Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Showbox & Film It Suda
Blu-ray: KD Media (disc made in Japan)
Disc:
Region: All
Runtime: 133 min
Chapters: 37
Size: 50 GB
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: June 20th, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: VC-1
Audio:
Korean 5.1 DTS HD, Korean 5.1 DD, Korean 2.0 DD
Subtitles:
Korean, English, Japanese, none
Extras:
• Audio Commentary by Director Park Kwang Hyeon, Shin Ha
Kyun, Gang Hye Jung, Jung Jae Young
• Audio Commentary by Director of Photography Choi Sang
Ho, Producer Lee Eun Ha, Visual Supervisor Kim Joong
• Featurette: Making Of (18:57)
• Featurette: Journey to Dongmakgol (2:50)
• Featurette: Computer Graphics (5:23)
• Featurette: Fellowship of Dongmakgol (3:19)
• Poster Shooting (3:32)
• Music Video (2:53)
• Boogie Woogie (3:31)
• Photo Gallery (3:34)
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailer
The Film:
8
Dongmakgol is, like Brigadoon, a village that
time forgot – until someone unexpectedly visits as the
veil is accidentally parted. In this case, the visitors
are not a pair of lost American hunters, but two small
groups of Korean soldiers from the Korean War of the
early 1950s, separated from their respective units on
both sides of the equation, trying to find their way
back. Each comes upon the odd villager some distance
from home, who leads them back to Dongmakgol for
temporary shelter – once there, only to find the enemy
staring them in the face. For the moment, neither side
is aware that their enemy has already run out of
bullets.
The villagers, who don't know from warfare, let alone
the war that has torn the country apart, have rescued
one other participant in the war: an American flyer, who
crashed not far off. The meeting makes for some
peculiarly Koran comic moments, replete with
misunderstandings and an interminable standoff. When a
grenade, believed to be a dud, goes off and destroys the
village food supply, the soldiers - reluctantly, at
first - stick around to help with the farming. Ghosts of
the Seven Samurai lurk in the wings as it becomes clear
that UN forces, in their attempts to rescue the pilot,
have mistaken the area for enemy movements.
Welcome to Dongmakgol is a magical movie from first-time
director Park Kwang Hyeon that blends comedy and
tragedy, courage and cowardice, and a little romance,
into a completely convincing morality tale about the
human condition. The performances – except for the
Americans, who are nearly always played by weak actors
in Korean movies and TV shows – are nuanced, fascinating
and compelling. (Gang Hye Jung, whom you might remember
from Oldboy, won the Best Supporting Actress Award at
the 43rd Daejong Awards for her performance. Also very
good is Jeong Jae Yeong as the scar-faced Northern
soldier.) The imagery is often breathtaking, especially
in the finale, which I guarantee will be unforgettable.
Image:
7/8
The first number indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs on a ten-point
scale. The second number places this image along the
full range of DVDs, including SD 480i.
KD Media's 2-disc Region 3 SD DVD was pretty good, both
in terms of image and audio. In KD Media's transition to
Blu-ray, the edge enhancement that pervades the 480i
DVD, however subtly, is now gone. Resolution, color
depth, and the dimensionality that we have come to
expect from this medium is improved, yet, there is
something that doesn't quite get us all the way there –
a vague, but pervasive dust that covers the image
throughout, preventing what ought to be a completely
transparent image from reaching its potential.
I have included comparative crops of full resolution
captures of the same frame from the Blu-ray and 480i
that show the extent to which greater resolution allows
us to see into the picture. It's not just that we can
see more and see it more clearly, but that the
experience is less fatiguing as a result.
SD TOP , Blu-ray BOTTOM
Zoomed-in: SD TOP , Blu-ray BOTTOM
More Blu-ray captures
Audio & Music:
8/8
The uncompressed audio mix here is quite a bit more
dynamic than on KD Media's other Korean War Blu-ray
release, Taegukgi. I found it to be disproportionately
better than the image. The surrounds are busy as can be
locating the planes as they whiz by as well as the
scattered ordinance. But it is also good at creating
village atmospherics and the bustle of a makeshift HQ.
The original score by Joe Hisaishi is has just the right
touch of nostalgia, though the heartfelt main theme is
sometimes repeated without much variation. Hisaishi also
wrote the music for Howl's Moving Castle, with which the
present score has perhaps too much in common.
Operations:
8
It's too bad that the menu backgrounds on this Blu-ray
are in places too light to make for efficient reading of
parts of the menu. Not that it's all that difficult to
sort out what's what. In any event, they are in both
English and Korean and easy to navigate. We get right to
the menu after only a brief acknowledgement of a few
seconds to KD Media. Also nice is that pressing the Top
Menu permits return to the menu page from any of the
Special Features.
Extras:
4
The extras, including the two audio commentaries, are
all in Korean without subtitles or English dubs, just as
they are on KD Media's 2-disc Region 3. Sometimes, I can
get a feel for what these are about even without
subtitles, or perhaps they might offer images or music
tracks of interest. I found neither. In fact, except for
the Making Of documentary, I found the remaining extras
to be in such poor SD quality as to make them nearly
unwatchable – at least on a large screen. As I noted in
my review of Taegukgi , we can only hope that there is
an English-friendly edition in high definition someday.
I would really like to know what is being said on those
audio tracks.
Bottom line:
8
If it weren't for the slightly dusty image, this Blu-ray
of Welcome to Dongmakgol might have headed my
Best of the Month list. Even as it is, it is welcome and
warmly recommended. If you don't have the SD, snatch
this one up now. If you're unsure, rent the Region 1
version first.
Leonard Norwitz
July 20th, 2008
