''Jiseul'' () is a 2012 South Korean

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Jeju Island native

O Muel O Muel (born Oh Kyung-heon in 1971) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed the award-winning film '' Jiseul'' in 2012. Career O Muel was born and raised on Jeju Island, and studied Korean painting at Jeju N ...

. The film is shot in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

with the entire cast composed of local actors speaking their natural dialect. "Jiseul" means "

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

" in

Jeju dialect Jeju (Jeju: , ; ko, 제주어, or , ), often called Jejueo or Jejuan in English-language scholarship, is a Koreanic language traditionally spoken on Jeju Island, South Korea. While often classified as a divergent Jeju dialect ( ko, 제주방� ...

. O said he picked it as the title of his film because "potatoes are considered a staple food in many countries, often symbolizing survival and hope." Set during the Jeju Uprising on the island in 1948, O said the film does not focus on the large-scale struggle, but on a forgotten true story about a group of villagers who hid in a cave for 60 days to escape from a military attack. They hid underground for months, cold and numb, far too close for comfort—just like the potatoes to which the title refers. The film had a small budget of (), part of which was raised through

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

. It premiered at the 2012 Busan International Film Festival where it received 3 awards—the CGV Movie Collage Award, the Director's Guild of Korea Award for Best Director, and the

NETPAC The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is a worldwide organization of 29 member countries. It was created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized by Cinemaya, the Asian Film Quarterly, in New Delhi in 1990 at the ins ...

Jury Award. ''Jiseul'' later won the prestigious World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It became the first Korean film ever to win the top prize in this category. Festival organizers said that the jury's decision was unanimous, and their deliberation lasted less than one minute. It also won the Cyclo d'Or, the top prize at the 2013

Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema The Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (French: Festival international des cinémas d'Asie) is an annual special-interest film festival focusing on the cinemas of Asia. The festival is held annually in Vesoul, France. It was create ...

, and Best Film at the

inaugural In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugur ...

Wildflower Film Awards The Wildflower Film Awards () is an awards ceremony recognizing the achievements of Korean independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist ...

in 2014. The broader response from critics and international audiences was more mixed, with some viewers feeling frustration at not being given more background information in the film.

Plot

In November 1948, the U.S. military stationed in South Korea issues an order that all people living five kilometers outside the coast line of Jeju island are labelled as

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

rebels and can be executed on sight. When a small village on Jeju Island (located off Korea's Southern coast) receives the eviction order, its barely literate inhabitants simply can't gauge the order's import. Some 120 villagers flee to a cave and hide for 60 days from armed soldiers. Many of the soldiers are young recruits, shivering in the November snow, who are aware that the people they are shooting are not communists. Meanwhile, the villagers, huddled in the cave, grow more and more anxious about the people and livestock they have left behind. They suffer from severe cold and hunger but retain their sanity by making jokes and holding on to the hope that their wait is almost over. Eventually their endurance wanes, and fear begins to test the group's mettle.

Cast

*Sung Min-chul - Man-chul *Yang Jung-won - Yong-pil *Oh Young-soon - Mu-dong's mother *Park Soon-dong - Mu-dong *Moon Suk-bum - Won-shik *Jang Kyung-sub - Master Sergeant Kim *Uh Sung-wook - Sang-deok *Kim Dong-ho - Soon-deok's father *Kim Soon-deok - Soon-deok's mother *Son Wook - Byung-ho *Lee Kyung-joon - Kyung-joon *Choi Eun-mi - Mu-dong's wife *Hong Sang-pyo - Sang-pyo *Jo Eun - Chun-ji *Kang Hee - Soon-deok *Son Yoo-kyung - Chun-seob *Jo Yi-joon - Mu-dong's daughter *Lee Kyung-shik - Sergeant Go *Ju Jeong-ae - Ju Jeong-gil *Baek Jong-hwan - Corporal Baek *Kim Hyeong-jin - Dong-soo

Background

The events in ''Jiseul'' was triggered by the Jeju Uprising in April 1948, which began in response to police firing on a demonstration commemorating the Korean struggle against Japanese rule, morphed into an armed rebellion against the U.S.-backed military government in South Korea, and devolved into the republic's second biggest massacre that lasted until September 1954. Until the late 1990s, mention of the incident, which reportedly destroyed more than two-thirds of the island's villages and killed 30,000 people, the vast number of them innocent civilians, was a criminal offense.

Filming location

Many of the scenes were shot in

Dongbaekdongsan Wetland Dongbaekdongsan is located in the unique ‘ Gotjawal’ forest in the Jeju-do province, South Korea. The Gotjawal forest in Jeju Island is the only region among the world where the tropical northern limit plants and polar southern limit plants ...

, a

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in ...

Wetland.

Box office

After winning a major award at Sundance, the film rode enthusiastic word-of-mouth to rack up a box office score almost unheard of for small-budget

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

s in Korea. With 144,602 admissions, it became the most viewed indie dramatic film, beating the 2009 record of

Yang Ik-june Yang Ik-june (born October 19, 1975) is a South Korean actor and film director. He is best known for the 2009 film '' Breathless'', which he wrote, directed, edited, and starred in. Career Born in Seoul in 1975, Yang graduated from the Departme ...

's '' Breathless'' (122,918). The only other independent feature of this type to break out so dramatically was the documentary ''

Old Partner ''Old Partner'' (; lit. "Cowbell Sound") is a 2008 South Korean documentary film directed by Lee Chung-ryoul. Set in the small rural town of Hanul-ri in Sangun-myeon, Bonghwa County, North Gyeongsang Province, the film focuses on the relationship b ...

'', which amassed close to 3 million admissions during its 2009 release.

References

External links

* * * * {{end 2012 films 2012 black comedy films 2012 war drama films South Korean independent films South Korean war drama films South Korean black comedy films Films set in 1948 Films set in Jeju Films shot in Jeju War films based on actual events Sundance Film Festival award winners South Korean black-and-white films 2010s Korean-language films Films directed by O Muel 2012 comedy films 2012 independent films 2010s South Korean films