Runaway (1984)

Original title

탈출기

Directed by

Shin Sang-ok

Genre

drama film

Country

North Korea

Runtime

1h 45m

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1920s Korea, a man named Song Ryul returns to the countryside to see his sick father. After his cousin betrays him to the Japanese occupiers, Song Ryul flees to Manchuria where he and his family face hardship and he is imprisoned. He is freed when guerrillas attack the prison, and he joins them in destroying a railway.

melancholicdramatictensebleakvisually intensepropagandisticemotionalhistorical

What happens

Runaway (Korean: 탈출기; pronounced [tʰa̠ɭt͡ɕʰuɭɡi]) is a 1984 North Korean melodrama film directed by Shin Sang-ok. It was the second film in North Korea by South Korea's Shin after he and his wife Choi Eun-hee had been abducted there. Runaway stars Choe Chang Su as the protagonist and Choi as his wife. Runaway is based on a short story of the same name set in the 1920s and written by Chae Seo-hae. The protagonist, Song Ryul has to return to the countryside to see his ill father. After his cousin conspires with the Japanese occupiers to sell their crop, Song Ryul is forced to emigrate to Kando (Jiandao) in Manchuria. His family faces numerous adversities there and after a row with a local pharmacist, he is imprisoned. The prison is raided by Kim Il Sung and his guerrillas, who free the inmates, who take revenge on the Japanese by blowing up a railway. A real train was filled with explosives and exploded for the finale after Shin had jokingly asked for one. Shin considered the scene a pinnacle of his career, and it became a memorable one in the history of North Korean cinema. Shin had to balance his artistic desires with the propaganda goals of North Korea. The result is very much like other North Korean films, but also reminiscent of Shin's previous films he had made to impress South Korean President Park Chung Hee in the 1960s. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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