SIFA 2023: Cuckoo

What can a bunch of talkative rice cookers tell us about the past twenty years of Korean history?

One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of isolation. ‘Golibmuwon’ (고립무원) is an untranslatable Korean word expressing the feeling of helpless isolation that characterises the lives of many young people in Korea today.

At turns sombre and amusing, Cuckoo is Jaha Koo’s bittersweet reflection on the personal and social impact of economic crises that South Korea has weathered in recent decades.

Cuckoo is part of Jaha Koo’s Hamartia Trilogy. SIFA 2023 presents two works from this trilogy: Lolling and Rolling and Cuckoo. Jaha Koo intertwines personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts, exploring the clash of Eastern and Western culture: from the cutting of tongue belts to succeed in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference in global macroeconomics.