Runtime: 103 minutes
Directed by: Phyo Kwang… and Chil-Min Maeng
Starring: Ryeong-Hun Ri, Yeong-Chun Choi, Cheon-Yeol Kim, Gwang-Yeol Kim, Hye-Gyeong Kim
From: Joseon Yeonghwa/Korean Film
Yes, I watched a NORTH Korean movie because of a Twitter post plus subsequent messageboard discussion. Years ago I saw a movie called The Blood-Stained Road Map and talked about it during my relatively early days on Letterboxd; it was OK and I’ll echo some of the thoughts made there during this review. They even share the same director-Phyo Kwang. The Twitter account One Perfect HEADshot made a post several days ago where they uploaded a clip of a fight scene 40 minutes in and not only explained the plot, mentioned how it looked to be from the 70’s despite coming out in 2006. Road Map had the same aesthetic so that must be North Korean cinema in general.
This is a martial arts picture where a badass and his pals try to protect a manual for the old Korean fighting art taekkyon-a predecessor to taekwondo-from falling into the hands of Imperialist Japan, which had invaded the country by this point. Whether or not you’ve seen Pulgasari before, it is important for me to note that this film does follow basic filmmaking and storytelling craft; while “basic” is a good descriptor for much of the film, although the fighting scenes such as the one linked above are fun for what they are.
The film does peter out in the second half and the plot isn’t always told in a cogent matter; even then, I can say this was OK. What entertained me the most was that this actually had a training montage, set to what I’ll describe as “what I imagine 1970’s K-Pop sounds like.” If you so desire, I saw this movie with English subtitles on a YouTube channel which is… a pro North Korea account. Whether or not you want to give any support to the channel by viewing anything on it-I felt wary doing such a thing myself-is a choice to be made by you.
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