hankyoreh

BTS fan Angela Pulvirenti meets with family members of Sewol victims at Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, in September 2019. (provided by Pulvirenti)

The song begins with the line, “I miss you,” with the camera looking out at the ocean. Jimin is sitting on the beach, gazing quietly at the ocean, a pair of ownerless sneakers resting on his hands. Later in the video, there’s a carousel painted with the message, “You never walk alone.” Yellow ribbons flutter in the wind, and nobody is riding the carousel. The screen goes dark for a moment, and then we see Suga sitting atop a huge pile of clothing as he starts to rap, “You left me, but I’ve never forgotten you, not for a single day.”

The music video for “Spring Day,” a song that world famous K-pop group BTS released in February 2017, includes several notable scenes that seem to evoke the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014. South Korean members of ARMY (BTS’s fandom) edited videos analyzing the elements of the music video that pay tribute to the Sewol victims. It was through those videos that numerous foreign fans of BTS learned about the tragedy.

One of those fans is Angela Pulvirenti, a 31-year-old Italian who lives in Rome. But Angela wasn’t satisfied with just learning about the tragedy. She ended up making a video analyzing the “Spring Day” music video in Italian with English subtitles and later visited South Korea, where she personally met the families of the Sewol victims. On Apr. 14, two days before the sixth anniversary of the Sewol tragedy, the Hankyoreh had a video conservation with Angela, who identifies herself as “an ordinary office worker and ARMY member in Rome.”

Considering that Angela hadn’t known anything about the political situation in South Korea, her introduction to the Sewol ferry accident through the “Spring Day” music video came as a major shock. She describes the accident as a “tragedy in which the weak were sacrificed to protect the powerful.”

“I was really distressed to learn that a lot of students lost their lives because they obeyed the captain’s instructions to remain where they were,” Angela said. “I think the tragedy was caused by the corruption and the negligence of the government, the shipping industry, and the press. I had the feeling that this could happen not only in Korea but in other places, too.”

That’s why Angela thinks more ARMY members to learn about the tragedy. After editing her video analysis, she made up her mind to join the campaign to bring the Sewol tragedy to the attention of the whole world. She tracked down foreign articles about the accident, as well as South Korean investigative reports and videos. When videos and articles didn’t have an English translation, she searched for similar materials online until she could understand them.

Pulvirenti meets the victims’ families in a memorial classroom commemorating the Sewol tragedy victims at Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. (provided by Pulvirenti)

Editing the video was a painstaking process, particularly since Angela had never made a video before. But on May 1, 2017, after nearly two months of work, she completed her analysis, which she titled “What you still don’t know about BTS’s ‘Spring Day’ MV.” Her video seeks to explain how the elements of the music video symbolize the Sewol sinking and the impact the accident had on South Korean society. Her video has been viewed more than 23,000 times and has received more than 400 comments.

The response Angela received far exceeded her expectations. Viewers left numerous positive comments in English, Korean, and Italian. One person thanked her for sharing the truth with people around the world, while another said that more people need to watch the video. One viewer even said they couldn’t stop crying throughout the video. The video kept getting more views and shares until Angela was invited to speak at the BTS Insight Forum in South Korea.

But that wasn’t the last miracle: soon Angela would have a chance to sit down and talk with the Sewol families. While she was getting ready to visit Korea to deliver her speech, the forum organizer, a cultural marketing group called Mushroom, told her they could arrange a meeting with the Sewol families.

“It felt like my whole body was paralyzed,” she recalled. “I wasn’t sure what I should say to people who’d suffered more than I could imagine, and I was really worried I might accidentally hurt them with my words because of some cultural difference,” she said.

On Sept. 2, 2019, Angela had her first meeting with the Sewol families and visited Danwon High School in Ansan. As they walked through the rooms where the children had studied and played before the accident, their bereaved families showed Angela pictures of the children and told her about their struggle. Throughout the conversation, Angela held the hand of one of the family members and strove to listen to the words they were speaking in an unfamiliar tongue.

“They’re so warm-hearted and strong. Despite their pain, they were fighting for a happier and safer world,” Angela said. The Sewol families told her they wanted to see her video, and after watching it, they thanked her for sharing the truth with a wider audience. Angela remembers this as being “the most embarrassing and emotional moment of my life.”

Pulvirenti meets the victims’ families in a memorial classroom commemorating the Sewol tragedy victims at Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. (provided by Pulvirenti)

“That meeting with the Sewol families strengthened my resolve to do my part to bring about the world they envision,” Angela said. And so she’s been actively preparing to commemorate the Sewol tragedy on its sixth anniversary. She and other ARMY members overseas put together a news slideshow about the ferry sinking, and she’s also been discussing a fundraising project with One in an ARMY, a charity project organized by the supergroup’s global fanbase.

“One of the messages of BTS’ music is that we ought to love people who are different from ourselves. I believe that many ARMY members who dream of a better world will come to understand the Sewol tragedy and send a message of support and solidarity to Korean society,” Angela said.

By Park Yoon-kyung, staff reporter

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