The Korea Arts & Culture Education Service's Performing Arts Creation Lab selected the "2022 New Work of the Year."
Top 7 Korean Plays of 2023
2023 61st K-Theater Awards Grand Prize
Premiering at LG Arts Center Seoul U+ Stage in 2023
Re-run at YES24 Art One Hall 1 in 2024

The play 'Bbangya', which received an unusually high audience rating of 9.8 points in 2023, has returned after two years.

Actor Park Sung-hoon, who is returning to the theater stage after 7 years, along with Jeon Sung-woo, Park Jeong-won, Hong Seung-an, Kim Gook-hee, and Jeon Sung-min, are newly joining the cast, receiving a lot of attention.


This is the new work of playwright Kim Eun-seong, winner of the Doosan Arts Award, Dong-A Theater Award, Cha Beom-seok Playwriting Award, and Korea Theater Award. It is a work that stands out for its warm and delicate gaze on Korea's turbulent modern and contemporary history and the people living in that era.
The story begins when Nana, a washed-up drama writer who always fails to produce shows, accidentally discovers an old Type 99 rifle in a drama prop warehouse.
Nana decides to name an old rifle 'Bbangya' and write a drama script based on Bbangya's story.
Nana dreams of writing a masterpiece based on his story and making a comeback, but Bbangya, who does not want to remember his heartbreaking past, is reluctant to tell her the story.
Then he suggests that he grant Nana one wish and begins to tell her his story.

Nana: Diary of a first year university student.

So, 25 years ago, on the very first page of that diary.


Twenty-year-old Nana's handwriting appears as subtitles.

Nana, blinking silently.


Subtitle: When I create a happy story, a happy thing happens in the world.

If I make one sad story, one sad thing in the world disappears.
--- p.15

The back of Bbangya, who fell asleep while sitting on a chair.

Nana, who was standing in front of the bakery holding a rifle, walks towards the desk where the firearms expert was sitting.


Gunman: Weighs 3.8 kilograms.

Nana: 112 centimeters long.

Gunman: 7.7mm caliber.

Nana: Effective range: 500 meters.

Gunman: Maximum range 3,400 meters.

Nana: A total of 8,000 rounds can be fired.

Gunman: It's a Type 99 rifle.
--- p.31

Nana: The rifle was made at the Incheon Armory in 1945.
It becomes the gun of the Japanese military police stationed in Gyeongseong!
Japan's downfall!
The long guns left on the Korean Peninsula
Become the gun of a National Defense Guard soldier!
The Korean War breaks out!
Going back and forth between the national army and the people's army
They are being mobilized for a massacre!
Continued with the change of owner
A tragedy without end!
What will become of the long gun's fate?
--- p.48

You just have to write the story the publisher wants.

no,
Why don't you understand my intentions?
Yeah, that's because he's a washed-up writer.

no,
It is right to use this material in its current form.

It's already been two weeks.

Let's just use it the way we used to.

Does it have to have a main character?
Why can't a story be told with multiple people?
no,
If you write like that, you won't be able to sign the contract anyway
Let's find the main character now.

Should we keep Gilnam alive instead of killing him?
Should I make this a story of a lifetime of conflict with apricots?
no,
So where does the rifle go?
--- p.105

The honest feelings that rule me
It's fear.

Fear of being qualified to write history as a story.

Do I have the right to badmouth Kimura?
Do I have the right to empathize with a fairy?
I come to remember, record and testify.
Are you writing a story?
I am writing a story
Aren't you writing a story?
Am I truly in pain with you?
Their suffering to complete the story
Am I editing it as I please?
Before a single question mark is even resolved
Other question marks follow one after another.

My worries deepened.

It was very difficult to write.

Am I worthy to write?
Courage disappears.

--- p.160

Nana: I want to write.

It's because of the desire to succeed.

Because I have to make money.

But it's also because I just enjoy writing.

With those who live in history
This is something I encounter as I live now.

When you get the illusion that you are having a conversation together
I am truly happy.

I want to keep writing.

--- p.161

There are countless stories that sell war.

Countless lies that sell pain.

I became a cowboy and shot the natives.

I became an alien gun and shot the astronaut.

No matter how much I do, isn't it too much?
Yesterday a bank robber, today a deserter.

On all kinds of stages where guns are needed
I was dragged around like a slave.

Where are you tomorrow?
It's a Viet Cong gun!
Stop taking pictures.

Stop taking pictures!
When will it end?
This damn war zone!
--- p.207

Bbangya: Thank you.

Thank you for listening to my story.

I was very scared.

It's a little better.

Thank you for looking after me.

It was nice to be able to open up a little.

Nana: …I’m sorry.

I hurt you a lot.

That's what's on my mind the most.

--- p.225

Bbangya: I was the front door of our house.

I was the pump in the yard.

I was the cauldron in the kitchen.

It was my father's shovel.

It was my mother's home.

It was our church's candlestick.

It was our new church's spire.

It was a temporary station railroad.
It was a country road bike.

We need to make cannons and guns.
Since there was no iron, I brought all kinds of iron objects.

All the iron objects were dragged in.

Who will protect our house if I am not here?

Without me, the well water would freeze solid.
Where will you cook without me?

I need to go and boil some porridge.
Who guards the candles in the chapel?
What will our youngest child ride to school?
If I'm not there, you'll be in trouble.

I was suddenly dragged here.

I was dragged here without even knowing English
Everyone, everyone, became a gun.

You and I both became guns
I became a gun like that too.

--- p.226~227

As a work that extensively chronicles the tragedy of modern Korean history, it is important to reflect on the pain of the characters in that tragic history, but the message I most wanted to convey in "Bbangya" is, "When we dream of something and fail, how should we live afterward?"
How can we overcome frustration and hurt?
What can I believe in to get back up again?
How can I find courage again?
I think I wanted to be comforted first through the challenges, failures, and the process of getting back up again of 'Nana, who wants to finish writing the drama' and 'Bbangya, who wants to be an instrument'.

---From the Author's Note