[Inside Chodong] The Misfits in a Strange Land

The film “The Mathematician in the Strange Land” mainly depicts Lee Hak-seong (Choi Min-sik), a security guard at a private high school, teaching math to Han Ji-woo (Kim Dong-hwi), who struggles to adapt to school life. Han Ji-woo was admitted through a socially disadvantaged quota. Unable to keep up academically, he isolates himself.

Director Park Dong-hoon does not attribute maladjustment to the individual alone. He points out structural issues in Korean society, such as private education problems and the resulting exclusion and discrimination. He argues that individual efforts or activities to adapt can only improve with social support.

Lee Hak-seong is a defector who proved the Riemann Hypothesis, a famous unsolved problem in mathematics. Bernhard Riemann (1826?1866) went through a process similar to Han Ji-woo’s and grew into a world-renowned mathematician. He attended a Gymnasium (a German secondary education institution) in Hanover but had to stop his studies when his grandmother, who was effectively his guardian, passed away.

Riemann transferred to the Johanneum Gymnasium but could not get along with his classmates and suffered from homesickness. With the help of the principal, Schmalfuß, he was able to resume his studies. Schmalfuß noticed Riemann’s exceptional mathematical talent and opened his personal library to him. He recommended classical mathematics books featuring Euclid and Archimedes rather than textbooks filled with formulas and laws catering to industrial society’s demands.

The ancient Greeks sought to understand the essence of abstract structures formed by points and lines through geometry they created themselves, without being bound by any special formulas derived from it. Schmalfuß was pleased with Riemann’s interest in conceptual mathematics like theirs and wrote to a friend, “Riemann’s mathematical level makes even the most outstanding teachers look insignificant.”

The Mathematician in the Strange Land, which closely mirrors Riemann’s growth process, also contains another story: the adaptation and healing of North Korean defectors. Lee Hak-seong’s son, Lee Tae-yeon (Tang Jun-sang), struggles with school life because he is a defector. After fighting with friends, he rebels against his father and attempts to return to North Korea.

“Our kids get beaten up by South Korean kids, and you just watch? (...) A better world? Someone who studied all their life comes here and twists chicken necks, digs at construction sites, and suddenly life feels worth living?”

According to a study published in the Journal of Korean Political Science titled “Support Policies and Adaptation Status of North Korean Defectors,” the success rate of social settlement for defectors is below 15%. Their suicide rate is about 1.6 times higher than that of the general population. Cases of attempting to return to North Korea or migrate to a third country also frequently occur.

The biggest obstacle to adaptation is often cited as poor communication with Korean residents due to differences in mindset and cultural lifestyle habits. Economic problems rank fifth, showing a significant difference from common assumptions.

Cultural adaptation does not simply mean understanding unfamiliar cultures, lifestyles, or languages. It includes reaching a state of integration where one feels self-efficacy. If an individual is marginalized, they cannot reveal their identity or form supportive networks. Efforts to accept defectors’ adaptation as our own issue are necessary.

This is not a one-sided sacrifice where one party bears costs or losses for another. It should be seen as a joint investment by members for the future. This is also why Lee Hak-seong teaches mathematics as a discipline rather than focusing solely on scores and grades. “Finding the answer is important, but knowing what the question is matters more. Because from a wrong question, a correct answer cannot come.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.