User Reviews

There are probably a million great stories and hundreds of amazing films that can one day be made about the state of North Korea and its ultra-authoritarian government and repressive echo-chamber of a culture. Unfortunately, the real emotional push of this film is all about the clichéd romantic tragedy between Seon-ho and Young-hwa, so much so that it would easy to forget that this is a story about refugees from North Korea. The structured life of endless propaganda, the class divisions in the North, the trek across the Duman River, the storming of foreign embassies, the relocation camps, the alienation of a very different Korea, all this is more or less glossed over - you see the scenes and they advance the plot but you don't get much of a sense of how dramatic and agonizing these experiences must be. This approach can be called subdued or anthropological but there's no doubting that the central plot doesn't really have a lot going for it. Seon-ho is a trumpet player with a bumbling, indirect personality. Young-hwa is a cute museum guide who has a blunt personality. They make out on a ferris wheel (a highlight of the romance scenes), he asks her to marry him, his father has to leave the North, he promises to send for her later, he saves up money and get scammed, he's told she married, he gives up and gets married, she comes to the South and, what do you know, isn't married after all. Like a doofus, he doesn't spill the beans and drama ensues, and their love (always more adamant than you might have thought) is never fulfilled.

For those with an abiding interest in North Korea, this film is worth seeing, but prepared to be occasionally bored. For all others, I'd say avoid it.