Spring in my Hometown
(Areumdaun sijeol)
by Kwangmo Lee
South Korea
Script: Kwangmo Lee
Cinematographer: Kim Hyung koo
Sound: Seung Chul lee
Editor: Ham Sung won
Music: Won Il
Cast: Ahn Sung-kee, Bae Yoo-jung, Song Wok-suk, Lee In
Production:
Korean Film Art Centre
Baek Du-Dae Gan Co
158-1 Wonseo-dong
Jongroju, Seoul 110280
Tel: 82.2.747.7782
Fax: 82.2.747.7785
Year: 1998
35 mm, Colour, 113 min
OV Korean with French Subtitles
Unreleased
Directors' Fortnight - Cannes Film Festival 1998
Awarded at Tokyo Film Festival
During the Korean war, in summer 1952, Sung-min and Chang-hee are the best friends on earth. They witness a sight which changes their lives: Chang-hee’s mother is prostituting herself with a GI in an old mill. Choi, who is Sung-min’s father, happens to be her procurer organising the meeting. Chang-hee decides to take revenge and, without saying a word to his friend, sets the mill to fire. In the mill, a young Korean woman and a GI are making love. One year later, the bloated corpse of a child is found is a marsh close to the mill.
“Sometimes I feel that life is not really easy and that human being is more fragile than glass. This rises questions about the very meaning of life. How can man face such absurd reality where there is no hope at all...
The title of the film is a well known song for children in Korea. An adult remembers his childhood village where he cannot go back. The song is full of nostalgia and evokes the tragic reality of 10 millions Korean cut from their families with the partition of the country”. Kwangmo Lee
