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Hometown in Heart (A) AKA Maeumui gohyang
R0 - South Korea - Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (8th March 2016). |
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The Film
 "A Hometown in Heart"AKA "Maeumui gohyang" In a Buddhist temple in the mountains, 12 year old boy Do-seung (played by Yu Min) lives his life as a monk in training. Memorizing sutras, ringing the bell, cleaning the temple, and helping the older monks are his daily rituals, though they are not what he longs for. Do-seung waits every day for his mother to return to the temple. He doesn’t remember her, but misses her deeply. The moustached temple worker (played by Oh Heon-yong) tells the young boy that the mother was a beautiful woman and that he shouldn’t give up hope of meeting her. The chief monk (played by Byun Ki-jong) and the other monks of the temple are preparing a ceremony for Lady Ahn (played by Seok Geum-seong) and her widowed daughter (played by Choi Eun-hee) arriving from Seoul. The widowed daughter lost her husband 6 years ago, just before the birth of their first child, and to make matters more devastating, the temple’s ceremony is for her son - a funeral. Do-seung is in awe of the widow, imagining that his mother must be similar to her in beauty. Not only is she beautiful, but she is very kind to Do-seung, seeing him as a surrogate son. The widow expresses to her mother and to the chief monk that she would like to adopt Do-seung and bring him up in Seoul, in which both are against. Her mother feels that while still young, she should be looking for a new husband instead. The head monk feels that Do-seung lacks discipline and must continue to stay at the temple. But as the widow states from the bottom of her heart that Do-seung needs a motherly figure in his life and she is willing to provide for him, the mother and chief monk decide to think about the decision. But when suddenly Do-seung’s real mother (played by Kim Seon-yeong) returns to the temple on the day of the ceremony, it causes everyone to reconsider Do-seung’s fate… During World War II, the Korean film industry was under the microscope of the Imperial Japanese occupying government, producing propaganda films and implementing the Japanese language as the spoken language. In the post-war period of the late 1940’s, anti-Japanese liberation films were being produced, with “Hurrah for Freedom” (1946) being one of the first and most influential. “A Hometown in Heart” was produced in 1949, which was not an anti-Japanese film, not an anti-war film, not a North/South political divide film but one about family and religion. The story, based on the play “The Little Monk” focuses on a child’s longing to meet his birth mother someday while living and training at a Buddhist temple, and a young widow coping with the loss of her son to the measles. The film version and original play are almost entirely the same with very little deviation. There are a few minor changes such as the Do-seung hunting for birds in the film rather than rabbits in the play, and the film version giving more screen time for the birth mother. Interesting is that neither the play nor the film sets the time in any certain era. This could be pre-war Korea. This could be post-war Korea. This could even be a hundred years ago. The timelessness of the story gives it a quality that separates it from the rest of the cinematic works of liberated Korea in the late 40’s. “A Hometown in Heart” may not be post-war propaganda but it does share qualities of the post war time period. The orphaned boy represents the fate of many children that suffered during the war. The widowed wife who also loses her only child represents the many wives whose husbands or children sent off to the battlefront and never returned. The religious aspect of taking place at a Buddhist temple signifies hope and comfort for the future through something ancient and traditional. These qualities are also points foreshadowed by the Korean War which broke out only a year later. As for the performances by the actors, some are quite good, and some are quite stale. Yu Min being only 12 years old is a typical child actor, who just doesn’t carry the film with his acting chops. The supporting cast is really important in this film, with the Byun Ki-jong as the chief monk and Oh Heon-yong as the moustached worker being standouts to support the emotional sides for the boy, one being strict and one being playful. Choi Eun-hee’s performance as the grief stricken widow is not as grieving as one would expect. She is quite strong willed and very polite with her ways, which doesn’t seem to fit the character’s supposedly broken character very well. There are no outbursts of sadness, no tears, and no frustrating moments to be shown on screen. Was she that content with life that both her husband and son were gone forever? For direction the locations are wonderful with the mountains, trees, and the temple. Though don’t expect this to be “Rashomon”, as this is not a film with camera movement but almost entirely filmed with static shots and cuts. Although there are many beautiful shots are in the film, some look terribly out of focus. Close-ups and medium shots look pin-clear but there are occasional long shots that look blurry, but supposedly it was due to the old cameras being used and not the transfer. Director Yun Yon-gyu made his directorial debut with “A Hometown in Heart” and won critical praise for his work. Previously he had done assistant directing work both in Japan and in Korea, including work on director Shiro Toyoda’s films in the early 1940’s. Following the completion of “A Hometown in Heart”, Yun decided to move to the North side during the Korean War, leaving behind his family, and supposedly continued as a filmmaker there. It is unknown how many films he made in North Korea, though he was supposedly acclaimed for his North Korean period dramas. “The Tale of Chun Hyang” (1980) is the only confirmed North Korean film with his name as director. “A Hometown in Heart” was the third film that starred newcomer Choi Eun-hee playing the young widow. During the Korean War in which there were almost no films being produced, she married filmmaker Shin Sang-ok in 1953, and continued acting in many of the director’s films including “The Flower in Hell”, “A College Woman’s Confession” (both in 1958), “Rhee Syngman and the Independence Movement”, and “Dongsimcho” (both in 1959). Her career as an actress continued through the 1960’s and 1970’s, but due to her husband’s infidelity, they divorced in 1976. Two years later while in Hong Kong, Choi was kidnapped by North Korean spies. Her former husband Shin was under suspicion, so he went to Hong Kong to investigate, where he was also abducted and both were brought to North Korea under the orders of Kim Jong-il. The two were ordered to create films for North Korea, and were also ordered to remarry, which they did in 1983. The two were able to flee from North Korean officials while visiting Austria for a film festival, found asylum in the United States and eventually returned to South Korea in 1994. Seok Geum-seong who played Lady Ahn was quite a veteran, starting in the silent era. Seok also appeared in films such as “The Love Marriage” (1958), “A Female Boss” (1959), “Goryeojang” (1963), “The Daughters of Kim’s Pharmacy” (1963), and “Confession of an Actress” (1967). She was mostly retired from cinema after 1969, though she did make an appearance in Shin Sang-ok’s 1990 film “Mayumi”, his first film directed after escaping from North Korea. “A Hometown in Heart” was the first Korean film made as a cultural exchange with a foreign country - being France. The film “La voix du rêve” (The Voice of Dreams) was to be screened in Korea and “A Hometown in Heart” in France. Prior to the scheduled French screening in 1950, the film played for special limited engagements in June 1949 in Korea before the French screenings. Initial reviews were quite positive by critics praising the fresh heartwarming nature of the film, the locations, and the director, though it was something that couldn’t be shared with the masses, as it only played for a short 5 days in one theater in Korea . It seems silly in hindsight, but Dong-Seo Productions sent their prints to France, did not keep any for their own archive, and the exported prints were never returned. For years the best surviving film print was a 16mm personal copy that was donated to the Korean Film Archive by executive producer Lee Gang-su in 1993. Miraculously in 2005, a 35mm master positive struck from the original negative was found by the National Film Center in Tokyo, Japan, and a copy was made and sent to the Korean Film Archive for their preservation purpose. This DVD thankfully uses the 35mm master positive source. Note this is a region 0 NTSC DVD which can be played back on any DVD players worldwide
Video
The Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino presents the film in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in the NTSC standard. First off the positives - It is the full length version of the film with opening credits and closing title, black and white levels are very good with dark blacks, a great range in grey tones in the black and white print. The film is stable for most of the time, with very little trouble of film judder or pin registration problems. Now the negatives - the film has not gone through a major restoration by KOFA like “Housemaid”, “The Black Hair” or the upcoming “Aimless Bullet” (!!!), so dust, debris, tears, mold, tramlines are all visible throughout the film. Fortunately, it is still in a watchable state and will not be too distracting for viewers once gotten used to. Clarity and detail are great on almost the entire film but as mentioned prior, there are certain shots that look completely out of focus due to the original photography and not with the transfer. The film runs uncut with a runtime of 76:41. 
Audio
Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 mono The original mono track has its limitations due to the source materials, which like the image has not gone through a major restoration. There are hisses, pops, cracks, buzzing through the entire soundtrack, which is expected. As for dialogue, South Korean films were not shot with synchronized sound for the most part until the 1980’s, so everything was recorded in post-production. Mouths don’t match dialogue exactly, but it certainly sounds fine for the ears with no major distortion in dialogue. Music is seldom used in the film, but when it is, there are some fidelity problems. It’s not the best soundtrack but it is serviceable. There are optional English, Japanese, Korean subtitles for the main feature, all in a white font. There were no major grammar or spelling errors to be found.
Extras
Image Gallery A series of still images are presented, with almost all of them being just cleaned up images from the film print. Only the final still is not, being a production still of the cast and crew all together. Booklet The 32-page booklet, as always with KOFA releases is bilingual, with half in Korean and half in English. Included is the full film credits, a synopsis, the essay “The Little Monk’s Song of Longing for Mother” by film critic and Korean film history researcher Kim Jong-won, and information on how the 35mm print was obtained written by the manager of the film conservation center of KOFA Jang Gwang-heon. The essay includes a lot of great information about the production of the film, the themes explored, and quotes of reviews from 1949 are reprinted. It’s a bit unfortunate the English translation of the essay is a little spotty, but the points get across. That’s all there is. No commentary, interviews, documentaries or featurettes are included on the disc which is a shame. KOFA has produced a lot of great commentaries with either the directors themselves or with scholars, but this particular disc has none. I guess they could not track down the child actor Yu Min for an interview, as this is his one and only credit in film. Whatever happened to him after the film is unknown.
Packaging
The DVD is packaged in a clear amaray keep case with doublesided artwork, housed in a slipcase which holds the case and the 32-page book.
Overall
“A Hometown in Heart” is a timeless heartwarming and heartbreaking film, being a precursor to the late 1950’s and 1960’s melodramas that filled the South Korean cinemas to large crowds. It’s a shame due to the exchange muck-up and also due to the Korean War that it never found an audience in its home country, but thankfully with the Korean Film Archive, it is preserved and able to be seen by future Korean generations. Note the film is also available to watch for free on Korean Film Archive's YouTube channel.
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