Classic Korean Films at the 2011 BIFF

As part of the 2011 Busan International Film Festival, a series of classic Korean films is being presented.  More specifically, eight of the films of Kim Ki-Duk (김기덕), a well-known Korean filmmaker, are being shown as part of the 2011 BIFF.

김기덕's career spanned two decades, beginning in the early 1960's, and ending with his retirement in 1977.  During that period, he created a diverse array of films, one of which is a horror film called Monster Yonggari (대괴수 용가리), about a Godzilla-like lizard-monster that terrorizes people.  His debut film, for which he won an award, is called Five Marines (오인의 해병).  It is a war story, taking place during the Korean war.


Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to watch 김기덕's Barefooted Young.  The title of this movie is 맨발의 청춘 in Hangul, or 맨발의 青春 in Hanja.  It is a story of a young couple who are in love, but who cannot be together, as they are from different social classes.  The woman is from a well-to-do family, but the young man has had a rough life, so rough that he's had to turn to gangsterism to survive.  They meet accidentally, start seeing each other in secret, and fall in love.  But the young woman's family does not accept her relationship, and so she runs off with her beau.  They end up committing suicide.

I really enjoyed the movie, even though I thought that the couple's suicide was a rather extreme turn of events.  I thought that it realistically portrayed what life might have been like for some people in Korea in the 1960's, only about 10 years after the end of the Korean war.  In addition, it contained beautiful footage of Seoul, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to see what Seoul looked like about 50 years ago.

Coming home after the movie, I was happy to have seen a Korean movie at the BIFF, something that I failed to do during the 2010 PIFF.  I was also intrigued by the images of Seoul that I had seen in the movie, and set out to find old pictures of Seoul on the internet.  Interestingly, I found a photo archive containing vintage pictures of Seoul, some taken as early as the beginning of the 1900's.  I also found a blog, written in Korean, containing photos of Seoul in the 1960's, including a few pictures of Seoul's central train station.  Seoul's old train station still exists, but does not appear to be used any more.  Finally, I found the blog of a retired American army chap, on which he posted pictures that he took while posted in Korea.  Of note on this latter blog are photos of slums formerly located in and around Seoul.  I imagine that after the war, many Koreans would have been very poor.  Thankfully, things have greatly improved since then.