WELCOME TO DONGMAKOL (Korea – 2005)
Directed by: Park Kwang-Hyun
Starring: Shin Ha-Kyun, Kan Hye-Jeong, David Joseph Anselmo

A massive blockbuster that garnered incredible word of mouth and ran for almost three months, WELCOME TO DONGMAKOL was the number two movie of the year in Korea, selling twice as many tickets as KING KONG and more than HARRY POTTER and MR. AND MRS. SMITH combined. And that’s the way it should be. A magical realist, hyper-stylized look at the Korean War, this comedy is a sprawling blockbuster that more than holds its own against the biggest bullies in the summer movie marketplace.

A fantasy set during the Korean War, Dongmakol is the name of an isolated village hidden so far up in the mountains that its inhabitants have no idea Korea is being torn apart by a war just a few miles from their front doors. A band of North Korean ambush survivors, lost South Korean soldiers and a crashed American pilot all stumble across the village at the same time and have to put aside their differences in order to survive. It sounds like the most odious of sentimental clichés but, based on a popular play, the script and characters spin off in directions you would never anticipate. Any sappiness is hidden behind beautiful set pieces – a sudden popcorn storm, a defending army of moths – and by the time this mammoth, big budget, pitch-perfect movie rolls across its bittersweet finish line it’s more than earned every laugh and tear it’s wrung out of you.