(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Ga-hye = "I received love from everyone across the country. I still can't find a way to repay that love. I just work hard. I think working until my body breaks is how I repay that debt."
The quiet confession left by Choi Bul-am, the ‘nation’s father’ actor who passed away at the age of 87 on the 29th of last month, resonated in home theaters.
KBS 1TV's special documentary 'I Remember You, Table Keeper Choi Bul-am', which aired on the night of the 1st, contains the deceased's 14-year silent journey to 'Korean's Table', his passion for broadcasting, and his warm gaze toward people on the road.
The documentary opened with a scene from his last appearance on 'Korean Table', filmed in January last year.
Even from his hospital bed, Choi Bul-am held the microphone and recorded his own broadcast narration. Although he was wearing a hospital gown and leaning helplessly on a chair in the hospital room, he calmly read the script to the end.
“I am standing on the road like this again today. I have walked this road many times. I have met people and prepared meals along the way.”
The broadcast vividly captures the footsteps of Choi Bul-am, who traveled the eight provinces of the country without hesitation in remote areas and cliff paths. When his car skidded on the snow, he got out of the car without hesitation and walked up the slope, and his passion for going through hardships was clearly revealed in the way he collected seaweed from the crevices of steep seaside rocks with female divers.
Choi Bul-am's gaze was directed at the rough hands of ordinary neighbors who worked silently. He pushed the truck of someone he met at an early morning agricultural and fishery product auction, squeezed the pitch-black hand of a worker carrying coal briquettes, and comforted him by saying, “The thick calluses on your hands make other families warmer.” He touched the fisherman's bent hand and comforted him by saying, "What a wonderful hand."
His steps continued beyond the border. We met Chinese compatriots and made rice cake together, and we visited descendants of Henequen Farm in Mexico and sang ‘Arirang’ together. I visited the gravesite of a Korean worker who worked on a sugar cane farm in the United States, prepared rice and kimchi, and bowed in front of his tombstone.
Choi Bul-am said, “Wherever I meet my compatriots, I want to hold them and cry. That is the spirit of the Korean people,” and added, “‘Korean Table’ captures the sky, mountains, sea, people, and food of their hometown to soothe their nostalgia and instinct to return home,” with an overwhelmed expression on his face.
An anecdote that reminded him of his deceased mother was also introduced through the elderly people he met on the street.
After receiving a bowl of makgeolli from an older man, he confessed, "My mother was also a housewife in Seoul, and I really think of her today," and "I always miss my mothers, who gave up all their cooking and skills, and I am grateful to them, and they are people I want to hug," with tears in their eyes.
The background to Choi Bul-am's interest in supporting underprivileged children was also discussed.
He recalled that after the episode of adopting Geumdong was aired in the 1981 drama 'Country Diary', he received a flood of complimentary phone calls and letters. He confessed, "At that time, I began to see children in need for the first time and became interested in them."
“The moments when I held those small, delicate hands of children were the most heart-warming times of my life. It was then that I realized that I became an adult only when I was able to help someone.”
The final greeting of Choi Bul-am, who lived his entire life as an actor in front of the camera and a warm neighbor on the street, left a deep impression.
“Even if I laugh, the day passes, and even if I feel sad, the given time passes without fail and I just live that time in silence. For me, every moment was like a gift.”
