hankyoreh

On Oct. 31, 2022, staff with the National Forensic Service and police carry out a field inspection of the site of the Itaewon crowd crush that occurred days earlier. (Yonhap)

Ahead of the first anniversary of the Itaewon crowd crush tragedy, which claimed 159 lives in the space of one night, a documentary has been released overseas that explores how and why the disaster occurred. However, the documentary is not available for viewing in South Korea.

On Tuesday, Paramount released a two-part documentary titled “Crush” on its streaming service, Paramount+, that delves into the tragedy that occurred in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood on Oct. 29, 2022.

The documentary is based on 1,500 hours of footage from various sources: cell phones, closed-circuit surveillance cameras, and body cameras. It reenacts recordings of police calls made at the time and points out the systemic problems with the government’s response.

Promotional poster for the Paramount+ documentary “Crush” about the deadly crowd crush that took place in Itaewon on Oct. 29, 2022.

However, the documentary is not available to be streamed in Korea, where the official trailer video posted on the official Paramount+ website and YouTube account only brings up an error screen when you press the play button.

Unlike Netflix and Disney+, Paramount+ has not launched its own platform in South Korea, but provides its content via a branded channel on an already existing OTT platform, Tving. There has been no official statement from Tving on the availability of the documentary.

The documentary recreates the tragedy that struck in the heart of Seoul through various footage that captured the tense scene. In the official trailer, you can hear the desperate voice of a rescue worker on the scene saying, “There are too many people, so we have to give up on those who can't be saved and save those who can,” as well as screams of “Help!” coming thick and fast.

The documentary includes various interviews, such as those of an American student who went to Itaewon with a friend but came out alone, a South Korean illustrator who suffered paralysis after being trapped in the crowd, and a US soldier who pulled unconscious people out of the crowd.

Attempting to watch the “Crush” trailer on the Paramount+ website results in a 404 error.

The filmmakers look to politics to explain the tragedy. One of the executive producers, Jeff Zimbalist, told the Guardian in an interview that Korea “is a culture, a society, a government that is extremely well equipped and experienced at handling large crowds.”

“Then if you look at the exceptions, the Sewol ferry disaster of 2014 and this instance on 29 October last year in Itaewon, you have to ask, why not now?” the filmmaker asks. “Why were these systems put into place successfully in other instances but not in these two? The obvious consistent factor between these two mass tragedies is that the majority of the attendees and the victims were of a younger generation.”

By Lee Ji-hye, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]