Directed by: Jeong Seong-san / 정성산
Release date: November 2011
Children in Seoul pack gifts and send them off by balloon across
the DMZ and one will touch down near the North Korean village of Ryang-kang-do. Elementary-school
student Jong-soo is banned from a school excursion to Pyeong-yang for his
shabby, unpleasant appearance and he is devastated. His mother is a
poverty-stricken widow and his little brother is sick in the hospital with an
unnamed illness. When Jong-soo recovers goodies—including a battery-powered
robot and a Santa Claus costume—from the balloon drop in the nearby woods,
things get lively in their little village.
There is little or no politics
or ideology in this film (something I feared before watching it): the director
tells a story of innocent childhood and a fascination with new toys. The
director himself was born in North Korea, and studied film in the North, in
Russia, and finally, after making his way to South Korea, at Dongguk
University. My take: CC
Jong-soo and his friends
cheer up his sick younger
brother with the antics of the toy robot.
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