Areumdawoon sheejul (1998)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Kwangmo Lee

Writer:

Kwangmo Lee (writer)

Release Date:

21 November 1998 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A story of two 13-year-old boys in a small country village during the last days of the Korean War. Sungmin's...

Plot Keywords:

Family Relationships | Friendship

Awards:

8 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Sung-kee Ahn	...	Sungmin's father
Yoo-Jung Bae	...	Changhee's mother
Jae-hyeon Jo
Jungwoo Kim	...	Changhee
In Lee	...	Sungmin
Gye-nam Myeong
Sun-mi Myeong
Ji-hye Oh	...	Teacher
Wok-suk Song	...	Sungmin's mother
Hye-jeong Yu
Oh-seong Yu	...	Sungmin's uncle (as Ohsung Yoo)

Also Known As:

Spring in My Hometown (UK)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

Andong Haheo Village, Gyeongsangpuk-Do, South Korea

Company:

Korean Film Art Center BaekDu-DaeGan Company Ltd.

Beautifully filmed, but an ugly reality.

An interesting study of the effect of foreign occupation of a small country by a militarily and economically more powerful nation, in this case the de-facto occupation of South Korea by the US during the Korean war. In particular the observation of small details, and in themselves, perhaps insignificant incidents, are brought together with more significant events to show how almost every aspect of life, down to the most intimate and personal details, are affected by the unequal power relationship between the occupier and the subjugated people.

Except for the opening scene, almost all of the violence and atrocities are off screen, one observes, for example, the expressions on the faces of children turning from inquisitive curiosity to nauseous horror, but not the act that they witness itself. The war, as such, is never shown, but only referred to in title screens reporting some of the most significant events. We see a funeral, but not the killing. To me, this is a very interesting (and in a time where most films rub your nose in graphic and excessive violence, also unusual) technique, because it allows the film to make its point without having to depict what it is actually condemning.

Admittedly this technique, of only indirectly, or not at all, showing the cardinal incidents, and the overall tendency to view events from a distance (where you can't really recognize characters) made the film very difficult to follow. However once one constructs the sequence of events from the consequences that are shown, the effect is all the more compelling.