By the year 1979, Im Kwon-taek had already transformed himself from a director of genre films to an emerging auteur with a strong interest in Korea’s history and culture. It would be another two years before Mandala would bring him critical fame, but his films already displayed a new complexity and thematic weight. Works such as The Genealogy (1978) and The Hidden Hero (1979) are now recognized as cinematic highlights of their era, even if they didn't receive the same level of interest at the time of their release.
In between the two above-mentioned films, Im traveled to a remote island and shot The Divine Bow. This odd but fascinating work represents several firsts for the director. It was his first time to make a film about the practice of shamanism, which together with Buddhism had captured his attention during the 1970s. Having survived to the present day despite the influx of numerous world religions, shamanism is one of the oldest influences on Korean culture, and as Im says, “I felt that any Korean person living in Korea should not be unaware of what shamanism is.”
The Divine Bow also marks the first collaboration between Im and cinematographer Jung Il-sung, who created some of the most memorable images of 1970s Korean cinema with directors like Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyun-mok, Ha Kil-chong and Kim Soo-yong. The bond that developed between the two men led to a subsequent 25 year partnership during which Jung worked almost exclusively with Im. Sure enough, The Divine Bow contains some ravishing imagery, even though a technical mishap that occurred during the rushed production schedule led to much of the film being shot slightly out of focus.
The story, set in contemporary times, centers around a shaman played by Yoon Jeong-hee (Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry) who has given up her practice after a tragic event. When the village begins to suffer from a poor fish harvest, they plead with her to hold a ritual to reverse their fortunes, but she refuses. An extended flashback then delves into her personal history and her fraught relationship with the village.
The Divine Bow is very rarely screened, and even self-avowed fans of Im Kwon-taek might be unfamiliar with it. But it is a fascinating and often quite beautiful work that casts a light on a far-removed sector of 1970s Korean society (it provides an interesting comparison to Iodo, which Im has apparently never seen) and contains the energy of a filmmaker in the process of discovering his own style.
Darcy Paquet