More than a Hundred Thousand Times

Outside the factory, migrant laborers of Koryo-saram silently repeat the movements that have been ingrained in their bodies through daily physical labor. Amid the monotony of their work, broken only occasionally by voices giving instructions, their bodies eventually become detached from their consciousness. According to Ugay, however, over the course of these repeated actions, there comes a moment when the essence of things and their thoughts unexpectedly come to mind. Long marginalized by the state and society at large, these Korean immigrant laborers continue their silent repetitions with their own bodies, giving rise to layers of memory that words are unable to capture.