You thought your ordeal to get into the university of your choice was a big deal? Imagine a society where the college entrance exam is a national holiday, where companies – even the Korean stock market – open up for business an hour later than usual to reduce traffic jams; where police can provide escorts to take tardy students to their testing centers; planes are grounded for an hour during a crucial part of the exam; and high schoolers can enroll in year-long boot camps, where they are separated from their families, to simply study for said exam, 24/7.
Every year, on the 2nd Thursday of November, the entire country of South Korea is put to the test. That day, more than half a million senior high school students take part in the National Exam, better known as “Suneung siheom” in Korean.
Months or even years before the exam takes place, Korean students often live a life of strict routine. On an average day they get up as early as 6am to go to school. When school is finished, they then attend a hagwon, a private academy, where they are primed for the big day for months in a row. Usually the school day comes to an end when they arrive home well after midnight.
Suneung isn’t a regular high school test.
The test will not only determine where the high school seniors will attend university but ultimately also their status in the Korean hierarchical society. At the most prestigious universities, spaces for freshmen are very limited, with chances of acceptance being less than 1%. Getting into a university with a good reputation is one of the most competitive experiences Korean students will ever experience in their life.
Temples and churches are flooded with parents, praying for their students to do well, for the exam results pre-determine the rest of their lives, anywhere from salary potential, marriage compatibility and social circle.
Reach for the Sky follows three youths on their year long journeys to Suneung day. It also eye-openingly shows the “big business” in exam prep as tutors are treated like rock stars and command stadium-filled audiences to sell parents to open their pocketbooks and enroll their children in their hagwon.
The film provides an insight on Korean youth today and how they are treated as little emperors and empresses, with parents adding extra pressure on their children to succeed, in the desire to right their own wrongs from their scholastic past and also their current station in life.
It is a pampering of a nation’s youth that can be skewed as odd to the foreigner, but in a way, provides an inkling of a nation’s cultural hegemony in putting young people on such a high pedestal that one can understand the South Korean people’s national anguish after the Sewol Ferry disaster that resulted in the death of hundreds of high school students.
Conveying the hopes, dreams and disappointments of today’s South Korean youth, Reach for the Sky is a snapshot of how the young nation has become an economic and cultural powerhouse through such stringent and systemic measures – but, at what cost?