Manse for Chollywood!
'The Songs of the
Front' (1965)

Synopsis and analysis to a North Korean Feature Film about the reuniting of two brothers after the Korean War.

The Fatherland Liberation War, known in the west as the Korean War, was a bitter 3 year conflict which began and ended with Korea divided and tragically families divided with little hope of seeing each other again, this is perhaps the most notable ongoing legacy of a conflict that ended over half a century ago. In this film the two brothers are fortunate enough to be reunited, the main hope of many of the numerically dwindling older generation on both sides of the DMZ.

In many ways this is a straightforward propaganda film extolling the supremacy of the North Korean ideology over that of the south, depicting the northern soldiers as certain of victory and displaying a level of camaraderie implied to be inconceivable on the other side due to their lack of socialist values. Musical sections give the film some pace and outline the basics of the soldiers’ beliefs and motivations through expressions of loyalty, patriotism, and love of their homeland and native places.

The film gives an impressive depiction of patriotism, firm faith in victory, and revolutionary optimism of the valiant soldiers and people with sublime scenes accompanied by the wartime songs popular among the soldiers and people during the Fatherland Liberation War. It also shows the advantage of our socialism through the happy growth if Un Ju and his brother Un Sik, who, once separated from each other in southern half of the country, became an artist and a KPA officer respectively in the bosom of DPR Korea.

From the book, Korea Film – published in 2008 by Korea Film Export & Corporation

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