Obaltan (1961)

Obaltan: Directed by Hyun-mok Yoo. With Mu-ryong Choi, Jin Kyu Kim, Jeong-suk Moon, Ae-ja Seo. A pressured accountant, his war veteran brother and their dysfunctional family struggle with integrating into post-War Korean society.

“If you got a chance to see the very recent South Korean war movie u0026quot;Tae-guk-gi,u0026quot; then this post-war offering makes for a nice companion piece. Basic storyline involves two brothers and their highly contrasting lives (though they share the same house). u0026#39;Chul-ho Songu0026#39;, the older brother has a dead-end job as a clerk, a sick mother, his sister, wife, and two kids. But at least heu0026#39;s working, since u0026#39;Yong-ho Songu0026#39;, the younger brother is unemployed but still manages to spend his evenings drinking with his war buddies (exhibiting an interesting assortment of war wounds). Since this film was shot in Seoul shortly after the war there are occasional shots of walls with bullet holes, barbed wire, and bombed out areas of the city. Well-made drama with quite a few melodramatic flourishes, but the divergent plot line keeps you guessing how the brothers will resolve their difficulties. Most ominous of all is sick mother waking up repeatedly and gasping, u0026quot;letu0026#39;s get out of here.u0026quot; With one brother trapped in the u0026quot;cage of conscienceu0026quot; and the other willing to go to extremes to get money, the only real escape is death and the eventual tragic ending exemplifies that attitude. Check this one out, you wonu0026#39;t regret it. Film will be screening in NYC at the Walter Reade theater in November 2004 as part of a Korean retrospective, then hopefully head elsewhere for more USA exposure to the rising Korean film industry.”