Goryeojang

1963
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, ... Read allPrior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.Prior to the adoption of Confucianism, it was the tradition to abandon one's parents on a mountainside if they were over 70 years of age. In the ancient kingdom of Goryeo, now modern Korea, a nobleman defies this tradition when he refuses to leave his mother to starve to death.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

164

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Photos3

Trivia
Director Kim Ki-young considered this as one of his personal best films.

Alternate versions
The only surviving film element, the original negative, is missing the 3rd and 6th reels totaling 25 minutes, though the separate soundtrack element exists intact. When screened at retrospectives the missing image was projected with a black screen with only the sound.

User reviews1

Featured review

Korean Oddity.

This one is represented as a Korean classic and is the work of their most famous director, the maker of THE HOUSEMAID.

Truth to tell, it's a slog, particularly in the surviving version, with several long sections of the image missing, as the track plays over black.

Filmed in black and white 'Scope, studio action is spaced by a few mountain wide shots. At it's best, it looks like the contemporary black and white Samurai adventures.

Set in a remote village dominated by the Shaman, who goes into her act next to a hanging tree, the action follows a mother and son who join the family, where the father has already worn out three step mums with his awful ten son brood. Maimed by the step brothers, the boy grows up to suffer all manner of indignities.

The plot uses the ritual of taking the old up the mountain to be abandoned and die, that we've seen in the Ballad of the Narayama adaptations.

The piece is so grim it comes near to being comic. Some of the staging is feeble but moments do register and it is an intriguing piece of film history.