On the wall of sorrow separating North and South Korea are posted messages and wishes from families and loves destroyed by forced separation.

Poongsan is a hero, a super-man who, crossing the border with incredible skill and courage, tries to bridge the distance by delivering the letters and feelings of people forced into emotional isolation.

One day a mysterious request from government agents will prompt him to bring In-oak, an unhappy lover of a powerful North Korean defector, back from the North to the South.

Costei would rather die than return to him, and the two during the perilous journey fall in love without revealing it to each other.

Upon return, suspicion of this illicit love affair will trigger the defector's paranoid and obsessive jealousy, which will escalate the situation into an internecine war between North-South agents.

Written and produced by the great director Kim Ki-duk, it could not fail to be a masterpiece.

The hatred and resentments between North and South, between pro-Chinese communists and pro-Soviet capitalists, in the unraveling of the fact that any political ideal is called into question by money puppeteering each individual.

No one trusts anyone: and the portrayal is that of a ridiculous man bordering on the grotesque....

A political-existential noir about human idiocy, a metaphor for the folly of wars.

Poongsan is a symbol of the dialogue that can only be realized through the language of love that has no voice, no need for words, precisely because it is universal, but destined to succumb.

Between Nicolas Vinding Refn, see Drive, Johnnie To, and Park Chan Wook, with the visionary nature of Kim Ki-duk.

Wonderful, also perfect for a film art exhibition.

20-Aug-2023 by Beatrice