Italian Premiere | In Competition | Online
South Korea, 2024, 113’, Korean
Directed by: Park Ri-woong
Screenplay: Park Ri-woong
Cinematography (color): Lee Jin-geun
Editing: An Hyeon-geon, Han Young-kyu
Production Design: Kim Young-tak
Music: Yonrimog, Choi Young-du
Producers: Ahn Byung-rae, Joo Young, Heo Yun-young
Cast: Yoon Joo-sang (Yeong-guk), Yang Hee-gyeong (Pan-rye), Park Jong-hwan (Yong-su), Khazsak Kramer (Yeong-ran), Park Won-sang (Hyeong-rak), Yoo Soon-woong (Hyeok-su), Jung Ae-hwa (Seon-suk)
Date of First Release in Territory: November 27th, 2024
Yeong-guk is the captain of a battered old fishing boat, living in a small village on the coast. Nearing old age, he lives alone, having lost his daughter years earlier. Each morning when he sets out to sea to cast his nets, he brings his lone crewmember, a man in his thirties named Yong-su. Yong-su lives with his mother, an iron-willed woman named Pan-rye, and his wife, a Vietnamese woman who was brought to South Korea and paired with her husband by a company that arranges such marriages (this is particularly common in rural areas of Korea, which are depopulating as younger residents move to the city). Yong-su would seem to have a happy family life, and they are expecting their first child, but when we see him slumped in the back of the boat with a vacant look in his eyes, we know something is not right. One morning Yeong-guk and Yong-su go out to sea, but several hours later, only Yeong-guk returns.
Park Ri-woong’s
The Land of Morning Calm is filled with intriguing, well-drawn characters, but it’s the community as a whole that is a particular focus. You could describe the fishing village as a close-knit population, at least in the sense that everyone knows each other, and there is an easy familiarity to the way people interact. In other ways, however, the bonds that make for a strong community have weakened over the years, and cracks are starting to show. Part of it is simply economic: fishing has never been a lucrative business, the fishermen are all growing old, most of the young population has left for the city, and the wholesalers who buy the fish take advantage of their position. As a quiet desperation takes hold in various corners of the community, each person deals with it in a different way – sometimes revealing an inner strength and integrity, and sometimes exposing weakness and a willingness to let others suffer.
In this review I have deliberately left some aspects of the plot description vague, because one of the film’s strengths is the careful manner in which it reveals information to the viewer. But there is real drama that emerges as the repercussions of the tragedy make their way through the town. The tension that the film creates lies not so much in the events themselves, but in seeing how each of the characters respond to the situation in turn. Inevitably, it is the most vulnerable members of the community who are most at risk.
There is a real pleasure to watching a movie that is so universally well-acted as this one. Yoon Joo-sang (as Yeong-guk) and Yang Hee-gyeong (as Pan-rye) are veteran character actors who rarely get the opportunity to play leading roles such as these, but their energy and the force of their personalities drive the film. Park Jong-hwan and Park Won-sang are the best-known actors in the cast, and in their more limited screen time they each leave a strong impression. But every member of the cast, down to the smallest roles, come across as extremely natural and convincing. One performance that will particularly stay with me is that of Vietnamese actress Khazsak Kramer, who delivers much of her dialogue in Korean, and effectively communicates the anxiety of being an outsider who is initially embraced by the community, but who finds that her position has suddenly changed.
GUEST:
PARK Ri-Woong, director
Park Ri-woong
Park Ri-woong worked as a journalist at weekly magazine Film 2.0 before studying filmmaking at the Korea National University of Arts. He made his feature debut with the independent film
The Girl on a Bulldozer, which won Best New Director at the 58th Grand Bell Awards. His second feature
The Land of Morning Calm won the New Currents Award, the KB New Currents Audience Award, and the NETPAC Award at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival.
FILMOGRAPHY
2021 – The Girl on a Bulldozer
2024 – The Land of Morning Calm