Seen in Jeonju

Archive for February, 2010

Reposting movie plates

16th February 2010

When Seen In Jeonju started in July 2007, I began a category of posts indexing Korean films. My goal was to include each movie ever made with the complete known cast and primary staff members all written in English along with a plot synopsis and image of the film. To collect the images, I spent long hours in the basement of Woosuk University’s library photographing old newspaper advertisements. I would then photoshop all the information together for posts here. I had originally started with the 1970s because I knew they would be some of the hardest years to get through–each year having about two-hundred films or more in the early part of that decade.  I posted about 10 per week until I had completed 1973 (which for some reason I started with–I can’t remember why I did that) and then worked backwards through ‘72, 71 and had just started posting the films of 1970 when we experienced the server problems and they were all lost.  Well, not lost exactly…I naturally have them saved on disks with two back-ups for each year. This is a lot of work, I don’t want to lose it.

But I had been reluctant to post them again even though I continue making these plates for other years and decades. (I have the 70s almost finished, images for much of the 60s as well as gathering images for the 2000s….why I don’t go in chronological order, I do not know…).  It is a daunting task to repost these. There were easily more than 700 plates that were up originally.  However, I recenlty found a feature of this new blog that got me motivated to start posting them again. I discovered that I can create new pages. As you can see on the tabs above (just below the blog’s logo) there is a new page called Movies of the 70s. Listed there are all the films that I had previously posted on this blog as plates in order by the director’s family name.   I will begin reposting these films and link them to the director.  Eventually, you will be able to click any of the titles of the directors work to discover information about that movie. I am thinking of uploading 20-30 movies each week which will get me caught up by the end of the year. I can then expand that list to include the rest of the 70s.

It will take years to complete..if it is even possible to do so. But I enjoy doing it and learn a lot along the way. If you see any mistakes or want to comment about a movie you saw, feel free to write.

<Edit> It took me a while to figure out how to get the thumbnails clickable, but I finally got it and I succeeded in linking the images from the new page as well. It took a few tries though, three out of the twelve kept coming up as broken links –but after several tries, I finally got that too. Hopefully, it will get easier for me as I go.

1970-01 1970-02 1970-03 1970-04 1970-05 1970-06 1970-071970-081970-09 1970-10 1970-11 1970-12

Posted in K-Movie Index | 2 Comments »

Korean Box Office: February 12-14

15th February 2010

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As I added in an edit to my post last week, the title of the film which the Korean Times called Blood Brothers (a direct translation of the Korean title) has been officially named Secret Reunion in English. So it is in its second week at number 1 in the box office.  Personally though, I prefer the title Blood Brothers– The new films opening last week managed to clear out a lot of the hangers on that have been lingering in the box office for a while, but none of them did very well except for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. 

I am looking forward to Neighbor Zombie opening this coming week, but I have no delusions about how it will do in the box office. I just hope that it will open nearby. Below is the list of films opening this coming Thursday.

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A. Hachiko: A Dog’s Story (us)– d. Lasse Hallstrom, starring Richard Gere, Joan Allen www.hachi-movie.co.kr

B. Neighbor Zombie (kr)– d. Ryu Ho, Oh Yeong-doo, Jang Yoon-jeong, Hong Yeong-geun http://blog.naver.com/50punk

C. Parallel Life (kr)– d. Kwon Ho-yeong, starring Ji Jin-hee, Lee Jang-hyeok www.parallel2010.kr

D. Vegetarian (kr)– d. Im Woo-seong, starring Chae Min-seo, Kim Hyeon-seong

E. Whip It (us)– d. Drew Barrymore, starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore www.whipit2010.co.kr

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DVD releases Feb. 14-20

13th February 2010

There are five Korean movies slated for release during this coming week.

yoga academy dvd

YOGA ACADEMY– This horror movie of a haunted building housing yoga classes is getting the 1-disk treatment. The movie is rated for ages 15+, is coded for region 3 and is subtitled in both Korean and English. Special features included on the disk are labeled as Making, Characters, Yoga Practice, Special Effects Make-Up and Trailer. The DVD will be available for sale on February 17 and the recommended retail price is 25,000 KRW.

tears of the arctic dvd

TEARS OF THE ARCTIC— This documentary received a threatical release where it did fairly well for a non-fiction film. Two disks are included in this package. The first includes the film with an extra ‘Making of’ section and production notes. The second disk is the OST which contains 20 musical arrangements. The movie is subtitled in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese.  It is coded for all regions and rated for all audiences. The Blue Ray version will be released on February 19 with a recommended retail price of 36,900 KRW. The regular DVD will be released on February 20 with a recommended price of 25,300 KRW.

kill me dvdKILL ME— Shin Hyeon-joon’s latest will be released as a single disk. No region code was provided to me but I am going to assume that it will be playable only on region 3 players like most Korean movies.  It is subtitled in Korean and English and is rated for adults only. The disk has optional commentaries by the leads, Shin Hyeon-joon and Kang Hye-jeong as well as diretor Yang Jong-hyeon. Features include sections called ‘Making of’, Interviews with actors, Behind the scenes and Trailers. It will be released on February 19th with a suggested price of 22,000 KRW.

gold wing dvdGOLD WING 1-2-3— When I first saw that this 1978 animated movie from the same director who made Robot Taekwon V was getting released on a disk with English subtitles, I was ecstatic!  But then I looked a little closer. This release is only Blue-Ray!  I do not own a blue-ray player and have no intention to in the near future. I have been frantically searching to see if there has been a DVD release that I missed, but found none. The list I have been supplied with only goes to the end of this month, so I am hoping that perhaps March will see Gold Wing on DVD. The BlueRay edition is all regions, all ages and, as previously mentioned, subtitled in English and Korean. There are a limited number of sets signed by the director. The recommended price for this release coming February 19 is 31,900 KRW.

good rain dvdGOOD RAIN— The Good Rain is also being released on February 19 as a single disk.  There are no apparently no extras on this region 3 DVD rated for ages 15+. There is some confusion as to whether there are subtitles or not. The list I have does not lists only Korean subtitles while the site I shop at claims that it contains both Korean and English subs. Personally, I tend to believe that it has English captions but if you are planning to order this, you may want to check with your provider. The recommended price for this movie is 19,800 KRW

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Zombies of Korean Film

11th February 2010

the monstrous corpseWhen we think of classic Hollywood monsters the first three that spring to mind for most people are probably Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolfman. Prod a little more and maybe names like the Creature from the Black Lagoon or the Mummy come up. Rarely does anyone mention zombies. That is because in the Golden Age of Hollywood films, zombies were deathly dull. Not monsters at all, zombies were usually people who were enthralled against their wills into doing the bidding a master. The earliest feature-length zombie movie was probably White Zombie in 1932. Others early zombie films I remember seeing from that time include Revolt of the Zombies (1936), King of the Zombies (1941) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943). None of these can be considered true horror movies. White Zombie, Revolt and King of the Zombies are action films…(well, ‘action’ might be too generous a term) and I Walked with a Zombie is more of a gothic melodrama. There are some tense scenes in King of the Zombies and I Walked with a Zombie, but they reveal nothing of what would come in the next. <the poster above is for The Monstrous Corpse–Korea’s first zombie film>

monstrous corpse 2What was to come was George Romero’s horror masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead (1968). Up until that point, zombies had been under the control of one master—throughout the 50s that master was often an alien controlling the actions of its victims. However, the zombies in Romero’s film were under no such control and, unlike most of their predecessors, they were actually corpses. The only purpose these creatures seemed to have was to feed on the living and this grotesque image is what most other filmmakers would draw from when making future zombie films.  <zombie attack from The Monstrous Corpse>

During that same period in Korean cinema, there was nary a zombie to be found. Oh, there were some ghosts –and some of these seemed solid enough like they could be walking corpses—but they always had a purpose and that was usually related to avenging a crime against themselves or protecting their still-living loved ones. Mind-controlled zombies or wandering cadavers were nowhere to be found.—at least in film. There were of course traditional tales that have beings that appear zombie-ish. I had seen one of these dramatized on Legends of the Hometown back in 1995 or ’96. In that tale, a woman is told by a monk that in order to save her sick husband’s life, she must dig up a grave in the dead of night, cut of the corpse’s leg and prepare a soup for her husband using the stolen limb. That night, she heads off into the woods to a forgotten grave and manages to accomplish the gruesome task. However, as soon as she has finished removing its leg, the corpse sits up and screams at her, “My leg! Give me my leg!” Instead of doing what the undead creatures demands, she blindly dashes away only to find the decomposed monstrosity scrambling and, even worse, hopping after her shouting for its leg the entire time.

That episode of Legends of the Hometown terrified me…and I loved it! I don’t really care for the modern, fast moving zombies we have today in the recent remakes of Romero’s Living Dead movies or in 28 Days Later. I prefer my zombies to shuffle…or hop… slowly and inexorably closer. I think they are so much more frightening that way. I guess that is why I was also a fan of the ‘Gangshi’. Gangshi are another zombie-like undead who are usually depicted dressed in traditional Chinese garb. They move with their arms extended out in front of them and jump from place to place with their feet firmly together. They can often be found in Hong Kong films especially in the 70s and 80s and would make their way into Korean cinema as well.

monstrous corpse1But before Korean directors first employed gangshi, the first zombies had finally debuted on screen. In 1980, Director Kang Beom-gu helmed the production of The Monstrous Corpse—a misnomer in the English title as there are more than one. Much like Romero’s version of the walking dead, Kang’s zombies rose from the dead by some outside source theorized in the film to be from some ultrasonic sound. However, viewers who have seen both films claim that The Monstrous Corpse was more heavily influenced by the Italian film Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) especially in terms of the amount of onscreen gore. Kang’s film was released on VHS in the late 80s but has not made it to DVD and is extremely difficult to find. <pictured is a zombie from The Monstrous Corpse>

smart little gangshiZombies were also hard to find after that although their counterparts, the gangshi, became quite prolific in the late 80s and early 90s but in unexpected places—children’s films and comedies. Oddly, these undead creatures against whom heroes battled in many Hong Kong horror/action films were suddenly the stars of movies and the heroes themselves. This is due entirely the Hong Kong series of films known in English as Mr. Vampire which started in 1985. Now, I know, the title says Mr. Vampire—but they are a form of undead much more like zombies than the western idea of vampires. Anyway, between 1988 and 1999 there were five movies featuring the appearance of gangshi such as The Smart Little Gangshi (1988) and The Gangshi Training Center (1988), but in all but one of them, they were the heroes of the piece fighting against evil magicians or even aliens. As fast as they arose though, gangshi also quickly disappeared from Korean productions. <image: gangshi parade in The Smart Little Gangshi>

zombies of dark forestKorean zombies would not appear in a feature film again until 2006 when Dark Forest was made. I wrote a brief review of that film several years ago for this site but will sum it up by saying the film was disappointing for many reasons. And it didn’t have to be. The premise of the film was quite good and how the zombies were created was something rather unusual in a good way. Unfortunately, the director didn’t go any deeper with why the dead were coming back to life in that one forest and instead gave us a mess of a slasher film that most people will have no interest in viewing. <image–zombie of Dark Forest>

This brings us to 2010 and the reason I am writing this article. On February 18, The Neighbor Zombie will be released. The film is about a zombie plague in Seoul where a vaccine has turned its recipients into the living dead. Does it sound like a great film? Well, maybe but I will definitely see it regardless as it represents a sub-genre that has rarely been used in the  hundred years of Korean cinema.

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Fisherman’s Fire (1938)

10th February 2010

fisherman's fireOriginally posted December 11, 2008–I am very excited to announce the release of the DVD set The Past Unearthed 2. The first compilation contained Korean films released in the 1940’s. This second set contains the extant films from Korea made during the 1930’s. Included in the set are Sweet Dream (1936), Military Train (1938), a thirteen minute fragment of Shin Cheong–which contains excellent acting from Kim So-yeong, the actress in the title role, a nine-minute fragment of I Will Die Under My Flag (1939) and the topic of today’s review, Fisherman’s Fire (1939) directed by Ahn Cheol-yeong.

The story opens with stock footage of a celebratory festival in a rural village which in itself is a fascinating glance into the past. We then pull away to watch In-soo wandering up a hill above the village with her old friend Cheon-seok. They are very comfortable with each other and we can easily infer that their feelings run deeper than they are showing on the surface.  In-soo is far to traditional to openly reveal her emotions although she does give us some insight into her hidden thoughts when she expresses, several times, her desire to leave the village and go to Seoul to work and go to school. Her wanting to earn a salary is understandable because her father is deeply in debt to Mr. Jang Yong-woon. Her father is unable to repay the debt because his nets are so old and rotten that the fish he manages to snare end up escaping through large gaps in the mesh.  However, despite the logic of letting In-soo work, her father absolutely refuses to let her go.

As bad as things are for the family, they only get worse when a storm claims the life of In-soo’s father.  Jang offers a solution to In-soo’s mother and he buys the girl for marriage–well, she calls it marriage, he never mentions that as his intention.  But, out of the what seems to be the kindness of his heart, Jang’s son Cheol-soo, a successful office worker in Seoul, pays off her debt. He then offers to take her to Seoul with him. There, In-soo plans to stay with her friend Ok-boon who had left for the city years ago and gained what she calls ‘finacial independence’.

However, Cheol-soo has designs on In-soo and keeps her in his apartment for ten days, lying to her that he can not get in touch with Ok-boon. Eventually though, Cheol-soo must go back to work (where he gets chewed out for being absent for so long) and In-soo is able to arrange a meeting with Ok-boon. She learns from her friend that Cheol-soo is a womanizer her he had tried a similar trick on Ok-boon who managed to resist him. Naive In-soo had not been so lucky and admits that she slept her host. Depressed and not wanting to impose on Ok-boon, In-soo goes out on her own to find a job and winds up working as a kisaeng–the Korean version of a geisha. She becomes considerably more depressed and attempts to kill herself. The movie doesn’t end there, but I won’t reveal anymore.

This movie is a fantastic example of early Korean film-making. The acting is good and the characterizations are excellent. The most fascinating character however is not any of the leads, it is Ok-boon played by Jeon Hyo-bong.  In most of Korean movies pre-1960–and even a little later– women who were successful and assimilated into the ‘modern’ world were generally portrayed in a negative light. In Sweet Dream (1936), the woman who visited department stores and dressed in modern styles eventually became so corrupted by this lifestyle that she wound up abandoning her family. However, Ok-boon is a strong, confident woman who has no problem speaking her mind and even goes so far as to slap the overbearing Cheol-soo across the face. The booklet enclosed with the DVD set says that the creation of Ok-boon was possibly done with the cooperation of Jeon Sook-hee, Korea’s first female assistant director.

If you are interested in Korean movie history or early film-making in general…or just want to watch some good movies, I strongly recommend you purchase The Past Unearthed 2. You won’t regret it.

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Korean Box Office: February 5-7

9th February 2010

020502072010

Well–this is late getting up. I was sick as a dog on Monday, probably from something I ate. I couldn’t do anything.  A couple of days before that though, I was able to see the movie Blood Brothers (Uihyeongje–I don’t know for sure if Blood Brothers is the actual English title but that is what the Korea Times called it so that is what I’m going with for now until I hear differently).  <EDIT:  I just saw that KOFIC has given this film the English name Secret Reunion..that is what I will refer to it as in future posts> The acting was excellent and the action scenes, particularly at the begining and the end are good. The center of the film felt a little padded to fill out the running time but overall I enjoyed it. 

This coming weekend is the Lunar New Year holiday which is usually excellent for films. However, the holiday falls on a Sunday this year which means only Sat-Mon are part of the holiday.  People are going to be spending much of the time travelling to their ancestral homes and, with such a short holiday, there won’t be much time for anything else. I don’t think it will have much impact on the box office.  I believe that the film companies realized that too–no new Korean films are being released next week.

02112010

A. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (us)– d. Chris Miller, starring Andy Samberg, Anna Faris www.meatball.co.kr

B. Confucius (ch)– d. Mei Hu, starring Yun-fat Chow, Xun Zhou www.kongja2010.co.kr

C. Kisaragi (jp)– d. Yuichi Sato, starring Shun Oguri, Yusuke Santamaria

D. One Piece Film: Strong World (jp)– d. Munehisa Sakai, starring Naoto Takenaka, Kazuki Yao

E. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (us)– d. Chris Columbus, starring Logan Lerman, Pierce Brosnan www.foxkorea.co.kr/percy

F. Valentine’s Day (us)– d. Garry Marshall, starring Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba www.valentine2010.kr

G. Wolf Man (us)– d. Joe Johnston, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins

H. You’ll Miss Me (fr)– d. Amanda Sthers, starring Carole Bouquet, Piere Arditi www.jevaistemanquer-lefilm.com

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DVD releases Feb. 7-13

7th February 2010

iris

IRIS– One of the most successful dramas to have aired recently, Iris was more popular than many due to the high quality of its production and its all-star cast which includes such names as Lee Byeong-heon, Jeon Joon-ho and Kim Tae-hee.  The release is an 8-disc set. Discs 1-7 contain the twenty episodes of the drama. The eigth disc contains unaired scenes and clips showing the making of the drama. The box set also includes a 50-page book which contains the story and still photos. This region 3 release has English subtitles and will be available from Feb. 10th. Suggested retail price is 99,000KRW.

high kick 2

HIGH KICK 2 — I hadn’t planned on mentioning dramas at all in these posts but, since I felt I had to mention Iris, I guess I can include other drama releases. High Kick is a sitcom broadcast on MBC television. This 10-disc set is labeled as volume 1 and  contains episodes 1-65. The suggested retail price of this region 3 release is 89,000KRW and it can be purchased from Feb.10th.   NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES.

today and the other daysTODAY AND THE OTHER DAYS– This movie made the film festival circuit and has been screened at The Barcelona Asian Film Festival, Brasilia International Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival and the Yubari Fantastic Film Festival in Japan.  This is a no-frills, single disc release.  It is listed as being all-regions and is rated as 18+.  English and Korean subtitles are available.  The disc can purchased from Feb. 10th and the suggested retail price is 19,800 KRW.

goodbye motherGOODBYE MOTHER– Nominated for several acting awards, the film Goodbye Mother is being released on DVD on Feb. 12th. It is a 2-disc release. The first disc contains the film, with subtitles in English and Korean and an optional commentary track. The second disc contains interviews with Kim Yeong-ae and Choi Kang-hee, deleted scenes, a clip of the poster photoshoot, a photo gallery and the theatrical trailers. Rated 15+, suggested retail price 27,500 KRW

Posted in DVDs: New Releases | 1 Comment »

Secret of Troupe 77 (1978)

5th February 2010

secret of troupe 77Originally posted February 22, 2009—There have been a lot of movies lately set in Korea during the age of Japanese rule. Modern Boy, Radio Dayz, Once Upon a Time, Dajjimawa Lee, The Good The Bad and the Weird to name but a few. In those films, we are treated to the brave actions of freedom fighters battling against suppression and dreaming of the day when their nation would be independent once more. A true hero of that time was Bang Jeong-hwan (1899-1931), a writer and staunch supporter of Korean independence. He gained fame in his short lifetime however as a children’s advocate. He wrote stories and plays aimed at children, often with strong patriotic messages, and introduced western fairytales into Korea. In 1926, he wrote the children’s novel, The Secret of Troupe 77–one of approximately 50 of his creations. The story proved to be very popular and enduring. Long after his death the tale of The Secret of Troupe 77 was made into a radio serial, a comic book and finally, in 1978, an animated film.

The Secret of Troupe 77 is not really about the character prominantly featured on the poster. That is the Black Hood, a mysterious figure fighting to free Koreans who have been kidnapped and forced into labor. Instead, it is about two children, Sang-ho and Soon-ja, who were kidnapped as toddlers and sold into a circus. There they were taught to fly on the trapeze and walk the tightrope. They are little more than slaves in the circus but are afraid to attempt escape for fear on incurring the wrath of the circus master and his equally cruel wife.  They also realizes that they have nowhere to go even if they do escape because both were very young when kidnapped and they cannot remember their home .

That all changes one day when an old man enters the big top and announces he is their uncle. He had been searching for the children for the last 9 years and was on the verge of giving up when he received a mysterious note indicating that his niece and nephew were at the circus.  However, before he can get them away from their life of forced entertainment, he is stopped by the members of the circus, badly beaten and thrown out of the circus. They children are also severly punished for listening to the old man’s tale.

All is not lost however. Two mysterious notes arrive, the first for Sang-ho and Soon-ja telling them to slip outside at night where they can be helped by the Black Hood. The other note to the circus master telling him that the Black Hood will attack that night. The circus master arms the members of his troupe and everyone is on edge. A simple distraction is all it takes to get all the members of the troupe rushing outside to fight whom they think is the Black Hood leaving the children free to escape out back. However, the Black Hood did not count on the shrewdness of the wife of the circus master. She succeeds in preventing Soon-ja’s escape but Sang-ho is able to jump the wall. Another trick is required to free Sang-ho’s sister and then the two children make their way to the hospital to see their uncle. However, freedom for Soon-ja is short lived as the circus troupe has learned where they are. Lead by The Viper, who arrived that night from Japan, they kidnap the girl once again and slay the uncle. Sang-ho escapes and receives yet another mysterious note directing him to go to China if he wants to rescue his sister.

The story is quite good although the art is not as well-done as it could be. While I liked the style–very similar to the original Robot Taekwon V and Marachi Arachi–it had some problems. For example, the artist did not pay much attention to the background of the story. It is set in the 1920s yet we see people walking around during a marathon scene wearing mini-skirts. Also the way the children’s father is drawn did not match his description (With his clothes and facial hair looked more like an extra from Fiddler on the Roof than the children’s father). The Secret of Trope 77 is directed by Park Seung-cheol who only has one other film to his name, another animation entitled Space Boy Casey.

This film has recently been made available on DVD by Blue Media. The DVD features a restored version of the movie and most of it is excellent. However, the colors in the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie are faded and it seems as if this was left unrestored. Unlike many other old animated Korean films that have been given DVD releases in the past few years, The Secret of Troupe 77  has English subtitles making it accessible to foreigners who wish  to have a better understanding of early Korean animation.

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A Dangerous Man (1966)

2nd February 2010

dangerous manI watched a couple of movies this weekend from the sixties that I had not seen before. The first was Shin Sang-ok’s 1963 Romance Gray (or as the KMDB calls it ‘Love Affair’–but since the title is already in English, I am not sure why the created another name for it)   With the exception of one camara technique he employed where the characters made their pleas and arguements by speaking directly into the camera, I found the movie to be rather disappointing. I was mostly disappointed with this movie because of the plot which portrayed the wives as horrible people because they left their husbands who were having affairs with more sympathetic mistresses.

However, I the next movie I watched I found to be much better in every regard. That movie was A Dangerous Man directed by Jeong Chang-hwa.  Director Jeong has about 50 movies to his name and even more that he produced. His directing career lasted from 1953 to 1977 but in the late 60s his movies were, at first co-productions with the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest productions companies out of Hong Kong. Throughout most of the 70s he worked almost exclusively for those Hong Kong studios and seems to have relocated there as records indicate that he won third place in the 1975 Hong Kong Yacht Race and was honored by the Hong Kong Film Archives.  But in 1966, when A Dangerous Man was made and released, Jeong was working soley for Korean studios. Glancing through a list of his films, none of them jump out at me as being particularly famous however, if A Dangerous Man is any indication of the quality of his work then I want to see more.

The basic plot revolves around Deok-tae (Shin Seong-il) who lives with his older sister Ok-joo (Moon Jeong-sook).  Ok-joo has supported and raised her brother after the death of their parents and plays the role of mother and sister to him and, for his part, Deok-tae is very protective of her. Ok-joo falls in love with a gangster named Mr. Min (Heo Jang-kang) and the two date several times before he tells her that he was only seeing her for fun and dumps her when she starts talking marriage.  Pregnant, Ok-joo sees no option but to have an abortion. Naturally upset, she tells her brother what has happened to her and he, already something of a lowlife, hatches an absolutely evil plan for revenge which involves Min’s younger sister Yeong-ah played by Moon Hee.

I cannot stress enough just how evil Deok-tae’s plan is and yet, somehow, even as he is looking somewhat maniacal while plotting and carrying out his plan, I found myself both loathing and rooting for him. I don’t know exactly how that happened but the writing and Shin’s acting combine to make a complex character out of Deok-tae.  Although Shin Seong-il was certainly overworked, when he likes his role and is in his element, his acting is excellent. We learn early on that he is crude when, at a concert, he throws popcorn at the piano soloist (although I have to admit, I found that to be pretty funny). However, he later proves himself to be much worse than just ill-mannered and commits a crime that should have landed him in jail…if Yeong-ah could have been convinced to tell anyone. But Yeong-ah genuinely loves him and is willing to ignore all his faults—including finding him in bed with the loose cabaret girl (played brilliantly by Choi Ji-hee–I wish her character had more of a role because she steals the scenes whenever she appears).

If I had one complaint about it it would be that I was often comparing it to Early Rain and Barefoot Youth where Shin Seong-il plays similar characters. It was also similar to Early Rain, also from 1966,  in that much of the rest of the cast from that movie were playing similar characters here as well–Moon Hee in love with a man that is no good for her, Twist Kim as his comic buddy. But as I like both Early Rain and Barefoot Youth–that is not much of a complaint.

I have just mentioned about the basic plot of the movie, there is much more to it that I do not wish to spoil. Although it is not on DVD, it ought to be.   I would buy this film in a hearbeat if it ever became available.

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