<North Korean Partisan in South Korea (Nambugun)> (1990)

Director : Jeong Ji-Young
Production : Company Nam Production
Date of Rate : 1990-05-15
Number of Rate : 90-140
Date of Theatrical Release : 1990-06-02
Running Time : 157 min.
Opening Theater : Dae Han Theater
Genre : War

Staff :
Writer : Lee Tae
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Jang Seon-Woo
Producer : Jeong Ji-Young
Director of PhotoGraphy : Yoo Young-Kil
Gaffer : Kim Dong-Ho
Music : Shin Byeong-Ha
Art Director : Cho Yung-Sam
Editor : Kim Hyeon

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Ahn Seong-Ki, Lee Hye-Young, Choi Jin-Sil, Choi Min-Su

Synopsis

Lee Tae (Ahn Sung-ki) is a war correspondent for the Korean Central News Agency working in North Korean-occupied Jeonju. When the town comes under threat from the U.S.-South Korea combined forces, Lee leaves Jeonju along with the Regional Party to join the guerilla unit headquarters in Mt. Yeob-un. Commissioned as a combat platoon leader, Lee leads his men, including Kim Young (Choi Min-soo), on various guerilla missions. In November 1950, the guerilla suppression forces storm their base of operations while virtually everyone is out on a mission. Lee escapes with a military nurse named Park Min-ja (Choi Jin-sil), and the two fall in love. After they overcome various trials and rejoin their unit, however, they are forced to part by their commanding officer. Soon thereafter, Lee is assigned to the Regional Party's guerilla headquarters, where he performs political propaganda missions. In June 1951, he is transferred to the Southern Force. He travels to the rendezvous point in Mt. Jiri, where he participates in full-fledged guerilla operations with Lee Bong-gak (Dokko Young-jae), Kim Hee-sook (Lee Hye-young), and others, under Commander Lee Hyun-sang. The Southern Force achieves a stellar mission record for a while, but the extensive guerilla suppression operation launched in late 1951 endangers the unit and they are forced to make a painful retreat. In the process, Lee Tae, Kim Young, and others end up falling behind, and Lee is finally captured by the suppression forces in March 1952.

Notes

The first visible development that the transformation of 1980s Korean society caused in the commercial film industry>
North Korean Partisan in South Korea is based on the autobiographical novel by Lee Tae, who was himself a North Korean guerilla during the Korean War. The movie minutely and objectively recreates the activities and circumstances of the guerilla forces at the time. Such an effort had not been made since Piagol (Pi-agol) in 1955, and the chronological gap between the two movies manifests itself in their similarly diverging perspectives. Jeong Ji-young's film does not go so far as to portray North Korean guerillas as heroes, but it does deliver a humane, relativistic, and positive evaluation of Communists and guerilla fighters which makes it the first of its kind among mainstream commercial films in Korea. Nevertheless, North Korean Partisan in South Korea received a fair amount of criticism in its day for being made from an overly intellectualized point of view, for depicting guerilla soldiers as too individualistic, and for representing the masses as lacking in agency. Director Jeong Ji-young countered this line of criticism by arguing that no group is based purely on organizational logic and ideological pursuit, thus affirming that his position coincided with that of the movie's protagonist, Lee Tae. North Korean Partisan in South Korea is representative as a film that accommodated the country's changed social atmosphere after the June Uprising of 1987. As such, it allows us to read the landscape of social discourses at the time. It is also significant for being the first socio-historical fare by director Jeong Ji-young, who represents the generation of Korean filmmakers whose consciousness was raised in the course of fighting against direct distribution.

Afterword

The movie was adapted from the autobiographical novel by Lee Tae, who was a Communist guerilla during the Korean War.

Director Bio: Jeong Ji-young (1946- )

Director Jeong Ji-young was born in 1946, in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do. He made his decision to become a director as a freshman in high school after watching Aimless Bullet (Obaltan) and also loved the Hitchcock film, Psycho. In 1967, he entered the Department of Theatre and Film Art at Dongguk University. Then, in 1968, he transferred to Korea University as a sophomore to major in French literature. After graduating from Korea University in 1975, he worked as an assistant director to director Kim Soo-yong, working with him on 10 movies between 1976 and 1978, including Forest Fire (Sanbul) and A Splendid Outing (Hwalyeohan oechul). He made his directorial debut in 1982 with Mist Whispers Like Women (Angaeneun yeojacheoleom sogsag-inda). He went on to make North Korean Partisan in South Korea (Nambugun) in 1990, White Badge (Ha-yanjeonjaeng) in 1992 and Life of Hollywood Kid (Halriudeu kideu-ui saenge) in 1994, earning a reputation for social criticism in his films. He led a petition drive of people in the movie industry opposing the April 19th denial of the regime of the President Jeon Du-hwan for an amendment to the constitution, And from 1988, he led a movement opposing the direct import of films made by United International Pictures. He also has been at the forefront of the movement opposing the gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the Screen Quota since 1998.