South Korean Cinema: Aimless Bullet
April 9, 2023
South Korean Cinema: An Unconventional Crash Course
In the aftermath of the Korean War, an accountant is stretched past his breaking point trying to provide for his impoverished family, all while nursing a never-ending toothache.
In the aftermath of the Korean War, accountant Cheol-ho struggles to provide for his ailing wife, his traumatized mother, his sex worker sister, his out-of-work brother, and two young kids—all while nursing a toothache he can’t afford to fix. Considered by many the “greatest Korean film of all time” or “Korea’s Citizen Kane,” Aimless Bullet blends influences from Italian neo-realism (Bicycle Thieves), tragically beautiful source material, and on-location shooting of a recently war-ravaged Seoul to bring the trauma and inhumanity of war into stark relief.
Content Advisory: Discussion of and depiction of suicide.
- Director: Yu Hyun-mok
- Principal Cast: Mu-ryong Choi, Jin Kyu Kim, Jeong-suk Moon, Ae-ja Seo, Hye-jeong Kim
- Country: South Korea
- Year: 1961
- Running Time: 110 min.
- Producer: Seong-chun Kim
- Screenplay: I-ryeong Lee, Jong-gi Lee
- Cinematographers: Hak-seong Kim
- Editors: Hui-su Kim
- Music: Seong-tae Kim
- Language: Korean