Evidently filmmaker Lee Man-hui was an experimentalist to the end. His final work, the improbably joyous The Road to Sampo, turns a grim-on-paper road movie into a repeatedly giddy celebration of life. I found it inexplicably irresistable. So what if it's winter and jobs are scarce and everyone's broke and the world is cruel. I've been there and there's still friendship. No one promised anyone an easy life. And in Sampo, the trio of good-natured, insta-buddy vagabonds somehow find a way to counter a litany of downturns...together. Bulldozer Roh (Baek Il-sob) can't find a job; barmaid Baek-hwa (Mun Suk) can't find love; and elder excon Jeong (Kim Jin-kyu) seems unlikely to find the life he left behind. That doesn't mean they should stop searching. Plus, if they're hungry along the way, they can always crash a funeral for food and drink.
Which isn't to imply that The Road to Sampo is a pilgrimmage with marker events. Huge swaths of the film are devoted to watching these three trudge through the snow. Sometimes, they come upon a house and you think, what's there, but they move on. It may sound boring. In actuality, it's a blast. When Jeong comments about the younger two being like children, he's basically explaining how to get through the day to day. Don't get jaded. Don't get hard. Keep your innocence. Play when you can. Approach the unexpected with open eyes and an open heart. (Best done with a soundtrack inspired by Morricone.)
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