<The Seashore Village (Gaenma-eul)> (1965)

Director : Kim Su-Yong
Production Company : Dae Yang Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1965-11-19
Running Time : 91 min.
Opening Theater : Myeong Bo Theater
Genre : Literary Art

Staff :
Writer : Oh Young-Su
Screen play(Adaptation) : Shin Bong-Seung
Producer : Ho Hyeon-Chan
Executive Producer : Ho Hyeon-Chan
Director of PhotoGraphy : Jeon Jo-Myeong
Gaffer : Sohn Young-Cheol
Music : Jeong Yun-Ju(Singing Korean folk song : Kim So-Hee)
Art Director : Park Seok-In
Editor : Yoo Jae-Won

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Shin Young-Kyun, Ko Eun-Ah, Hwang Jeong-Sun, Lee Nak-Hun, Lee Min-Ja

Synopsis

At the seashore village, there are many widows: fishing boats often go out to sea and become lost in storms, along with their crew of men. The widowed women work by the sea, sharing their burdens and their loneliness with one another. Hae-sun (Ko Eun-ah) has only been married a short while, but her husband dies in a fierce storm and she becomes a widow. Sang-su (Shin Young-kyun) relentlessly pursues the young and attractive Hae-sun, and the two end up sleeping together. Hearing Sang-su brag all over the village that Hae-sun is now his woman, her mother-in-law (Hwang Jung-seun) and her brother-in-law (Lee Nak-hun) arrange for Hae-sun and Sang-su to leave the village together. The two wander from place to place, stopping at quarries and mountain villages. Hae-sun's pretty face draws the attention of men wherever they go, and this makes Sang-su increasingly possessive of her. When a hunter starts eyeing Hae-sun, the enraged Sang-su murders him. Hae-sun faints from the shock, and Sang-su goes to fetch some medicine, but loses his footing near a cliff and falls to his death. In the end, Hae-sun returns to the seashore village, and the village women and her mother-in-law greet her back with open arms.

Notes

"A black and white CinemaScope film that may be commended for attempting a new type of cinepoem by frankly depicting the lives of seaside inhabitants" (Chosun Ilbo)
The Seashore Village, based on a short story by Oh Young-soo, is director Kim Soo-young's most representative literary film. It was highly praised for surpassing the prevailing aesthetic standard of Korean films at the time, with visuals that delicately capture the beauty of the natural landscape on the CinemaScope screen using outstanding camera movements. The Seashore Village lyrically portrays the lives of women as they live amid pristine and unsullied nature. In representing women, the film distinguishes itself by featuring a group of women bound together by their commons social condition as "widows." Living by their own labor without husbands to rely on, these women understand each other with the deep affection that comes from empathy. They are, moreover, free from the moral dictates of patriarchy. Because of their peculiar circumstances, the women of the village are able to freely express their sexual desires. Desire that cannot be directed toward men is sometimes expressed through their fellow women; the scene in which the widows embrace one other while singing is unconventional enough to admit of a homoerotic interpretation. In this context, Hae-sun's departure with Sang-su in pursuit of her sexual desire is depicted as an exceedingly natural choice. When The Seashore Village was first released, critics found fault with the movie's contrived and desultory second half, which follows Hae-sun and Sang-su's inland travels. Nonetheless, its first half, which gracefully depicts a woman's natural desires against the backdrop of the beautiful sea, provides an ample source of appeal in itself. Furthermore, The Seashore Village is hailed as a film that had an important effect on the future of literary movies by proving their commercial potential for the very first time.

Director Bio: Kim Soo-yong (1929- )

He was born in Anseong, Gyeonggi-do, in 1929. He graduated from Seoul National University of Education and made his directorial debut with the black and white film, A Henpecked Husband (Gongcheoga) (1958). Kim Soo-yong is not a director that can be easily classified or categorized. During the 60s and 70s when he was most active, he experimented with formality and adopted novels and plays, receiving acclaim for these "Literature Films" which have since been recognized as some of the greatest films in Korean cinematic history. In The Seashore Village (Gaenma-eul) (1965) and Flame in the Valley(Sanbul) (1967), he explored themes of human ambition and society. And through Mist (Angae) (1967), Night Journey (Yahaeng) (1977), and A Splendid Outing (Hwalyeohan oechul) (1977), he showed his modernist side by breaking existing notions of genre and attempting formal experimentation. He retired as an act of protest when his film, Jung-kwang's Nonsense (Junggwang-ui heoteunsori) (1986), was censored in 10 different places. He made a comeback with The Apocalypse of Love (Sarang Ui Muksirok) (1995) and Scent of Love (Chimhyang) (1999), but hasn't directed any films since.