Dubbed “the father of Korean cinema”, Im Kwon-taek has directed 101 films. The 77-year-old auteur is best known for his Oscar-nominated Chunhyang (2000), and Painted Fire (2002), which earned him the best director prize at Cannes.
But Gilsotteum (1985), which despite being screened at the 1986 Berlinale and Chicago International Film Festival, did not make much of a splash outside South Korea.
In Im’s homeland, this drama dealing with the familial separation and national division brought about by the Korean war achieved some commercial success – but, for those who consider it his “hidden masterpiece”, not as much as it deserved.
Kim Jee-mi who stars in Gilsotteum, is known as the “Elizabeth Taylor of Korea” owing to her resemblance to the Hollywood actress and similarly huge popularity.
But there’s no question that this is a serious work whose subject continues to matter a great deal for Koreans living on both sides of the 38th Parallel.
Set in 1983, the year that broadcaster KBS hosted a “Campaign to Reunite 10 Million Divided Families” telethon that ran for 453 hours and 45 minutes, the drama tells the story of a woman urged by her husband to look for loved ones she has been separated from for decades.
As Hwa-young drives to the KBS station, childhood memories start flooding back.