Set in the tumultuous time of the Korean war, Korea’s most renowned director, 김원택, gives you an amazing reenactment of the sad and disturbing things that took place during the war.  The story involves a town caught in the middle of the war constantly switching from being occupied by South and North Korea.  During all the switches, both governments commit atrocities, relationships form, and we see how each side views the other.  There is a lot of great dialogue about what both sides believed they were accomplishing and the immense distrust people had with each other.  The townspeople are constantly living in sadness and fear no matter who occupies their town.  This is just about the best film I’ve ever seen which illustrates the ravages of war on a town of people and the negative effects that are introduced by both sides by tearing families apart through personal vendettas and a never ending cycle of hate. Here is an explanation a teacher gives for the communist uprising in their village:

There’s a rich set of characters that really complete this film.  The main characters are two brothers who have each decided to side with the opposite government, showing just how personal things could have been.  There’s also a lot of supporting characters like a school teacher that tries to not take sides despite despite both sides trying to force him into a corner, a South Korean private inspector who shows how both sides had their bad apples, a traditional shaman girl who falls in love with a North Korean, etc.

It’s a very unique look into the feelings and circumstances of the time, so if you’re interested in the Korean war at all this is a movie that you must see.  While I’m sure the director and producer have taken some liberty in showing how the situation was, various facts are shown on the screen throughout the movie which show just how real much of it is.

Culture Notes

In Korea, shaman were fairly common.  One of the main supporting actresses is a shaman, so you get to see a glimpse into her life.  Here is the clip showing what she does:

I used to have a friend that we all called 잡새 because he was a copy.  잡새 is a slang term for cops which is pretty much the same thing as calling a cop ‘pig’.  Until I saw this movie, I never really understood what it meant.  The South Koreans had a group of people that were outside of the law who went around the town beating up people who are suspected of being communists.  As you can imagine, the people didn’t like that.  So, the term 잡새 was used to describe such individuals.  That word is continued to be used today as a derogatory term for cops. Here’s a video from the movie showing them: