Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Kwang-Hyun Park

Writers:

Jin Jang (play)
Joong Kim (writer)

Release Date:

4 August 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Plot:

Soldiers from both sides of the Korean divide live among villagers who know nothing of the war. |

Plot Keywords:

Escapism | Mass Murder | Plane Crash | Hand Grenade | Animal Killing

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Jae-yeong Jeong	...	Chief Comrade Lee Su-Hwa
Ha-kyun Shin	...	2nd Lt. Pyo Hyun-Chul
Hye-jeong Kang	...	Yeo-il
Ha-ryong Lim	...	Jang Young-hee (North)
Jae-kyeong Seo	...	Army Medic Mun Sang-sang (South)
Deok-Hwan Ryu	...	Seo Taek-ki (North)
Steve Taschler	...	Smith
Jae-Jin Jung
Young-yi Lee
Nam-Hee Park
Deok-hyeon Jo		(as Duk-hyun Cho)
Seung-Mok Yoo
Won-cheol Shim
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Joseph Anselmo	...	Special Forces Commander
Michael Frederick Arnold	...	Attack Pilot Last Scene
Michael Arnold	...	Attack Pilot Last Scene
Steve M. Choe
Jon Emm	...	Colonel
Leif Gantvoort	...	Major
Edwards Garrett
Clinton Morgan

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Korea

Company:

Film It Suda

Trivia:

It has been assumed there is no village in either of the Koreas with the name "Dongmakgol". However, there is a small village near Jecheon, South Korea that is named Dongmakgol.

Gorgeous and well told tale of war...

Upon approaching this flick i was a tad sceptical - i knew with the cast, director and musical score covered nicely - there was no reason for it to be a let down, but i always find myself slightly dubious of war films. JSA was fantastic though so i gritted my teeth, held my breath and hoped for the best. Absolutely F'in glad i did, its such a well shot beautiful tale, the cinematography is highly original for the premise of a war film, the colours and dialogue were spot on and the actors all came correct. I found myself wishing that i could just F it all and go live in that cool village with that crazy girl for the rest of my days, ha ha. Thats not to say this film is completely void of any gritty (and sometimes gory) realism on the 'war' front but it just doesn't focus so much on the agony, more so on the individual and the reasons behind such atrocities. Its not a short film, but i found myself not wanting it to end. Some scenes in particular bring light relief and patch the whole thing up into a marvellous little epic. I highly highly recommend it to fans of beautiful cinema.