<Black Republic (Guedeuldo ulicheoleom)> (1982)

Director : Park Kwang-su
Year of Production : 1982
Genre : Drama/Fiction
Format : 8mm/Color
Running Time : 18 minutes

Crew :
Produced By : The Yalrasyeong Cinematic Group of Seoul National University
Assistant Director : Hwang Gyu-deok
Screenplay : Written in Collaboration
Cinematography : Kim In-soo, Kim Hyo-soon, Kim Jung-hee
Music : Park Eun-mi, Kim Hong-joon
Editor : Park Kwang-su, Hwang Qu-dok, Kim In-soo
Sound Recording : Han Sang-woo, Kim Myung-joon, Song Neung-han

Cast :
Lee So-eun, Kim Hong-sik, Im Jae-chul, Lee Kyu-sung

Synopsis

Seung-won and two friends are pickpockets who wander the streets of Seoul. They meet a friend from junior high school who is now a college student. The friend finds out that Seung-won is a pickpocket and tries to reform him - knowing that Seung-won was forced to a life of thievery because of poverty. Seung-won and his two pickpocket friends try to set a trap for the friend in college, but that friend ends up reporting them to the police.

Notes

The story is a metaphor for the city that has been modernized. (Kang So-won)
Although the story is simple, the exciting cinematography and excellent editing have made it a fun short movie to watch. (Kim Dong-won)
It is a work which deals with the lives of young men living in the early 80s. It shows how young men who have been shunned by mainstream society and a young college student who is part of mainstream society, may coexist in society but not associate.

Awards

The movie won the award for cinematography at the 8th Korean Teenage Film Festival.

Director Bio : Park Kwang-su (1955- )

Director Park Kwang-su explored such deeply rooted social issues as the division of the two Koreas, ideologies, the workingman, and poverty. His works which unflinchingly reflected the social reality of the times, were also known for their picturesque mise en scene and detailed cinematic flow. He was a member of Yalrasyeong, the Film Maker’s Club at Seoul National University, as well as a member of the film movement which was based on socialist realism. After returning from study abroad in France, he worked as an assistant to director Lee Jang-ho and made his directorial debut with the 1988 film, Chil-su and Man-su (Chil-su wa Man-su). Afterward, he made movies such as Black Republic (Guedeuldo ulicheoleom) (1990), Berlin Report (Beleullin(Berlin) lipoteu(report)) (1991), To the Starry Island (Geu seom-e gago sipda) (1993), and A Single Spark (Aleumda-un cheongnyeon Jeon Taeil) (1995), which dealt with such themes as class conflict, the guilt-by-association system, the division of the two Koreas, the labor movement, and intellectualism - making him one of the premiere directors of the Korean New Wave. In 1993, he founded a film studio with the purpose of making independent films that were completely free from the demands of commercialism. He invested 3.5 million dollars to make a movie - The Uprising (I Jaesu-ui nan) (1999) - about I Jae-su, the man who led the Peasant Rebellion of 1901 in Jeju-do. A French-Korean collaboration, the movie showed his unwillingness to follow the cinematic trends of his time. Beginning in 1996, he sat on the board of the Busan International Film Festival as co-chairman for 3 years. And from 1998 on, he has been a tenured professor at the Visual Arts Department of the Korean National University of Arts.