Happy April!

You ask, where have I been? I've been an avid, frequent blogger just last month and suddenly I just went poof, gone for a while. The thing is, I spent a few days in LA for spring break.
Yeah, it's spring break time, baby!

Too bad I'm posting this when the break is about to come to its end. Sad ey?

I'm definitely going to post soon about my spring break stories. SOON. Maybe tomorrow. I'm planning to post the first day story today after watching a movie tonight. But turns out I got extremely overwhelmed by the movie that it refrains me from posting about spring break stories. It's actually Welcome to Dongmakgol that I watched just earlier. I was too convinced that it'd be a pure comedy movie by how the poster looks like (see above). But then along the plotline, sad things began to occur. More and more sad events filled the 2-hour-long movie.

Basically the story is set in Korean War back in the 1950. Three North Korean soldiers were found by a lunatic girl, Yeo-il, when they got lost in the remote forest of Korea. She then led the soldiers to her village - Dongmakgol - where trio soldiers encountered two South Korean soldiers who were found by another villager. As they were enemies, confrontation began to ensue among the soldiers. The villagers, who had no clue about the war happening within Korea, could just wonder why the five soldiers fought against each other in their village. After a fight that accidentally led up to exploding the winter food storage, the soldiers were forced to make up the damage by helping the villagers to regather the food. Along the way, these soldiers who came from different allies, started to befriend each other. When the enemy (Americans) threatened to destroy the village, the soldiers teamed up to protect it.

I don't really know about the genre of the movie. I guess it's supposed to be comedy as - again - seen from the poster. See? You can see the smiling casts up there. I expected to laugh a lot when I watched it. Well, it was funny in a way, but following the sad, tragic events occurring along the movie, I guess it should be considered more as tragicomedy, you know, the kind of Life is Beautiful movie.

The yellow butterflies play quite a minor role in the movie as they occasionally appear without any particular reason from attacking the American soldier's plane to constantly appearing in some other scenes. But by the end of the movie, I suddenly realized what the butterflies actually portray in the movie. It's some sort of an implied symbolism, left for the audience to decide what they were in the movie for. You'll figure out the meaning once you finish watching the movie.

I'm telling you: nothing beats the power of tragicomedy. The moment when you actually laugh and cry at the same time is a torture, but it leaves an unforgettable impression, too. Don't even compare it to the oh-so-sad Titanic.

Anyway, I'm pretty much entertained tonight. I love the cinematography, some exaggerating scenes like when the soldiers were chased by a boar (which reminds me of a scene in Swing Girls) and everything suddenly went slow motion, and also the popcorn rain. And the music too! The score is simply subtle-sounding, with thick traditional theme. In the end, I found out that the whole movie score was composed by Joe Hisaishi, the acclaimed Japanese composer who has done a lot of pieces especially for Ghibli movies.

All in all, Welcome to Dongmakgol is a sweet story which focuses on the value of friendship - how a place full of clueless people unaware of the raging war out there, can unite rivaling soldiers and build bond among them. If you're looking for a movie that can make you laugh and cry at the same time, I strongly recommend this movie for you to watch.

I won't spill the spoiler. You should see it yourself and judge whether it's as sad as I think it is.
Have a nice weekend!