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Tosuni: The Birth of Happiness AKA Dosuni
R0 - South Korea - Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (15th February 2015). |
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The Film
 After the end of the Korean War, the first President of South Korea Rhee Syngman pushed for cinema as a form of reconstruction of South Korea, exempting productions from taxes, and eventually averaging more than 100 productions per year though the 1950’s and early 60’s. Although it was an extremely creative and free period in Korean history, the election of President Park Chung Hee in 1962 changed everything. Park established government control and censorship strictly with the Motion Picture Law of 1963: limiting the number of foreign films into the country, a continued ban on Japanese films, limiting the number of Korean production companies (the 71 film companies based in South Korea had to be consolidated to 16), and enforced films to include anti-communist themes, and include themes of modernization of the country. In 1963, a then-record of 148 films were produced in South Korea. Even with the new censorship system, quite an impressive line of films were produced that year, including “Goryeojang”, “Bloodline”, “The Daughters of Kim’s Pharmacy”, and “The Marines Who Never Returned”. “Tosuni: The Birth of Happiness” was one of the most successful, being the 4th highest attended film of the year, and hyped from the time of production, due to it being an adaptation of a popular radio serial program, and also being appealing to women. Melodramas were extremely popular, with almost half of the movies produced in the year were in that genre. “Tosuni” follows two people: the young man Jae-gu, played by Lee Dae-yeop, and the young woman Tosuni, played by Do Geum-bong. Jae-gu tries to get a job at a bus station by asking the owner directly, the owner being a former North Korean who escaped the communist state during the war with his family and worked hard to come to the position he is at. The owner is reluctant to give a job to Jae-gu, who must go back into town empty handed. Tosuni, the daughter of the owner of the bus company, feels sorry for Jae-gu, and decides to go against her father’s wishes by helping out Jae-gu to get a job and setting up financially with a dream of buying a “Saenara” car, a symbol of independence and modernization. Of course being a melodrama, things don’t go so smoothly for Jae-gu and Tosuni, with occasional comical moments and frustration from their surroundings. “Tosuni” is a prime example of the Motion Picture Law in effect: the anti-communist message by showing a family who escaped to the south and finding a better life, the independence of the younger generation, and buying modern goods such as a new car. The 31-year old director Park Sang-ho, who later directed "The DMZ" in 1965, still makes an enjoyable piece of entertainment while having restrictions around him, and the performance of actress Do Geum-bong earned a Best Actress award at the 10th Asian Film Festival in Tokyo, Japan.
Video
With many Korean film studios gone bankrupt, films were abandoned and forgotten over time, which is a terrible shame that much of Korea film history is lost. The Korean Film Archive was established in 1976 to save the legacy of Korean cinema. The original negative of “Tosuni” has been lost. The only print available was a 16mm copy of the film which was owned by director Park Sang-ho, and donated to the archive in 2003. The 16mm copy took the 35mm 2.35:1 image and cropped the top and bottom of the frame to fit to a 2.80:1 aspect ratio. The print looked far from perfect. Scratches, missing frames, a missing “The End” title card, and overall faded grainy image with blown out whites or crushed blacks depending on the scene. The Korean Film Archive used a digital restoration system to clean up the image as much as possible. The results are not perfect, but the film is definitely in a watchable state now. The archive called it one of the most difficult and time consuming restorations they have done, since a complete overhaul had to be done on the entire film, rather than on one or two reels like “The Black Hair” or “Housemaid” for example. I'd love to give it an "A" for effort, but I have to reluctantly give it a C+. The has some frames are missing and "The End" title card is missing. The runtime is 92:19. 
Audio
The audio track actually sounds quite good. Dialogue sounds fine and the music as well. There are a few scenes with some badly damaged audio that was repaired quite well. Hisses and pops are gone. Overall this was the biggest surprise. Optional subtitle are available in English, Japanese, and Korean. The English subtitles are excellent (although there were maybe 2 or 3 spelling or grammar mistakes) and the white font is easy to read. The Japanese subtitles are also excellent, for people who are interested.
Extras
There are two on-disc extras, the restoration featurette “Digital Restoration: Before & After” (28:44) , which shows scenes before restoration, comparisons of before/after, and scenes after restoration. Also included is a photo gallery of on set stills. As with all Korean Film Archive releases, this one also comes with a hefty 44 page book, half in Korean, and half in English. Included is information on the 16mm film used for the restoration, 2 film reviews from newspapers in 1962 and 1963, cast & crew listing, a synopsis of the film, and 3 essays: one essay on the status of the Korean film industry in the 1960’s, another essay on female independence and “Tosuni”, and last about the digital restoration process of “Tosuni”. The English translation is great (although I did find a mistake with the booklet crediting Jules Dassin as the "Greek" director of "Phaedra", but that is not a translation error, but research error of the author's part).
Packaging
Packaged in a fancy digipak case, The Korean Film Archive never disappoints with their deluxe packaging.
Overall
“Tosuni: The Birth of Happiness” is a time capsule of South Korea in 1963, something that both young South Koreans and foreigners have very little knowledge about. It is best to watch the film knowing the cultural context of Korea at the time. Then you will be rewarded.
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