Seen in Jeonju

DMZ (1965) now on DVD

17th June 2010

dmzThe Korean Film Archives has been gradually releasing classic films on DVD and this week the drama DMZ was made available. The movie is about a family that becomes separated while attempting to escape from North Korea. Left alone, the two young children attempt to make the dangerous journey on their own in the hopes that they can be reunited with their parents. It was the first and only film for the child stars, Joo Min-ah and Lee Yeong-gwan but they co-starred with some familiar faces of the time including Nam Goong-won, Jo Mi-ryeong and Kim Hee-gab.  The original poster proclaims that this is a ’semi-documentary’ which I am guessing is another word for ‘fiction’ but I will politely reserve judgement until I see it. I just ordered my copy.  The DVD is a single disk with English subtitles, Region 3 and rated for ages 12 and older. The sound is Dolby Digital Mono and it is formated as anamorphic widescreen.  The recommended price is 15,400 KRW, but I just paid  13,800.  The movie was directed by Park Sang-ho who helmed just twenty films between the mid-50s to 1971–most of his film being prior to 1968.  Included on the disk is a 45 minute documentary also directed by Park, though the title and subject of the documentary was not included in the information I read…I guess I will have to wait to see what it is. 

If you are curious about dramas from the 60s..or if you just want to encourage KOFA to release more of them… they you may want to pick this up!

2 Responses to “DMZ (1965) now on DVD”

  1. 8537935 Says:

    It was actually released last week. (June 10th)
    I’m pretty sure the Documentary is about Park Sang-ho, not directed by him. It should be this one, from 2001, directed by Park Sang-Chan – already available as free VOD from KMDb.
    Too bad they didn’t make an audio commentary for this one, it would’ve been nice to get some more info on the different versions of this film, but maybe the booklet will help.

    I’m much more excited for the other KOFA releases announced for this year than this one.

  2. TheDoug Says:

    Tom, various sources have this “feature film” running at the very abbreviated running time of 62 minutes! This seems very short for a feature film. I’ll be curious as to your review of this once thought lost film assembled by KOFA.