Nae kohyang

Following the foundation of the North Korean state in 1948 this was North Korea's first feature film (dated 1949) ,and tells of the struggle of the Korean people to liberate Korea from the Japanese ,and liberate the country from landlords. Director Kang Hong-sik/Hong-sik Kang's film has a screenplay by Kim Sung Ku/Gu / Sung Ku/Gu Kim which opens with shots of an idyllic North Korea (with a haunting woman's voice singing) ,and features police ,landlords ,downtrodden peasants , imprisonment ,torture ,a prison escape ,battle scenes ,soldiers ,the bombing of a factory ,memories of the home village ,forced drafts ,forced labour ,before national liberation ,accompanied by the odd slogan. At times crude and melodramatic ,it's also vaguely inspiring ,having a kind of red fairy tale end (a moving one) ,being a tale not just of national liberation but also human liberation from the scourge of exploitation and greed ,and the resulting poverty and inequality. The liberators in this film (like me) sometimes have to sleep on snow.