Korea

This film has hidden depths and each time I go back to see it again, I see something new. Perhaps I'm biased because I'm from the area where the film is based. However, there are so many little nuances that never cease to delight me.

The dreariness of the landscape is not overstated - nor indeed is the role played by water in the lives of the people an exaggeration - whether it's through the never-ending drizzle, the damp and the associated chills, the lakes and rivers, the dew on the early morning grass. There are tears as well. Images and sounds of water percolate through this film - the splashing of oars on the lake, the soft patter of the rain on a tin roof, the ineffectual flapping of eels trapped in a fish tank.

There is also brutality in the film - the cynical embittered father who would rather see his own son sent out to war than to effect a reconciliation with an old enemy. The turning point in the film is subtle and yet very powerful. >

SPOILER: Where to start with this fillum (it is Irish) is the most difficult part. It was shown as the closing event of the 2007 Irish cultural festival in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is 1952 in the midlands of Ireland some 30+ years after the war that led to Independence and when feelings still ran high between families over which side they supported. It is set in a rural town immediately prior to the coming of electricity and is the story of two families, one a poor widower (Donnelly) and his teenage son who scrape a living by fishing for eels in the local lakes and the other family a little better off with a daughter and a son who has gone off to join the US army in Korea (hence the title), where he is killed.

This is simply about two relationships, the main one between father and son that is intense with a domineering (but loving) father and a simple love relationship between son and daughter. The father wants to break up this relationship by sending his son to America because of his hatred of the Moran family. Its a simple story, well told and brilliantly acted. At less than 90 minutes, the screenplay is exactly right being based on three short stories.

The scenery is magnificent. Bleak countryside, often raining, with terrific cinematography. The colors are washed out to the point that it sometimes appears to be in black and white. The darkness of much of the film adds to its passions. If you get a chance to see this on DVD or a television channel without advertisements, do so.