The split between North and South Korea isn't simply a political matter. Families were torn apart when the country broke in two. That personal damage was news again when TV channel KBS started airing emotionally heartbreaking, splitscreen interviews of long lost relatives finally reunited years after that defining war. That now-historic footage, interwoven throughout Gilsotteum, makes for a powerful viewing experience even today.
Set against these archival clips is Im Kwon-taek's soap opera about two star-crossed cousins — once in love, now married to others — who find each other unexpectedly at station headquarters before embarking on a shared search for their own ill-begotten son. The mother (Kim Ji-mee) lost custody of the boy while in jail. The father (Shin Sung-il) never had any luck in tracking the infant down. Can these two adults — back together again, decades later — locate their child now that he's become a man? And what'll they do if they do? Why ask to see his double vortex hair of course! Sounds like something out of Aeschylus to me. Greek tragedy meet Korean cinema!
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