Jagko

I'm glad to be the first to write a review for this far overlooked film. Im Kwon-taek is perhaps my favorite director out of South Korea and this is one his best film. Although far out-shined by more well-known and greater films, Sopyonje and Mandala, Jagko (Pursuit of Death) holds it's on. It has characters that initially are somewhat repulsive but as we look further into their past, they become illuminated and the question remains at what point did these two men, both so bold and courageous in fighting for their respective sides of a divided Korea, fall to become babbling old men living for past conflicts and failed resolutions?

Im Kwon-taek does it all with incredible flashbacks and incredible music. Outside of Sopyonje, this film has the best music I've seen in an Im Kwon-taek film. It's elusive in how it summons up the past as a maelstrom of mystery and unresolved wars, the current state of the two Koreas.

Jagko is great and I highly recommend you search for it. Currently is in a 4-disc Im Kwon- taek collection released by The Korean Film Archive, along with Wangsimni Station (A Bygone Romance), Genealogy, and Mandala. All these contain the elusive English subtitles that are often so hard to obtain for early Korean films released prior to the year 2000. All four films are not only a great introduction to the huge body of work by this director, but a spectacular way to understand a country so divided in the past 50 years, the romance, the love, the politics, the family, and the spirituality.