Director Park Kwang-hyun strikes cinematic gold with the latest “why can’t we all just get along” film to hit Korean theatres, becoming the surprise hit of the season and doubling Sympathy for Lady Vengeance’s box office. As Korea’s submission to the Oscar’s foreign film category, Welcome to Dongmakgol plays out like a sweet combination of Takashi Miike’s The Bird People of China and Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area, when a remote South Korean village called Dongmakgol receives a handful of visitors in the middle of the Korean War.
The film begins when Allied forces pilot Neal Smith crash lands his plane near the village. He is nursed back to health by the villagers, but has no clue how to communicate or get himself out of the sequestered spot. Meanwhile, two South Korean deserters meet up in the forests nearby and happen upon a villager who offers to bring them back home and a North Korean unit (or rather the three remaining survivors of one) also in the area, is guided back to the village by crazy girl Yeo-il. The villagers, unaware of the war or even the danger of the soldiers’ weapons, whisper about the good luck all these visitors will bring. Of course, when all sides eventually meet in a long Mexican stand-off, the situation becomes understandably intense.
However, the film is blatantly anti-war, so it soon becomes clear where the relationships will go. The transition is not as smooth as in Joint Security Area because external circumstances are what force the friendships here, but similar points are made— the soldiers are pawns of an uninformative higher command and their initial antipathy is irrational. The village has a magical effect on them, recalling Miike’s Bird People, as these outsiders submit to the purity and amiability of the community. Park sprinkles the first two-thirds of the film with a delightful blend of anything from tense drama, dark humor and all-out enjoyable montages to give the film a light, yet meaningful tone. The characters have a charming stay and the audience will truly wish the peaceful life won’t change.
The forced final act is inelegantly ushered in as external forces start to rain down on our main characters’ parade. But these explosive action scenes do the best they can with the plot turn and if nothing else, solidify our emotional ties with the characters and their acts of heroism. If anything does shine in this final part, it is the Jo Hisaishi score that remains subtle, recalling his Spirited Away work and compliments the film’s magnificent visual style. The film’s most memorable scene is a simple moment at the halfway point where the attack of a wild boar is beautifully rendered in a two minute slo-mo sequence. The scene is pivotal plot-wise, while emphasizing the film’s visual and musical merits with tinges of dry and over-the-top humor.
In the cast, everyone does a superb job, especially Kang Hye-jeong as the innocent, animated, crazy village girl, despite her relatively scant screen time. Jeong Jae-young plays a conflicted North Korean commander well and Shin Ha-kyun portrays his haunted South Korean soldier character effectively, though he is hardly as likable as the others until the end approaches. We are even blessed with a strong American actor for a main role who seamlessly fits into the cast, and does not recall any awful memories of the soldiers in Address Unknown.
As a relatively unpublicized film, Welcome to Dongmakgol’s unexpected word-of-mouth success should be encouragement alone for many viewers. It is a surprise that it has not found a foreign audience. While the film is entrenched in a Korean story, the characters help it transcend into a warm, accessible tale that rarely feels as sentimental as it sounds.
Reviewed by Tarun
