Poongsan gae

I started to watch this movie after searching "Kim Ki Duk" on YouTube. I thought first that he was the director and found out only after finishing to see it that Kim Ki Duk had only written the script, otherwise this would have been just a major disappointment. Apparently Kim Ki Duk, who produced it, Juhn Jai-hong, the director, wanted to make a pop-corn movie for less than 200,000 dollars. And if this was the goal, they have succeeded in that, as this is just a typical movie with a lot of shootings and unrealistic scenes a bit like in Rambo, or in a Bruce Lee movie. Only 3-4 times one recognizes the "touch" of Kim Ki Duk in the script, however if the story was potentially interesting, and provoking for somebody like me who lives in Korea, one just feels that it was too much like a B-movie, that the director lacks experience, and probably also a decent budget. Also in many Kim Ki Duk movies, like "Dream", for example, there are unrealistic parts in the script, but the movie is always so well done, the photography is so great that it compensate for all the rest. Here it is not so and I believe that cutting 30 minutes or so would have saved me some moments of absolute boringness in the mid of the movie. Overall I gave 5 star as an encouragement for the young director for producing it in such a short time, some good ideas and for some panoramas of Korea that I always like to watch.

I didn't know what to expect from the film's summary. The first half of the movie is how he gets out and delivers the woman who is meant to be the 'big love' of an important older man (who by the way seems very sympathetic at the beginning but he becomes less and less while the story progresses). If someone yearns for 'heated conversations' between the main characters, then it will be a huge disappointment because the male character in lead doesn't say a word throughout the whole movie. I think there would too much to say therefore he rather remains silent. Anyway, after the woman is delivered, it turns out that the older lover boy is not as gentle as he seemed and she would rather return to North Korea. Unfortunately it never happens. The way the main character deals with the opposing parties is brilliant though and very comical. It is a very sad and desperate story of people who are forced into overwhelming situations and they appear to be 'chess figures' on a board without having any influence on their own lives.

Although Poongsan possesses thematic elements of romance, drama and humor, it is none of these. Poongsan is one of those rare films that some viewers may potentially want to avoid, for it tragically reveals the horrors that exist in the world around us. Though other films provide viewers with entertainment, Poongsan drags us into a bloody world of poignant realism and painful drama, where men and women are brutally tortured, for no other reason than because they happen to reside on the opposite side of a fence separating their countries. It's a film, where North Korean 'traitors' are force fed expensive items, where South Koreans execute spies without remorse, and where love is so easily devoured by the all consuming hatred that surrounds opposing nations.

Although obviously produced on a budget, everything in the feature is brilliantly used to great effect. Many of the film's settings are either only partially seen, or filmed under the cover of night, accentuating the haunting darkness of the film. However, this doesn't take away from the barren wasteland that depicts North Korea, or the South's contrast: a westernized utopia, corrupting all with its influential privileges.

An unnamed stranger, identified only by the Poongsan cigarettes he smokes, travels covertly between the borders of North and South Korea. He takes messages of love from the South, to their families in the North, and occasionally returns with messages, items, and sometimes, people. Yoon Kye-Sang is perfect in this role. He never speaks, but superbly conveys his emotions through facial gesture, one of the film's most powerful scenes conveying the moment he reveals his heart.

Though set in chronological order, the film quickly skips forward: one moment, characters are naked, swimming in a river, next second, they're fully clothed and on land. This deliberate strategy, utilized so the film can urgently tell its story, potentially provides reason as to how the stranger can be horrifically injured one moment, and yet athletically capable the next. Fight scenes, despite being well choreographed, are not only few in number and short-lived, but occasionally unrealistic: vaulting over a fence is just one example where the audience's disbelief is in need of temporary suspension, and the way Northerners, and those from the South, are able to slip across the border with ease, potentially demonstrates a flaw in the system.

When a South Korean section chief (Han Ki-Joong) finds evidence that corroborates the existence of the unidentified stranger, he and his team track him down for a job. A defector from the North (Kim Jong-Soo) desperately wishes to see his wife, In-OK (Kim Gyu-Ri), who still resides on the other side of the border, in exchange to provide further information to the South. Once reunited with her husband, In-OK, who experiences difficulty acclimatising to the environment, discovers her husband is a changed man. Greedy, arrogant, jealous and violent, In-OK's heart quickly changes allegiances, instead belonging to the man who extracted her.

Occasional poetic language is supported not only by the visuals, which are capable of articulating metaphoric symbolism, but by the soundtrack, which encapsulates the emotions experienced in its accompanying moments. One particular vocal serenade, produced over the body of a deceased lover, is especially effective. With all the pain the film articulates, it's difficult to imagine how humor could be used, often articulating the ridiculousness of the confrontation the South and the North are caught between, while discussing how people on one side of the border die of starvation, while those on the opposing side grow fat on money and resources. In one instance, a South Korean spy, who proclaims his love for the North, is asked by his Northern torturer why he loves the country, because not even the torturer is capable of doing so.

Over the course of the feature I personally didn't cry, however, during the credits, everything the film had explored inexplicably hit me at once, and I found myself unable to stem the tears as I wondered 'what's the point?' I don't give Poongsan a 10 with ease, for it's a film that is seldom entertaining, and even during moments of beauty, these are marred by decadence. However, this feature does what so few fail to do these days: it tells the truth.

You might be inclined to read the reviews and get a conclusion from them. Please, don't.

First of all, because within the movie lies an idea that you won't be able to guess from other users and it would be best it you took the time to watch the movie.

Rambo ? No. Terminator ? No. Guess again. This time is about a man who, consciously or unconsciously, tries to undo something done by the cruel history. That is the one only hint. Scouts' honor !

Fairly well acted (could've been better) and an interesting rhythm of the script.

On the other hand, the ending is kind of expected, but at the same time the more dramatic.

This is a engaging movie from beginning to end, it starts out serious but adds a bit of black comedy near the end. The movie is about a smuggler that smuggles items and even people for the communist North Korea to South Korea as long as they are willing to pay for it. But during one of the smuggle mission to smuggle a woman from North Korea, within that short time period they end up falling for each other. And it goes from there, but if your looking for a movie with sunshine and rainbow this isn't for you. This movie shows the narrow mindedness of what hatred for one another can lead to. I like Kim Gyu-Ri as an actress and she played the role of being the woman being caught in the middle between the South and the North really well and was completely believable. I also think she pulled off the North Korean accent although she was born and raised in the South in real life. Sure there are parts that don't make sense sometimes, especially near the end but those are just small gripes when it comes to the whole thing. This is a depressing movie that will keep you thinking when it's finished and it's worth a watch.

7.6/10