Patricia Hului

KajoPicks: 15 webtoon adaptations into Korean dramas you should watch

Published on May 20, 2020

A webtoon is a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea. Just like how J-dramas are often inspired by manga or anime, there are more South Korean dramas based on webtoons these days.

So here are KajoMag’s pick of 15 webtoon adaptations into dramas you should watch:

1.Orange Marmalade (2015)

KajoPicks: 15 webtoon adaptations into Korean dramas you should watch — *Watch the trailer here.*

This Korean drama is based on the Naver webtoon of the same name published from 2011 to 2013.

It stars Yeo Jin-goo, Kim Seol-hyun, Lee Jong-hyun and Gil Eun-hye.

The story goes that 300 years ago, humans and vampires signed a peace treaty.

Nonetheless, they still do not get along well with each other. Even though the vampires no longer rely on human blood as food, they are still discriminated on by humans.

This causes many vampires to hide their identities including Baek Ma-ri (Kim Seol-hyun). She falls in love with Jung Jae-min (Yeo Jin-goo), the most popular boy at her high school (of course). What happens when Jae-min finds out Ma-ri’s true identity?

Orange Marmalade won the Best New Actor (Yeo Jin-Goo) and Popularity Actress Award (Seol-hyun) during the 2015 KBS Drama Awards.

2.Hey Ghost, Let’s Fight (2016)

How do you get rid of a ghost? Use holy water, crucifix or long chanting? In this drama, the male lead character gets rid of ghosts using nothing but his fist.

Park Bong-pal (Ok Taec-yeon) uses his ability to see ghosts to banish ghosts.

When he is tasked to get rid of a ghost at a haunted high school, he comes across Kim Hyun-ji (Kim So-hyun) who became a wandering spirit due to a traffic accident.

With Hyun-ji, Bong-pal finds that he can fight even stronger ghosts. Together with two other Bong-pal’s collegemates, they form a ghost fighting team.

Sometimes scary, sometimes funny, the drama is overall entertaining to watch.

3.The Tale of Nokdu (2019)

Jeon Nok-du (Jang Dong-yoon) lives on an island with his father and older brother.

Since he was young, his father would never allow him to go to the mainland. He grows up becoming a good swordsman.

One day, his father and older brother are attacked by a group of female assassins.

To find out who and why his family was attached, Nok-du has to disguise himself as a woman to enter a mysterious women-only village.

There, he meets Dong Dong-ju (Kim So-hyun), a woman who refuses to become a kisaeng.

Based on the webtoon by Hye Jin-yang published in 2014, the drama was one of the most talked about Korean dramas in 2019.

4.What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim started first as a novel of the same title. Written by Jung Kyung-yoon, the novel was published in 2013.

Then in 2015, it was serialized into a webtoon via KakaoPage.

The drama adaptation of the webtoon takes place in 2016 with Park Seo-joon and Park Min-young in the starring roles.

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim marks Min-young’s first romantic comedy role since her debut in 2005.

Meanwhile, Seo-joon’s performance in the drama gained positive reviews among the critics being dubbed the ‘master of romantic comedy’ by the Korean press.

The plot revolves around the ambitious and self-absorbed vice-chairman of a major corporation Lee Young-joon (Seo-joon). One day, his highly capable secretary of nine years Kim Mi-soo (Min-young) decides to resign from her job.

Will Young-joon let her go or will Mi-soo have a change of heart?

The drama is one of the highest-rated Korean dramas in cable television history.

5.Gangnam Beauty (2018)

At first glance, the drama is a basic campus romance story. Boy likes girl, girl keeps on rejecting boy and the girl finally realises that she likes the boy too.

However, its underlying theme of superficial beauty standards not only resonates in Korean society but the rest of the world.

The title of the webtoon and television series, Gangnam Beauty is actually a derogatory term in South Korea. It refers to those who are attractive but look as if they went through plastic surgery.

Im Soo-hyang’s portrayal of Kang Mi-rae, who decides to get plastic surgery after years of being bullied for her looks, is praise-worthy.

She starts being insecure even after her plastic surgery and slowly recovers her self-esteem throughout the drama.

Mi-rae also receives help from her collegemate, Do Kyung-seok (Cha Eun-woo) who look beyond her look.

Furthermore, the drama is able to portray rare themes in Korean series such as bulimia and discrimination based on physical looks in South Korea.

6.Save Me (2017)

Cults, violence, secret society, torture and even murder; this drama has them all.

Based on the popular Daum webtoon Out of the World by Jo Geum-san, the drama stars Ok Taec-yeon, Seo Ye-ji, Jo Sung-ha and Woo Do-hwan.

It centres around Im Sang-mi who moves from Seoul to Muji-gun, a suburban town with her family.

Sangmi’s brother, Sang-jin is bullied mercilessly at school pushing him to suicide.

The incident causes Sangmi’s to fall apart. Taking advantage of their state, the leader of a church called Goseonwon lures Sangmi’s into their community. Disguised as a peaceful church, Goseonwon is actually a religious cult.

Sang-mi becomes trapped until three years later, Sang-mi’s previous classmate Han Sang-hwan comes back to town.

Together with three friends, the group tries to expose the dark reality of the cult.

Watch Save Me’s trailer here.

7.Love Alarm (2019)

What if we have an app that tells us there is someone we like within our vicinity? Would our love life be easier then?

The drama revolves around the story of a disruptive technology that enables users to discover love through an application. It notifies whether someone within the vicinity of a 10-meter radius has romantic feelings for them.

Based on the Daum webtoon of the same name, it stars Kim So-hyun, Jung Ga-ram and Song Kang.

Chon Kye-young, the webtoon author, is one of South Korea’s most popular graphic novelists.

The plot circles around Kim Jo-jo, a high school student who is having a hard life after the deaths of her parents.

Her high school life gets complicated when two boys, popular kid in school Hwang Sun-oh and his best friend Lee Hye-young start to pay attention to her.

A commercial success, Love Alarm (2019) was one of Netflix’s top releases in 2019.

8.Extraordinary You (2019)

Speaking of high school drama, Extraordinary You has almost all the things a high school drama needs; humour, romance, suspense and a little dose of fantasy.

The series follows high school girl Eun Dan-oh (Kim Hye-yoon) who is a student at a prestigious academy.

Things turn upside down for her when she find out that the world she lives in is a fantasy world of comics.

Dan-oh and everyone around her are just characters in a comic book entitled ‘Secret’.

She later finds out that she is just a supporting character in the comic and is expected to die soon.

What happen when Dan-oh decide to go against the writer’s storyline and create her own destiny? Will it work or will the plan backfires?

On top of that, who else beside Dan-oh are aware of that they are just characters in a comic book?

Based on the webtoon July Found by Chance, the drama stars Kim Hye-yoon, Rowoon, Lee Jae-wook and Lee Na-eun.

9.Tale of Fairy (2018)

Tale of Fairy is a popular webtoon by Dol Bae published via Naver Webtoon in 2017.

In 2018, it was adapted into a drama starring Moon Chae-won, Yoon Hyun-min, Seo Ji-hoon, Jeon Soo-jin and Kang Mi-na.

It revolves around a 669-year-old who has lived since the Goryeo dynasty. In this modern time, she works as a barista and has a special ability to talk to plants.

The plot starts to climax when she meets two potential reincarnations of her former husband.

Watch the trailer here.

10.A Girl Who Sees Smells (2015)

After the murder of his sister by the ‘Barcode’ serial killer, Choi Moo-gak (Park Yoo-chun) is determined to become a police inspector and solve her case.

Meanwhile, Oh Cho-rim (Shin Se-kyung) witnesses the murder of her parents,becoming the sole witness of the Barcode serial murders.

However, both of them are traumatised in their own ways after the murders.

Moo-gak becomes unable to smell or taste while Cho-rim acquires a strange ability of being able to see smells as patterns in the air.

Together, they both work to solve the series of the Barcode murders.
It is adapted from the KTOON webtoon of the same title by Seo Soo-kyung.

11.Itaewon Class (2020)

This webtoon adaptation tells the story of ex-convict Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) whose life has been turned upside down after he gets expelled from school for punching a bully and his father is killed in an accident.

Following his father’s steps, he opens his bar-restaurant DanBam (Sweet Night) in Itaewon.

Alongside his manager, Jo Yi-seo (Kim Da-Mi) and his staff, he aims for success while battling against a food conglomerate, Jangga Group.

Currently, Itaewon Class is the seventh highest rated drama in Korean cable television history.

It is based on the webtoon of the same name published on Daum.

Watch the trailer here.

12.Strangers from Hell (2019)

If it is broadcast on OCN, you know it would be a good, chilling thriller.

Also known as Hell is Other People, it follows Yoon Jong-woo (Im Si-wan) who moves to Seoul after landing an internship.

While looking for accommodation, he stumbles upon Eden Studio. It looks ominous but it is a cheap dormitory.

Jong-woo decides to stay because he is low in money.

What happen when things start to get weird in the dormitory?

It adapted from the Naver webtoon of the same name by Kim Yong-ki.

Watch the trailer here.

13.Memorist (2020)

Based on the Daum webtoon of the same name by Jae Hoo published on 2016-2018, this crime drama stars Yoo Seung-ho, Lee Se-young and Jo Sung-ha.

It follows Dong Baek who uses his power to read people’s memories to solve crimes as a detective.

Together with criminal profiler Han Sun-mi, they team up to stop a serial killer. In a classic Korean drama’s turn of events, their pasts begins to unravel as the murders start to escalate.

Watch Memorist’ trailer here.

14.Pegasus Market (2019)

Moon Suk-goo (Lee Dong-hwi) works as a manager at Cheonrima Mart, which belongs to the Daema Group.

Cheonrima Mart’s future looks bleak as they don’t have many customers.

One day, Jung Bok-dong (Kim Byung-chul), who was an executive at Cheonrima Group, is demoted to the CEO position at Cheonrima Mart.

Suk-Goo begins to have hope that the store will experience a turnaround with the new CEO.

However, Bok-dong wants to destroy Cheonrima Mart to take revenge on the parent company for his demotion.

Unexpectedly, Bok-dong’s actions soon causes the store to attract customers.

It is based on Kim Gyu-sam’s webtoon of the same name.

15.Method to Hate You (2019)

If a campus romance drama is your thing, this is the drama for you.

Also known as How to Hate You, this web drama follows the dating adventure of a college freshman Oh Mi-ri.

It also stars Na Jae-min, Lee Jong-won and Kim Ji-in as Oh Mi-ri.

Frank Marryat, the man who gave us the early drawings of Borneo

Published on May 20, 2020

Culture

There were many adventurers who came to Borneo during the 19th century.

While most of them jotted down their experiences in writing, only a few talented ones managed to capture it in drawings.

One of them was Frank Marryat (1826-1855), an English sailor, author and artist. His father, Captain Frederick Marryat was a Royal Navy officer and a novelist.

Captain Marryat is widely known today as an early pioneer of the sea story.

Life of Frank Marryat

Following in his father’s footsteps, Marryat joined the Royal Navy at the young age of 14.

During Marryat’s service on board of HMS Samarang, he drew the places he visited and the people he met.

At first, he planned to publish his drawings without any writing. Eventually, he added some text of his own and from his colleagues’ journals, publishing his first book in 1848.

The book was entitled Borneo and the Indian Archipelago. In the book, Marryat described his life as a sailor from witnessing a piece of history such as the Treaty of Labuan and collecting turtle’s eggs at Talang-talang islands.

Here are some of his notable drawings of Borneo and Marryatt’s description of it:

Kuching

Frank Marryat, the man who gave us the early drawings of Borneo — “The town of Kuchin is built on the left-hand side of the river Sarawak going up; and, from the windings of the river, you have to pull twenty-five miles up the river to arrive at it, whereas it is only five miles from the coast as the crow flies. It consists of about 800 houses, built on piles driven into the ground, the sides and roofs being enclosed with dried palm leaves. Strips of bamboo are laid across, which serve as a floor.” (Frank Marryat, 1848)

James Brooke’s house

Mount Kinabalu

Frank Marryat’s Life After Borneo

He returned to England after his adventure in Borneo then proceeded to California in 1850.

Then in 1853, Marryat returned to England and got married. In the same year, he wanted to return to California with his new wife.

Unfortunately, he had contracted yellow fever on board ship.

This forced him to cut the trip short and return to England.

He died shortly before his book Mountains and Molehills or Memoirs of a Burnt Journal (1855). Marryat was just 29 years old.

The notice of Frank Marryat’s death

An unnamed writer wrote Marryat’s obituary and it was published in Life and Letters of Captain Marryatt (1872), a book about his father. The notice summarised his life perfectly.

“It is with the most sincere regret that we announce of the decease Mr Marryat, author of ‘Borneo and the Eastern Archipelago’ and of ‘Mountains and Molehills’, the latter of a work published at the commencement of this year, which has been most favourably received by the reading public.
Mr Marryat died at his residence, Mercer Lodge, Kensington on Thursday, the 12th instant, at noon, after a severe illness of more than six months’ duration.
He was the fourth son of the late Captain Marryat, the eminent novelist, and was born on the 3rd of April, 1826.
Like his elder brother he early displayed an invincible longing for the sea, and was consequently entered a midshipman at the age of fourteen.
Previously to this, he had received as large education as possible- first at Paris, afterwards in a school at Wimbledon.
Happily, in these days, the young midshipman’s education is still carried on, even in matters not strictly professional, and this was the case with young Marryat on board the Vanguard, Captain Sir David Dunn.
In the Vanguard he cruised principally in the Mediterranean, and was afterwards entered in the Samarang, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, ordered on a surveying expedition in the Indian Archipelago.
In his work on Borneo, Mr Marryat has given a very agreeable and instructive account of his four years’ cruise in the Samarang, 1843-1847.
On his return home, he resided for some time at Langham, in Norfolk, with his father, who lost his eldest son in the Avenger.
Captain Marryatt himself died in August, 1848 and his son, by no means tried of a roving life, now resolved to seek fresh adventures.
The field he chose was California, with reference to which he penned his work ‘Mountains and Molehills’, to our mind one of the most delightful books of travel ever written.

He was described as “his manners were most agreeable, and his conversation showed that delicate kind of humour as well as keen observation of mankind.”

Thanks to Marryat’s observation, we roughly have a glimpse of how Borneo looked like in the 1840s.

You can read Borneo and the Indian Archipelago online for free thanks to The Project Gutenberg.

The intriguing military history of Rabaul during World War II

Published on May 19, 2020

Culture

If you are not familiar with Rabaul, it is a township in East New Britain province in the country of Papua New Guinea.

Located on the New Britain island, the town used to be an important settlement in the province until it was destroyed no thanks to falling ash from a volcanic eruption in 1994.

Looking back to its establishment history, Rabaul was built around the harbor area called as Simpsonhafen under the German New Guinea administration from 1884 until 1919. The British Empire then captured the township during the early days of World War I (WWI).

Life before World War II (WWII)

According to Ian Townsend writing for ABC Radio Nation in 2017, Australia was given a mandate to administer New Guinea as its territory after WWI. For most of the two decades between the wars, Rabaul was its Australian capital of New Guinea.

Townsend stated, “It (Rabaul) looked a lot like a Queensland town, with high-set wooden homes and wide verandahs, red roofs and gardens of frangipani and bougainvillaea.

Australian businessmen, public servants and planters walked the wide, shady streets in white suits and stopped at the pubs to drink Australian beer.”

The town even had a racetrack, picture theaters and an Australian school.

The dawn of WWII

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941, the country of the Rising Sun started to take control of some of the islands, including Borneo and the Philippines.

It was then expected that Rabaul would be on the list of targets. Hence, by the end of that December, the women and children (except for Chinese migrants and the local indigenous people) were evacuated.

Families were separated during the evacuation as about 2,000 Australian soldiers and male civilians were left behind in Rabaul.

The Japanese called the invasion Operation R and historians later on mostly referred to it as the Battle of Rabaul (1942).

On Jan 4, 1942, the Japanese carrier-based aircraft started its assault on the town particularly on its Vunakanau Airfield situated on a plateau just outside Rabaul.

By Jan 20, a force of over 100 Japanese aircraft comprising bombers, dive bombers and fighter escort, converged on Rabaul.

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who had controlled the attack on Pearl Harbour, led the Japanese force in the battle.

As the odds stacked up against the Australians, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) commander John Lerew sent a signal to RAAF HQ in Melbourne. He signalled the Latin motto “Nos Morituri Te Salatamus” (“We who are about to die salute you”), a phrase said by gladiators in ancient Rome before entering combat.

Sure enough, the Japanese invasion force quickly overwhelmed the small Australian garrison.

In the days following the invasion of Rabaul, the Japanese began mopping up operations starting on Jan 24.

The Japanese posted up and dropped from planes leaflets in English stating, “You can find neither food nor way of escape in this island and you will only die of hunger unless you surrender.”

The intriguing military history of Rabaul during World War II — The Adler River, in the Bainings Mountains on the eastern side of the Gazelle Peninsula, an obstacle to the Australian troops retreating from Rabaul after the successful attack by Japanese forces. This is the point where at least two parties of retreating Australian troops crossed the Adler River. The first party of twenty one men from the Anti-aircraft Battery Rabaul and the 17th Anti-tank Battery crossed here on 1942-01-26 securing a lawyer vine rope to cross the river. This image was taken in late January 1942 and shows some of the men of Sergeant L. I. H. (Les) Robbins’ party fording the river as they make their way south toward Palmalmal Plantation and rescue in April 1942. Credit: Public Domain.

Why the Japanese wanted to attack Rabaul?

There are many reasons why the Japanese decided to capture this island town. While Japanese captured towns such as Tarakan and Balikpapan in Indonesia and Miri in Sarawak for their oil and gas, they wanted Rabaul so that they could turn it into a major base.

According to Gordon L. Rottmah in World War II Pacific Island Guide, Rabaul provided an ideal location to base a fleet, air assets and command and control centres for the Japanese.

The site was strategic for them to direct, launch and support the conquest of New Guinea and the South Pacific region.

“It was centrally located, and initially at least, far enough from Allied bases to protect it from air and sea attack. It possesses one of the best anchorages in the region and held abundant sites for airfields,” Rottmah stated.

Besides, its location was significant because of its proximity to the Japanese territory of the Caroline Islands, a site of a major Imperial Japanese Navy base on Truk about 1,800 km northeast of New Guinea.

Under Japanese occupation

Once they had captured the town, the Japanese wasted no time in developing it. Rottmah pointed out that the Japanese airfield program in Rabaul was extensive, with Vunakanau becoming the main Japanese airbase.

They dug many kilometres of tunnels as shelter from Allied air attacks such as the bombing of November 1943.

Additionally, they also expanded the facilities by construction army barracks and support structures.

By the summer of 1943, there were more than 100,000 Japanese troops based in Rabaul.

Operation Cartwheel

With that high number of Japanese troops, how could the Allied forces possibly recapture the town?

Hence, instead of trying to capture Rabaul town, the Allies determined to neutralise Rabaul by isolating it and eliminating its airpower.

The Allied forced decided to bypass it by establishing a ring of airfields and naval bases on the islands around it.

The plan was initiated at the end of April 1943 in the codenamed ‘Operation Cartwheel’.

It called for General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Areas to approach Rabaul town from the southwest, through New Guinea and the southern Bismarcks.

Meanwhile, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz would advance through the Solomons, forming two pincers that would close in on the Japanese base.

The Allied forces involved were from Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the US and various Pacific islands.

On each island the Allied forces captured, they constructed air bases, allowing them to block any westward movement by the Japanese.

Operation Cartwheel, which stretched from 1943 to 1944, proved the effectiveness of a strategy of avoiding major concentrations of enemy forces and aiming to sever the Japanese lines of supply and communication instead.

The Neutralisation of Rabaul town

Once the Allied forces managed to slowly isolate Rabaul, they began air raid attacks on it. Allied fighters and bombers continue to attack the town through 1944 and 1945.

The Allied forces began to call the attack on Rabaul town ‘milk run’. It is a phrase US Army Air Corps and UK Royal Air Force (RAF) aircrew used to describe any mission where minimal resistance from the enemy was expected.

Eventually, the Allied forces used Rabaul as a live-fire exercise to give aircrew some training and taste of combat before the real deal.

As for the Japanese, they suffered a lot during the campaign. First of all, they no longer had a base which they could threaten the Allied in the Solomons.

Secondly, they lost many of their experienced carrier pilots and aviation maintenance personnel.

The last Allied airstrike took place on Aug 8, 1945, only weeks before the Japanese surrender.

Australian Military Court

After the war from 1945 till 1951, Australian Military Courts convened in Maratoi, Wewak, Labuan, Darwin, Singapore, Hong Kong, Manus Island and Rabaul.

Overall, 300 war crimes trials took place with 190 of them convened in Rabaul.

By the end, 812 mostly Japanese and some Korean as well as Taiwanese alleged war criminals had been tried.

The charges included ill-treatment, murder, massacre, cannibalism and other violations of war laws.

In Rabaul, there were five command responsibility trials. Sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, command responsibility is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes.

It is an omission mode of individual criminal liability and the superior is responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates.

The command responsibility trials that convened in Rabaul were namely against Major General Hirota Akira, Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazo, Lt Gen Kato Rinpei, Gen Imamura Hitoshi and Lt Gen Baba Masao.

A Japanese Manga artist and his military history in Rabaul

Of all the WWII stories which came out from Rabaul town, one of the most interesting accounts must be the story Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015).

He was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series GeGeGe no Kitaro.

In 1942, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and sent to New Britain Island.

There, he contracted malaria and watched his fellow comrades died from battle wounds and disease.

During one of the Allied forces air raid, Mizuki was caught in an explosion and lost his dominant left arm.

Being the only survivor of his unit, Mizuki was instructed to commit suicide, an order he considered ridiculous.

While in a Japanese hospital Rabaul, he made friends with the local Tolai tribe. They even offered him land, a home and an offer to marry a Tolai woman.

At first, Mizuki considered the offer to remain behind in Rabaul. However, after being rebuked by a military doctor for his plan, he eventually returned home to Japan reluctantly.

The aftermath of WWII

After WWII, Rabaul and the whole of eastern New Guinea was returned to pre-war administrator Australia.

At least 1,200 Australian soldiers and civilians died within the six months following the invasion.

While some died during the battles, about 160 were massacred in the jungle on Feb 4, 1942. About 800 soldiers and 200 civilian prisoners of war (most of them Australians) lost their lives on July 1, 1942.

They drowned when the prison ship Montevideo Maru which they boarded heading to Japan from Rabaul was sunk by an American submarine.

The saddest part is that most of the families of the civilians never really knew what happened to their loved ones who were left behind in Rabaul town.

These civilian men were never given the option of leaving in the first place.

Did they die during the battle, did the Japanese massacre them or were they in the sunken prison ship? With no proper records during the Japanese occupation, we will never know and their families will never have closure.

Fast forward to the present day, tourism is a now major industry of the town. It is popular for its volcanoes, flora and fauna and the culture of the Tolai people.

To top it all, its rich WWII history provides the town with plenty of historical sites to visit and shipwrecks to explore for scuba diving.

5 things you should know about the Treaty of Labuan

Published on May 14, 2020

Culture

The Crown Colony of Labuan was a British Crown colony on the northwestern shore of the island of Borneo.

It came under the British after the Treaty of Labuan was signed between the empire and Sultanate of Brunei.

Apart from the main island, Labuan consists of six smaller islands; Burung, Daat, Kuraman, Papan, Rusukan Kecil and Rusukan Besar.

The island had belonged to the sultanate even since the reign of the first Sultan of Brunei Muhammad Shah (also known as Awang Alak Betatar).

Labuan originally was uninhabited but often used by Malay and Chinese sailors to shelter their ships from storms.

For the Brunei, Labuan was economically important as it was the gateway to the outside world.

Besides serving as a safe shelter, Labuan was strategically located to protect Brunei interest in the region.

As the trading activities and taxes in Labuan increased, the island’s revenues also increased.

Here are 5 things you should know about the Treaty of Labuan:

1.Why the British Empire was interested in Labuan?

The whole acquisition of the island was started by a man named James Brooke.

After he established himself as the first Rajah of Sarawak in 1841, Brooke began to assist in the suppression of piracy along the coast of Borneo.

During this time, he had persistently promoted Labuan to the British government. Brooke urged the British to establish a naval station, colony or protectorate along the northern coast to prevent other European powers from doing so.

The British government heard Brooke’s plea; it sent Admiral Drinkwater Bethune to look for a site for naval station and specifically to investigate Labuan.

Along with Admiral Edward Belcher with his HMS Samarang, the British envoy went to survey the area in November 1844.

In 1845, the British Foreign Office then appointed Brooke as a diplomat to Brunei and instructed him to cooperate with Bethune.

Basically, Labuan was considered as a safe shelter. Furthermore, it was strategically sited to protect the British interest in the region especially the China trade route.

Thanks to Brooke, the Great Britain start eyeing to take over Labuan.

2.Other foreign powers interested in Labuan

Besides the British, the United States (US) also showed interest in the island. In 1845, the US sent USS Constitution to Brunei in 1845 to discuss a Trade and access to coal deposits for American ships and business.

Then in November 1846, Captain Rodney Mundy, who was in-charge of the British Naval vessels on the northwest coast of Borneo, received instruction to proceed to Brunei. He soon arrived there with Brooke to discuss the acquisition matter.

5 things you should know about the Treaty of Labuan — Picture shows British delegation packed with firearms at the palace of the Brunei sultanate circa 1846. The British navy lined up British warships near the Sultan’s palace with cannons ready to fire if the Sultan refused to sign the treaty. The Sultan had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Labuan on 18th December 1846 and forced to cede Labuan to Britain. The island later became a Crown Colony in 1848. Credits: Public Domain.

3.Under the Treaty of Labuan, the island was ceded to Great Britain and the Sultan of Brunei on Dec 18, 1846. Did the British threaten the Sultan of Brunei to sign the Treaty of Labuan?

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II officially signed the treaty on Dec 18, 1846, surrendering Labuan to Great Britain as a crown colony.

Brooke and Mundy signed it on behalf of the British.

The infamous part of the Treaty of Labuan is that the British convoy allegedly used threats to get the Sultan’s signature.

The sultan, of course had no choice to sign the treaty because there were cannons pointing at his face.

Frank Maryyat, the English sailor serving on HMS Samarang recorded what happened during the treaty signing in his book Borneo and the Indian Archipelago (1848).

At that time, the British entourage had already stayed in Brunei for a week and Brooke was getting restless.

Here is Marryat’s account of the Treaty of Labuan:

“Every day an interview was had with the sultan, but no definite answer had been obtained to our demands. On the 6th, however, it was resolved by our diplomatists that no more time should be wasted in useless discussion, but that the sultan must be once brought to terms; indeed, our own safety demanded it, for the popular feeling was so much excited, and the people were so indignant at our attempt to coerce their sultan, that we were in hourly expectation of an attack.”
At seven in the evening the party repaired to the audience chamber, leaving their arms behind them, for they felt that any effort from five Europeans to defend themselves against so many hundreds, would be unavailing, and that more would be gained by a show difference.
They landed at the platform, and the barge, in which were Lieutenant Baugh (since dead) and myself, was ordered to lie on her oars abreast of the audience chamber, and to keep her 6-pounder in which there was a fearful dose of grape and canister, pointed at the sultan himself during the whole of the interview.
It was an anxious time: the audience chamber was filled with hundreds of armed men, in the midst of whom were five Europeans dictating to their sultan.
The platforms outside was crowded with the wild and fearless Muruts; not a native in the city but was armed to the teeth, and anxious for the fray.
We, on our parts, were well prepared for fearful vengeance; the barge was so placed that the assassination of Mr. Brooke and the Europeans would have been revenged on the first discharge of our gun by the slaughter of hundred; and in the main street lay the steamer, with a spring on her cable, her half ports up, and guns loaded to the muzzle, awaiting, as by instruction, for the discharge of the gun from the barge, to follow up the work of death.
The platform admitted one of the steamer’s guns to look into the audience chamber, the muzzle was pointed directed at the sultan, a man held the lighted tow in his hand. Every European on board had his musket ready loaded, and matters assumed a serious appearance.”

4.The day that the British flag was hoisted in Labuan on December 24, 1846

Owen Rutter in British North Borneo: an account of its history, resources, and native tribes narrated what happened on the day Labuan was officially declared as a British crown colony.

Rutter wrote, “To crown, all after many delays, the British flag was hoisted in Labuan on Dec 24, 1846, by Captain Mundy, the Sultan having concluded a treaty by which the island was ceded forever to Great Britain.

It was a gala day. The Iris and Wolf dressed ship and fired royal salutes; a party of bluejackets and marines was landed, and Pengiran Mumin, the Prime Minister of Brunei, together with many chiefs and a multitude of natives, watched the proceedings, their boats, anchored near the beach, being bedecked with flags and banners.

A clearing had been made in the jungle, and Captain Mundy in a short speech explained to all assembled that the objects of Great Britain in taking over Labuan were the suppression of piracy and the encouragement of commerce.”

5.Labuan becoming a free port after the cession

After the signing, Brooke was knighted and later became the first British governor of Labuan.

On July 13, 1848, Brooke announced in the Singapore Gazette on the opening of the new colony of Labuan.

According to the announcement, Labuan was to be a free port without duties on imports or exports.

Here is the part of the announcement:

It is hereby notified, that her Majesty’s colony of Labuan will be opened to settlers and other immigrants from and after the first day of August next, and that all persons being well and peaceably disposed thereafter coming to reside within the said colony and its dependencies shall receive the protection of the laws, as subjects of the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

While the British’s method of convincing the sultan is considered an extortion and illegal at the present time, Labuan in the end of the day fell into the hands of Great Britain.

From 1890, Labuan came to be administered by the North Borneo Chartered Company before been reverted to British government rule in 1904.

By Oct 30, 1906, the British government proposed to extend the boundaries of the Strait Settlements to include Labuan.

The proposal took effect from Jan 1, 1907 with the administration area being taken from Singapore which was the capital of the Strait Settlements.

The trial of Japanese general Masao Baba for the Sandakan Death Marches

Published on May 11, 2020

Culture

The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II (WWII) to liberate Japanese-held British Borneo and Dutch Borneo.

The Allied forces called it Operation Oboe and it was a series of amphibious assaults between May 1 and July 21.

On the Allied forces’ side, the Australian I Corps under Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead conducted the assault. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese forces had Vice-Admiral Michiaki Kamada leading the naval garrison and the 37th Army under Lieutenant-General Masao Baba guarding the island.

Initially, the campaign was planned to involve six stages of landing. Eventually, the landings took place in four; Tarakan, Labuan, Balikpapan and North Borneo (Sabah).

During the campaign, Baba organised anti-guerrilla operations in the interior of Borneo island as an act retaliation against the Allied forces. After a series of attacks, the campaign and the war were finally put to an end after the Japanese surrendered.

On Aug 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Imperial Japan. He formally signed it on Sept 2 bringing WWII to an end.

Later on, all Japanese forces were instructed to surrender, including Baba.

He turned over his sword to Major General George Wooten of the Australian 9th Division as a sign of surrender on Sept 10, 1945 in Labuan.

The place where Baba surrendered in Labuan near Layang-layang beach is now fittingly known as Surrender Point.

The trial of Japanese general Masao Baba for the Sandakan Death Marches — Australian troops land from USS LST-560, at Labuan Island in Brunei Bay, 10 June 1945. Credits: Public Domain

The aftermath of Borneo Campaign 1945

After North Borneo was liberated from Japanese forces, the war crimes that took place during the war began to be unveiled.

The most heinous war crime which happened in Sabah during WWII was none other than the Sandakan Death Marches. These were a series of forced marches in Borneo from Sandakan to Ranau.

It resulted in the deaths of 2,434 Allied Prisoners of War (POWs). By the end of the war, of all prisoners who had been incarcerated at Sandakan and Ranau, only six Australians survived.

It is widely considered to be the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during WWII.

After the war, Baba was officially discharged from the Imperial Japanese Army in April 1946.

As the head of Japanese forces in Borneo toward the end of the war, Baba was suspected of being involved in Sandakan Death Marches.

The trial against Masao Baba

Afterward, Baba was arrested in January 1947 and brought to Rabaul, Territory of New Guinea for trial under the charge with command responsibility for the Sandakan Death Marches.

During the war trial which began on May 28, 1947, the official charges against Baba were “while commander of armed forces of Japan… unlawfully disregarded and failed to discharge his duty as a commander to control the conduct of the members of his command whereby they committed brutal atrocities and other high crimes.”

Even though the first order for the march (which took place in January 1945) had been given before Baba took over the command of the 37th Army, he admitted that he was fully aware of the condition of the POWS.

He even ordered a reconnaissance of the jungle route which the prisoners were to travel.

However, Baba failed to alter the orders for the march after this reconnaissance.

The court report stated, “The accused received a report of this march early in 1945, in spite of which report he ordered the evacuation of the remaining 540 prisoners over the same route in May, 1945.

“This second march proved even more disastrous than the first. Only 183 prisoners reached Ranau and of these another 150 died there shortly after their arrival.”

Unfortunately by the end of July, only 33 of the POWs survived. Then, the worst thing happened. The officers-in-charge executed the remaining 33 prisoners on Aug 1, 1945.

Basically, he was accused of not preventing the Sandakan Death Marches from happening and failed to control his subordinates from killing the remaining 33 POWs.

Masao Baba’s defense

Baba pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. With regard to the marches, Baba pleaded that the evacuation of the POWs camp at Sandakan to Ranau was of operational necessity.

As the camp was near the seashore, hence an allied landing was to be anticipated. In fact, the Allied troops did land there a few months too late. They landed in July 1945 after the camp had been evacuated.

Additionally, Baba during the trial defended that the Japanese army were themselves short of food and medical supplies. Furthermore, many of the guards also died during the marches.

The trial record also stated, “The accused gave evidence of the measure he had taken to secure provisions and medical supplies for the second march and said that he had done his best to provide for the prisoners.

“With regard to the killing of the 33 survivors at Ranau on 1st Aug, he claimed that by that time Ranau was cut off from his headquarters as a result of the allied landings and that he, therefore, could no longer exercise any effective control over the officers there who had previously been under his command.”

On top of that, Baba gave evidence that he did not hear of the murders until after the cessation of hostilities. This fact was proven to be true and the order to kill the remaining 33 POWs did not come from Baba.

The verdict on Masao Baba

Meanwhile, prosecutor Major Dick pointed out that under international law that a commander of armed forces at war has a duty to control the conduct of the members of his command.

He continued, “And that if he deliberately, of through culpable negligence, fails to discharge that duty, and as a result of such failure members of his command commit war crimes, he is guilty of a violation of the laws and usages of war.”

Summing up the trial, the judge said, “It can be argued that the killings were the result of the marches. Indeed, they could not have occurred without the movement of the prisoners but they were not, I feel, a natural result of these marches. It is, therefore, the court to consider whether they were due to failure of the accused in his duties as a commander.”

Eventually, according to the Sydney Morning Herald on June 6, 1947, the court reached its verdict of guilty after deliberation of 12 minutes. The sentence on Baba was announced after a recess of only two minutes.

Baba was sentenced to death and eventually executed by hanging on Aug 7, 1947 in Rabaul.

Masao Baba failing to protect his own soldiers

Looking back at Baba’s military career with the Japanese Army during WWII, he first commanded 53rd Division in Sumatra, Indonesia. He held the post until Sept 25, 1943 when he was appointed commander of the 4th Division also in Sumatra.

He was then transferred to Dec 26, 1944 to Borneo, only less than a year before the war came to an end.

Being unfamiliar to his new working environment, did Baba underestimate the treacherous jungle path of Borneo that he continued with the order of his predecessor? Maybe he thought the 265 kilometres from Sandakan to Ranau was through a flat, thin jungle? Furthermore, is it because he was transferred to a new unit that he failed to control his subordinates?

Regardless, his decision not to cancel the first march and to order the second march resulted in the deaths of not only POWs.

Dick Braithwaite and Lee Yun Lok pointed in a paper called Dark Tourism, Hate and Reconciliation: The Sandakan Experience that many Japanese soldiers died during the marches.

They wrote, “The relocation of military units from one side of Borneo to the other, such as on the death march route, was something that generated much resentment among the Japanese soldiers. This resentment was no doubt taken out on others, including POWs and local people. The remains of Japanese suicides were found hanging in the jungle for many years after the war.”

The casualties number of 2,434 during the Sandakan Death Marches only covered the POWs. Today, we may never know the exact number of Japanese soldiers who died during the marches.

In the end of WWII, of the 25,000 Japanese soldiers based in Sabah, very few returned to Japan.

While the Australian Military Court sentenced Baba to death for failing to protect POWs, he as the commanding officer undeniably failed to protect his own men.

Looking back to a Melanau berbayoh ceremony at Balingian in 1947

Published on May 8, 2020

Culture

The berbayoh ceremony is a type of traditional healing ritual practiced by Melanau pagans.

Since many Melanau have embraced Christianity and Islam, such ritual is rarely in practice.

According to the former Mukah district officer W.G. Morison, the berbayoh ceremony is performed for minor ailments while the berayun is reserved for more serious cases.

The purpose behind these rituals is to cure the sickness by exorcising the spirit which is supposed to have entered the body of the patient.

Even those days, only few Europeans had witnessed a berbayoh ceremony, Morison was one of the few who managed to observe one.

Here is the account of the berbayoh ceremony in which the former district officer witnessed in Balingian:

Looking back to a Melanau berbayoh ceremony at Balingian in 1947 — A candle is one of the tools needed in a berbayoh ceremony on top of a gendang (drum) and parang. Credit: Pixabay.

A group of relatives of the patient were seated at one end of the room; one of these, a woman, was the drum (gendang) beater who beat her drum in quick time on and off throughout the performance.
At the other end of the room by herself, except for the bayoh and the bayoh’s assistant, lay the patient.
In this case both the bayoh and her assistant were women, as also was the patient.
First of all a candle was lighted and at the same time the bayoh and her assistant knelt down by the side of the patient and moved the lighted candle backwards and forwards over her body searching for the cause of the sickness.
The light was then put down on the floor and the bayoh and her assistant knelt down and sat back on their heels.
Up to the present the drummer had been silent but she now started playing her drum; quickly and softly at first, but getting louder as the movements of the bayoh became wilder.
As the drum commenced, both the bayoh and her assistant started to sway from side to side, at the same time emitting a “hissing” sound through their teeth; this was barely audible at first but increased in volume as the swaying grew more pronounced.
Finally the bayoh, withe her eyes closed, rose to her feet and began to dance round the room, slowly at first but rapidly increasing in vigour and speed.
At the height of the dance the bayoh burst into snatches of wild singing, then suddenly the drums stopped and the bayoh, equally suddenly brought her dance to an end.

Drawing the poisons out of the body

The bayoh opened her eyes and walked slowly over to her patient. Having reached her, both the bayoh and her assistant sank to their knees and began to chant, invoking the spirits to help her exorcise the evil spirit inhabiting the body of the patient. After awhile the chant was brought to an end and the massaging was taken over by the bayoh herself.
The bayoh had apparently now found the root of the sickness for, placing her lips over the supposedly affected part, she started to draw out the poison of the spirit inhabiting the body.
Every few movements she would cease this operation and crawl away to spit out the poison and then return for further efforts.
The whole process from the swaying and hissing, the dancing, chanting and massaging was repeated two or three times.

The use of parang in the berbayoh ceremony

Finally, after one period of dancing, a chopper or parang was produced, the bayoh first held it by both hands above her head (one hand held the blade and the other the handle), then in this manner, she approached her patient.
The parang was then held in the bayoh’s right hand and passes over the patient were made, from the head down to the feet, the handle of the parang being an inch above the patient’s body; at the same time that this was going on the bayoh’s assistant was massaging the patient.
Having done this once or twice the bayoh took up the candle and swathed her head in a skirt or sarong; then, holding the light close to her head, she pulled the sarong down over her face.
This was done twice and then she extinguished the light by putting the flame into her mouth. This ended the ceremony.

The berbayoh ceremony in Mukah

In Mukah the performer is also known as a bayoh. Here the patient may be at a distance from the other people in the house or may actually be surrounded by them.
In Mukah, apparently the bayoh is generally the sole performer- without an assistant and without a drum beater other than himself.
He, or she, starts off by beating the drum in the same quick time as mentioned above in the description of the ceremony witnessed at Balingian.
As the bayoh beats the drum he or she also begins to sing, invoking other spirits to help come and cure the patient.
The bayoh then stops the drum beating and a candle is lighted.
A search is then made of the body of the patient, first with the aid of a candle and then by massaging the body with the hands.
At the same time the spirit causing the sickness is asked which part of the body it is inhabiting.
Having located the source of the trouble the bayoh will then begin to remove the poison from the infected spot by drawing the flesh between his two hands.
As he does this he will make a loud ‘sucking noise’ with his mouth. This operation will continue for a few minutes, after which the bayoh may get to his feet and walk round his patient, sometimes singing but without the accompaniment of the drum.
In Mukah this part of the ceremony does not appear to be essential and is, I understand, frequently left out.
Its inclusion would appear to be entirely a matter for the bayoh to decide.
The next stage of the ceremony is always included and consists of another bout of massaging and smoothing the body over with leaves of tuba, tebwawa and flowering stem (mayang) of the pinang palm.
After this the bayoh may again start his drum to call up further if considered necessary. The whole process may be repeated several times before the ceremony is brought to a close.

Have you observed the berbayoh ceremony before? Share us your experience in the comment box.

Legend of Melanau hero Tugau against the first sultan of Brunei

Published on May 7, 2020

Culture

According to Melanau folklore, Tugau is a demigod chief whose cough could be heard 60km away.

There are several accounts written about this legendary hero. In the Oya Melanau by Stephen Morris, Tugau was said to be the son of Rajah Kiangan, the ruler of the sky. Meanwhile, Tugau’s grandmother was the daughter of the Rajah Yang, ruler of the world below.

He emerged from an egg along with a white fighting cock with one black feather at its tail and a cobra.

A human couple found him by accident and raised him as their own child.

He grew up to be a warrior and the chief of his people in Rutus river, the tributary of Igan.

Here is an article about Tugau by A.E. Lawrence who was the Bintulu resident in the early 20th century.

In this version of the legend, it tells the story of how Tugau went against Alak Betatar. Also known as Muhammad Shah, he was the first sultan of the Brunei Sultanate possibly from 1363 to 1402.

This legend of Tugau was first published in the Sarawak Museum Journal in January 1911 and republished again in the Sarawak Gazette on Sept 1, 1948:

Legend of Melanau hero Tugau against the first sultan of Brunei — Batang Igan.

Tugau lived in the Rutus, a large tributary of the Igan. To this day many stories and legends about Tugau and his relations are told by the Melanaus from Matu to Bintulu, especially in those families which are descended from or any other chiefs famous in his day – of his miraculous birth, his size and strength- of his death at the hands of his own people, etc.
Remains of the belian post of Tugau’s house are still to be seen on the banks of the Rutus, and below them, if any man is brave enough to dig there, is hidden an enormous treasure of gold, besides the bones of the slaves sacrificed according to custom when the posts of a new house are erected.
Besiong, a near connection of Tugau, was also a famous person, and had many adventures, miraculous and otherwise.
Besides ruling over his own people at Rutus, Tugau had great influence in many other districts along the coast.
Kedahat, Chief of Oya, was related to him and acknowledged his supremacy. The Mukah chief, Busi whose burial post is still to be seen in the Tillian river, although the run at the pot containing his bones has long since been lost, was married to a near relation Tugau, who could count on the Mukah people following him to war if he required them.
Tutong (currently one of the four districts in Brunei), under its chief Beniban, and Belait (the largest district in Brunei) then ruled by a man named Jam, were also friendly to Tugau, so that he really had a quite a large and powerful, if somewhat scattered, following.

Tugau against Alak Betatar

Thinking that he was strong enough to overcome the rising Brunei power, Tugau sent a message to Alak Betatar demanding tribute and submission from him.
This was refused, and Alak Betatar in return made the same demands from Tugau, with the alternative of war if he did not yield to them.
The answer was prompt enough, as, without waiting for Brunei to take the aggressive, Tugau’s brother-in-law, Besiong, raised Tutong and Belait, and made a raid into the territory.
Here they met a Brunei force under Pateh Berbi and Semaun, also said to be a brother of Alak Betatar, and were repulsed, falling back again on Tutong and Belait.
There the Bruneis attacked and beat them; but Besiong, with a few followers, made his escape by boat, and sailed down coast as fast as he could to get back to his brother-in-law at Rutus, report his failure, and raise the country.
Besiong reached the Rutus safely, but before he and Tugau could collect all their followers or send word to the neighbouring districts, Pateh Berbi and Semaun, who had followed by sea from Tutong with all their people, were upon them.
Thus taken by surprise Tugau was beaten and made full submission to Alak Betatar through his brothers, promising to pay the tribute demanded.

Alak Betatar’s men conquer Mukah and Oya

Having got Tugau into their power, Pateh Berbi and Semaun did not give time for any possible combination of the neighbouring Melanau chiefs, but went straight for Mukah, the most populous Melanau settlement remaining.
There, they were again successful, beating the chief, Busui and receiving his submission also.
These two decisive victorious countries, as Kedahat Oya and several other chiefs submitted without attempting resistance.
Alak Betatar therefore was now ruler, at least nominally, over all the coast districts from Brunei to the Igan, with the exception of Bintulu, the story of whose submission is somewhat different.
It appears that none of the Bintulu villages were very near the sea and it so happened that when Pateh Berbi and Semaun returned to Brunei from their conquering expedition, no Bintulu people were about in their boats off the mouth of the river, so that the Brunei fleet, although on the lookout for other settlements to conquer, did not guess that the place was inhabited.

Alak Betatar conquers Bintulu

Later on Alak Betatar sent an expedition along the coast by sea with express orders to find and subdue any settlement they might come across.
Even then they would have sailed past the mouth of Bintulu river, thinking it uninhabited, but for an accident.
As they passed by, someone saw fresh banana leaves and stems floating out to sea, and called attention to them.
The leaders decided to go upriver and find out who had planted those bananas, and paddling inland for some time, came across on a large Melanau village, finding several more later on.
The Bintulu people would seem to have been shyer and wilder than other coast Melanaus, for whenever the Bruneis came near a village to land, all the inmates took to the jungle.
However, the Brunei people gradually coaxed them back and gained their friendship by presents and other means finally making them subjects of Alak Betatar, and appointing a man to rule over the district, which before had been divided up among several petty chiefs, each holding his own village.

The aftermath

Under the Brunei rule, Tugau, Busui, Kedahat and other chiefs were allowed to go on ruling their own people. However, there were some conditions. Above all, they had to acknowledge Alak Betatar as their supreme ruler and pay him a yearly tribute.

Some time later, Alak Betatar and his country converted to become an Islamic state. Then, the native Melanau chiefs were slowly replaced by the Pangerans (princes) from Brunei who married into the families by the men they superseded.

If it weren’t for Tugau challenging Alak Betatar in the first place, would these areas of Igan and Oya rivers fall under Brunei rule? Or even without Tugau being so ambitious, had Alak Betatar always aimed to conquer the northern coastline of Borneo? Is there really gold buried under the remains of Tugau’s house? We may never know.

Regardless, the areas which Tugau once had influence over continued to be under the Sultanate of Brunei until James Brooke took over in 1860.

The haunted Miri ferry that allegedly led to killing sprees in the 1940s

Published on May 6, 2020

Culture

The haunted Miri ferry that allegedly leads to killing sprees in the 1940s

The haunted Miri ferry that allegedly led to killing sprees in the 1940s

If you are not familiar with the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, it is the first known court case in the United States where the defense sought to prove innocence based upon the defendant’s claim of demonic possession.

Apparently, Johnson was possessed by a demon that had initially resided in an 11-year-old David Glatzel. The family had even enlisted the aid of Ed and Lorraine Warren (yes, the couple featured in Annabelle, The Conjuring etc.) and priests to perform a formal exorcism on David, after which it was believed that it fled and took up house in Johnson’s body, which later was claimed to have driven Johnson to stab his landlord, Alan Bono.

Johnson was eventually charged with a reduced first-degree charge of manslaughter for the killing of his landlord, serving five years of a 10-20 year sentence.

Meanwhile here in Malaysia, there was an urban legend back in the 1940s that a haunted ferry was the trigger behind a handful of murders.

The murder cases

In 1947, a Chinese Muslim man named Mat Aseng went amok. He killed eight persons and wounded four others.

The method of assault was not mentioned in the Sarawak Gazette report.

Nobody really thought much into it until the night of New Year in 1948 when a man named Abdul Hamid stabbed and killed a 19-year-old Malay girl living at Sungai Merbau.

He escaped but eventually captured on Jan 3, 1948.

His defence was that he did it while suffering from a nightmare. The Miri Resident’s Court rejected his defence and eventually sentenced him to death.

Abdul Hamid later appealed to the Supreme Court but his appeal was dismissed.

The allegedly haunted Miri ferry

So what did these two cases have in common? Both men had the exact same job. They were both drivers working on the same ferry owned by Shell Limited Oil (S.O.L).

The gazette reported, “The Abdul Hamid killing immediately gave rise to a feeling, among the Malays, that the Company ferry was possessed of some evil spirits, and it was decided, that in order to prevent further troubles descending on the ferry crews, action should be taken.”

Hence, a “cleansing ceremony” took place under the permission of S.O.L.

The report further stated, “The ferry was stopped for about half-an-hour in mid-stream and all the ferry crew shifts partook of a makan selamat, “buru bala,” on the ferry and various prayers were recited.”

Was the ferry really haunted? Or was it mere coincidence that the drivers of the ferry committed murders in less than two years? Let us know in the comment box.

KajoPicks: 10 motivational Korean movies to inspire your day

Published on May 5, 2020

Entertainment

Sometimes, a little short escape from reality to watch a movie can inspire your day.

These movies do not serve only as entertainment but they have plenty of lessons to teach the audience.

KajoPicks: 10 motivational Korean movies to inspire your day — Watch these motivational Korean movies to inspire you in fueling your passion.

If you are looking for motivational Korean movies to inspire your day, here are KajoMag’s suggestionS.

1.Marathon (2005)

Based on the true story of Bae Hyeong-jin, an autistic marathon runner, this movie was the fourth most attended Korean film of 2005.

Hyeong-jin’s mother, Park Mi-gyeong told in an interview that she didn’t want people want to label him as a child who couldn’t do anything.

When he was 10 years old, she started to teach him all kinds of sports, including running, swimming and hiking.

After years filled with training and challenges, Hyeong-jin finished the 2001 Chuncheon Marathon in the outstanding time of 2 hours, 57 minutes and 7 seconds.

Meanwhile, the movie circles around 20-year-old Cho-won (Cho Seung-woo). He lives with his highly protective mother Kyung-sook (Kim Mi-sook) and younger brother (Baek Sung-hyun).

Noticing that Cho-won had a gift for running, Kyung-sook decides to hire a proper coach to train her son.

Besides raising awareness on autism, this motivational Korean movie inspires viewers to persevere in facing adversity.

Watch the trailer here.

2.Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013)

Before you start to watch this drama, you might want to prepare tonnes of tissue. This motivational Korean drama is what happen if Sean Penn in I Am Sam (2001) was wrongly accused of murder.

The film circles around Lee Yong-gu (Ryu Seung-ryong) who is mentally challenged with the intellect of a six-year-old.

Due to an ugly twist of fate, he is wrongfully accused of molest and murder.

In the prison, he makes friends with other criminals in his cell. Touched by his kindness and purity, his cellmates help him to see his daughter by smuggling her into the prison.

The movie was a box office success, making it the fifth highest grossing Korean film of all time.

The main character Yong-gu is inspiring in a way that he teaches us to be child-like. Not in the sense of being childish and immature, but be kind to others like an innocent child.

Watch the trailer here.

3.Little Forest (2018)

If you are into a slice of life with no out of the world villain kind of movie, Little Forest (2018) is the film for you.

Directed by Yim-Soon-rye, the film is based on a manga series of the same name by Daisuke Igarashi.

The story follows Song Hye-won (Kim Tae-ri) who returns to her childhood home in a small village after failing to pass the national qualification exam to become a teacher.

In her home, she starts to reconnect with her childhood friend and trying to find her purpose of life again.

This movie carries a simple message about life. When things do not go the way you plan, it is important to take a step back and reflect on what to do next. Sometimes letting go can lead you to the things you always wanted in the first place.

Watch the trailer here.

4.The Sound of a Flower (2015)

How about a Korean movie about breaking barriers and stereotypes to inspire your day?

Here is a period drama based on the life on Jin Chae-seon. She was the first female pansori singer during the Joseon dynasty.

Pansori is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer.

Chae-seon grows up enjoying pansor performances. At that time, females are not allowed to learn pansori and perform in public.

She manages to find herself a pansori teacher, Shin Jae-hyo who agrees to train her for the national pansori contest organised by the king’s father Heungseon Daewongun.

However, no one must discover that Chae-seon is a woman or they both will be executed.

The movie stars Bae Suzy as Chae-seon who practiced pansori for year to prepare for the role.

Watch the trailer here.

5.Harmony (2010)

After killing her abusive husband, Hong Jeong-hye (Kim Yunjin) is sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.

Pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gives birth to a baby boy while in prison.

According to the law, she has to give the baby up for adoption. The time finally comes for her to give up the baby.

The prison chief promises that she can spend one day with her baby outside of prison if she successfully forms a prison choir group.

Jeong-hye recruits fellow inmate as the choir’s conductor. Moon Ok (Na Moon-hee) was once a musical professor at a university. But now, she is on death row for killing her adulterous husband.

Will Jeong-hye be able to succeed? This women empowering movie was the fifth best selling film of 2010 in South Korea.

Watch the trailer here.

6.As One (2012)

Speaking of women empowerment, As One (2012) is based on the first ever united South and North Korean table tennis team that completed at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan.

During table tennis competition, South Korean player Hyun Jung-hwa (Ha Ji-won) always comes up short in the gold medal matches against a rival Chinese table tennis player.

One month before the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships, she hears that a single Korean table tennis will be formed from South and North Korea.

Jung-hwa and her teammates oppose the idea. Despite the opposition, the united Korean table tennis team is formed.

When players from the South and North Korea teams meet at a training camp in Japan, they cannot even get along.

Meanwhile, Jung-hwa enters a war of nerves with the top North Korean player Lee Boon-hee (Bae Doo-na).

The movie serves as a reminder that sports has a gift to bring people together and should always stand above political barrier and differences.

Watch the trailer here.

7.His Last Gift (2008)

Tae-joo (Shin Hyun-joon) is a murderer serving a life sentence in prison. His old friend Yeong-woo has a daughter, Se-hee who is suffering from Wilson’s disease and desperately needs a liver transplant.

He is given a temporary release to save Se-hee’s life. Tae-joo then discovers that Se-hee’s deceased mother was his ex-wife.

Even more, he also discovers that Se-hee is in fact his biological daughter.

Now, he is determined to do everything he can do to save her life.

Watch the trailer here.

8.Punch (2011)

This movie brought a lot of buzz in South Korea due to its unconventional theme circling around intercultural marriage, the economic vulnerability of the disabled and stiff education system that primarily focuses on university entrance examinations.

It follows high-school student Do Wan-deuk (Yoo Ah-in) who lives with his hunchback father Jeong-bok (Park Su-yeong) and uncle Min-gu (Kim Young-jae).

His homeroom teacher Lee Dong-ju (Kim Yoon-seok) lives as his neighbour on the rooftop.

The movie circles around the student-teacher relationship between Wan-deuk and Dong-ju and how the latter inspires him to be a better person.

It is based on the novel Wandeuk by Kim Ryeo-ryeong which won the Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction in 2007.

Watch the trailer here.

9.The Himalayas (2015)

Um Hong-gil is the mountaineer known to be the first person to climb the 14 highest points on Earth.

This movie is inspired by his life, primarily focusing on his mentorship of two other climbers.

During a climb to Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, Hong-gil saves the life of Park Moo-taek (Jung Woo) and his friend Park Jeong-bok (Kim In-kwon).

After that, he warns them never to climb mountains again. However when a new adventure project comes up, Moo-taek and Jeong-bok are recruited into the team.

At first Hong-gil refuses to allow the duo to join, but they would not give up. So, he has no choice to let them in.

After climbing the first mountain together, friendship forms between Hong-gil and Moo-taek.

Due to his injury, Hong-gil is not able to climb mountains again. Moo-taek then decides to form his own new team using the techniques he learned from Hong-gil.

When climbing Mount Everest, Moo-taek dies during the descent. The movie continues on how Hong-gil and his old crew go to the Himalayas to find Moo-taek’s body.

The characters in the movie are inspiring as they are based on real people. Hong-gil who against all odds, climbs mountain again despite his injury as well as Moo-taek who refuses to take ‘no’ as an answer.

Watch the trailer here.

10.A Barefoot Dream (2010)

Here is another movie based on inspiring real people. A Barefoot Dream (2010) is based on the true story of Kim Shin-hwan. He is a retired Korean footballer who goes to East Timor after his business fails. There he coaches a youth football team.

The main character Kim Won-kang (Park Hee-soon) is a former footballer who has more downs than ups in his life.

He migrates to East Timor, thinking that there will be more opportunities for him.

There, he sees a group of kids playing football with bare feet. So he opens up a sports equipment store thinking that he can sell football shoes to the children.

However, none of the children can afford the shoes. He then decides to teach the kids how to play football.

The motivational Korean film was the entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards but it did not make the final shortlist.

Watch the trailer here.

Do you have other motivational Korean movies? Let us know in the comment box.

KajoPicks: 8 Korean dramas set during the Goryeo dynasty to watch

Published on May 4, 2020

Entertainment

The Goryeo dynasty was a Korean kingdom which spanned the years 918 to 1392.

In the beginning, the once prosperous kingdom of Later Silla (one of the three kingdoms of Korea) ruled much of the Korean Peninsula since the late 7th century. Then the kingdom began to crumble in the late 9th century due to internal turmoil.

This caused the revival of ancient states of Baekje and Goguryeo which also known as Later Baekje and Later Goguryeo respectively.

From Later Goguryeo (also known as Taebong) came out a general named Wang Geon. In 918, four other top-ranked generals of Taebong; Hong Yu, Bae Hyeongyeong, Shin Sung-gyeom and Bok Ji-gyeom overthrew Taebong’s ruling king Gung Ye.

The generals then crowned Wang Geon as the king. After taking the name King Taejo, the new king renamed the kingdom Goryeo and begun the new Goryeo dynasty.

Subsequently, King Taejo peacefully annexed Later Silla in 935 and military conquered Later Baekje in 936. Hence, he successfully unified and ruled the Korean Peninsula under one ruling.

According to history, the Goryeo dynasty was a period of intense religious fervour. It was when everyone from the kings to the lowest subjects all were Buddhist.

The name “Korea” is derived from the name “Goryeo” which also spelled Koryo.

If you are looking for Korean dramas based on Goryeo dynasty, here are KajoMag’s suggestions:

1.Empress Cheonchu (2009)

This Korean period drama series is based on the granddaughter of Goryeo dynasty founder Taejo Wanggeon.

Known as Queen Heonae, she was the third Queen consort of King Gyeongjong of Goryeo who is also her first cousin.

The story plot circles around her desire to win back her son Mokjong from her brother Seongjong when he decides to have his nephew succeed him as ruler.

Seongjong believes she is not capable of raising him to become an Emperor. Plus, Seongjong and his wife do not have a child of their own.

Despite the conflict, Seongjong and his sister continue to work together to protect their country from invasion and internal power struggles.

Directed by Shin Chang-suk and Hwang In-hyuk, the drama stars Chae Shi-ra, Kim Suk-hoon and Choi Jae-sung.

2.Empress Ki (2013)

From 1270 to 1356, the Goryeo kingdom came under the Yuan dynasty of Mongol Empire. During this time, there were many intermarriages between Goryeo and Yuan dynasties.

Empress Ki was one of the primary empresses of Toghon Temur of the Yuan dynasty. She later became the mother of Emperor Zhaozong of Yuan.

Originally from an aristocratic family of Goryeo dynasty, she came to Yuan as an imperial concubine of Toghon Temur.

The drama Empress Ki (2013) revolves around a woman named Ki Seung Nyang (Ha Ji-won). It showcases how she slowly rises to power from a consort to Toghon Temur (Emperor of Mongol Empire) to become an empress of the Yuan dynasty.

If you love political dramas in the royal court with all the betrayal and framing, Empress Ki (2013) is definitely worth-watching.

It also stars Ji Chang-wook as Toghon Temur and Joo Jin-mo as Wang Yoo, the King of Goryeo.

The drama was a domestic and international hit, winning the Golden Bird Prize for Serial Drama at the 9th Seoul International Drama Awards.

Watch the trailer here.

3.God of War (2012)

The Goryeosa (History of Goryeo) is the main surviving history record of Korea’s Goryeo dynasty.

It was composed nearly a century after the fall of Goryeo, during the reign of King Sejong.

One of the historical figures written in it is Kim Jun. What makes Kim Jun interesting and different from other historical figures from Goryeo dynasty is that he is not of royal blood.

He is the son of an escaped palace slave who was raised by monks.

During the Mongol invasions of Korea, Kim Jun rises in the ranks to become the top military official.

He eventually becomes the ruler of Goryeo dynasty for 60 years in place of its king.

The drama God of War (2012) is based on the story of Kim Jun. It stars Kim Joo-hyuk as the real-life historical figure.

4.The Great Seer (2012)

Mok Ji-sang (Ji Sung) is a gifted seer who was born with the ability to see into people’s pasts and futures.

However, there are those who believe him to possess dark supernatural powers, thinking him possessed by ghosts.

As he grows up into adulthood in the late Goryeo era, he becomes a scholar of divination and fortune telling.

He eventually becomes a ‘king-maker’ who holds the key to a major political shift in the overthrow of Goryeo and the rise of Joseon dynasty.

The Great Seer (2012) is set during the turbulent decline of Goryeo when divination practitioners hold powers over the fate of the country.

5.Jeong Do-jeon (2014)

Jeong Do-jeon (1342-1398) is a real-life historical figure. He was a prominent Korean scholar-official during the late Goryeo to the early Joseon dynasty.

The drama focuses on the crucial role Do-jeon had in the planning and founding of Joseon dynasty.

Many critics hailed it as one of the most “authentic” and “realistic” Korean historical dramas.

The plot begins in 1374 during the final year of King Gongmin of Goryeo. At the time, the dynasty is marked with corruption and political chaos.

Then comes Do-jeon, a politician and aristocrat who helps Yi Seong-gye (later King Taejo) to establish a new dynasty, Joseon.

Starring Cho Jae-hyun and Yoo Dong-geun, the series won the Grand Prize (Daesang), Best Director and Best Writer at 41st Korea Broadcasting Awards.

Watch the trailer here.

6.The King in Love (2017)

Here is a fictional romance story based during the Goryeo dynasty. It tells the story of a young and ambitious monarch Won (Im Si-wan) and his childhood friend Wang Rin (Hong Jong-hyun) and a beautiful young woman named Eun San (Im Yoon-ah).

The three become best friends. Things start to change when both men fall in love with Eun San.

Even though Wang Rin is in love with Eun San, due to his duty to Won as his personal bodyguard and their friendship, he hides his feelings for her.

It is a romance melodrama stories about friendship, brotherhood and love.

The character Won is inspired by King Chungseon of Goryeo (1275-1325). He was the 28th king of the Goryeo dynasty. He was the eldest son of King Chungryeol and his queen from the Yuan royal family.

Watch the trailer here.

7.Shine or Go Crazy (2015)

Based on the novel of the same name by Hyun Go-woon, this is a drama about romance between Goryeo prince and a Balhae princess.

The Goryeo prince is a real-life prince named Wang So. In this drama, he is exiled from the palace and shunned by the royal family because there is a prophecy which foretells that he will turn the country into a river of blood. After his loses his right to the throne, he lives an isolated life.

Meanwhile, Shin Yool is the princess of Later Balhae (927-1030/1064). This ancient state in Manchuria emerged after Balhae was destroyed by the Liao Empire.

In the series, she narrowly escaped death as child at the hand of her own people because of a prophecy. The prophecy states that she will become “the light of another nation.”

Somehow, Wang So and Shin Yool are married and begin to fall in love with each other. How do they cope with their marriage and will Wang So claim his place on the throne?

Watch the trailer here.

8.Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016)

Here is another drama based on Wang So who later became Gwanjong the fourth King of Goryeo.

A 25-year-old 21st-century woman, Go Ha-jin (Lee Ji-eun), is transported back in time to the Goryeo dynasty.

She wakes up in the year of 941 in the body of Hae Soo, among the many royal princes of the ruling Wang family. She initially falls in love with the gentle and warm-hearted eighth Prince Wang Wook (Kang Ha-neul).

Then, her heart turns to Wang So (Lee Joon-gi), the fearsome fourth Prince who hides his face behind a mask and is given the derogatory label of “wolf dog.”

As the plots unfolds, Hae Soo finds herself unwittingly caught between the rivalry and politics among the princes over the fight for the throne.

In the midst of the political struggle among the princes to fight for the throne, it is about family, love and brotherhood.

KajoPicks: 8 Korean dramas set during the Goryeo dynasty to watch — Scarlet Heart Ryeo promotional poster. Watch the trailer here.

Suggestions

Patricia Hului

So here are KajoMag’s pick of 15 webtoon adaptations into dramas you should watch:

1.Orange Marmalade (2015)

2.Hey Ghost, Let’s Fight (2016)

3.The Tale of Nokdu (2019)

4.What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (2018)

5.Gangnam Beauty (2018)

6.Save Me (2017)

7.Love Alarm (2019)

8.Extraordinary You (2019)

9.Tale of Fairy (2018)

10.A Girl Who Sees Smells (2015)

11.Itaewon Class (2020)

12.Strangers from Hell (2019)

13.Memorist (2020)

14.Pegasus Market (2019)

15.Method to Hate You (2019)

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Life of Frank Marryat

Here are some of his notable drawings of Borneo and Marryatt’s description of it:

Kuching

James Brooke’s house

Mount Kinabalu

Frank Marryat’s Life After Borneo

The notice of Frank Marryat’s death

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Life before World War II (WWII)

The dawn of WWII

Why the Japanese wanted to attack Rabaul?

Under Japanese occupation

Operation Cartwheel

The Neutralisation of Rabaul town

Australian Military Court

A Japanese Manga artist and his military history in Rabaul

The aftermath of WWII

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Here are 5 things you should know about the Treaty of Labuan:

1.Why the British Empire was interested in Labuan?

2.Other foreign powers interested in Labuan

3.Under the Treaty of Labuan, the island was ceded to Great Britain and the Sultan of Brunei on Dec 18, 1846. Did the British threaten the Sultan of Brunei to sign the Treaty of Labuan?

Here is Marryat’s account of the Treaty of Labuan:

4.The day that the British flag was hoisted in Labuan on December 24, 1846

5.Labuan becoming a free port after the cession

Here is the part of the announcement:

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The aftermath of Borneo Campaign 1945

The trial against Masao Baba

Masao Baba’s defense

The verdict on Masao Baba

Masao Baba failing to protect his own soldiers

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Here is the account of the berbayoh ceremony in which the former district officer witnessed in Balingian:

Drawing the poisons out of the body

The use of parang in the berbayoh ceremony

The berbayoh ceremony in Mukah

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This legend of Tugau was first published in the Sarawak Museum Journal in January 1911 and republished again in the Sarawak Gazette on Sept 1, 1948:

Tugau against Alak Betatar

Alak Betatar’s men conquer Mukah and Oya

Alak Betatar conquers Bintulu

The aftermath

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The haunted Miri ferry that allegedly leads to killing sprees in the 1940s

The murder cases

The allegedly haunted Miri ferry

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If you are looking for motivational Korean movies to inspire your day, here are KajoMag’s suggestionS.

1.Marathon (2005)

2.Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013)

3.Little Forest (2018)

4.The Sound of a Flower (2015)

5.Harmony (2010)

6.As One (2012)

7.His Last Gift (2008)

8.Punch (2011)

9.The Himalayas (2015)

10.A Barefoot Dream (2010)

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If you are looking for Korean dramas based on Goryeo dynasty, here are KajoMag’s suggestions: