Jang Jin wrote and directed Welcome to Dongmakgol for the stage in 2002, but entrusted this film adaptation to first-time director Park Kwanghyun. It’s Jang’s idiosyncratic take on the Korean War, and the film became one of Film It Suda’s greatest hits.
It’s September 1950. General MacArthur has led the Allies ashore at Incheon. A US fighter plane crash-lands near Dongmakgol, a mountain village that is Korea’s answer to Shangri-la, and its wounded pilot is nursed by the villagers. Three survivors from a communist army patrol soon show up too, as do two stray soldiers from the southern anti-communist army. They all team up to deal with a shared enemy (a huge wild boar) and learn to co-exist peacefully. But then the Americans parachute in to rescue their pilot, and the real war reaches Dongmakgol.
Film details
- Country of production
- South Korea
- Year
- 2005
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2015
- Length
- 130'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
