Thursday, January 26, 2006

Welkeom tu dongmakgol (Welcome to Dongmakgol)

Err, I hope that's a gun in your pocket.

Welcome to Dongmakgol
Starring Shin Ha Kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) / Kang Hye Jun (Old Boy) / Jung Jae Young (Someone Special)
Director Park Kwang Yun


Storyline's a predictable yarn tangled in the barbed speculations of JSA and Shiri, but director Park speculates with delicate magic. North and South Korean soldiers stumble onto Dongmakgol, a mountain cloistered village straight out of Miyazaki's wonderworking head. Arming the usual suspects with charming oddities --- butterfly armies, raging bulls, a kind American --- Dongmakgol earns reverence, almost too beautiful, too benevolent to touch. And when the bombs threaten to fall like rain, you guiltily wish for deus ex machina. Or Totoro to make everything better. ****