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Hyeonhaetan Knows It (1961)
현해탄은 알고있다
현해탄은 알고있다
| Starring: | Gong Midori, Kim Wun-Ha, Lee Sang-Sa |
| Director: | Kim Ki-Young |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Production: | Korea Art Films |
| Language: | Korean |
| Country: | South Korea |
About Hyeonhaetan Knows It
In the Pacific War, the Korean young man Aroun is recruited as a student soldier by the Japanese Army and experiences a cruel life in the army. He has a Japanese girlfriend. She marries him in the midnight in spite of the opposition of her mother, when he gets a leave of absence. When Aroun comes back to the army, the hard army life is waiting for him. One day, when the American Army attacks Japan, everybody dies of this grand attack except him.
In 1944, a Tokyo University student named A Ro-un is conscripted into the Japanese Army and placed with 13th company in Nagoya. He falls in love with Hideko. His commanding officer, Mori, mistreats him and I because they are both Korean. They protest and are locked up for it. Released to take an exam, A Ro-un refuses to take it, whereas I passes it and leaves for further training. Just when A Ro-un is about to be sent to the front, the transport ship is destroyed in an American air raid. This gives him a free day. Hearing that Hideko is pregnant, he visits her. She persuades to run away from the company and live together with her. He accepts and they hide in an empty house. I, who has returned as his commanding officer, reports that A Ro-un died in the bombing. Miyamoto, one of Hideko’s rejected suitors, doubts this and goes looking. Catching Hideko, he demands she have sex with him in exchange for his silence. She acquiesces, but Miyamonto goes to kill A Ro-un anyway.
Ending No.1.
A Ro-un and Miyamoto’s fight is interrupted by an air raid begins that devastates the city. Searching for A Ro-un, Hideko finds him wounded, but they escape together.
Ending No.2.
Hideko tries to dissuade Miyamoto, but her beats her and she miscarries. Later, she is killed in the bombing. When A Ro-un and Miyamoto fight, Hideko's mother comes to help A Ro-un and to avenge her daughter. A ro-un stabs Miyamoto, but as he is dying, Miyamoto stabs Hideko's mother. A Ro-un goes searching for Hideko, to no avail.
(written by Kim Sung-Eun. The only surviving print of the film is currently under repair in the Korean Film Archive. Therefore, this synopsis is based on scripts. The endings differ in different versions of the script. Ending one is drawn from the script owned by the Korean Film Archive and published in Korean Film Development Administration [ed.], Seventy Years of Korean Film: 200 masterpieces [Seoul: Jibmun, 1990], p. 129. The second ending is drawn from Kim, Ki-young, “Hyonhaetan Knows Everything,” in Korean Film Development Administration (ed.), Selected Korean Screenplays vol. 3 [Seoul: Korean Film Development Administration, 1990].)
Ending No.1.
A Ro-un and Miyamoto’s fight is interrupted by an air raid begins that devastates the city. Searching for A Ro-un, Hideko finds him wounded, but they escape together.
Ending No.2.
Hideko tries to dissuade Miyamoto, but her beats her and she miscarries. Later, she is killed in the bombing. When A Ro-un and Miyamoto fight, Hideko's mother comes to help A Ro-un and to avenge her daughter. A ro-un stabs Miyamoto, but as he is dying, Miyamoto stabs Hideko's mother. A Ro-un goes searching for Hideko, to no avail.
(written by Kim Sung-Eun. The only surviving print of the film is currently under repair in the Korean Film Archive. Therefore, this synopsis is based on scripts. The endings differ in different versions of the script. Ending one is drawn from the script owned by the Korean Film Archive and published in Korean Film Development Administration [ed.], Seventy Years of Korean Film: 200 masterpieces [Seoul: Jibmun, 1990], p. 129. The second ending is drawn from Kim, Ki-young, “Hyonhaetan Knows Everything,” in Korean Film Development Administration (ed.), Selected Korean Screenplays vol. 3 [Seoul: Korean Film Development Administration, 1990].)
