to the first film in 2022), served as its director.
The Childe is a hopeful start for films like this that aren’t afraid to discuss the darker chapters of South Korea. Park made it as a neo-noir action thriller that became the second highest-grossing film in Indonesia and won its actors several awards for best actor. And it has also opened the door for the Korean industry to explore similar stories while acknowledging that Koreans had their own share in inflicting brutality on the world’s people.
And we’d surely wait for more of this.
