To the Starry Island

To the Starry Island (Geu seom-e gago sipda) (1993)

Director Park kwang-Su
Production Company Park Kwang-Su Films
Date of Rate 1993-12-02
Date of Theatrical Release 1993-12-24
Running Time 101 min.
Opening Theater Hoam Art Hall
Genre Literary Art

Staff :
Writer Lim Cheol-Wu
Screenplay(Adaptation) Lee Chang-Dong, Lim Cheol-Wu, Park Kwang-Su
Producer Park Kwang-Su
Executive Producer Park Ki-Yong
Director of PhotoGraphy Yoo Young-Kil
Gaffer Kim dong-Ho
Music Song Hong-Seob
Art Director Cho Yung-Sam
Editor Kim Hyeon
Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Ahn Seong-Ki, Moon Seong-Keun, Shim Hye-Jin, Ahn So-Young, Heo Jun-Ho, Kim Yong-Man, Kim Il-Wu, Lee Yong-Yi 

Synopsis

On his deathbed, Moon Deok-bae (Moon Sung-keun) tells his son that he wants to be buried on the island where he was born. In accordance with this final wish, Deok-bae's son Jae-gu (Moon Sung-keun) loads the funeral bier onto a boat and heads out to the island. As anticipated by Jae-gu's poet friend Kim Chul (Ahn Sung-ki), the inhabitants of the island object with increasing vehemence the nearer the boat gets to shore, and they are not even permitted to dock. When they finally make it onto the island, Kim Chul reminisces about the four tragically beautiful women in his life and the event that occurred one fateful summer.
In 1950, the year that would mark the beginning of the Korean War, motherless Kim Chul is being raised by all the women of his village. He develops a sense of curiosity from observing Jae-gu's mother Nupdodaek, whose husband abandoned her after she became unhinged with the grief of losing her daughter, and Bulttoknyo, whose natural seductiveness has earned her the jealousy of all the neighborhood women. He even meets his mother's spirit by nagging Upsoonne, the village shaman. But the woman who shows him the tenderest dreams and the emptiness of death is the village idiot Oknimi (Shim Hye-jin). On the night the neighborhood women married her off to an old man, Oknimi chased off her husband and played with the children. When Chul was in a coma, it was Oknimi who nursed him at her own breast. Then one day, the island is thrown into turmoil. Armed North Korean soldiers start rounding up "reactionary elements"among the village populace, and people resort to turning in their own neighbors in order to preserve their own lives. Eventually, the majority of the villagers are shot to death. When the survivors find out that the entire tragedy came about through the machinations of Deok-bae, who was run out of the village, deep rancor begins to fester in their hearts.
In the end, Dong-pal sets fire to the bier to prevent it from coming in. The villagers, Chul, and Jae-gu watch helplessly as Deok-bae's remains are consumed by the flames. 

Notes

"A representative film of the Korean New Wave generation that dramatizes the tragedy and trauma of the Korean War" (Lee Seung-hoon)
To the Starry Island represents the deep wounds left by national division via the conflict surrounding the transfer of a burial plot on a remote island. It is a film worthy of director Park Kwang-su, whose works have often delved into the unresolved problems of Korean society. The opening shot showing the dividing waters of the sea and the scene in which the onlookers watch in stunned silence as the funeral bier goes up in flames reveal the picturesque visual aesthetic distinctive to Park Kwang-su.
Even though the years have gone by, the pain of war has been neither dispelled nor resolved for the island's inhabitants; in fact, their wounds have festered even more. In depicting this gloomy reality, Park Kwang-su brings history into the present by casting the same actors for the parent generation and for their children. "Bringing history into the present" has been a theme of consistent interest for Park. This is why the chapter of history recounted in this movie can be read as the history of the sons and the story of their maturation. At the time of its release, To the Starry Island was denounced by numerous critics for enlisting shamanism in what they saw as an attempt to precipitately resolve the deeply-ingrained conflict brought about by national division. 

Afterword

- To the Starry Island was adapted from Lim Cheol-wu's novel of the same title.
- In order to independently finance his films without relying on Chungmuro capital, the director founded Park Kwang-su Films in 1993. To the Starry Island was the company's inaugural project. 

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.