Welcome to Dongmakgol

The 2005 film, Welcome to Dongmakgol, directed by Park Kwang-Hyeon, depicts a peaceful, remote mountain social setup, whose inhabitants are sought of nymphs. From the village emerge North Korean stragglers characterized by kindness, and value for humanity, unaware of the conflict that has subdued their society. South Korean deserters are filled with guilt about the cold blooded millenary killings and destruction of the village food supplies. The U.S Air Force commands inhuman soldiers to execute killings in the village. Following this stragglers together with deserters unite to raise against the U.S soldiers, who believe that the American pilot who crushed in the village was shot by North Korean army. The stragglers and deserters all lose their lives against the U.S soldiers. The film is a propaganda anti-war film in opposition of Korean War in 1950s. The film has great shots whose cinematography has originality as a war film. The colors and conversation harmonizes with the characters to comprise a spectacular epic. This paper will explore the purpose/intended message of the film as well as taking a stance on the nature of the film.

The film’s intended messages advocates stopping the war and ultimately achieve peace in the village. This is because to start with, the war was accidental since it is based on speculations. Smith’ plane crash in Dongmakgol, where the locals engage in a good course of tending his injuries. As South Korean soldiers arrive in the village, they overreact and destroy flood store by bombing it with grenade. After the village is under the U.S attacks, the North and South Korean troops join hands to protect the village, and reestablish peace in the village. Unfortunately, there is no hope for survival. The film tackles the aspect of the on Korean reunification but maintains that peace is very essential by portraying the absurdity of the war through the North and South Korean conflict.

The film is characterized by great humor as well as mystic realism to form an epic narrative, whose massage bears much weight, yet it incorporates comedy in it to bring out mixed emotions from the audience to maintain a realistic bent. As AUS pilot Smith crashes, he finds himself in the midst of a storm of butterflies, only to land in a very remote village, whose residents have never come into contact with modern technology like grenades. The locals have humorous language difficulties when tending smith who do all they can to make Smith feel comfortable in the village. The deserters and strugglers soldier’s confrontation is also hilarious as a stray grenade blows apart the food store, unleashing the corn, which rupture into a cloud of popcorns. It is funny how, the north Korean troops realize the extent of their acts in destroying the sole food supply in the village, regret the act and ironically, decides to stay to aid the villagers restock it, as an impromptu slow-motion appears as the soldiers hunt together to kill the boars.

Astonished by how the villagers live, they are slowly incorporated in their lifestyle to form a strong bondage in their utopian world. They neglect their ideologies and they live together in a peaceful world, only to be caught unaware by the U.S forces, and ends up sacrificing their lives for the sake of the village. Besides, the villagers are so detached from the reality such that they are not even aware of the ravaging war that has struck their country and makes the wrong move of befriending their enemies due to their naivety and desperate to exercise their call for humanity. To sum it all, Welcome to Dongmakgol leaves the audience exhilarated as it reflects character’s feelings as one is left wishing the movie would extend for a little longer.